St George's Day

St George is part of an ancient tradition both in England and in Aragon.  He is the saint patron of England and also of Aragon and its flag is in the shirt of the second kit of Sociedad Deportiva Huesca.   The story of St George slaying the Dragon to rescue the Princess is still very popular in schools and it is often celebrated in the streets.  On this Wikipedia link you can read a detailed explanation of the legend and its iconography (this text is C1 level).




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:

It is not easy to find references to Saint George's Day in the British press, but you can try these: an article in the progressive newspaper The Guardian about the historical facts behind the legend of St George, or, on the other side of the British media spectrum,  a number of recipes to celebrate St.George's weekend in the conservative tabloid The Sun (both can be recommended to C1 students). 

If you want to find children's games and more to celebrate St George's day in confinement, you can visit the webpage of History at Home from English Heritage (C1 level). On the right, you can watch a video of a 2017 edition of St George's Festival at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, in 2017:

If you want to read more about the celebration of St George's Day in the course of history, and its current revival within the political debate about Britishness and English nationalism you can check this Wikipedia article, which can be suitable for B2 students.

5 Coronavirus Love Stories and 1 Obsessive Relationship

Coronavirus isolation is creating new couples.  This BBC report tells the love stories of 5 couples around the world whose relationships have been rushed by the coronavirus lockdown. The article contains some very interesting colloquial language, like "to juggle" (to deal with and balance two important things), "to have a blast" (a great time), "to cuddle" (to hug, to embrace), "to wrap up" (to conclude), "to grab" (to take), "to hang out with" (to go out with), "to shack up with somebody" (to cohabit), "a craving" (a strong desire), "to latch on to" (to get hold on to) etc. C1 students should be able to read the article without too much trouble.

And, in addition, here you can find a link to the BBC Reel video "How I Became Obsessed With a Stranger", where a Spanish young woman tells a compelling story of love, grief and Instagram obsession. The video has subtitles and half of it is in Spanish with English subtitles, so it can be accessible to B1 students.

Coronavirus Spanglish in Gibraltar

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.

American Pie (1971), by Don McLean

American Pie is, problably, the most popular, long song  (8:33) in the history of modern music and its lyrics are the most widely debated too.  It is number 5 in RIAA's project "Song of the Century", which promotes the musical and cultural heritage in American schools, and it has been covered by many artists, including Madonna in 2000.

The meaning of the lyrics have been discussed all over, in forums, books, in the press etc., but Don McLean has  always refused to explain its symbolism and hidden references, he often tells his fans "American Pie means I never have to work again", as the BBC reported in 2015. The song contains a deluge of references to the leading artists in pop music from 1958 to 1971, and some of the landmarks of the social history of the 1960's like segregation, the fear of nuclear war, flower power, Woodstock, the drug culture and heroin etc.

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?

The lesson  includes a simple fill-in the gap exercise and the full lyrics as the key.  The speaking goal of the lesson would be to encourge students to speculate and make guesses about the meaning of the lyrics, before and after they hear the teacher's explanations about the references in the song.  The lesson can be used with B2+ students, but it is problably more suitable for C1 students.

Dylan Thomas: Do Not Go Gentle...

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. 

Yet, we want to know, we want to understand. This lesson shows how I tackled the challenge for a B2+ class, but, this class is problably more suitable for C2 students. The plan starts with some simple warm-up questions to get the attention of the students.  The listening task is a fill-in-the gap exercise, to give them a purpose to listen to the poem twice (good poems, like good songs, need to be heard several times to feel them in your heart), there are several questions for discussion, a glossary, to ease students painstaking task of looking up words in a dictionary and a Powerpoint presentation to help the teacher introduce the main points of the analysis of the poem.

The class materials include this link to Shmoop's Study Guide of the poem for teachers:  basically, the topic of poem is "Dylan's lament for his father's  loss of health and strength, and his encouragement to cling to life", (can you think of anything for appropriate in times of a global pandemic?). The poet thinks that "old men shouldn't die peacefully, but they should 'burn and rave' struggling with a fiercy intensity". Then the poem uses different metaphors to express how "wise men", "good men" and "wild men" have tried to fight "the inevitability of death with all their might", but they have failed. "Grave men, near death" resist and fight death with the energy of meteors blazing in their blind eyes. Finally, Dylan Thomas addresses his dying father and asks him "to cry passionately, which will be both a blessing and a curse".  If you want to know more about the symbols, and how the metric of the villanelle forces the poet to twist English syntax to fit the rhyme scheme (AbA' abA abA' abA abA' abAA') (A and A' are the refrains, A: Do not go gentle into that good night; A': Rage, rage against the dying of the light), you can click here.

If you want to read some more about the life and works of Dylan Thomas, the poet who made Robert Allen Zimmerman change his name to Bob Dylan, you can start by reading this Wikipedia article. Or check the references under the text of the poem.

