Leistungskurs Englisch
Musteraufgabe für eine kombinierte Aufgabe - September 2005 (Senatsverwaltung Berlin für Bildung, Jugend und Sport)

Text I: In Your Face Culture
(in: The Bulletin, August 30,1994; excerpt)
By Kerry-Anne Walsh

It is 9 am and hundreds of children have swarmed through the gates of Marrickville High, a crowded, boisterous school in the inner west of cosmopolitan Sydney. 'My children' is how headmaster Andy Powell proudly describes the throng of 760 students who crowd the campus, hidden among the terraced houses and light industrial factories. This is no ordinary school, but it is the future face of Australia: 92% of Powell's charges come from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Those whose familys native language is English make up only 7.4%. Sixty teachers from 10 ethnic backgrounds guide the children through an evermore diverse education curriculum that attempts to embrace the needs of multicultural schooling. (...)
Parents' newsletters are translated into four main languages. Separate parents' meetings are held in the languages of their birth and conducted through translators. Telephone interpreters are often used if parents need to be contacted during the day. While Powell stresses that many parents can converse in English, he says they feel more comfortable using their native tongue when discussing complex curriculum and educational issues.
Four languages are taught as part of the curriculum and evening and weekend classes are held in eight or nine different languages. This satisfies strong parental desires for children to retain their heritage and gives students an extra subject for more marks. Powell believes there is a strong appreciation of the educational opportunities available in Australia. Many of his students have classes six days a week and at nights.
So what does being Australian mean to this future generation - Australia's managers of the next century? 'They all feel very much Australian, but also very much part of their own cultures,' says Powell. Those that have been born here perhaps feel more Australian than their parents. That perhaps creates a bit of a problem for them, not for us.
'Most of them are quite proud, and we encourage them to be proud of their cultural background. We don't encourage them to think of themselves as English Australians; we en- courage them to think of themselves as Arabic-speaking Australians or Greek-Speaking Austra- lians or whatever, and to value their heritage.' Powell says that any problems the children may have are not due to their ethnic backgrounds, but their socio-economic situations.
(426 words induding introduction)
From: Bernd Klewitz (Hrsg.), Australian Encounters, Berlin: Cornelsen 2002, S. 28-29.

Annotations:
boisterous - loud, noisy
throng - large group of people
diverse - very different from each other and of various kinds
curriculum - content which is taught at school
embrace sth. - include sth.
retain sth: keep sth; continue to have sth.
heritage - history traditions and qualities which define the character of a country or society
socio-economic - involving both social and economic factors

Text I: Die Stadt der kleinen Vorbilder.
(in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 5./6. 02. 2005, Zeitungsartikei, Auszug)
Von Bernd Dörries

Warum die Integration von Zuwanderern in Stuttgart besser klappt als anderswo.
Mit dem Gesetz zur Zuwanderung sind Sprachkurse mittlerweile Pflicht für Menschen, die nach Deutschland kommen. In Stuttgart gibt es sie schon lange; als Stuttgarter Modell haben sie sich einen Namen gemacht. Sie sind auf den Alltag ausgerichtet, nicht darauf, Goethe interpretieren zu lernen. Exkursionen gehören dazu, und es wird darauf geachtet, dass die Teilnehmer aus verschiedenen Ländern kommen, also nicht in ihre Muttersprache ausweichen können. ( ... )
Ausländer und Migranten, das waren bisher immer Minderheiten, sagt Gari Pavkovic, "aber wahrscheinlich wird in dreißig Jahren die Hälfte aller Stuttgarter einen Migrantenhintergrund haben". Das sei eine große Herausforderung, denn noch immer sei es so, dass ausländische Jugendliche die schlechtere Ausbildung hätten, schwerer einen Arbeitsplatz fänden. Und wer nicht bei Daimler am Band steht, sondern auf der Straße, der macht vielleicht Probleme. Pavkovic, 45 Jahre alt, ist Leiter der Stabsabteilung für Integrationspolitik der Stadt Stuttgart ( ... ), betreut auch das Stuttgarter "Bündnis für Integration", in dem alle Behörden und Vereine der Stadt versammelt sind und die verschiedenen Projekte der Stadt koordinieren. Am wichtigsten sind die Sprachkurse. Ohne die Sprache ist alles nichts. Das Bündnis hat es geschafft, auch viele jener Ausländer zum Deutschlernen zu bewegen, die schon seit Jahrzehnten hier leben. An den Schulen gibt es "Mama-lernt-Deutsch-Kurse". Eine Mutter, die kein Deutsch kann, wird ihre Kinder nicht richtig ins deutsche Leben führen können, sagt Pavkovic. Von den Migrantenkindern gehen nur etwa 20 Prozent auf das Gymnasium, 50 Prozent auf die Hauptschule. Bei den Deutschen ist es umgekehrt. Das Bündnis versucht stadtteilbezogen zu arbeiten, vor Ort zu sein. Die Stadt achtet darauf, dass in den kommunalen Wohnungen nicht mehr als 20 Prozent Nicht-EU-Ausländer leben. Die Mischung funktioniert noch. Die Arbeiterwohlfahrt hat Lotsen ausgebildet, die Neuankömmlinge begleiten; Mediatoren der Caritas schlichten Streitfälle unter den Kulturen. ( ... )
Pavkovic sagt, ein Problem sei, dass es bisher wenig Vorbilder gebe, Leute, die es geschafft haben, Leute wie ihn.
(319 words)

TASKS
Work on four tasks.
Task 1, 2 and 4 are compulsory. Choose one task from 3.

TEXT 1:
1. Sum up the important points from the article in "The Bulletin" in no more than 150 words.

2. What is the writer's aim and what structural and stylistic means does she use to convey her point of view?

3. A. Discuss the Australian model of integrating different ethnic groups. Compare it to strategies to solve ethnic, social or political conflicts employed in at least one other country or region.
OR
3.B. A local newspaper has announced that the authorities will supply less money for Marrickville High School, demanding that they must cut down on their intercultural program. Write a letter to the editor explaining why that program is necessary. Include information from material you are familiar with.
OR
3.C. Explain in what ways Marrickville High School's multi-ethnic student population is a product of globalisation. Taking at least one other multi-ethnic country into consideration, discuss the strategies presented in the above text.
OR
3.D "Those that have been born here perhaps feel more Australian than their parents. That perhaps creates a bit of a problem for them, not for us." (ll. 23-24)
Discuss what problems may arise between first and second-generation immigrants within families and to what extent the concept presented may prevent that kind of difficulties.
Refer to texts and/or films you know.

TEXT 2:
4. You have just spent a year in Australia. Back in Germany you read the article in SZ and write a letter to your friend in Australia informing him/her about the project described.

Write at least 700 words in 300 minutes.