Invisible man

a link to a VOA speacial learning English program on Ralph Ellison

' I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or only figments of their imagination-- indeed, everything and anything expect me.'
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

‘Yessuh’, he said, handing over the yams, ‘I can see you one of these old-fashioned yam eaters’

‘They’re my birthmark’, I said. ‘I yam what I am!’

a few more quotes

Les thématiques
- La notion d'altérité
- Se trouver soi-même, roman d'apprentissage et de la construction de soi
- De Jim Crow au mouvement des droits civiques, une vision de l'Amérique
- Le jazz
- Le mélange de différents genres littéraires: le bildungsroman (roman d'apprentissage), a slave narrative, a picaresque novel (l'exemple le plus connu étant Don Quichotte), le roman gothique....
- Les différents courants de pensée ( existentialim, freudianism, naturalim...)

Sans oublier la satire et l'ironie et bien d'autre encore

Si Ralph Ellison pioche dans le pot commun de la littérature ( avec, entre autre , des parallèles avec The Invisible Man de HG Wells , dont le titre de l'oeuvre est quasi similaire), son livre deviendra aussi source d'inspiration pour beaucoup et notamment The Human Stain de Philip Roth (1990).
Le palimpseste devient à son tour une couche intermédiaire et source d'inspiration pour la littérature américaine.

Online dating

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12445814

zut ça ne marche pas
Une vidéo de la BBC sur dating and flirting

Vous avez accès à une partie du texte et de la bande son ici
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/02/110214_witn_flirting_page.shtml

the press

To understand a press article
here are a few steps

1° Analyse and understand the headline: it is made to grab the reader and is not always clear at first sight (or reading)
Headlines are written in bold and are typically larger than the press release text. Conventional press release headlines are present-tense and exclude "a" and "the" as well as forms of the verb "to be" in certain contexts. So you will have to make up the missing words.

2° The lead, or first sentence, should grab the reader and say concisely what is happening. The next 1-2 sentences then expand upon the lead. Usually you have the main idea presented in the first paragraph (two to three sentences). It must actually sum up the press release and the further content must elaborate it.

3° Then you will find examples of facts or people that will illustrate your point.

4° This main idea will be further analysed and explained in the following paragraphs.

REMEMBER
The journalist always adopts a point of view.
It is important, in your analysis, to try and see what side the journalist backs (supports), not to say that he (or she) is biaised, but to explain why some facts are hammered out while others are left unsaid.


You can try this quiz
And of course learn the vocabulary
You'll find some basic words and concepts used in the press.

A gap filling exercice to learn some new words that are often used in Headlines (answers at the bottom of the page)

Another page with vocabulary, and questions.

Last a second quiz to master the vocabulary used to talk about the press

what press?

From wikipedia

A newspaper is a lightweight and disposable publication (more specifically, a periodical), usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or special interest, and may be published daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly.

General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news on a variety of topics. Those can include political events, crime, business, sports, and opinions (either editorials, columns, or political cartoons). Many also include weather news and forecasts. Newspapers increasingly use photographs to illustrate stories; they also often include comic strips and other entertainment, such as crosswords.

Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages (typically 22 inches / 559 millimetres or more). The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political

In the UK, major daily broadsheet is distributed nationwide, and two on a Sunday:

• The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph; broadly right-wing
• The Sunday Times broadly centre-right

The Financial Times is also printed in a broadsheet format.

The Herald and The Press and Journal are Scottish broadsheets, though the latter is not a true national newspaper as it is mostly just distributed in North-East Scotland.

Almost all major U.S. newspapers are broadsheets, including major publications like:

• The Baltimore Sun
• The Birmingham News
• The Boston Globe
• The Chicago Tribune
• The Charlotte Observer
• The Daily News
• The Dallas Morning News
• The Denver Post
• The Detroit Free Press
• The Florida Times-Union
• The Houston Chronicle
• The Indianapolis Star
• The Los Angeles Times
• The Miami Herald
• The New Orleans Times-Picayune
• The New York Law Journal
• The New York Sun
• The New York Times
• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• The Plain Dealer
• The Providence Journal
• The Seattle Times
• The Wall Street Journal
• The Washington Post
• USA Today

The term tabloid is used to describe newspapers with comparatively small pages, although there is no standard for the precise dimensions of a tabloid. It is also used, sometimes pejoratively, to describe a newspaper that provides a treatment of the news that is simplistic or sensationalist, often with a focus on personalities and gossip, and much less detailed coverage of topics such as politics and economics than is offered by newspapers regarded as more serious.
They are often perceived as sensationalist in contrast to broadsheets. Examples include The Sun, The National Enquirer, The Star Magazine, New York Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Globe.

