Opinion Pieces – Generic Phrases
Opinion Pieces – Generic Phrases
THE EFFECTIVE USE OF GENERIC PHRASES USING DRILL EXERCISES…
I have heard a lot of teachers telling students that it is a complete waste of brain-power to learn different opinion pieces by heart. Hopefully, one of the ones you have learnt may or may not appear. I would agree and have a couple of things to say on this point…..
- Firstly reading well-written sample opinion pieces is a good idea, if you use them as a guide to your own writing. There are always useful phrases and excellent vocabulary to take from them. However sitting down and actually learning them word for word is a futile exercise.
- Secondly, a lot of teachers (rightly) speak about using generic phrases and incorporating them into students own writing tasks. Again, this is an excellent method, but students often don’t know how to do this. The good news is that it is a relatively easy thing to do.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Social Problems is my principal theme, and the off-shoots would be for example…..
- Drug abuse
- Over-consumption of alcohol
- Racism
- Homelessness
- Poverty
- Criminality
- Anti-social behaviour etc..
If a student were to write on the theme of Social Problems, they would obviously need to have the necessary vocabulary. They would also need to have a stock of phrases that they could use, in order to give structure to their writing.
In short, I think that learning about 20-30 generic phrases is more than enough for the leaving cert.
Here is an example of one that we will use in a variety of opinion pieces…
- Entraîner de sérieuses conséquences – To lead to serious consequences
- La crise du lodgement peut entraîner de sérieuses conséquences – The housing crisis can lead to serious consequences
- Taking drugs can lead to serious consequences – La prise de la drogue peut entraîner de sérieuses conséquences
- La consommation excessive de l’alcool peut entraîner de sérieuses conséquences – Drinking too much alcohol can lead to serious consequences
- L’acceptation tacite du racisme peut entraîner de sérieuses conséquences – The implied acceptance of racism can lead to serious consequences
- Le taux élevé de pauvreté peut entraîner de sérieuses conséquences – The high rate of poverty can lead to serious consequences.
THE JIGSAW METHOD…
This is a very useful way of putting sentences together for students. They simply have to use the grammatical construction + theme that they wish to write about.
- C’est incontestablement vrai que – It is undeniably true that
It is undeniably true that Drinking too much alcohol can lead to serious consequences
- Devenir de plus en plus évidente – To become more and more evident
The housing crisis is becoming more and more evident in Ireland today, and can lead to serious consequences
- Ce n’est pas surprenant que – It is not surprising that
It is not surprising that the implied acceptance of racism can lead to serious consequences
- C’est important de comprendre que – It is important to realise or understand that
It is important to realise or understand that Taking drugs can lead to serious consequences
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