John Mullen, Université de Rouen

Saturday, February 17, 2018

M1 LEA Homework March 2018

Your second semester marked assignment is to watch this US video and write :
a) A summary in English in 500 words
b) Your opinion of the video in English in 250 words (its neutrality or lack of neutrality, or anything else you would like to comment on: all opinions are welcome, you do not get marks for agreeing with me!).

This will count for your semester mark, the other part of which will be from the classroom test on the 20th March.

Here is the video:
India Rising
You will need to watch the video more than once. It is excellent practice in listening to different accents.
You must use only your own words and not quote the exact words which are said in the video. It goes without saying that any sentence used from another source, unless it is quoted and referenced, is plagiarism and strictly forbidden.
It must be written to professional standards: that is to say you must re-read very carefully and eliminate all spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes etc. Learning to use automatic spelling checkers in English (that is learning how to install such software on your computer) is an evident part of taking business English seriously.

Hand the work in by email (rtf format) before the end of March. My email address is prenom.nom@univ-rouen.fr . (And my name is John Mullen).

Civilisation britannique agrégation

There are three two-hour sessions left, which aim at helping you prepare for oral text commentary for the agrégation interne (though of course external candidates are welcome to attend).
These will be on the 14th of March at 8.30 am, on the 21st of March at 8.30 am and on the 11th of April at 4pm.

Choose two documents from the booklet ( a first choice and a second choice)

http://johncmullen.blogspot.fr/2017/01/preparation-agregation-anglais.html

and send me a mail telling me the documents you have chosen. I will give you a date and confirmation.

Meanwhile, be sure to read over the jury report. And remember, the best way to get a bad mark is not to say enough true things about the document and the history, so keep watching the videos and reading the books. ( http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/1661 )

M1 LEA

J'ai reçu de l'administration un rappel que le contrôle des présences doit être effectué dans les CM chaque semaine, alors n'oubliez pas de signer la feuille qui circule en cours.

Friday, February 16, 2018

L3, M1 LEA... et d'autres

Concernant les DST en cours, si vous êtes absent ( e ) , même pour une excellente raison (maladie etc), il ne peut pas y avoir d'examen de remplacement: votre seule option est de repasser en deuxième session (à moins d'avoir des notes ailleurs si bonnes que cela se compense). C'est regrettable, mais dès qu'il y a plus de 25 ou 30 étudiants dans un groupe, il y aura toujours un qui est malade, et nous ne pouvons pas nous permettre de doubler l'ensemble des DST.

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Recording 1 Master 1 LEA Women in the USA

We have now moved onto the last topic this year: Women in the USA. The #metoo campaign has been very much in the news of late. I will be looking back at the history of women's rights and women's role in the USA.

You will find here a recording of the first lecture on this question.
I hope to put the powerpoint up here on the blog too, soon.

Keywords: podcast, US history, women's rights, lecture

Article and recording L3 Popular culture

I spoke this week in class of Adorno's highly critical view of what popular music does, in society and to the individual. You will find here a case study based on a different view. The article is entitled "What can Political Rock Do?"

As you were probably expecting, there will be a mid-semester classroom test. This will be on the 13th March.

This week's class on Adorno and cultural studies may have been difficult to take in all at once. You can listen to it again here:

Keywords: Adorno, lecture, MP3, podcast, cultural studies, introduction

Concours et actualité

It is best to be up to date with the latest news from Britain and the USA. You will not be expected to be an expert in current affairs, but, if I were you, I would read the headlines for a few weeks, and re-read a good textbook on British Civilization ((in particular, how institutions work, how parties and unions work etc). This is the best one (I wrote a small part of it).

For the UK, Brexit is obviously a big deal. I gave this lecture in French, "Comprendre le Brexit", last year.

https://www.academia.edu/29806761/_MP3_podcast_Comprendre_le_Brexit

And here is today's important news

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/northern-ireland-talks-latest-updates-stormont-power-sharing-deal-arlene-foster-what-deal-look-sinn-a8211036.html

M1 consultation de copies

Vous pouvez consulter vos copies (historiographie) mercredi 21 à 13h, A503.

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Les salles de la semaine

Mardi

M1 LEA L101
M2 séminaire recherche L311
L3 popular culture T007

Mercredi

Thème agrégation F101
Compréhension agrégation A506
Compréhension CAPES A506
TD civilisation Agrégation A506

L3 Popular culture class 2 recording

Here you will find the second class - the second part of the background history: Britain since 1945, part two. It is in Mp3 format.

