AMNESTY

Aim: a speaking activity with emphasis on oral fluency; student gives reasons for releasing people from prison
Language point: lexical chunks to give reasons


Stage One

NEW PRESIDENT OFFERS AMNESTY! A new president has been elected and as a gesture of goodwill wants to release some prisoners. She has called ameeting of her advisors to decide which prisoners should be released. The president has provided each group of advisors with a list of potential prisoners. She wants her advisors to recommend which SIX prisoners should be released from jail.


In view of the fact…
The main reason why..
Due to…
Seeing as how…



… Because of this…
… On account of this…
… That’s the reason why…

Memo

To: Amnesty Committee Advisors
From: The Office of The President
Re: List of Prisoners
Note: To preserve the prisoner’s identity from the press, names have been withheld from this memo.

Here follows a list of the nine prisoners up for a possibility of amnesty. Allare considered as very little risk to society. Please inform the President ofyour final decision.

Number 1 is a 20-year-old student. He broke into the police’s computer system and tried to erase his previous criminal record (some parking tickets). He was also charged with fraud after police discovered he had hacked into a pizza company’s computer and ordered himself free pizzas for over a year. He is serving a five-year sentence.

Number 2 is a 55-year-old engineer. He was charged with manslaughter after he hit and killed a child while driving drunk. He has no previous criminal record. He is serving a ten-year sentence.

Number 3 is a 30-year-old mother of two. She was charged with drug dealing when police found half a kilogram of marijuana in her apartment. She says it was for personal use, but drug laws are very strict in this country. She is serving a five-year sentence.

Number 4 is a 24-year-old student and activist. He was arrested during an anti-globalisation protest and charged with terrorism. He is a leader of a non-violent social movement and did not participate directly in any violent acts during his protests. He is serving a three-year sentence.

Number 5 is a 40-year-old businessman. He was charged with fraud when police discovered that he had stolen over $2 million from his company using a false system of accounting. He is serving a ten-year sentence.

Number 6 is an unemployed woman. She was arrested for stealing food from a supermarket. This was not the first time that she had stolen food, and she had been warned. She is serving an eight-year sentence.

Number 7 is a prisoner of war. He was taken prisoner during the last war with the country’s neighbours six years ago. He was a marine and engineer and was responsible for bombing a small village in the mountains. He says he was following orders. The two countries are now at peace. He is serving a twentyyear sentence.

Number 8 is a landlord. He was arrested for keeping a block of flats in very dirty, and some cases dangerous conditions. He was also renting the apartments to illegal immigrants and charging a lot of money for them. He is serving a seven-year sentence.

Number 9 is a politician. She was a leading member of the Ultra political party, an extreme group who believed that criminals should be executed and immigrants expelled from the country. The Ultra party is very weak now. She was arrested for stealing party funds and is serving a ten year jail sentence.