 Hello and welcome back to yet another GCSE revision lesson now guys I want to begin by thanking all of you who keep on showing me so much love on YouTube also Adding suggestions and comments and feedback on what you guys would like to see in English GCSE revision lessons Okay, the reason why I created this YouTube channel is literally to serve you guys Okay, so I absolutely love hearing your feedback and of course part of your feedback was to do with language paper 2 Question number five. This is where you're asked a topical issue You're asked to show your opinion and to debate, you know, whatever topical issue be it for example social media animal quality Whatever and lots of you on YouTube in the comments have basically suggested that, you know, Barbara It'll be really useful with some of these common topical issues to have an idea if one of these topics came up What could I write about? Okay, so today's lesson is a Continuation of last week's lesson where I'm going to present you guys with three more topical issues three really popular Topical issues that should they come up? You can use these ideas and these plans in your response Okay Now the main topical issues that I want to go over today, which are very very popular Especially with a qa are the subject of animals animal welfare animal cruelty anything to do with animals Right how we treat them. That's a very popular question. Okay, however Another topical issue and by the way when I talk about topical issues is stuff that you generally hear about in the news on the radio Society kind of debating. Okay, so of course animal cruelty is one of those topical issues The other is to do with education, especially during the summer. Okay when the summer exams are out There's always some form of debate Our GCSE is worth the paper. They're printed on is education all about just going to school or is education a bit broader than that? Okay, so of course, that's another topical area that you need to have some kind of opinion on okay And the other topical area is to do with the environment Slash climate change. So what I'm going to do is go over Plans that you can use including some made-up anecdotes examples of statistics when you are arguing and discussing some of these issues So let's begin with the topic of animals animal welfare animal cruelty now One of the popular topical areas when it comes to thinking about animal welfare is our zoos Humane are they good is even pet keeping good? Is it good for us to eat meat? Okay? So let's go over an essay plan and a debate that you can use which you can kind of Apply to either of these issues. Okay, so this debate is to do with animal welfare You know, is it good to have zoos? Is it good to even have pets? And of course what I'm going to show you guys is also some examples that you can use right? So my main argument which I'm going to make the argument for is the idea that you know Zoos are really bad having pets is really bad, but even keeping animals on farms and stuff. That's all bad Okay, that's going to be my main argument and of course I then need to balance the discussion remember with question number five for language paper to you always need to Balance your discussion to show that you have an awareness that other people have Opposing opinions and you need to show that you've considered those okay So of course in my two opposing points, I'm also going to show why people might disagree with me Okay Now the first point you can make especially when it comes to animal welfare is the notion that zoos are really really bad Okay, they are prisons for animals and you could state and this is a made-up statistic Okay, you can say that our SPCA actually found that zoos which kind of keep you know Wild animals like lions leopards and so on they actually cause these animals which are outside of the natural Inhabitats and the natural environments real Depression okay, so I'm going to make the argument that you know according to RSPC in a recent study They found that 90% of zoo animals are suffering from some kind of depression because they are taken out of the natural habitat Okay, that could be the first discussion you can make and then the second point is to do with pet keeping Okay, so of course, this is not my personal opinions I usually just select the side of the argument and have more to talk about and can be a little bit interesting and Controversial, okay? Now the second thing you could argue is to do with pet keeping you could argue that actually keeping pets is also unnatural and inhumane animals need to run free they need to run wild Okay, and pet keeping is inhumane and here you can give lots of examples of different forms of pets that we see people keeping In their homes right dogs cats rabbits hamsters and so on and you can make the argument They're actually it's a form of animal cruelty taking these animals and you know For example, neutering them and controlling their movements with doing within your home And then the third argument that you can make when it comes to any question to do with animal quality or animal welfare Is the idea that even meat eating and you know farms that you know keep animals like cows and so on are Evil, okay, so they you know overbreed these animals and they engage in quite evil practices And also by extension it's really evil for us to consume meat Okay, and here you can talk about how you know animals being evil you can use the anecdote of farmer Sally Smith But previously used to keep a farm of cows But then found that you know the way they would be treated in the industry was inhumane So she decided as a farmer to completely change to sell all of her animals and