2C Develop your spoken mediation skills

 
Output         Talk to a friend and give them advice
Goal             Simplify an article for a friend
Focus           Paraphrasing words and ideas
 
CEFR mediation descriptor
Can paraphrase more simply the main points made in short, straightforward magazine articles
on familiar subjects to make the contents accessible for others and answer further questions
about details.
 
Timing         45 minutes 
 
Teacher’s notes 
 
Introduction 
The goal of this lesson is for students to practice paraphrasing words and ideas to help them
summarize an article. To help them achieve this, they will focus on using simple definitions and
glosses of difficult key words.

We suggest doing this activity after doing the Develop you reading section on page 94 of
Roadmap B1+ Students’ Book.  
 
Warm-up
Ask students to discuss the questions: Who can be addicted to social media? What would be
the symptoms? How can you control that kind of addiction?
 
Prepare
1 Students read the scenario and discuss if Marguerite’s child should use social media more
carefully.
2 Students read the focus box and, in pairs, repeat their ideas using other words.
3 Students read the article and paraphrase as many words in bold as possible.
4 Students choose the main ideas of the article and discuss why Marguerite’s daughter should
stop using open social networks.
 
Mediate
4 Students get together with another classmate. One of them play Marguerite and the other
one, her friend.
5 The pair of students perform the conversation, summarizing the article and explaining why
the child has to be convinced about stopping using social media so much. Encourage using the
words in bold from the article and paraphrasing them.
6 Students exchange roles and they play the conversation between Marguerite and her child.
 
Discussion and follow-up
1 What would be final decision of the child?
2 Open discussion: Should the government control the social media? Why?
 
Evaluation
The important information here is reflecting the negative consequences of using open social
networks but paraphrasing the main concepts correctly. Auto-deletion, for example, needs to
be paraphrase explaining the application automatically delete the messages posted after some
time.
It is also important that students give strong advices on not using open social media because of
future consequences when the child, for example.

Regarding the mediation task, the following student spoken productions show the kind of
student output that can be expected. These could also be used in peer evaluation if desired. 
 
If using an interlingual or intralingual approach you would expect students to paraphrase in
their message the most important points from each advert, along with translating directly or
not some of the information or words. You can also apply evaluation criteria for writing
(register, pronunciation, intonation, expression, etc) if you choose. See page 00 for suggested
criteria.
 
Examples of student spoken production
Marks awarded are based on the criteria in the rubric on page 00. 
 
Student A
Well, Marguerite, I think you have to explain to your child that a lot of young people are
leaving the open social media and leaving Facebook and Twitter because of the effects every
picture or comment can have in his future. Nowadays, bosses check the social media profiles
of employees to have more information about them, so many people now control themselves
before posting things. And recent researches show that if you spend a lot of time in the social
media, later you can easily have health problems like sleep problems and depression. So I think
you should encourage your child not to use open social media applications, but close ones, and
he will also receive less publicity, because companies can get his personal information from his
posts and then sell him things…
 
Teacher’s comments
This is a good production because it goes straight to the point and paraphrases most of the
ideas and words. There are some minor mistakes but the advice for Marguerite and her child is
crystal clear.
Marks: 4/5
 
Student B
Marguerite, your child is in trouble because he can suffer a lot of problems if he continues
using social media like he does. It’s better if he changes to auto-deletion applications, that
delete alone all the comments. The problem is that advertisers are not going to be happy with
the decision, but it is better for you for sure.

Teacher’s comments
This is a weak production because it doesn’t explain the majority of points and confuses
concepts and ideas. The advice is barely noticeable being substituted almost by a warning.
Marks: 1/5
 
 
1C Develop your spoken mediation skills
English
 
[Objectives box:]
Output         Talk to a friend and give them advice
Goal             Simplify an article for a friend
Focus           Paraphrasing words and ideas
 
[Opener question(s)]
1 Who can be addicted to social media? What would be the symptoms?
2 How can you control that kind of addiction?

[Getting into the task:]

Read the scenario. Do you think Marguerite’s daughter should use social media more
carefully? Why or why not?
Now read the article. Were any of your ideas mentioned?

