Language in Use 139
This unit is concerned with the names we use for types of experience, and how
these may modify our response to them and our interpretation of them. It
focuses on the distinctions we make between what is fiction and what is not,
and explores the way in which our response to a text is modified when we are
told that it is a documentary.
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[1] Ask the class to describe TV documentaries they have seen recently which look like plays, and plays or serials like 'Z Cars' which look like documentary. The replies and subsequent discussion will reveal the range of material within the class's knowledge, and the assumptions they make about what is 'fact'. Some may not see that there is a problem in knowing what is and what is not documentary; others may dismiss as fiction works which do have a strong element of fact. Arrange for the class to watch a particular programme or group of programmes in preparation for [2].
[2] Focus a class discussion of the programme selected on how they assess the degree of 'fact' and 'fiction' involved. The uncertainty of the borderline between fact and fiction can best emerge where the class are encouraged to draw upon their own experience and put it against what is offered as 'fact' by the programme in question.
[3] Session [2] has prepared the class for writing 'documentary' or 'story' scripts. These need to be based upon a local incident reported in the local press so that the class will know the context and perhaps even the individuals involved. This work is best done in small groups. All the class can work on the same story, or groups can be asked to select different ones, but each group should choose a different approach to the material along the line from the wholly fictional to the wholly factual. It is important that the groups do not know what approach each has chosen.
[4] Circulate the scripts for reading, or ask each group to read a part of its work live, or to put the reading on tape. Ask the audience to decide to what extent a text is 'documentary' and why. The discussion will bring out the difficulty of determining precisely which is which, unless the texts are at one end or other of the line between 'pure fiction' and 'hard fact'.
Related topics are explored in B7 and F5.