Summarizing a text to a sentence.

Students listen to a story and make a short statement, which describes its main idea.

e.g.

Court Battle Over Baby's Name
BERLIN, July 23 (Reuters) The Kepurra family from the eastern German town of Oranienburg have been battling officials for a year over their choice of name.   Jona, a common girl's name in Israel, is cited in reference books as a version of the biblical name Jonah, the male character who spent three days and three nights in the belly of a whale. But registry office authorities in Germany insist it is a boy's name and have asked that a recent court decision allowing the Kepurras to use the name for their daughter be re-examined.		Officials said the baby would remain nameless until the court decision.   The legal wrangling in Germany contrasts sharply with the relaxed approach to names in many other countries.
Article ©2001 Reuters Limited. Lesson ©2001 www.english-to-go.co

Main idea:

A court in Germany has to decide whether Jona is a suitable name for a girl.

Interview

Group interview.

Variation 1.

Having gathered information about a famous person any student acts as this person. The other classmates interview him as if at a press conference.

e.g.

How many children have you got?

In what films have you starred?

What do you prefer for breakfast? Etc.

Variation 2.

One person interviews several people (e.g. two or more close friends).

e.g.

How many times a week do you meet?

Do you celebrate holidays together?

Have you common hobbies? Etc.

Jig-saw

Jig-saw listening.

Students may listen to different parts of one text with the help of a cassette player, and then tell them to each other.

Questionnaire

Personality tests.

Students are given a questionnaire to see what kind of people they are.

Variation 1. Are you fashion-conscious?

Students score their results according to the suggested scale to see what sorts of people prevail in the class.

e.g.

1. You are invited to a party. What would you wear?

a) Something new and fashionable.

b) A traditional suit or dress.

c) Does it matter?

2. How much time do you spend in front of the mir­ror before going out?

a) More than fifteen minutes.

b) Less than fifteen minutes.

c) About five minutes.

3. What do you usually wear?

a) Casual clothes, for example a T-shirt and jeans.

b) Whatever's in fashion.

c) What I feel like wearing.

4. Why do you like your clothes?

a) Because I feel comfortable in them.

b) Because they say something about the sort of person I am.

c) I can't say I like my clothes.

5. You pass a clothes shop and see just the dress/suit you want. It's beautiful – but you haven't got much money. What would you do?

a) I'd forget about it.

b) I wouldn't buy it, but I would dream about it.

c) I'd borrow money and buy it.

6. How often do you buy fashion magazines?

a) Very often.

b) From time to time.

c) Never.

7. The colour in fashion this year doesn't suit you. What do you do?

a) I wear it anyway —it's in fashion!

b) I don't wear it.

c) I don't care about what's in fashion.

8. How would you describe your style of dress?

a) Fashionable.

b) Not fashionable but 'me'.

c) Style? What do you mean?

 

Your score:	Answers
	a)		b)		c)			8 – 15: You aren't fashion-conscious at all. You think that there are more important things in life than fash­ion. But don't you think the world would be a dull place if there were no fashion! It adds spice to life. 16 – 24: Clothes aren't the most important thing in your life. However, you know what suits you and you have a personal style. But you are a little bit conserva­tive. Why not try a different style for a change? 25 – 32: You are a fashion victim! You go for the latest styles and spend a lot of money on clothes. But there are more important things in life than clothes — try speaking to people and you'll be surprised to find that they are nice, even if they are wearing old shoes.
	a)		b)		c)
	a)		b)		c)
	a)		b)		c)
	a)		b)		c)
	a)		b)		c)
	a)		b)		c)
	a)		b)		c)

(taken from Speak Out 1999, № 2-3)

Variation 2. Sleeping habits.

Students answer the questions and compare their answers with those of their classmates.

e.g.

1 How much time do you spend on bedmaking?

a) 5 mins a day

b) 5 mins every other day

c) 5 mins a week

2 Before you go to bed do you

a) pull open the downstairs curtains

b) read

c) eat

3 After a night's sleep do you find that the covers

a) are as tidy as when you went to bed

b) are all over the floor

c) are in a heap in the middle of the bed

 

4 If you have trouble getting to sleep do you

a) count sheep

b) toss and turn

c) lie still and concentrate

5 If you wake up in the middle of the night is it because

a) you remember something you ought to have done

b) you're cold

c) you're hungry

6 If you hear a bump in the night do you

a) get up cautiously and investigate quietly

b) charge around the house with a weapon

c) turn over and go back to sleep

7 Do other people complain about your sleeping habits?

a) never

b) frequently

c) sometimes

8 When you have dreams are they mostly

a) dreams about work

b) nightmares

c) sweet dreams

(taken from Learning to Listen by Maley and Moulding, p. 3)

(may be done at a pre-listening stage as well)

 

Survey (Opinion Poll)

Class records.

Each student in the group is given one question. They are to go around the class and find out how many times everyone in the class had done these things. When they have all finished, the information can be displayed on a poster.

e.g.

Find how many times people in the group have flown in a plane.	Find out how many times' people in the group have broken their legs.
Find out how many times people in the group have drunk champagne.	Find how many times people in the group have been to a pop concert.
Find out how many times people in the group have been in hospital.	Find out how many countries people in the group have visited.
Find out how many times people in the group have travelled on board a ship.	Find out how many times people in the group have won something in a competition.
Find out how many times people in the group have passed an exam.	Find out how many pets people in the group have owned. What kind of pets?

(taken from Classroom Dynamics by J. Hadfield)

Debate

For or against?

Students listen to the news (e.g. about cloning people) and speak for and against it giving arguments.

e.g.

Will we live to see the first cloned human? Films and science fiction books have often played with the idea of reproducing exact copies of people. Today, science fiction has become science fact. We have our first real clones, though they are not human beings – yet! A clone is an exact copy of another living thing. So if you had a clone, it would be exactly like you – from your hair colour to any inherited disease. Cloning is a controversial issue. Some people are ready to eat cloned fruits and vegetables, but many people express nega­tive attitudes about cloning animals. They think it is morally unacceptable. The question of human cloning is even more controversial. Every plant, animal and person has genes. They are passed on from generation to genera­tion. They make sure that humans give birth to humans or cows give birth to cows. They also make sure that a pig cannot give birth to a frog, or a horse to a dog. The recipe for a human being is contained in the 80,000 genes we inherit from our parents. These genes have the instructions that not only make us human but also determine things like skin colour and the shape of our nose. Scientists have known about genes for a long time. What they haven't known until recently is how to change them. Now they do. The gene revolution began in 1997, when Dr Jan Wilmut and his colleagues from Edinburgh University produced the first cloned sheep, Dolly. Dolly was cloned from the udder of a six-year-old adult sheep. Dolly is still alive today and has even had lambs of her own. In 1999, a young bull was cloned in the USA. In March, 2000, American scientists announced the birth of five cloned piglets! Chinese scientists are now trying to create the world's first clone of a giant panda. They hope their dream will come true. Another sheep is one thing. But how about another you? Dolly's cloners say that their work should never be tried on humans. Human biology is differ­ent from a sheep's. If an experiment did not work out, scientists could end up with a defective copy of a human. After all, it took researchers 277 tries to produce Dolly. The other 276 eggs did not survive. Should people be used that way? Nevertheless, the idea of human cloning seems very exciting. The famous sci­ence fiction writer, Arthur Сlark, many of whose pre­dictions have come true, says: "Some time ago, a young engineer came here to collect several of my hairs – not that I've got many left. And he's going to extract DNA from them. And that's going to be launched, probably in 2001, in an orbit that will take it past Jupiter and will be kicked right out of the solar system. So one day I may be cloned, maybe a thousand million years from now, in some far star system."

The following problems can be raised by the participants of the debate:

Suppose we cloned a man. Are we really sure he will be a man? Who will be responsible for him? Who will bring him up? Will he be happy? Will he have the same rights as we have? What would happen if a dictator, someone like Hitler, cloned himself? Would we be able to survive?

(taken from Speak Out 2000, № 3)

Decision Making

What else do I need?

Teacher gives each student a list of products he/she has and reads the recipe of some dish. Students decide what they need to prepare this dish.

e.g.

List of products 1 - 2 onions - some garlic - 1kg of cucumbers - 150g beef - olive oil - some black pepper - some salt - some flower - some potato

List of products 2 - some garlic - 300g pork - olive oil - a bottle of wine - some flower - 1kg apples - 500g spaghetti - 1 loaf of bread - 1 can of beans

Spaghetti with meatballs

For the meatballs: 1 clove garlic, 15g fresh parsley leaves, 1 small onion, 230g lean minced beef,, 230g lean minced pork, 3 tsp red wine, 2 tsp tomato paste, 1/2 tsp salt, plain flour for dusting, 2tsp olive oil.

For the sauce: 1 onion, 1 clove garlic, 2x400g cans whole plum tomatoes in rich tomato juice, 1 tsp dried oregano or basil, salt and black pepper to taste.

To serve: freshly cooked spaghetti.

To make the meatballs, put the garlic, parsley and onion into a food processor and whizz until you have a coarse paste. Put the mixture into a bowl then mix in the remaining meatball ingredients with your hands until well combined. Shape the mixture into 20 meatballs, then dust lightly with flour. Heat the olive oil in a large pan then fry the meatballs for 3-4 minutes until they are a light golden colour all over. Remove them from a pan and set aside.

To make the sauce, add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes until softened. Return the meatballs to the pan with the tomatoes, oregano or basil and plenty of seasoning. Bring to a simmer, then cover and leave to cook for 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately with the cooked spaghetti.

 

Discussion

Questions.

Students discuss the ideas of the listening passage (e.g. about the profession of a teacher) using the questions given by teacher as prompts.

e.g.

1. Which of the mentioned qualities are especially important for a teacher?

2. What qualities should an ideal teacher possess?

3. Etc.

Planning

Planning a menu.

After having listened about eating habits in different countries students are to plan a menu for the family coming to stay with them. Students can be divided into groups to plan a menu for guests from India (group A), China (group B), France (group C), etc.

 

Problem Solving

Survival games.

 

Variation 1. Desert Island.

Students imagine that they are going to spend next three months on an island (on the moon, etc.) alone. Fresh water and vegetation are provided and there is no real danger from wild animals. Students are given a list of objects and are asked to choose 5 of them, which they would like to take and to put them in order of importance. They should also be prepared to say why they want to take these things.

e.g. List of objects:

axe gun knife trumpet

blanket guitar medicine box

clock hammer rope saucepan

 

Variation 2. Who is the next?