Questões de Concurso

The Christmas Anti-drink drive campaign is in full swing, but there will always be those who think they can get away with it. Beyond the points, the driving ban and the criminal record, how do those caught handle the shame? Another Christmas, another warning about getting behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol.

The theme of the 2019 campaign is that a conviction can ruin a driver´s life. “That is could come between you and Christmas” is the slogan. The criminal record and driving ban are automatic and for those who rely on their cars that can be punishment enough. But what about the stigma and the shame?

Mary, a 27-year-old care co-ordinator from Torquay in Devon, found that being convicted even affected her relationship whit her mother. “She made me feel really, really bad. She didn’t want to see me and shut the door in my face and told me to go away. That was the worst feeling ever.”

Mary, which is not her real name, says the incident that changed her life came at the end of a “rubbish” day at work last year, close to the anniversary of her grandmother’s death. She began drinking a bottle of wine at home and then went into town to continue drinking, but on the way she hit a parked car, failed a breath test and spent a night in a police cell. “That was lonely and horrendous. You feel very bad about yourself,” she says.

“It gives you time to things over and how you could have killed someone. You feel embarrassed because you don’t think you could even end up in a cell.”

She was given a £300 fine and a 16-month driving ban. The ban was reduced to a year because she signed up a course with the Devon Driving Course lrun by Devon County Council, which aims to educate drink-drivers about their crime.

The court meant she had to tell her parents the truth and endure her mother’s cold shoulder, having previously told her the accident had not been fault.

I don´t want people to make the same mistake as I did. People’s silence and looks on the faces says it all. It makes you never want to do anything so stupid again”.

She learnt many things from the £145 course but among them was the fact her shame, criminal record and costs could have been avoided had she paid £ 20 for a taxi.

Text adapted whttp://news/magazine.com. Acesso em abril 2021.

Adapted from: grammarly.com/blog/academic-writing/

   There is growing evidence that L2 learners pick up new words while viewing video but little is known about the role of individual differences. This study explores incidental learning after the viewing of a French documentary containing 15 pseudowords and investigates whether learning is moderated by participants’ prior vocabulary knowledge and working memory. Sixty-three higher-intermediate learners of French participated in this study. Prior vocabulary knowledge was measured by means of a French meaning recognition test. Participants also took a forward digit-span (phonological shortterm memory), a backward digit-span, and an operation-span task (complex working memory). After viewing the video, four surprise vocabulary tests on form and meaning were administered. Results revealed that learning gains occurred at the level of form and meaning recognition. Vocabulary knowledge was positively related to picking up new words from video. Complex working memory correlated with the recognition tests showed more incidental learning gains for learners with higher complex working memory.

Using authentic material from the real world to teach English

STEFFANIE ZAZULAK

   There are lots of resources available to English language teachers today: from textbooks to online teaching tools, they can all aid and enrich English lessons. Many teachers also introduce authentic English material into their lessons to expose learners to the language as it is spoken in the real world.

   Authentic material is any material written in English that was not created for intentional use in the English language classroom. Using this content to teach the English language can make the learning process even more engaging, imaginative and motivating for students. It can also be useful to elicit genuine responses from learners.

   The great thing about using authentic material is that it is everywhere, which makes it easy to find, and simple for learners to practice English in their own time. Remember that it isn‟t limited to articles from newspapers and magazines. Songs, TV programs and films, radio and podcasts, leaflets, menus – anything written in English constitutes authentic material. (…)

Source: https://www.english.com/blog/authenticmaterial/ Accessed on: 18/06/2018.