Axe culturel 1 — Identités et échanges : construction des identités, métissage culturel et appartenance dans le monde anglophone (programme de Terminale LVA)
Évaluation complète de fin de chapitre, tout en niveau difficile. Travaille seul et sans aide, puis vérifie tes réponses avec le corrigé détaillé dépliable en bas de page.
Read the following text carefully, then answer the questions in English. Justify your answers with quotations from the text.
Document — Adapted from a contemporary British-Nigerian memoir (2021).
On the bus home from school, I used to rehearse two versions of myself. There was the boy who answered the register in clipped English, who supported the local football club, who never mentioned the smell of egusi soup clinging to his blazer. And there was the boy who, the moment he stepped through the front door, slipped back into Yoruba, kissed his grandmother's hand and became, once more, his mother's son.
For years I believed I had to choose. My teachers, well-meaning, kept asking where I was "originally" from, as though Manchester could not possibly be an answer. My uncles in Lagos teased that I had become "too English", that my tongue had forgotten its first words. I felt I was failing two countries at once, belonging fully to neither.
It was only at university, reading writers who had lived between worlds, that I understood my mistake. Identity was not a single coat I had to button up; it was a wardrobe. I did not have to amputate one half of myself to satisfy the other. The hyphen in "British-Nigerian" was not a wound — it was a bridge. Today, when someone asks me to pick a side, I smile and answer that I am the side: a whole made of two homes, richer for the journey between them.
Answer in English in full sentences, reusing precise vocabulary from the chapter.
Choose ONE of the two subjects and write 150–180 words in English. Use precise vocabulary, at least two examples from the English-speaking world, and logical connectors.
Exercice 1 — Compréhension de l'écrit
Éléments attendus (compréhension fine + citations).
1. (2 pts) The narrator presents two opposed selves. At school he is the assimilated, "English" boy: «the boy who answered the register in clipped English, who supported the local football club» and who hides his Nigerian heritage («never mentioned the smell of egusi soup»). At home he is his mother's Yoruba-speaking son: «he slipped back into Yoruba, kissed his grandmother's hand and became, once more, his mother's son». (1 pt par version correctement repérée et citée.)
2. (2 pts) He felt torn between two cultures and accepted by neither. His teachers implied he could not really be from Manchester («where I was originally from»), while his Nigerian uncles mocked him for becoming «too English» and forgetting his mother tongue. Caught between these two pressures, he believed he had to choose one identity and was therefore "failing" both at the same time. (Reformulation personnelle exigée + idée du tiraillement / 'between two worlds'.)
3. (2 pts) By the end he no longer sees his double identity as a loss but as a richness: he stops trying to choose. The image he uses is the wardrobe: «Identity was not a single coat I had to button up; it was a wardrobe.» He also reframes the hyphen as «not a wound — it was a bridge». He embraces a plural, hybrid identity ("a whole made of two homes"). (1 pt pour l'évolution, 1 pt pour la citation de l'image.)
Exercice 2 — Compréhension — analyse et mise en perspective
1. (2 pts) The hyphen in "British-Nigerian" normally separates two labels and could symbolise a painful split (a "wound"). By calling it a "bridge", the narrator turns this point of tension into a positive link that connects his two cultures instead of dividing them. The metaphor shows that he no longer experiences his dual heritage as a conflict or a loss but as a passage that enriches him — an image of hybridity and of belonging to two worlds at once. (Analyse du double sens wound/bridge attendue.)
2. (2 pts) The text strongly supports the idea that identity is constructed and evolving. At first the narrator believes identity is fixed and exclusive ('I had to choose', 'pick a side'). His view is dynamic: it changes through experience — school, family in Lagos, then university and reading 'writers who had lived between worlds'. The final 'wardrobe' image replaces a single fixed self with a plural, flexible one. This echoes the notion that identity is negotiated and hybrid rather than given at birth. (Toute réponse argumentée et appuyée sur le texte est valorisée.)
Exercice 3 — Expression écrite (au choix)
Attendus communs : longueur respectée (150–180 mots), anglais correct, vocabulaire de l'axe (heritage, belonging, hybridity, roots/routes, dual identity, diaspora), au moins deux exemples précis (un auteur, une diaspora, un événement…), connecteurs logiques (however, whereas, although, therefore…), point de vue clair. Barème indicatif : richesse de la langue 2 pts · contenu/arguments et exemples 2 pts · structure et connecteurs 2 pts.
Exemple de production attendue — Subject A (≈170 mots, niveau 18-20/20) :
Growing up between two cultures can certainly be unsettling, yet I believe it is far more an opportunity than a problem. Admittedly, children of migrants often feel caught between two worlds: they may be told they are 'too foreign' at school and 'too assimilated' at home, which can be painful. However, this in-between position also offers a remarkable richness. Diasporic writers such as Zadie Smith or Jhumpa Lahiri turn their dual heritage into original, hybrid voices, proving that mixture can be creative rather than confusing. Moreover, code-switching between languages and codes teaches empathy and flexibility, skills that are precious in a globalised world. Music tells the same story: reggae and hip-hop were born from diasporic communities and became universal languages of pride. Although the tension is real, embracing several roots ultimately broadens one's perspective. Therefore, a plural identity should be seen not as a weakness to overcome but as a bridge — a genuine source of strength.
Exemple — Subject B (≈165 mots) :
Dear friends, I once stood exactly where you stand, convinced I had to choose. My teachers asked where I was 'really' from; my uncles said I had become 'too English'. For years I felt I was failing two countries at once. But let me tell you what I learned: identity is not a single coat you must button up — it is a wardrobe. You do not have to amputate one half of yourself to please the other. Whereas some will tell you to blend in completely, I urge you to embrace your whole self. Think of all the writers, musicians and athletes who carry several homes inside them and turn that journey into a gift. The hyphen in your name is not a wound; it is a bridge. So when someone asks you to pick a side, smile and answer that you are the side — a whole made of two homes, richer for everything in between. Be proud of all your roots.
Cours particuliers de anglais (lva) à Marseille, en présentiel ou à distance — un prof qui s'adapte à ton rythme et reprend ce qui coince.