Social inequality
Situation
You are going to apply for a scholarship which is awarded by a NGO/NPO that supports disadvantaged children. In the end your task is to hold a speech in front of the committee consisting of representatives of this organization on the topic of “Solutions for social inequality”. Use ideas and words from the upcoming exercises to support your line of thoughts.
Getting informed
Read the following definition and highlight useful words and phrases for your speech.
Improving your word power
Definition: poverty in the US
In the United States, poverty is one of the biggest and most controversial social, political and economic pressures within the country. Within the United States, more than 40.6 million people live in poverty. Some of the many causes include income inequality, inflation, unemployment, debt traps and poor education. The vast majority living under the poverty line are uneducated people that end up in a state of involvement in crime. Although the US is a relatively wealthy country by international standards, poverty has consistently been present throughout the United States, along with efforts to alleviate it, from New Deal-era legislation during the Great Depression to the national war on poverty in the 1960s to poverty alleviation efforts during the 2008 Great Recession.
Source: Wikipedia
Crossword puzzle: poverty in the US
Work on the crossword puzzle to repeat vocabulary.
Word bank: social inequality
Listening comprehension
Listen to the audio file „‚Somebody’s On My Side‘: 3 Men Who Escaped Poverty Help Others Find A Way Out“ and answer the questions afterwards.
Steps:
1. Listen one time for global understanding.
2. Look at the questions and answer those which you know.
3. Listen a second time for detailed understanding and answer the remaining questions.
4. Listen to the file again if you need to. You’ll also find a transcript at the end of this exercise.
Preparing a speech
Now you have informed yourself about several aspects of social inequality and picked up several ideas you can prepare your 3 minute speech for the board.
Step 1: Outline your speech’s structure. What are the main ideas for each part?
Step 2: Flesh out the main ideas in your outline. Don’t worry about finding the perfect words. Just let your creativity flow and get it all out!
Step 3: Edit and polish what you’ve written until you have a cohesive first draft of your speech
Step 4: Practice, practice, practice. The more you practice your speech the more you’ll discover which sections need reworked, which transitions should be improved, and which sentences are hard to say. You’ll also find out how you’re doing on length.
Step 5: Update, practice, and revise your speech until it has a great flow and you feel it’s ready to accomplish its purpose.