instead change into Creating her farm or using her farm to you know, produce more vegetables which are even better for us to consume Okay, those are the three points you could use for any animal welfare question animal welfare animal quality zoos Are they good pet keeping is it bad? Okay, of course the counterpoints could be for example number one Actually keeping pets is humane and you know animals, especially pets like domesticated pets Can't actually survive in the wild and here you can maybe even talk about and make the extension in an anecdote that John Doe actually rescued a monkey right and he rescued it from the wild and it would have otherwise died had he not Rescued it and kept it as a pet. That's the first counter argument The second counter argument can be that zoos are also really important because they have played the significant part in saving endangered animals And this is a totally made up statistic Oxford University found that 80% of pandas are in zoos Okay, and of course they have they're no longer endangered because of the role that zoos play That's the points that you could raise if you get an animal related question a question related to animal cruelty or animal welfare Let's have a look at education yet another really popular topical area that you should anticipate and have some kind of opinion on For language paper to question number five. So of course the question around education tends to be this notion of you know Is education worth it? Is it worth, you know, the paper that it's printed on and I'm going to make the argument that it's not worth it classroom education GCSEs are actually not that important They don't teach us real life skills and of course the counterpoints will be actually, you know Your life is all about education and if you don't have, you know, great GCSEs and so on then your life will come to nothing Okay, that's going to be my counter arguments However, if you get an education related question The first point you can make if you decided to go with my line of argument could be that, you know GCSEs are absolutely not worth the paper they're printed on and you can make up the statistic that gov.uk the UK government bodies Website found that 75% of students year 11's who have attained GCSEs have learned classroom knowledge But they don't actually know how to function in the real world because they have not been taught emotional intelligence as part of their School qualification you can make the argument that GCSEs actually don't teach us the ability to function with other people in society Okay, and they don't even teach us emotional intelligence. That's the first argument against, you know Education and school is it worth it? Is it not? Okay? I'm saying that it's not worth it It's better to just go out into the world and get your education via working with other people in the world world second reason could be Well second argument could be that learning in the real world is better than in the classroom And here you can make up an anecdote that, you know, Sanny Smith, especially when it comes to things like languages, right? GCSE in French, for instance, is far less valuable than actually going to France, going to somewhere like Nice or Paris and then, you know Learning the language from local people and from even getting like a local job, whatever, right? And the anecdote to make up example is Sanny Smith who's in year 11 who learned more from four weeks away during her summer holidays After year 10, she learned more French when she went to Nice and she studied the language and worked and got a part-time job in Nice Than two years that she spent getting her French GCSEs in a classroom. That's the second reason why education You know, it's not worth the paper that's printed on and then the third reason if you're arguing in this way Is to do with how education actually doesn't give you work experience, right? Learning the classroom doesn't actually put you out into the world, you're not getting actual work experience and Things like, you know, going and getting part-time job and even doing things like the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Actually teaches you more than the classroom and here you can use some examples of different ways that, you know Outside of traditional education people learn and are even more valuable to society For example getting part-time jobs joining group sports being part of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and even getting work experience So using some examples That's the arguments for why education is not really that important It's not even worth the paper that it's printed on. However, of course, you need to balance that and to talk about how for example Number one counter arguments actually most jobs, especially most high-paying jobs require a GCSE the require formal qualifications and John Doe, so this is my made-up anecdote He found his life has been incredibly hard after leaving school with no GCSEs All the jobs that he's tried to apply for have not accepted him because he doesn't have any basic qualifications Therefore education and formal schooling is still really important in the real world. And then a second counter argument could be That actually Schools and GCSEs form the foundation for our intelligence. Okay, it's hard to develop other things like emotional intelligence It's hard to even know how to work with other people if you don't actually learn it first in the classroom Okay, and the made-up statistic you can use is Cambridge University found that GCSEs boost our IQs by 80 percent Okay, so that's the line of argument you can take if you've got an education related question where