Just click here

Key words: British history, university lecture, podcast, Britain since 1945.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

L3 popular culture the background powerpoint

As promised, you will find online below the powerpoint I used for the general historical background of the UK since 1945.

Just click here.

Key words: Powerpoint, British history, Britain since 1945.

Friday, February 09, 2018

Campus fermé Mont Saint Aignan

Tout est annulé sur le campus Mont Saint Aignan par décision de la direction de l'université.
Alors pas de consultation de copies pour les M1 avec moi, et pas de séminaire Eriac sur l'histoire et la géographie culturelle. Moi j'ai sieste.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

M2 (and others) Social changes since the 1970s

We all know that the situation for women in public life has improved in the last fifty years. Nevertheless, we sometimes underestimate how much. On this page there is a video of an interview in 1970 of a new woman Member of Parliament. This is not a comedy sketch: it was a real interview by one of the most respected TV presenters of the time, Robin Day.

https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/100-years-uncomfortable-1970-interview-female-mp-becomes-important-symbol/

Thème agrégation

Much better now. We do not have many classes left. What I think is best is that we move on next week to the following passage, from Malevil. You can send me your translations until Saturday evening.

For the present passage, from Boussole, I will correct, this weekend, the translations I have received, and I will put up here on the blog my suggested translation, for you to work with. We will begin next week’s class with any questions about the Boussole passage.

Videos for L3 popular culture class

Videos L3 Popular culture

Much better now. Next week I will be moving onto theories of what popular culture is, what mass culture is, and so on. In the meantime, I recommend you watch one or both of these videos.

Synth Britannia : the history of the origins of synth music in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1P93r9xes&t=40s

Rap Britannia : a 2012 documentary on what rap is doing in the UK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27UCIqoqp7Y

Either of them give good practice in listening to different accents in British English.

Seminar M2 Cultural and social history of the 1970s

Much better now.

A couple of things for you to be going on with :

A video on reggae music in Britain

An article on Popular culture in the 1970s

We will discuss these two elements briefly in class.

But the priority is that before the next class I would like each of you to look in the archives of Spare Rib, ( https://journalarchives.jisc.ac.uk/britishlibrary/sparerib )and find two articles you find particularly interesting, significant or suprising, and report back on them in class (just a short summary of the article and why you chose it, nothing more).

India M1 LEA QES

I am out of hospital and feeling much better. Next week, will be time to move onto our next topic: Women in the USA. But for this week, watch these last three videos about India. Try to understand every word. Remember of course that these videos represent one person's point of view.

When will India be a developed country?

How do Indian railways compare with Pakistani railways?

How does an average Indian person compare with an average Chinese person?

Monday, February 05, 2018

Les salles de la semaine

mardi
M1 LEA QES L101
M2 seminar 1970s L311
L3 culture populaire T012

mercredi
Thème agrégation F101
Compréhension agrégation A506
Compréhension CAPES A506
TD civilisation agrégation A506

M1 consultation de copies

Le vendredi 9 février à 13h, bureau A503, vous pourrez consulter vos copies sur l'historiographie de la Première Guerre.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Préparation agrégation civilisation britannique le Royaume-Uni à l'épréuve de la crise

Next week is the first of a series of four 'TD" on the civilisation question. ( Wed 15h30 -17h30)
It is programmed for the agrégation interne, but students from the externe are invited too.

We will be doing text commentaries orally on documents like the ones in the booklet you can find by clicking through here:

http://johncmullen.blogspot.fr/2017/01/preparation-agregation-anglais.html

Next week, I will be commenting on the documents, but I will be asking each of you to choose one which you will comment on in another class.

FOR NEXT WEEK READ CAREFULLY DOCUMENT FIVE AND DOCUMENT SIX; CONSIDER WHAT YOU WOULD SAY IN A COMMENTARY ON THESE DOCUMENTS.

