Globalization I) Mind-mapping and Brainstorming First step: student activity What does the term “globalization” mean as a lexical item? a buzzword? a slogan? to you? Get together in groups of 3-4 people and brainstorm. Try to find many different aspects. Collect and roughly sort your findings in a mindmap (you get a transparency for that). Time: ~ 10 mins.

Second step: discussion in class Short presentation of groups’ mind-maps. Comparison / Discussion: Ideas that can be found in several of the mind-maps, unique ideas, striking ideas, … Time: ~ 12 mins. new mind-map (the one below; photocopied and on transparency). Comparison / Discussion: Ideas that can be found in some of your mind-maps, unique ideas, striking ideas, … Time: ~ 8 mins.

Third step: spontaneous connotations and associations with globalization each student gets three slips of paper (white, red, pink). I’ll pose a row of questions to you and I’d like you to answer them quickly and without much thinking as I’d like to find out what people feel. red means “no”, white means “yes” and pink is for “yes and no” -

Is globalization presented as something positive on the last mind-map? [the one below] Did your group find more positive than negative aspects? Is globalization as scary word for you? Can globalization be stopped? Should it be limited? Can you imagine a world without globalization?

discussion of results

[source: http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/16-19/economics/international/presentation/globalisationmap.gif; date: 19/02/09]

II) Cartoons First step: picture description Four students get one of the cartoons and have to describe what they can see in their cartoon. They needn’t analyse it yet but just give the rest of the class an idea of the scene and the people involved. After the description the Cartoon is shown to everybody on transparency. Time: ~ 9 mins.

Second step: aspects of globalization What aspects of globalization presented on your work sheet mind-map can you find in these cartoons? Time: ~ 7 mins.

Third step: in depth analysis of cartoons Partner work, each pair gets on cartoon. Students get instruction sheet how to deals with cartoons as well as dictionaries. They have to write a brief but concise analysis of their cartoon. Time: rest of lesson.

SKILLS: DEALING WITH CARTOONS STEP BY STEP -

First describe the scene without much reference to the artist’s intentions.

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Then name the topic the cartoon refers to.

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Finally explain what intentions the artist expresses and how they are expressed.

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Watch out for details and how they work together or contradict each other. Things are often exaggerated to put them into the spotlight, drastic metaphors are employed and details often have symbolic meanings.

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Use the present tense for descriptions (simple present to describe the place, present progressive for what’s going on and present perfect for things that have just happened).

USEFUL PHRASES: in the picture/cartoon

there is…. / you can see ….

there is / we can see ….. in the foreground / centre / background / bottom right corner …. the cartoon is about / deals with… the cartoonist criticizes / ridicules / seems to be aiming at / points out the absurdity of …. …. highlights the role of …. …. focuses on the problem of… .… illustrates how ….. … alludes to ….

III) Project This is the instruction sheet I gave my students (of course it’s adaptable):

Project: local idea – global success Tchibo Apple Virgin RedBull Nestle Schweppes-Cadbury Melitta Ford Ebay Google IKEA Heinz Ketchup Faber Castell Birkenstock

Choose one company on the list and find out:  how it started  how it has developed (expanded, changed, merged, branched off)  how global is has become and when it became a global enterprise  what ‘global’ means to them (do they have a global slogan / approach / philosophy, ..?) Try wikipedia (the English as well as the German sites), the company’s homepage, other pages (e.g. consumer watchdog sites [=Verbraucherschützer], e.g. www.consumerwatchdog.org/ )

Prepare a presentation and a poster that contains the main information. Focus on the idea of how a local company, a single person, a single idea, a single product has turned into a global player / brand / seller / success story. Don’t bore your audience with loads of facts, stick to interesting stuff. Time to work: today, tomorrow, Friday (you MUST finish your poster etc. on Friday)
presentation next Tuesday (done by one or two students).

Tips: If you print things to put them onto your poster choose a big font size [=Schriftgröße] ~16-20 and preferably a font type [=Schriftart] without serifs (like this one1). Use boxes, arrows etc. to visualize your findings.

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By the way this is size 12, Verdana.