Immigration: A Class Debate Preparation

Related to the issue in the book, we will carry out a class debate on immigration when we come back, followed up by a “for and against essay” on Immigration. Therefore, you could start thinking about this critical issue.

All political positions are legitimate and we will discuss it democratically.  You can prepare your arguments with the chart below if it helps you. This time we are not going to play any roles, you will be able to give your own opinion. 

Immigration
Pro-immigrationists	Anti-immigrationists
Debate 1 Is it a duty or a favour?
Debate 2 If they are allowed in, the immigrants have an obligation to assimilate into the local culture.  How far should the assimilation go?
Debate 3 How much time needs to pass before immigrants become full members of society?

Dilemmas

DILEMMAS What would you do?	You	Your partner
You have noticed your best friend cheating in an end-of-term exam. A lot of teens cheat, but you and your friend have always been against it, up to now.  Should I tell off my friend?
Your sister has a boyfriend and one day she asks you to answer the phone and tell her boyfriend she’s ill and that she can’t go out that Saturday night. You know she’s planning to meet another boy that night. What would you do? Should I do what my sister says?
You are completely against smoking. Your brother asks you to bring him a carton of cigarettes from the Duty Free Shop when you go to London next week so that she can save some money. What would you do? Should I bring the cigarettes to my brother?

Dilemmas Survey - Kahoot

TEACHING CONVERSATION: The understatement of the year

Well, it wasn't exactly .....

Look at the pattern below:

A:   So, what did you think of Switzerland?
B:   Well, it wasn't exactly the friendliest place I've ever been to. 

Now respond to the following with an understatement. The words in brackets will help you.

1. I hear it was pretty difficult.   (easy)
2. Was it very expensive.    (cheap)
3. I suppose he's quite old now.    (young)
4. So, your car is pretty old.    (new)
5. He's the most stupid person I've ever met.   (intelligent)
6. Hasn't the weather been awful?    (fantastic)
7. It's just so small.    (big)
8. You must have been really angry about it.   (pleased)
9. Isn't it a little cold in here.   (warm)
10. This wine is much too sweet.    (dry)
11. Parisian waiters are so rude.    (polite)

Now try adding some of the following endings to the responses above:

.... I have to admit.

.... that's for sure. 

.... it's true.

My Gap-year

1. 

If you could travel to 11 countries in 44 days, which countries would you visit?
What would you do in each country? 

In groups, talk about what your epic trip would involve.

2. 

You are going to watch a short one-minute video called MOVE which shows clips of 11 countries visited by Andrew Lees in 44 days.

Try to name as many of the countries as possible. The clips are very fast,  you can speculate about which countries are shown using modals verbs of speculation. 

The countries are Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Brazil, USA, Thailand and Birmania.

3. 

Have you been to these of these countries?
Would you like to go to any of these countries?
What are they famous for?

 

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

 
EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

If money was not an issue, and you could take a year off, .....

• Where would you go?
• What would you learn?
• What would you eat?

Keep dreaming and practice English!

_____________________________________________________

Some useful language you might need:

2nd Conditional:

If I had a gap year and enough money, I would go to.....

Modal Verbs:

I think I should really learn to .....

Once I'm in the States, I must meet........... and tell him/her how much I admire ....

I might also enjoy a good ride on an elephant. 

Different verbal tenses:

I have always wanted to learn......


Some rethorical questions:
What could be better than this?
Can you imagine what it would be like to meet.....?
Wouldn't we all want to speak English more fluently?

Some nice expressions:

It's a must! 

It's worth going! It's worth it! It's worth trying! 

I don't want to regret anything I haven't done when I'm older. 
An unforgetable experience. 

TV Mini-Debates

DEBATE PROCEDURE

In each group of four:

• Two students have to work out and note down all possible arguments IN FAVOUR of each statement, including defences against points that might be brought up by the opposition.
• The other two students have to work out and note down all possible arguments AGAINST of each statement, including defences against points that might be brought up by the opposition.

1-      Each student is allowed 1 minute to give his/her opinion and support his/her arguments.

