Written task 1: Topic or text?

I recently had an interesting discussion with a group of teachers about a specific written task 1 and the terms 'topic' and 'text'. In the rationale to this particular task the student claims that the topic studied was speeches in general, with a broad range of examples from Benjamin Netanyahu's UN address to Obama's victory speech from 2008. The student also explains that he is very passionate about the austerity measures in his home country, Portugal. The speech that he wrote as a written task 1 would have been given in a public space in Portugal for all of those who care about unemployment, the recession and the economic crisis there.

To his credit, the speech reads like a speech with all of the conventions of speech writing, including an array of rhetorical devices. The problem, as you might guess is two-fold: 1) To what degree is this task relevant to the Anglophone world? And 2) to what degree does this task show an understanding of topic or text?

Do you recognize the wording of the second point? It's from Criterion B (8 marks) for written task 1, the 'imaginative piece', and it seems to present some trouble for teachers at workshops. Is it enough to say that this particular student has an understanding of a 'text', i.e. Obama's and Netanyahu's speeches, by writing his own speech? Although his speech contained rhetorical features, it is not fair to say that it imitated either speaker's style 100%. I would not have known that these speeches were part of the course material, if I had not read the rationale. What's more, his work does not comment on the effectiveness of Netanyahu or Obama's speeches. So if it is not his understanding of these speeches that is tested in the written task, 'topic' is being assessed? After all, the criterion asks for either 'text' OR 'topic', but it does not require both (which I believe is a real pity).

Let's assume for a moment that the task demonstrates the student's understanding of a topic: the economic crisis in Portugal. Was this really studied in class as a 'topic'? If you look at the list of suggested topics, most read: 'language and...' In other words the course content on topics are all focused around how ideas are communicated, not what ideas are communicated. (Many of you may know that I like to call the course 'Communications 101'.) The English teachers at this workshop in Portugal questioned this: 'Why is Obama always a valid topic, but the Portugese crisis is not?' 'Why can talk about the beauty industry and Facebook, but not the Portguese economy?' 

I think the misunderstanding lies here: In fact, the phenomena 'Obama', 'beauty industry' and 'Facebook' are not relevant topics to the Lang/Lit course on their own. The speeches of Obama are relevant. The ads in which the beauty industry misconstrue reality are relevant. How politicians use Facebook as a tool, literally, to win votes is relevant. In other words, if you tie everything down to a primary source, then relevance to both 'topic' AND 'text' will follow inevitably.

For this candidate, I would not recommend submitting the task, because the understanding of the Portuguese crisis was gained through hearing about it on the news, reading articles and talking with friends, all in Portuguese. Which may have potential as a task for Portuguese A: Language and Literature.