A PLAY? YOU SAID A PLAY?

Start with a recap on what they know on punctuation

Then vocabulary input thanks to this matching exercice

C Ponctuation Matching exercice, then try to think of different emotions or features in speech.

WHAT?	HOW	USED TO EXPRESS.......
1. Colon	a) .
2. Comma	b) ,
3. Exclamation mark	c) ;
4. Ellipsis	d) ...
5. Full stop	e) :
6. Into brackets	f) ''
7.Inverted comma/ quote	g) !
8.Question mark	h) ?
9. Semi-colon	i) ( )

Then we have to find an exercice where punctuation changes the meaning of a sentence.

He said you were stupid!

He said" You were stupid"

what?

what!

Texte sur Project page 112

picture description

highlight in different colours the punctuation used in the speech of the different characters.

Underline the stage directions

Look at the punctuation

Imagine the emotions, the feeling

Imagine the argument

Role play

Read the dialogue

Were you right or wrong in your hypotheses?

What is it all about?

Play out the dialogue

Jack the Ripper or or to improve your written comprehension

Le vrai doc de Jack the Ripper

Doc 1

Jack the Ripper

1. Written comprehension... what is a text? What types of text do you know... si rien ne vient , on passe au 2 direct.

2. Exercice 1 sur le type de texte

3. Exercice 2 sur la typography

A A text, what text?

Match the type of text with the sentence that best represents it.

1°informative	a) You try to convince the readers
2° advertisement	b) You present a product as something that could appeal to the readers
3° letter	c) You deal with facts
4° poem	d) You try to entertain the reader. You can adopt different genres such as Romanticism; whodunnit; modernism and so on
5° play	e) It is supposed to be acted on a stage.
6° literary text	f) The music of the words, and the form is an important component of this type of text.
7° argumentative	g) You address someone in particular.

B Match the word with the corresponding example, then try to explain the main features.. (le what for peut-être après avoir distribué Jack (ils auront des examples devant les yeux, easier!)

What?	How?	What for?
1. Bold letters	a) The body in the library
2. Capital letters	b) THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
3. Italics	c) The body in the library
4. Title	d) The body in the library
5. Underlined segment	e) The Body in the Library

1. Jack the Ripper. Lien donné en début de post. Reaction (Type of text? Pieces of information you expect to find in this sort of doc? goal of the document? Lexical field or phrases..you expect to find)

2. Read the text and focus on what you expect, proper nouns and figures. Write down the information don't make sentences.

3. Mise en comun et conclusion.

   A text is more easily understood if you know what to look for.. (you don't need to understand everthing to grasp the meaning)

   By picking out the Proper Nouns and figures, you get a lot of info and it is easy to spot

   Italics and Bold letters are also easy to spot and you should pay attention to them. They are always meaningful.

4. Avec les plus forts.
   Who is targeted in the document? Read each paragraph and pick-out elements to justify your answers.
   (people who like being afraid, who have an investivative spirit, those who is gory scenes, and those who are impressed with top personalities and lattest news)
   

5. You are an announcer, your job : you have to convince people that the Walk is a MUST. Play out the scene. Pay attention to stress words that should be stressed, and don' forget that some words are best when said in a very low and deep voice, coming from the abyssssssssss.

l'autre, I'll deal with it later on... a possible debate on school uniform

Jack the Ripper

POUR TOUS!!! TEXT TO SPEECH

c'est ici

Vous ne savez pas comment prononcer une phrase en anglais?
Vous ne savez pas quel accent choisir?
C'est simple
Vous écrivez la phrase (de la leçon par exemple)
Vous choisissez la langue et un personnage (anglais, ou américain ou australien)
Vous cliquez sur say it
le tour est joué!!

a utiliser sans modération!!!