2-      The procedure will be as follows:

student for (1 minute)    ->   student against  (1 minute)

student for (1 minute)    ->   student against  (1 minute)

3-      Then the chairperson invites the audience to ask questions or to make statements.

_____________________________________________________

You can volunteer as chairperson for a debate other than your own (personal objective)

The chairperson’s role:

1-    Control time

2-    Take the vote from the class to determine which team has presented the most convincing arguments.

_______________________________________________________

NOTE: Groups to do not need to be divided according to actual opinions. They are divided arbitrarily, so many will find themselves having to argue in favour of something they oppose, or vice-versa.  This is in fact a kind of role-play. 

Now clink on the link below and check where you are. Be prepared for the debate next class. 

TV Mini-Debates

Happy speaking!

Knowing Me

Write a list with the title:

"Five things you didn't know about me"

Don't write your name on it.
Next class we will collect them and read out some lists, you will have to guess the identity of the student.

Here you have some questions from the speaking activity this morning in case you need some inspiration for the list:

1. What do you think is your best quality?
2. What would you most like to change about your personality?
3. Who do you most enjoy spending time with?
4. What's your ambition?
5. What's your greatest fear?
6. What makes you happy?
7. What are you most proud of?
8. Where would you like to live in the future?
9. What's your favourite possession?
10. What do you like doing at the weekend?
11. What's your earliest memory?
12. Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
13. What's your favourite way to travel?
14. What's the most interesting thing about your family?
15. If you could go anywhere, where would you go and what would you do?
16. What makes you sad?
17. How different would your life be without the Internet?
18. If you could meet someone famous, who would you choose?

A holiday I really enjoyed

Tell your partner about a holiday you really enjoyed.

Ask and answer these questions.

Where did you go on holiday?
Who did you go with?
How did you travel?
Where did you stay?

What activities did you do?
Did you meet any interesting people? Did you practice your English?
What was the weather like? What was the food like?

Have you got an anecdote about that holiday?

Who did it?

You're all staying at the Empire City Hotel. Sophie Hatcher, a famous model, is staying there too. At 3.55p.m., Sophie left her room. She didn't close the door. She came back at 4.45p.m. and her purse with all her money and credit cards wasn't there! She called the manager of the hotel and he has put everyone who is staying in the hotel in this meeting room. One of you stole Sophie Hatcher's money! Help the police find out who it was.

What's your name?
What do you do?
Why are you in the hotel?
What were you doing and 4 p.m.?

Friends

Can you classify these adjectives into those with positive, neutral and negative connotations?

cool, sincere, clumsy, dull, tactless, intelligent, adventurous, sexy, 
fun person, optimistic, romantic, mean, vain, wise, competitive, creative, generous, imaginative, snobbish, tactful, stubborn, impulsive, serious, ambitious, cruel, lively, hard-working, sympathetic, naive

Which of this qualities is more important for you in a friend?
Which of this qualities is more important for you in a partner?

Expert

Each of you thinks of 6 topics which you are an expert on.

Number 1 is the topic which you know more about and number 6 the topic which you know least about.

In pairs, you will have to speak for the amount of time set below on each of the topics you have chosen.

This is not a conversation!! To stop somebody say: “Thank you very much”.

6- _________________________   15 seconds              = 15 points

5- _________________________   30 seconds              = 30 points

4- _________________________   45 seconds              = 45 points

3- _________________________   60 seconds              = 60 points

2- _________________________   75 seconds              = 75 points

1- _________________________   90 seconds              = 90 points

                                                                                  Your score:  ______ points

You can exchange partners now and see how your fluency improves.

Student challenges:

-          Coming up with the list of topics

-          Improvisation (not much time to prepare)

-          Developing strategies (using words you know to explain words you don’t know)

-          Speaking alone (body language feedback of person listening)

-          Time limit pressure: gradual progression for extended speaking practice

Friends (making conversation)

Do you agree?

1. Your best friend can't be a member of your family.
2. It's difficult to have a best friend of the opposite sex.
3. It's impossible to stay good friends with an ex-partner. 
4. Men have more close friends that women. 
5. Men keep their friends longer than women.