Cultural history of 1970s UK M2

Watch the first half of this video, and we will discuss what you think of it as cultural history. What questions is it asking.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=1726s&v=G6RAhpUOu4w

Monday, January 29, 2018

Rooms for this week

Tuesday

11h30 M1 LEA QES L101

14h30 Seminar M2 L311

16h30 L3 Popular culture T105

Wednesday

9h Thème agrégation F101

11h compréhension/ restitution agrégation interne A506

13h CAPES Interne A506

Thursday, January 25, 2018

M2 seminar 1970s: recording

You will have seen below the link to the article I would like you to read and be ready to discuss.
For those of you who have more of an aural memory, and in any case à toute fin utile, here is a recording of the first class on cultural and social transformations in the UK in the 1970s, in Mp3.

Podcast UK history 1970s, social and cultural transformations.

In other news, here are the archives I mentioned in class. If you find others, you may use them instead (but you have to ask me first).

https://www.bl.uk/spare-rib

https://womensvoicearchive.wordpress.com/

https://archive.org/details/smash-hits

http://www.tandana.org/

http://gaynewsarchive.org/

Here is a marxist one (the whole of the 1970s are available online)

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/isj/index2.html

and another, less theoretical

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/redweekly/index.htm

India on the front page

Not good news, I'm afraid : religious conflict is still not uncommon.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/25/padmaavat-bollywood-epic-film-hindu-queen-muslim-threats-violence

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

L3 Popular Culture: class one

Perhaps it all went very fast and you couldn't follow everything. Or maybe your best friend missed the first class, and your notes are very confused. In any case, you will find here in Mp3 format a recording of the first class.

Podcast British history since 1945 part one.

And you will find here an article about 1970s popular music.

M1 LEA The Economist

The Economist is, I think, the best written business magazine in English anywhere in the world. It is published in Britain but sells more outside Britain.

If you sign up for a free account, you can read three articles a month.

https://www.economist.com/

And here is an article I wrote some years ago about the vocabulary used in this magazine:

https://www.academia.edu/858561/_html_full_text_Creating_networks_creating_in-groups_-_choice_of_vocabulary_in_The_Economist_editorials

M1 LEA powerpoint on India

You can find here the powerpoint we saw in class on India, which you may well need, for revision purposes for example.

Powerpoint on India

And here is the short video "If India had only 100 people".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojN9azlJmq4&t=9s

Séminaire M2: Article to read for week 2

Please come to class with questions and/or comments.

Here is the article.

You will find here a video extract from the Old Grey Whistle Test from 1972, to give you an idea how Tv was dealing with rock music, late at night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhUyOnbJPaI

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Summary of Uk media (for agrégation students, or anyone else)

You will find a short powerpoint presentation here :

http://www.jcmullen.fr/ukmedia.pps

Friday, January 19, 2018

Thème agrégation

There is no class on 24th, because it is the week when half of you are taking the written exams.

Master LEA m1 devoir maison révisions

I have finished marking your exams and I am working on your homeworks. The content is much better than the grammar! Here are some weblinks to revise and eliminate some of your favourite mistakes. (I am adding these as I go along and will be doing for a few days).

I should say, though, that knowing how to install and use automatic correction software, which corrects spelling and also most simple grammatical errors which are made carelessly, is essential. Especially if you are likely to be writing say emails in English in a professional context. I don't know about you, but if I receive an email beginning "Cher Mosieur" I do not even read the rest of it. Both Word and Open Office have correction software in which you can select the language to be dealt with.

1) The definite article still causes some headaches. See here
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/determiners-and-quantifiers/definite-article

2) Some are having difficulty with indirect questions. See here
http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/indirect-questions.html

3) Billions of, or just billion? and what about scores?
There is a short exercise here
https://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-106393.php

4) Avoid to do or avoid doing? And structures with other verbs. Short explanation and quiz here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/verbs-followed-ing-clauses

5) They let them do it, they allowed them to do it, they made them do it, etc.
http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar-guides/grammar-intermediate-3.php#make%20let%20allow

6) Economic? Economical? Etc.
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/economic-economical/

7) Used to do ? used to doing? So much confusion! Brief explanation and quiz here.

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/quick-grammar/used-infinitive-and-beget-used

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

India 1947 to 2017

How has India changed over the last seventy years. What is a Lakh?
You will find here the short video we saw in class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo8SGBdT344

What is a Lakh? See here for a reminder :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh

What is a Crore ? See here for a reminder:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore

And some recent news

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/one-lakh-farmers-to-protest-in-delhi-on-nov-20/article9906304.ece

...