Teacher's Guide - The Curriculum Project

Economic Globalisation (cont’d)Pre-teach:supreme (adj): highest, most powerful.territory (noun): geographic area claimed under a particular law or authority.jurisdiction (noun): the limits in which law or authority can be used.to override (verb): to dominate, have priorityAsk students to read aloud the paragraph ‘Economic globalisation and nationalsovereignty.’ Ask them to write down any words that they don’t know. Elicitthese words in turn. Ask if they, or other students can guess the meaning (givethem some clues if necessary). If not, give them a dictionary to look it up andtell the class, or tell them yourself.Colombia: a victim of economic globalisation?Pre-teach: coup (noun): a taking of power by force, usually by the military, cocaine (noun): adrug made from the coca plant, to eradicate (verb): to destroy, unrestrained (adj): without anylimitation, free, paramilitary (adj/noun): a semi-official or auxiliary military force.Ask students to read the text. Give them about 10 minutes. They should write downany words that they don’t know. Elicit these words and ask if they, or anotherstudent, can guess the meaning. If not, give them a dictionary to look it up and tellthe class, or tell them yourself.On Your Own1. Comprehension. Write the following questions on the board (but not theanswers!). Give students about 20 minutes to answer them in their books. Then putstudents into pairs and ask them to compare answers. Do they agree? If not, askthem to decide who has the correct answer. Finally, elicit answers from individualstudents and check agreement with the rest of the class.1. Why are increasing numbers multinational companies coming to Colombia?Answer: They are coming to exploit Colombian natural resources.2. What is ‘Plan Colombia’?Answer: ‘Plan Colombia’ consists of military and economic aid which is supposed to help theColombian government eradicate drug production and terrorist groups, and create economicgrowth.3. Critics have said that ‘Plan Colombia’ is an excuse for what?Answer: Critics have said that it is an excuse for US control of the Colombian economy4. What have multinational corporations been accused of doing in Colombia?Answer: Multinational corporations have been accused of using paramilitary groups to protecttheir interests and crush opposition.5. What were the Coca-Cola bottling company and Drummond mining accused of?The Coca-Cola bottling company and Drummond mining were accused of hiring paramilitariesto kill senior labour union members.Discussion2. Put students into groups of 3-5 and give them 5-10 minutes to discuss and writedown their ideas. Elicit ideas from each group in turn and discuss.It is possible to argue that because the military regime is illegitimate (not democratically elected), it’snational sovereignty is already severely damaged. The military regime is having to deal with the rapiddevelopment of the internet and access to information, satellite TV, the regional trade bloc ASEAN,EU and US sanctions, etc.. All of these threaten the sovereignty of the regime.The Curriculum Project ECONOMICS: an introduction - Teacher’s Guide74