Breaking News English

Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.)

Downloads: Word Doc | PDF Doc | Listening

Audio: (1:53 - 221.2 KB - 16kbps)

THE ARTICLE

The name of the South African capital city is set to change from Pretoria to Tshwane. A recommendation that the name be changed was unanimously approved by South Africa’s Geographic Names Council in a four-hour meeting on May 26. Tommy Ntsewa, chair of the council, said the approval was granted “after thorough deliberation and interrogation of the application.” Pretoria’s mayor said the name change will underscore South Africa’s break with apartheid in 1994. Hundreds of predominantly white South Africans who say the renaming process was undemocratic demonstrated against the name change. Former President F.W. de Klerk was outraged at the change. He condemned it as an attempt to erase history.

WARM-UPS

1. HI, I’M NEW YORK: Choose the name of your favorite city. Pretend you are that city. Walk around the class introducing yourself to other “cities”. Ask each other questions and talk about what makes you a great city and why people should come to visit or live in you.

2. MY CAPITAL: Talk with your partner / group about the capital city of your own country. Is it the best city in your country? What do you know about the history of the city and its name? Do you like its name? What does its name mean to you? What is the city’s name associated with?

3. IMAGE CONJURING:

1. Talk with your partner / group about the list of world capital cities below. In which countries are they capitals?
2. Ask each other what images the names of these countries conjure up.
3. Which three do you most like and which three do you least like?

4. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

South Africa / capital cities / geographic names / Pretoria / apartheid / Africa / colonialism

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

5. CAPITAL ME: The name of your capital city has changed to your family (or given) name. In pairs / groups, tell each other the new name of your capital city and explain why the new (your) name is better than the old name. If your partner is from the same country, discuss why your name is better as a capital city’s name than your partner’s family name.

Repeat this activity by choosing the name of a person you admire – perhaps someone who is very well known. (For example – Bush City or New Michael Jackson.)

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the correct spaces in the text.

S. African capital to have new name

AFTER READING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘south’ and ‘Africa’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the difficulty of the words in the gap fill and whether you like these words.

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT NAME SURVEY: In pairs / groups write down questions about capital city names.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make a mini-presentation to another group / the class on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

 DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. Did this headline make you want to read the article?
2. Do you think it’s a good idea?
3. Do you like cities and countries being renamed?
4. What do you think of “Burma” becoming “Myanmar”, or “Peking” becoming “Beijing”?
5. Shouldn’t the name of a city remain unchanged if it’s well known around the world?
6. Are you good at geography? Do you know your capital cities?
7. Are there any capital city names you don’t like or agree with?
8. Which name do you like better, Pretoria or Tshwane?
9. Is the name that important?
10. Should there be a capital city of the world? Where should it be?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading the article?
2. What did you think of this news?
3. How attached are you to the name of your country’s capital city?
4. Would you prefer another name for your country’s capital city?
5. Which city in your country has the best name?
6. What is the history behind the name of your capital city?
7. Which world capital city has the coolest-sounding name?
8. Is history being erased when a place has its name changed?
9. Do you think the names of all African cities with colonial names should be changed to represent pre-colonial history?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

WORLD CAPITAL: You are head of the newly created “World Capital City Council”. Decide on the name and location of the city, among other issues. In pairs / groups, make the decisions regarding the new capital city.

PHYSICAL PRESENCE

1. New site
2. Existing city

CONTINENT

1. Africa
2. Antarctica
3. Asia
4. Australia (and Australasia)
5. Europe
6. North America
7. South America

NAME

1. Worldia
2. Worldtown
3. Globevski
4. Earthton
5. Planetville
6. Other

LANGUAGE OF STREET NAMES

1. English
2. Latin
3. Esperanto
4. No language – just symbols
5. No names – just numbers
6. Other

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP

1. One representative from each world country
2. One representative per continent
3. Just representatives from the G8 country members
4. A revolving city leadership in country alphabetical order from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe
5. Other

Change partners and compare your “World Capital City”. Give each other feedback on the choices made. Combine the best of your different proposals to form one “perfect” plan. Show your revisions to your original partner / group.

LANGUAGE

PARTS OF SPEECH: In pairs / groups, complete the table based on words taken from the news article. Not all of the words have all of the parts of speech.

Compare your answers with a partner’s.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

S. African capital to have new name

The name of the South African capital city ___ ____ __ _____ from Pretoria to Tshwane. A recommendation that the name be changed was ____________ ___________ by South Africa’s Geographic Names Council in a four-hour meeting on May 26. Tommy Ntsewa, chair of the council, said the approval was granted “after thorough deliberation and interrogation of the application.” Pretoria’s mayor said the name change will _________ _____ _______ ______ with apartheid in 1994. Hundreds of predominantly white South Africans who say the renaming process was undemocratic demonstrated against the name change. Former President F.W. de Klerk was outraged at the change. He condemned it as an ______ __ _____ _______.

The council is considering 35 name changes to make place names more African, instead of _____ ______ ___ _____________ and white rule. Pretoria was named in 1855 after a white settler, Andries Pretorius, who ________ ___ ___ _____ in the mid eighteenth century at the time when European powers were _______ __ ________ _____ as colonies for their own economic gains. Tshwane is the name of a pre-colonial tribal king and means “we are the same”. The name has ____ __ _______ ___________ for ten years to refer to the greater metropolitan area around the capital. The name “Pretoria” will still exist, but only as a city centre district inside the new Tshwane city.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on the South African capital city, Pretoria. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. MY CAPITAL: Make an information sheet on the history of the name of your country’s capital city. Show it to your classmates in your next lesson.

4. LETTER: Write an imaginary letter to the chair of South Africa’s Geographic Names Council. Tell him what you think of the new name. Show your letter to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you write about the same things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

GAP FILL:

S. African capital to have new name

The name of the South African capital city is set to change from Pretoria to Tshwane. A recommendation that the name be changed was unanimously approved by South Africa’s Geographic Names Council in a four-hour meeting on May 26. Tommy Ntsewa, chair of the council, said the approval was granted “after thorough deliberation and interrogation of the application.” Pretoria’s mayor said the name change will underscore South Africa’s break with apartheid in 1994. Hundreds of predominantly white South Africans who say the renaming process was undemocratic demonstrated against the name change. Former President F.W. de Klerk was outraged at the change. He condemned it as an attempt to erase history.

The council is considering 35 name changes to make place names more African, instead of being echoes of colonialism and white rule. Pretoria was named in 1855 after a white settler, Andries Pretorius, who settled on the site in the mid eighteenth century at the time when European powers were carving up African lands as colonies for their own economic gains. Tshwane is the name of a pre-colonial tribal king and means “we are the same”. The name has been in general circulation for ten years to refer to the greater metropolitan area around the capital. The name “Pretoria” will still exist, but only as a city centre district inside the new Tshwane city.

LANGUAGE: