Sunday January 2, 2005
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Sudan’s 21-year civil war is over. One of the longest-running conflicts in the world, which claimed the lives of two million people, finally ended today with an agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudanese government. The peace deal grants the southern part of the country independence within five years. The new country, South Sudan, will have 10 million people and will be twice the size of France. It will also have rich oil fields. Sudan's vice-president  said “The peace process has been fully completed and there is no issue that has been left unresolved.” A comprehensive peace deal will be signed on 9 January. An opposition leader welcomed the deal that would “halt the bloodshed and fighting among the sons of one country.” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed “a new era of peace” in Sudan. Mr. Annan’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the war had “drained for more than two decades the resources of the country and inflicted an unbearable suffering on its people.” Mr. Annan also said he hoped the peace agreement would be the blueprint for a similar solution in Darfur in the west of Sudan, where hundreds of thousands have been killed.

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about Sudan / civil war / Kofi Annan / Darfur / new countries / rebel armies / peace …
To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. SUDAN BRAINSTORM: Brainstorm any words students associate with Sudan and write them on the board. In pairs students have to put them into categories (of their own choosing), swap partners and then explain their categories. Ask each other questions about the words.

3. MY COUNTRY’S WARS: Talk about the civil wars or revolutions in your country, and how they are remembered. In multi-cultural classes let different nationalities pair up and teach each other a little history of their countries.

4. TO END OTHER WARS: Students sit in pairs and discuss what they know of other world conflicts / flashpoints / stand-offs and their prospects for solution:
- Israel / Palestine
- American-led coalition / Militants in Iraq
- China / Taiwan
- India / Pakistan
- Sri Lankan government / Tamil Tigers
- Colombian government / FARC
- British government / Irish Republicans
- Spanish government / Basque separatists
- Democratic Republic of Congo – Africa’s “World War”
- Russia / Chechnya separatists
- Myanmar dictatorship / Kareni, Mon and other nations
- Indonesia / Aceh separatists

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘civil’, and ‘war’.

2. HEADLINE: Put the article headline on the board for students to talk about / predict / speculate. Pairs / groups formulate and present their own guesses as to the contents of the report.

3. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:

(a)  Sudan’s 21-year civil war is over.  T / F
(b)  Sudan’s civil war was one of the longest-running conflicts in the world  T / F
(c)  The war claimed the lives of twenty million people.  T / F
(d)  The peace deal grants the northern part of the country independence.  T / F
(e)  The new country will be half the size of France.  T / F
(f)  Kofi Annan welcomed “a new era of peace” in Sudan.  T / F
(g)  The region of Darfur is also included in the peace deal.  T / F
(h)  Hundreds of thousands have been killed in Darfur.  T / F

4. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	over	gives
(b)	conflicts	stop
(c)	claimed	flashpoints
(d)	grants	ended
(e)	fields	cost
(f)	issue	age
(g)	halt	plan
(h)	era	wasted
(i)	drained	point
(j)	blueprint	areas

5. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	civil	lives of
(b)	longest-running	of France
(c)	claimed the	process
(d)	peace	agreement
(e)	twice the size	war
(f)	peace	leader
(g)	opposition	conflict
(h)	peace	deal

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Sudanese peace, South Sudan created

Sudan’s 21-year __________ war is over. One of the longest-running conflicts in the world, which __________ the lives of two million people, finally ended today with an agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudanese government. The peace deal __________ the southern part of the country independence within five years. The new country, South Sudan, will have 10 million people and will be twice the __________ of France. It will also have rich oil fields. Sudan's vice-president said, “The peace process has been fully completed and there is no __________ that has been left unresolved.” A comprehensive peace deal will be signed on 9 January. An opposition leader welcomed the deal that would “__________ the bloodshed and fighting among the sons of one country.” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed “a new era of peace” in Sudan. Mr. Annan’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the war had “drained for more than two decades the resources of the country and __________ an unbearable suffering on its people.” Mr. Annan also said he hoped the peace agreement would be the blueprint for a similar __________ in Darfur in the west of Sudan, where hundreds of thousands have been killed.

halt civil solution size inflicted claimed issue grants

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. DEFINITIONS:  Students check their answers to the definitions exercise.

4. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonym exercise.

5. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

6. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

7. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. ‘CIVIL’/ ‘WAR’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

2. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

3. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

4. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

5. STUDENT-GENERATED SUDAN SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class. Back in pairs students discuss their findings.

6. SUDAN DISCUSSION: Students ask each other the following questions based on the article:

(a)  What do / did you think of Sudan’s peace?
(b)  Will the new country of South Sudan be successful?
(c)  Will a similar solution happen soon in Darfur?
(d)  What will become of Africa’s other civil wars (Algeria, Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe…)?
(e)  Will Africa one day realize its potential and compete on equal terms with America, Europe and Asia?
(f)  What other new countries do you think should be created?
(g)  Shouldn’t the world (West) do more to solve conflicts that continue for decades?
(h)  Is Sudan the blueprint for similar success stories worldwide?
(i)  Has your country ever had a civil war or revolution?
(j)  Where will the international success stories be in 2005?
(k)  Teacher’s additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Homo floresiensis. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. SUDAN: Create a poster on Sudan.

4. LETTER TO KOFI: Write a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan asking him to help in finding a fast and permanent solution to the being-forgotten-about crisis in Darfur.

ANSWER

TRUE / FALSE:

(a)  Sudan’s 21-year civil war is over.  T
(b)  Sudan’s civil war was one of the longest-running conflicts in the world  T
(c)  The war claimed the lives of twenty million people.  F
(d)  The peace deal grants the northern part of the country independence.  F
(e)  The new country will be half the size of France.  F
(f)  Kofi Annan welcomed “a new era of peace” in Sudan.  T
(g)  The region of Darfur is also included in the peace deal.  F
(h)  Hundreds of thousands have been killed in Darfur.  F

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	over	ended
(b)	conflicts	flashpoints
(c)	claimed	cost
(d)	grants	gives
(e)	fields	areas
(f)	issue	point
(g)	halt	stop
(h)	era	age
(i)	drained	wasted
(j)	blueprint	plan

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	civil	war
(b)	longest-running	conflict
(c)	claimed the	lives of
(d)	peace	agreement
(e)	twice the size	of France
(f)	peace	process
(g)	opposition	leader
(h)	peace	deal

GAP FILL:

Sudanese peace, South Sudan created

Sudan’s 21-year civil war is over. One of the longest-running conflicts in the world, which claimed the lives of two million people, finally ended today with an agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudanese government. The peace deal grants the southern part of the country independence within five years. The new country, South Sudan, will have 10 million people and will be twice the size of France. It will also have rich oil fields. Sudan's vice-president said, “The peace process has been fully completed and there is no issue that has been left unresolved.” A comprehensive peace deal will be signed on 9 January. An opposition leader welcomed the deal that would “halt the bloodshed and fighting among the sons of one country.” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed “a new era of peace” in Sudan. Mr. Annan’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the war had “drained for more than two decades the resources of the country and inflicted an unbearable suffering on its people.” Mr. Annan also said he hoped the peace agreement would be the blueprint for a similar solution in Darfur in the west of Sudan, where hundreds of thousands have been killed.