Law and English Learning

Teacher:  Mark, tell us ideas you know about racial discrimination?
　

Mark:        Let me take crime as examples. In the U.S., if you see photographs
     and crime records filed by the FBI, you will usually have a long list of
     blacks who were registered criminals but a very short list of whites
     registered the same records.   
　

John:        For instance, if you analyze those records, you could find out
     those statistic figures existed for the blacks, but not whites. And
     general what you would find after a lot of study is these figures are
     different and the most prevalent pattern was that FBI investigators
     would invent very difficult questions and then helped the whites
     answer the questions, but they didn’t help the blacks. For instance,
     you could see answers from the whites in different handwritings. You
     know they are not the suspects’ handwritings. The whites were
     covered in this way that they could be judged not guilty because of
     fake testimony.
　

Andrew:  Worse than this is it is a dangerous business for a young black   
     attorney who is defending for his black client because the suspect
     could be judged guilty despite the evidence not being against. On the
     contrary, he’s innocent or not depends on what skin color he is,
     rather than social justice.
　

Teacher: Are there any physical threats or actual physical violence on the
     victim? Can you explain mistreatment due to racial discrimination? 
　

Mark:       As far as I know, there could be physical threats and some violence if
     a scar is on the black’s hand from an arrest where a sheriff smashed
     the hand with a billy club because the sheriff wanted to see the
     suspect’s driver’s license. He took it out and held it in the cover that
     they have on it. But the sheriff smashed the hand and said, “Take it
     out of that thing!” If he hesitated, the sheriff hit him severely.
　

Teacher: Did he get death threats?
　

John:       The black suspect might be in such danger if he refused to obey the
   sheriff’s command. However, he would survive since the sheriff
   would not be stupid enough to make him be accused of murder. The
   suspect just suffered bad injury.
　

Teacher: Tell us what stands out in your mind in terms of the courage of the 
  people you witnessed acting politically when they were in the Civil
  Rights movement. 
　

Andrew:  They were unbelievable courage. I mean when I saw young kids who
  would come to a march or a demonstration knowing they were going
  to get arrested. Indeed, many of them would bring their toothbrush
  and a face towel expecting to be arrested. I regard that is
  tremendous courage and the courage that I’m not sure that I would
  have had. Yes. People applauded the bravery! But when the press
  pulled out of town, the local people lost their jobs. They were
  beaten. They were threatened. Houses were blown up. However,
  that tremendous courage impresses us!
　

Teacher: Well, that’s really touching! I believe you read them from reports on
  the internet. Isn’t it nice that you can read and comprehend English
  well! Tell us how you learn English online?
　

John:        Oh, yes. Now hundreds of free Web sites have made learning English
   more convenient and cheaper than ever before.
　

Mark:        You can listen to an audio file on the Internet and then take a
   multiple choice quiz. Within seconds, your listening comprehension   
   results appear on screen.
　

John:       This sounds easy very much. Besides, we can discuss articles and 
  grammar problems with other students on discussion board. You can 
  even learn grammar or vocabulary with fun through online games.
　

Teacher: Learning online also offers more flexibility. You learn according to
  your own schedule, not the teacher’s schedule.
　

Andrew:  But studying online is not the right choice for everyone. That depends
  on your needs and learning style.
　

Teacher: Andrew is right. However, its merits outnumber its shortcomings. The
  internet is a great tool for improving reading and listening
  comprehension. We can take advantages of these online
  opportunities. Although writing and pronunciation are best learned in
  a real classroom since students need teacher’s immediate feedback
  and correction, some computer programs are marvelously designed
  to help with pronunciation.
　

 John:       The flexibility of online learning also creates special challenges for us.
   It takes us discipline to learn a language.
　

Mark:       So only highly self-motivated students will get the most out of
  internet learning.
　

Teacher: Is online learning right for you, Mark?
　

Mark:       I think so because I know what English skills I most want to focus on
  improving. 
　

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By 連哲緯, 高大為, 陳資尹, 王鼎杰