I agree.  /  I strongly agree. 

I don't agree.  /  I strongly disagree. 

I'm not sure.   /   It might be true.

(I think) it depends.

For example,.....  /  For instance,.....

As far as I'm concerned, ......

As I see it, ......

Yes, but.....

Oral presentation: My Year Off

2nd of May:

Abir + Ariadna + Elias + Marta + Nadia + Gerard + Marc + Alejandro C + Alejandro P + Anthony + Pau

Good Intentions or The Road to Hell

New Year's Resolutions

Next year I'm going to:

do more exercise
travel more
decorate the house
be more relaxed
be tidier
work harder

Spatial Metaphor

Firstly, work alone and write in the names of the students in your class on the symbolically appropriate figures in the tree branches.
Then, in groups of three or four explain to each other why you associated this or that person with this or that figure.

If you finish early you can do the same with the countries in Europe or the elements of the periodic table (chemistry).

Happy speaking!! 

It wasn't me.....

Pre-teach vocab:

jeweler's shop,    wallet,    clues,    stamps,    lion cub,    a ticket stub (end part of a ticket)

thief,    robber,    burglar (a thief who breaks into houses),    gold smuggler,

get away with,   drop a wallet, a 250,000 pounds worth of antiques,   your work involves travel,  

though, although

Role-play: Lifeswap

Language function: describing lifestyles and habits.

Rules: You can only give away your card to the person who wants to exchange his or her lifestyle with you.

1. What do they do every day? Explain your routine. 
2. What are the good things about your present lifestyle?
3. What is it that you dislike about it?
4. What are you really looking for in life?
5. What does the house look like inside? 

What would you do? YES / NO

Students work in groups of three. 

How to play the game

1. Player A takes a card from the top of the pile and read the situation aloud. 
2. Players B and C guess how player A will answer the question on the card. And each place, face down, either a "YES" or a "NO" card, depending on how they think player A will answer. 
3. Player A tells the rest of the group how he/she would react to the situation. 
4. Players B and C reveal their YES or NO cards and score a point if they guessed correctly.

Repeat the activity with players taking it in turns ot take a situation from the top of the pile. 



The winner is the player with the highest score at the end of the game. 

!!!!! Students may challenge one another's answers, and try to make them change their mind. 

Sound Advice

Asking for and giving advice.

- What should I do?

- You should......
- You could....
- You must.....
- Why don't you try ....+ ing...?
- If I were you, I would...........

Get together in groups of 3 or 4.
Cards should be placed face down.
The 1st player should take the card form the top of the pile and describe the situation, asking for advice.
The other players should offer advice.
The 1st player should give the card to the player whose advice he/she likes best.

Then the 2nd player may take a card from the top of the pile and so on.

The object of the game is to collect as many cards as possible, the player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. 

Happy speaking!! 

Welcome back

Hello everybody. Here we are again.

Welcome to the English class.

Here is a task for you to do in pairs. Put the words of the following questions in order and then ask and answer them.

1.     Xmas, good, did, holiday, a, have, you? _________________________

2.     go, did, away, you? _________________________

3.     go, lot, you, out, did, a? _________________________

4.     did, Eve, you, Xmas, what, on, do? _________________________

5.     did, what, Xmas, you, Day, on, do? _________________________

6.     to, Year’s, go, on, a, did, party, you, Eve, New? _________________________

7.     lot, you, holidays, have, these, a, eaten? _________________________

8.     done, special, have, anything, you? _________________________

9.     any, or, have, plays, you, interesting, seen, films? _________________________

10.                       the best , to, these, what, thing, you, that, holidays, was, happened? _________________________

11.                       on, see, January, did, the, 5^th, you, the, Three Wise Men parade? _________________________

12.                       any, Resolutions, Year’s, have, you, made, New?  _________________________

13.                       anybody, to, give, presents, did, you? _________________________

14.                       presents, you, any, get, did? _________________________

Describe one present in a way that your classmates can guess what it is.

Heaven's Gates

Heaven's Gates -