Language in Use 177-178

This unit is concerned with the relationship between the abstractions we use as short-band for referring publicly to complex areas of experience and the individual's own direct knowledge. Its aim is to show how we come to use slogans and abstract labels and how readily and dangerously they can simplify complex events. Examples present a problem. They must be those currently in use. What are offered in the text of the unit are those that were current in 1970. Some of these will obviously remain current, for the problems they point to are always with us. Others will not. It is for the teacher to find the equivalents for his own time and place.
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[1] For this session, everyone in the class needs to write a short piece in the form of a letter to the papers on a topic which is currently xciting major public concern. The topic should be of the kind that can be described by a single word or phrase. Examples would include women's rights, law and order, students' rights, Vietnam, pollution, colour, one man/one vote. Circulate the pieces and ask each member of the class to assess what the slogans in the piece in front of him are doing. Choose three or four forceful examples as a basis for class discussion. At this stage, the focus should be upon the degree to which the writers have relied upon slogans to do their work for them.

[2] For this session, select one or two of the topics aired in [1], and ask each member of the class to make a list of the first ten points that come into his head when the topic is mentioned. Set these aside and ask anyone who has personal experience within the area concerned to tell the class about it. Then circulate the lists of points and build up on the board a collective picture of the class's stock response to the slogans which name the topics chosen. In discussion, explore the relationship between this picture and what the class has heard from those with direct experience.

[3] For this session, the class need to collect all that they can find out about the topics discussed in [2]. Working in small groups, they should look at what they have collected and prepare a report to give to the whole class on what they have discovered. The class should hear the reports of the groups and then discuss how they agree or disagree with each other: how the information that they contain relates to the class's original response to the slogans in [1] and [2], and to the personal stories that they have heard.

[4] For this session, the class need to bring in reports of how adults react to the same slogans. They should ask adults, well-known to them, if they would list the first five things that come into their heads when the slogan is said. The work of the session is to compare the reports with all the information so far collected. In particular, the class should focus on the points where what they said in [2] is identical to what they have collected from adults and where it is widely divergent. They should try to give reasons for both the concord and the divergence. The work of this unit is closely related to that of E5, which may profitably be tackled first. It may then be extended to consider influential slogans of the past, like 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity', 'Self-determination', 'No taxation without representation', 'Peace with honour'.