[Introduce the Focus box + task]

2 Read the focus box and, in pairs, paraphrase the ideas you used before using other words.
 
[Focus box styling]
Paraphrase words and ideas
Sometimes when we explain ideas or a text we have read to another person they may ask us
questions about the meaning of words or ideas they don’t know. To explain these things in a
simpler way, we sometimes paraphrase. Paraphrasing is saying something in a different way or
using your own words. You often use synonyms or simple definitions to paraphrase. For
example:

What do you mean when you say he was “glad”?

It means he felt happy. (synonym)

Can you explain “undesirable” to me?

It means something that no one wants. (simple definition)

[Some kind of activity to focus on the sub-skill]

3 Look back at the article. With the help of your partner, paraphrase all the words in bold by
using a simple definition
 
Prepare
4 Look back at the scenario. What are the main ideas from the article that you need to tell
Marguerite that she can tell her son?
5. How will the words in bold be important to what you say?
 
Mediate
5 Get together with another classmate. One of you will be Marguerite and the other one, her
friend.
a If you are Marguerite’s friend, summarize the article using your paraphrasing of the following
words: auto-deletion, employers, self-censorship and depression. Also, explain Marguerite why
she has to convince her daughter about stop using social media so much.
b If you are Marguerite, ask your friend for clarification on the following words you read:
uncomfortable, loneliness, existence and advertisers.
6 Exchange roles and if you played the friend, now play Marguerite’s child and listen to your
mother. Tell her why you think she is wrong but agree on leaving open social media if she
explains to you how auto-deletion applications work.

[scenario]
Your friend Marguerite needs your help because her child seems to be addicted to social
media, posting a lot of pictures and comments about his life. Marguerite’s child wants to work
in journalism in the future and that is why he uses social media that much. Marguerite has
found the following article but doesn’t understand its language very well. She has asked you to
explain it to her while having a coffee. Tell Marguerite about the psychological effects of using
open social media, advertising, employability and self-censorship. Marguerite will also ask you
for clarification of some words or ideas and what to tell her child so he/she can change her
behaviour.

[input. Pg. 94. A ROOM OF MY OWN]

A ROOM OF MY OWN
Kate Jenkins asks why young people are leaving the wide-open spaces of open social media.
‘I first started thinking about quitting when I woke up one morning and found my
grandmother had liked one of my photographs during the night – and not just any old photo
either, but one that I really wouldn’t have shown her in any other circumstances!’ Almir
Amsellem is explaining why he stopped using Facebook, the world’s most popular social
networking site. ‘Like most of my friends, I used to post all the time,’ he continues, ‘but then I
suddenly realised how many people could see what I was putting up, and I was just really
uncomfortable with that idea.’
Almir is one of tens of millions of young people who over recent years have made the move
from the more open public broadcast spaces like Facebook to more private ‘narrowcast’ tools.
‘These days, I’m all about messaging apps and auto-deletion’, he reveals, ‘so what I share goes
no further than a small group of friends, and often ceases to exist after a minute or two
anyway.’ In fact, one of the main reasons why many young people are leaving open platforms
is that they are becoming more and more aware of the way that past posts may come back to
bite them in the future. The knowledge that everyone from employers to universities to banks
now look at social media profiles has resulted in more self-censorship and far safer and more
boring public images, with more personal thoughts and pictures being shared in private
elsewhere.
There may also be psychological benefits to spending less time on open social media. Recent
research suggests that spending large amounts of time on some of the most popular platforms
can have a negative effect and lead to increased worries about body image, sleep problems as
well as increased anxiety, loneliness and depression, all problems that Karen Roach, 21,
recognises. ‘I used to be totally addicted to social media,’ she admits. ‘I’d wake up and the first
thing I’d do was check all my pages to see what I’d missed. I’d post my carefully selected selfies
and then check back every minute or so to see how many likes I was getting! It was crazy. I
started having panic attacks and, in the end, it got so bad that I just decided enough was
enough. That was about six months ago and I’ve felt far less stressed since then. I’ve learnt
that sometimes it’s nice to be unreachable, away from technology.’
However, despite such developments, there may be problems ahead. If fewer people provide
shared content and like their friends’ posts, then social media companies receive less income
from advertising. Advertisers are particularly keen to target young people as they feel young
people's tastes are more easily influenced, but in return for placing adverts, advertisers want
access to as much data as they can get. Less data equals fewer opportunities to sell, and this is
the real issue with the move to closed ‘narrowcast’ platforms: it’s much harder to sell to their
users. While this may not worry Almir as he chats and sends photos to his closest friends, for
the narrowcast companies themselves it’s a threat to their existence. How can they keep going
without advertising revenue? And what will happen if they can’t?

