III. Monologue Discourse Modelling

1. Individual Work: Prepare a short speech on a certain aspect of the problem of modern family life. Compose a written plan to arrange the main ideas logically for further reference. Frame your presentation in accordance with the following key points.

a. Pick out a topically related position/profession (e.g. representative of a family-oriented institution, a newspaper columnist writing on family-related issues); think of a way to introduce yourself (a fictitious name and social status, brief background information, etc.).

b. Make a careful study of the topical materials and vocabulary (basic and supplementary texts, self-done research). Formulate a clear-cut message you are going to communicate to the audience and sort out the relevant and additional information in a logical order to develop the main idea.

c. Define your personal attitude to the main topic and its possible interpretation in the context of the selected role; note the degree to which your subjective view of the problem can and will influence your discourse (any implicit submessages, personal implications, etc.).

d. Decide on the style (and genre) of your presentation, focusing on the observance of the style-forming principles and style-markers. Parallelly, work out and note down the structure of your discourse (text micro- and macrocomposition) according to the chosen 1) message and 2) role. Estimate the length of the presentation

e. Thoroughly plan the manner of your presentation. Consider the peculiarities of the chosen role (decide whether you are going to be an assertive/passive/reasoning, etc. speaker; choose an overall tone and mood for your speech; imitate a dialect; possibly adjust the vocabulary to your social status, etc.) and the social setting (social and gender characteristics of the listeners; the predisposition and expectations of the audience; the degree of formality you will communicate, etc.). Apply a variety of oratory skills to make your speech more audience-oriented and observe the factors of convincingness and emotivity (intonation, speech tempo, pausation, gestures, posture, etc.), the use of audio-visual aids (e.g. diagrams, slide-shows, audio-referential materials, etc.).

f. Time (7-10 minutes), rehearse and preferably record your presentation, consult the opinion of a second listener, if necessary; be prepared to reproduce it smoothly in class.

2. Class Activities

a. Deliver your speech in class.

b. Provide consecutive translation for either one or several speakers on the subject, be sure to focus on the intention of the speaker. Communicate the presentation in the form of a critical extract both in the Source and Target Languages.

c. Listen to the speakers carefully, evaluate all the presentations according to the above-mentioned criteria and comment on them. Choose the most successful speaker and interpreter; discuss with your colleagues and rate in order of relevance the key success points of their discourses.