I would like to thank my student Cristina T. for sending me the video of this song.
In 2015, one month after Lesley Gore died, the Australian singer song-writer Grace released a cover of the song which was a hit in the music charts of Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Here, you can find a link to Grace's video and compare the two versions of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEt7bnuO5y0
The text is short, but the vocabulary is very descriptive, so it is suitable for C1 students, although B2+ students can also enjoy the pictures and get the gist of the text.
If you want to feel the "craic" of Galway from your own home, even if your level is B1, you can watch this You Tube video of some Galway buskers performing Hit the Road Jack:
I hope you have enjoyed Galway's "craic" wherever you are,
But if you still want some more, you can watch this tourist documentary which includes, at the end, 20 minutes of Irish music from the pubs and streets, with visuals of Galway, the Connemara region and the Cliffs of Mohair.
Rowan Atkinson does not play Mr. Bean here, but he is very funny, too. He plays an Anglican vicar giving a Sunday sermon, the Gospel of St. John. You will come across literary language and archaic grammar structures from the Bible, like it came to pass, he said unto them, waterpots, he knew not, they inquired of him, behold, lo!, wailing and gnashing of teeth, ye (archaic for you), you shall be known, hearken onto somebody, Pharisses etc, but there are English subtitles, so, it can be accessible to B2 students and above.
Future Boyfriend is a short (11 minute), romantic film with a clever sci-fi twist in the plot. I would like to thank my student May L. for sharing this video with me.
Some of the new, colloquial language you may find is: I should come clear about something, disrupting the fabric of time, to take in, to have a lot to handle, weird, gross!, grisly, a better shot, a creep, to work out, to get this straight, deal?
If you want to know more about the film, you can watch this 5 minute video, Behind the Scenes of Future Boyfriend, where the main actors, Ron Morehouse and Emily Bell talk to some of the movie technicians and relatives the day the movie was shot. You will find lots of technical and colloquial words related to movie-making, like sneak peek, prepping, shoot, clips, behind the scenes footage, crew, picture lock, premiere, make-up and costume person, on set, cameo, to steal the show, being background, a stern look, handled, appreciative, I'm drained, stills (Watch out! The subtitles are not always perfect!). This sneak peek view of the film is also suitable for B2 students.
You can celebrate International Biodiversity Week (18- 22 May) by watching the first episode of the Netflix documentary "Our Planet", which has just been released on YouTube. The stunning beauty of the images, the music, and the impeccable English on the voice of Sir David Attenborough will surely open an imaginary window to the wonders of our natural world and the fragility of its future preservation.
Subtitles are available, so this 49':27" documentary can be enjoyed by B2 students and above.
Mother's day is celebrated on May 10th in USA, India and Australia, on March 22nd in the UK and Ireland and on May 3rd in Spain. Here you can read three stories related to the topic.
As a lead-in, you can ask students if they have read Harry Potter's books or seen any of his films. Then, you can elicit information about Harry Potter and his adopted family, uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, Dudley, and how they treat Harry. Finally you should introduce "The Letter Scene", which describes the days before Harry's 11th birthday.
After reading the description of the rickety, old shack on the coast and doing the exercises, you can play the second film clip, A Visit from Rubeus Hagrid.
The speaking part of the lesson can be a discussion about books and reading:
What do you prefer, reading print or e-books?
What is better, reading the book or wathching the film?
Which was the first book that you read as a child?
On the right, you can watch a short video for children that tells the tale of St George in a very simple way. The video has subtitles both at the foot of the cartoon and underneath, in the configuration spur wheel, so it can be understood by B1 students:
The coronavirus epidemic has spread fear and disease around the world, but it has also spread a colourful array of funny videos and memes to laugh at our plight. A good example is this video with a conversation in Spanglish in Gibraltar, a British colony in Spain.
This video is basically in Spanish, so it is suitable for B1 Spanish students and above, In the case of other L1 students, a C2 level of Spanish is advisable.
According to the analysis on the webpage The Rare Exception, which is a dead link now, but you can read here (http://www.rareexception.com/Garden/Pie.php. ) and to Bob Dearborn's analysis of the meaning and references in the song,American Pie tells the story of a young newspaper boy who was stunned to read about the death of three top music idols at that time: Buddy Holly ("Peggy Sue"), Richie Valens ("La Bamba") and The Big Bopper ("Chantilly Lace"), "the day that music died" in 1958. Then, the song goes through the musical history of the 1960's, with references to Bob Dylan ("the jester"), Elvis Presley ("the king"), the Beatles ("the quartet"), The Rolling Stones & Mick Jagger ("Jack Flash" and "Satan"), and Janis Joplin ("the girl who sang the blues"), to name a few, while it drops hints about the social background of the 1960's. But then, after Janis Joplin, who died of an overdose, the melody slowly grinds to a halt... and dies. Don McLean goes back to the religious imagery he used at the beginning of the song, in the fifth stanza ("Do you have faith in God above"... "Do you believe in rock'n roll") and he says "I went down to the sacred store" [...] "But the man there said the music wouldn't play" and he goes on to mention the three aspects of Catholic deity "the father, son and the holy ghost", a double reference, perhaps, to the three dead musicians (McLean attended several Catholic schools), and, at that point, the melody slowly picks up momentum, until the song is reborn again.