1C Develop your spoken mediation skills

Spanish
 
This should be the same as the English, but with the Spanish text.
 
[Spanish input]
UNA HABITACIÓN PROPIA
Kate Jenkins se pregunta por qué los jóvenes están dejando los amplios espacios
desbloqueados de las redes sociales.
"Empecé a pensar en salirme cuando me desperté una mañana y me di cuenta de que a mi
abuela le había gustado una de mis fotografías hecha durante la noche, y no cualquier foto
vieja, ¡sino una que yo no le habría enseñado bajo ninguna circunstancia!". Almir Amsellem
explica por qué dejó de usar Facebook, la red social más popular del mundo. "Como la mayoría
de mis amigos, solía subir posts todo el tiempo", continúa, "pero de repente me di cuenta de
cuánta gente podía ver lo que estaba subiendo, y me sentí muy incómodo con esa idea".
Almir es una de las decenas de millones de jóvenes que en los últimos años han pasado de los
espacios públicos de difusión más abiertos, desbloqueados, como Facebook, a unas
herramientas más privadas de "difusión restringida". "Hoy en día, estoy más a favor de las
aplicaciones de mensajería y del auto-borrado", revela, "así que lo que comparto no va más
allá de un pequeño grupo de amigos, y a menudo deja de existir después de uno o dos minutos
de todos modos". De hecho, una de las principales razones por las que muchos jóvenes
abandonan las plataformas abiertas es que cada vez son más conscientes de la forma en que
las publicaciones pasadas pueden volver a morderlos en el futuro. El conocimiento de que
todo el mundo, desde los empresarios hasta las universidades y los bancos, miran ahora los
perfiles de las redes sociales ha dado como resultado una mayor autocensura y una imagen
pública mucho más segura y aburrida, con más imágenes e ideas personales que se comparten
en privado en otros lugares.
También puede haber beneficios psicológicos al pasar menos tiempo en los medios sociales
abiertos. Recientes investigaciones sugieren que pasar mucho tiempo en algunas de las
plataformas más populares puede tener un efecto negativo y provocar un aumento de la
preocupación por el aspecto físico y problemas de sueño, así como un aumento de la ansiedad,
la soledad y la depresión, problemas todos ellos que Karen Roach, de 21 años, reconoce. "Solía
ser totalmente adicta a las redes sociales", admite. "Me despertaba y lo primero que hacía era
revisar todas mis páginas para ver qué me había perdido. Publicaba mis selfies
cuidadosamente seleccionados y luego volvía cada minuto más o menos para ver cuántos Likes
estaba recibiendo! Fue una locura. Comencé a tener ataques de pánico y al final, fue todo tan
malo que decidí que ya era suficiente. Eso fue hace unos seis meses y me he sentido mucho
menos estresada desde entonces. He aprendido que a veces es bueno estar lejos de la
tecnología".
Sin embargo, a pesar de esta evolución, puede haber problemas en el futuro. Si menos
personas proporcionan contenido compartido y les gustan los mensajes de sus amigos,
entonces las compañías de las redes sociales reciben menos ingresos por publicidad. Los
anunciantes están especialmente interesados en dirigirse a los jóvenes, ya que sienten que los
gustos de los jóvenes son más fácilmente influenciables, pero a cambio de colocar anuncios,
los anunciantes quieren tener acceso a todos los datos que puedan obtener. Menos datos
equivalen a menos oportunidades de venta, y este es el verdadero problema de cambiarse a
plataformas cerradas de "difusión restringida": es mucho más difícil vender a sus usuarios.
Aunque esto puede no preocupar a Almir mientras charla y envía fotos a sus amigos más
cercanos, para las propias compañías de difusión restringida es una amenaza a su existencia.
¿Cómo pueden seguir adelante sin ingresos por publicidad? ¿Y qué pasará si no pueden?