you know Is it worth it? Is it not and so on the third topic area is to do with the environment slash climate change One very very popular debate is our cars bad for the environment our planes any form of vehicle or Transportation are they good? Are they bad? Should they be banned? Okay, and the argument I'm going to make is actually Cars vehicles in general and to be honest you can even substitute my reference to cars here with planes and so on Okay, actually they are still really important and they're not actually that bad for the environment Especially because there's been so much changes made today to cars planes and so on that make them actually environmentally friendly and of course I'm going to show you the counter arguments which you can make if you're arguing against, you know cars planes and so on Okay, so when it comes to environment climate change the first point I would make is it would be wrong to ban cars Slash planes, okay, and I'm going to talk about mainly cars here Okay, so most cars today are very environmentally friendly they are non-polluting and I'm going to use some examples in my first argument And I'll point to you know Tesla's Toyota Priuses BMWs and Mercedes They all have electrical cars which give off very minimal pollution So it would be a mistake to ban things like cars And of course, hey you can even substitute this for planes and you can talk about you know British Airways fleet Ryanair fleet whatever which are you know, they've started reducing the carbon emissions Okay, that's the first argument the second which is for the idea that we should not ban cars We shouldn't see you know these different types of vehicles as bad for the environment is cars have saved vulnerable people and of course it makes us all far more efficient, okay And of course if you ban a car what would happen to people who are disabled who can't get easily to and from place by just using trains If you were to ban for example cars, you know people who are traveling at night, right? So people who maybe work in late shifts at McDonald's for example in late hospital shifts actually they could be very vulnerable Okay, and here I'll make up an anecdote Sally Smith who's got an evening job working a night shift in McDonald's Okay, that's a part-time job What she's still going to school. She actually or rather she's in sixth form. Okay, because in school you can't drive She actually needs her car and it can't be banned because she would be very vulnerable and very exposed going home Okay, that could be the second reason why it's not going to ban cars Or you know, you can talk about any other vehicle and then the third reason why for example If you're to make the argument, especially kind of climate change related that you know We shouldn't ban cars planes all of that is road and air standards have become really really high Okay, so for example in London, you've got something called like the you less zone the ultra low emission zone There's been so many laws and stuff put in place that means that cars which you know Have way too much pollution or even planes that give off way too much pollution are banned And so most car owners today and even most planes actually don't give off that many emissions because they don't want to get Fine. Okay, so the road and air standards are so high and there's so many rules that vehicles today get fine Which means that you know vehicles planes and stuff like that actually now Environmentally friendly, okay And here I'll make up a statistic and say gov. UK found that 80% of UK cars have close to zero So two emissions, okay, but of course if you're arguing in this line You then need to show counter arguments and why people would disagree with you why people would say no We need to get rid of cars. We need to get rid of planes and so on Okay, and the first counter argument could be that people use continue to use vehicles for very short distances Okay, yes It's one thing you know to say that cars for example really good for vulnerable people But actually majority of people don't need the cars that they have and actually they even use the cars and these different types of Vehicles very pointlessly, okay, and I'll make up an anecdote here and say that John Doe's neighbor Uses his car to travel five minutes to the gym rather than just walking there Okay, so of course this is illustrating that actually most people who own cars should not be allowed to own them because they use them needlessly, okay, and this contributes to like sound pollution and so on Then the second counter argument as to why it's important to still ban cars slash planes could be that most fatal accidents are vehicle and even plane related and Here again and made up statistic could be that Oxford University found that 68% of deaths in the UK were caused by some Kind of vehicle, okay? So as I said when it comes to preparing for language paper to question number five in in your GCSEs It's actually quite easy to prepare for this as long as you understand the major kind of subject areas and then have Some kind of opinion on it. Okay, remember that This part of the paper tends to test your awareness of topical issues therefore literally list out all the major topical issues and then if they were to come up have quick plans and Quick ideas of okay if I had an animal welfare question I already know what I talk about if it was an education relations question I know what I talk about of course if it's also now climate change environment I kind of know what I'll talk about. Okay, so I hope this helped and thank you so much guys for your feedback Please of course, let me know what else you'd like to see on this channel