Is "American Pie" a metaphor for the resurrection of God at Easter and his belief in the resurrection of rock'n roll music? Or is it a catchy pop song to celebrate spring and the regeneration of life after a long winter? The jury is out, it is up to you to figure out, what do you think?
Understanding a poem like Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a tremendous achievement for any learner of English, and a considerable challenge for the EFL teacher. The topic is hard and the syntax is disjointed by the metric of the poem, a villanelle, but the pathos of the poem can be felt, if not understood, when you first watch these Welsh actors reciting the poem for BBC Cymru Wales:
It is fascinating to hear the sounds and the words of a foreign language and to understand almost nothing, just like when you first started learning English a long time ago. Reading poetry or song lyrics has a power, it can take you back to that initial stage when English had the magic of unintelligibility.
Your guess may be right or wrong initially, when you are learning a foreign language, that is not too important. What is really important is that you have activated your guessing skills in your brain, which are essential to reconstruct fragmentary understanding of the flow of speech and the fact that you have produced some sentences to discuss your guesses with a partner.
On the left, you can watch the opening scene, "The Circle of Life". The music of this song was composed and performed by Elton John and the lyrics by Tim Rice.
The film is a story about loss, power struggles, overcoming trauma, personal growth and coming-of-age. In this short E! News interview, the original voice actors, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (young Simba), James Earl Jones (Mufasa) and Matthew Broderick (adult Simba) talk about the plot of the film, their own characters and how they recorded their voices over the animation. The interview has subtitles, so it should be accessible to B2 students.
As the articles are long, rich in language and very thorough, this reading could be classified as C2. I would like to thank my colleague Isabel A., who passed me the link.
Jonna Jinton is a Swedish artist who decided to move from the city to a remote little village in the North of Sweden with "no plan, no money and no job", to follow her dream and live close to nature. In the middle of the forest, she became a photographer, an artist, a blogger, and, finally, an influencer. In this beautiful video, she tells the story of her life in her slow, crystal clear English, which is subtitled, so the document can be accessible to B1 students and above.
Thanks to my student Cristina L., who sent me this link.
But in these times of global confinement, there is also a positive side: the spread of memes, jokes, and parody songs that give us sound advice with a pinch of humour. Some of the key words you'll come across: allergies, flu, hand sanitize, shivers, social isolation, the flat curve, scrubbing, sneeze, droplets, crappy, latex gloves, tissue, mask. Here, you can watch three videos. Which one do you like best?
The Beatles' "I Gotta Wash My Hands!"
Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence", in Alvin Oon's version.
Hugh Laurie (Doctor House) and Stephen Fry (Peter's Friends) became popular in the 1980's with the sketch comedy "A Bit of Fry & Laurie". Here you can watch a parody of football coaching.
This video, with subtitles, is quite visual, but there is a lot of language too, so it can be suitable for C1 students and above.
And if you are really interested in the topic, here you can find a special programme from ITV News Central on the impact of storms Ciara and Dennis. It is a 29 minute long video, and although you can use subtitles, this material is more suitable for C1 and C2 students.
Greta Thunberg is a 16 year-old girl who has become worldwide famous for her campaings to raise awareness against climate change and other environmental issues. She is very articulate in English and an excellent communicator.
Above, you can watch the emotional speech that she gave at the Climate Summit at the UN, which she reads slowly and clearly, but has no subtitles (C1) and below, you can see an interview on the Daily Show where her discourse becomes more natural and colloquial, even humorous at times, which can be accessible to B2 students.
Gender violence is a growing concern all around the world. This NPR story reports on the state of affairs in Turkey, where feminist groups are leading the protests in the streets against male violence, they are fighting for women's rights in the courts and they are volunteering to create more women's shelters to protect the victims of domestic violence.
This report could be classified as C1for its extension and vocabulary.
Angela Lee Duckworth left a high-flying job in consulting for a more demanding job as a 7th Grade Maths teacher in a New Yourk public school. Then, she left the classroom to go to graduate school and study the best predictor for success in students, rookie teachers, West Point Military Academy cadets, competitive sales people, and she found that the best predictor for success was not social intelligence, good looks, physical health or IQ, it was grit. Grit is "the passion and perseverance for very long-term goals", it is "having stamina". "Grit is living life like it is a marathon, not a sprint".
This short TED Talk video (06:12) with subtitles can be seen by B2 learners.
Are there gender differences between men and women or are we just talking about sterotypes? Are there biological differences between men's and women's brains or are the differences social and cultural? Many English coursebooks for adults use this topic to raise debate in the classroom: Gender or individual differences? Nature or nurture?
Here you can find a selection of materials to teach a lesson about gender issues, which I have used to expand the reading "How Men and Women Argue" on p. 64 of Christina Latham-Koenig's & Clive Oxenden's, English File Upper-Intermediate, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press:
Some links to TED Talks videos that could be given for listening/oral homework (students are assigned one video, they watch it at home, take notes and in the first 15 minutes of the next class they share the information in pairs):
1) John Gray, the author of the book "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus" at TEDxBend
2) Daphna Joel at TEDxJaffa: Are Brains Male or Female?
3) Paul Zak, at TEDxAmsterdamWomen: The Differences Between Men and Women. This video contains more technical words, so it is more suitable for C1 or C2 students:
4) Finally, Mark Gungor, a male comedian, uses men's and women's stereotypes to make a wide audience laugh about the misunderstandings that frequently occur between men and women:
