Урок-обобщение "Настоящий политик должен быть…"

Разделы: Иностранные языки

Цели урока:

  • познавательный аспект - знакомство с идеями видного политика средневековья Николо Макиавелли;
  • развивающий аспект - развитие способности к сравнению, формулированию выводов из прочитанного и изученного материала;
  • воспитательный аспект - урок затрагивает актуальную проблему нравственности в политике;
  • учебный аспект- совершенствование речевых навыков.

Речевой материал:

продуктивный:

  • лексический - прилагательные, характеризующие личностные качества: ruthless, pliable, prudent, tolerant, sympathetic, hypocritical, deceitful, risky, etc.
  • грамматический - модальный глагол should, структура “If I were...., I would...”.

I. INTRODUCTION.

Aims:

to summarize the knowledge on the topic about political systems of Great Britain, the U.S.A., Russia;

to make the conclusion what personality a real politician should be, what traits of character s/he should have.

II. SPEECH DRILL.

Questions on the political systems.

  1. How is legislative branch represented in Great Britain?
  2. What Houses does British Parliament consist of?
  3. How is executive branch represented?
  4. Members of what House in Parliament are permanent?
  5. What is special about the political system of the USA?
  6. What political branches are involved in this system?
  7. What is the main idea of the system of checks and balances?
  8. Who has much power in Russia?
  9. What are his functions?
  10. What right does the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation have?

III. Fill in the blanks with the suitable words.

Card 1. The UK.

Britain is a ___1___ The official head of the state is the ___2___, who has то real power. In Britain it is ___3___ that has the power. It makes ___4____. It consists of ___5___ and ___6__. The members of the house of commons are ___7___ by the people. The House of Lords consists of ___8___ and ___9___. The House of Lords can ___10___ bills for one year.

The largest party in the Commons forms the ___11___ and its leader becomes ___12___. The people don’t ___13___ him directly. Officially the Queen ___14___ Prime Minister.

Card 2. The USA.

The United States is a ___1___. The ___2___ is the head of the State. He is ___3___ by the people and he is not the member of ___4___.

Congress, the ___5___ branch of power, is made up of the ___6___Congress, the ___5___ branch of power, is made up of the ___6___ and ___7___. Congress makes ___8___.

The President and his administration represent the ___9___ branch of power.

The ___10___, ___11___, ___12___ branches of power are involved in the system of ___13___ and ___14___.

Card 3.

The Russian Federation.

The Russian Federation is a ___1___. The ___2___ is the head of state and is ___3___ by the people. In fact he has a lot of power. The President can even ___4___ the Duma if it doesn’t agree with his suggestions three times running. The President is involved in the work of the ___5___ and ___6___.

The Federal Assembly represents the ___7___ branch of the power. It is made up of the two ___8___:
the ___9___ and the ___10___, which makes laws. The President can ___11___ laws passed by the Federal Assembly.

The Federal Government represents the ___12___ branch of the power. The President ___13___ its head, the Chairman of the Government.

The Supreme Court represents the ___14___ branch. The Constitutional Court has the right to declare actions of the President, the Federal Assembly and the Federal Government ___15___.

IV. TRAINING LEXICS.

a) Solve the crossword and find the key-word.

 

How do we call a person:

  1. who acts only after careful thought or planning (prudent)
  2. who doesn’t like changes (conservative)
  3. whose language is fluent and effective (eloquent)
  4. who says but doesn’t believe that someone is good (hypocritical)
  5. who is full of ambitions ( ambitious)
  6. who can make decisions that could bring success or failure (risky)
  7. who is constant to some principles (consistent)
  8. who makes somebody believe something is false ( deceitful)
  9. having or showing tolerance (tolerant)
  10. not telling lies (honest)
  11. synonym to “cruel” (ruthless)

Key word: politicians

b) Group work.

Which traits are positive and which are negative for a politician in your opinion.

(Group 1 and Group 2 are given cards with adjectives on them: tolerant, risky, consistent, honest, prudent, kind, strong-willed, sympathetic, skillful, gifted, patriotic, reserved, hard-working, cunning, pliable, hypocritical, conservative, eloquent, deceitful, ambitious, ruthless, religious, self-reliant, disciplined, progressive).

Group1: Positive traits are…

Group2: Negative traits are…

c) Phonetic Drill.

V. DISCUSSION.

What traits should a leader of a state have?

This question has been in the center of public attention for centuries.

a) A modern expert’s opinion (ex.1 p.54):

(A politician should be power-loving.
A politician should be gifted.
A politician should be risky.
A politician should be ambitious.
A politician should be pliable.
A politician should be ruthless)

1. Find in the text statements to conform the expert’s ideas.

2. Which ideas of the expert do you agree with/ don’t agree/ agree but partly?

b) The medieval Italian politician and writer Nicollo Machiavelli’s opinion on the topic (ex.2 p.55)

Look through his statements about a real politician ( he called him Prince in his book) and find appropriate adjectives to the traits from the given list)

(Students read the article and do the task in written form. After the discussion the answers are written on the blackboard)

Keys:

a) risky;

b) cunning, eloquent;

c) pliable;

d) ruthless;

e) progressive

VI. GROUPWORK.

(3 groups) In groups decide what kind of a person should be a politician.

MAKING WEBBING. “ A politician should be...”

VII. IMAGINATION.

Imagine that you are going to be the leader of the state. What traits would you have to rule your country?

Say, follow the model:

If I were the leader of the state, I would be….

If I were the leader of the state I definitely wouldn’t be….

HOME-TASK

At home you are to develop your ideas and write 5 traits you would have, being the leader of the state and 3 traits you definitely wouldn’t have.

Keys: Task I.

  1. It is represented by the monarch and Parliament.
  2. The House of Lords and the House of Commons.
  3. It is represented by the Government, which consists of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and non-Cabinet ministers.
  4. The House of Lords.
  5. There exists the system of checks and balances.
  6. Three branches: legislative, executive, judicial.
  7. All three political branches control each other.
  8. The President does.
  9. He guarantees the basic rights to people; appoints the Chairman of the Government; he can dissolve the Duma; he can veto laws passed by the Federal Assembly.
  10. It has the right to declare actions of the President, the Federal Assembly and the Federal Government unconstitutional.

Task III

Card 1. The UK.

1. parliamentary democracy; 2.Queen; 3. Parliament; 4. laws; 5/6 House of Lords; 6/5 House of Commons; 7. elected 8/9 peers; 9/8 life peers; 10. delay; 11. government; 12. Prime minister; 13. elect; 14. appoints.

Card 2. The USA.

  1. presidential republic;
  2. president;
  3. elected;
  4. the American Parliament –Congress;
  5. legislative’;
  6. Senate;
  7. the House of Representatives;
  8. laws;
  9. executive;
  10. legislative;
  11. executive;
  12. judicial;
  13. checks;
  14. balances.

Card 3. The Russian Federation.

1. presidential republic;
2. president;
3. elected;
4. dissolve;
5/6 legislative;
6/5 executive;
7. legislative;
8. houses;
9. Federation Council;
10. Duma;
11. veto;
12. executive;
13. appoints;
14. judicial;
15. unconstitutional.