Royals by Lorde

Song lyrics can stir the imagination of the learner. Rhythm & criptic allusions can immerse the listener in a hazy atmosphere in which eyes must be open wide to try to catch a glimpse of the meaning of the lines. Undestanding song lyrics is always a challenge.  Listen to this song by Lorde, try to guess its message and discuss your guesses with your partner, if you can talk to someone. Here, there is a the gap-filling exercise to help you follow the song.

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. 

Here, you can find a link to a Wikipedia article that gives some insights into the lyrics of the song.
In short, the song expresses "detailed disapproval of the luxiourious lifestyle of contemporary artists".  Lorde criticises pop, rap and hip hop singers like Kanye West, Jay-Z or Lana del Rey because they often talk about luxury cars (Cadillacs, Maybach), expensive alcohol (Grey Goose, Crystal), jewellry (diamonds, gold teeth) etc, which is very far from her own reality: her house, her neighbourhood and her friends ("I'm not proud of my address", "no post code envy", "we'll never be royals" "my friends and I [...] count our dollars on the train to the party", "we didn't come from money").

Now, for a change, you can watch an acapella cover of the same song, by the Florida State University AcaBelles.  Which version do you like better?

Here you have the compete lyrics of the song, which can be used as a key to the fill-in the gaps exercise above.

This task can be done by B2 students and above.

The Lion King (1994)

The Lion King (1994) is one of the most popular animated films produced by Disney. The film was a box office and a critical success, it was praised for its music, animation and plot, which has echos of Hamlet and the Bible. Several sequels, spin-offs and remakes have been made, including a theatre musical.  If you want to know more about the film, you can click here to read the Wikipedia article.

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.

The Long Reads by The Guardian

The Long Read is a feature section in The Guardian, a prestigious liberal/progressive newspaper in Britain.  They are long investigative reports about a variety of topics.

Recently, The Guardian has compiled 25 stories to share them with its readers in lockdown, who now have more free time to read.  The vocabulary and grammar they use is first class, there are many descriptive words that advanced students need to become familiar with little by little.  In this list of 25 articles, there is a wide range of stories: the recycling of oil rigs, the work of a special sound effects engineer in Hollywood, the Fifa video game, a real spy story, ethical wine making, the first sex robot, the casting director of "The Game of Thrones"...  Some of these reports can be heard on an audio podcast.

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, an Artist, a Photographer and a Blogger

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.

If you want to see an example of her ephemeral nature art, you can click here and watch another of her YouTube videos "The Art of Balancing Stones",  She says that it is "still and quiet, in a world that is constantly moving."

Coronavirus Parody Songs & Self-Isolation

The coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the whole world and millions of people are in lockdown or self-isolation to fight the spread of the epidemic.  The disruption of family life may be hard to understand by very young children.  This is a BBC story about a self-isolated dad in Wales, and the while-lie he is telling his daughter.  It is a short video with subtitles, so it is suitable for B2 students.
I would like to thank one of my students, María A., because she passed 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.

Raúl Irabién's versión of Queen's "Coronavirus Rhapsody", in the InVoca YouTube channel.

If you still want to read on, this CNN report will show you more catchy cover songs with coronavirus lyrics: "My Sharona", "We Didn't Start the Fire", "Leave (Get Out)!

A Bit of Fry & Laurie (2): The World's Worst Football Coach

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.

Taylor Swift, Rosalía, Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, Bon Iver and FKA: Their Hits Revealed

7 Grammy artists (Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Rosalía, Bon Iver and FKA) talk about how they made their latest hit song. 
These seven videos from the New York Times are really hard to understand for different reasons: the clips are fragmentary, so they are a bit like a voice puzzle; there is a lot of technical language about writing and producing songs (jingle, shuffle beat, verse, chorus, bridge), various accents (listen to Lil Nas X!), slang words (so dope, beef up)..., so it is, basically, a document for experts (Ex level).  
The less difficult video is Rosalía's about her reggaeton track "Con Altura" (C1 level).  There is a full transcript of the words, which you can listen to while you are reading the text, which is really valuable help for learners of English.

Applause for Health Workers in Spain

BBC News reports on the round of applause that was given to health workers in Spain to show gratitude for their work to fight the corona virus epidemic, in this period of lockdown. This short video with subtitles can be suitable for intermediate learners, B1 and above.

If you want to read some more, this article from The Independent explains the story and gives it some background.  This report is suitable for B2 students and above.

Panic Buying and Coronavirus

Shoppers in the UK are rushing to the supermarkets to stockpile toilet paper, hand sanitiser, tinned food or pasta as fears to the spread of coronavirus grow (B2 level). 

If you want to find out more about the pychology of panic buying, and how it has been observed in different crisis and natural disasters all over the wold, you can read this longer article (C2 level). 

100 Women of the Century

Time Magazine has published a special issue with the 100 Women of the Century.  Some of them made the cover of the magazine at the time, but there are many whose contribution to the world was initially overshadowed: scientists, mathematicians, business leaders, activists, atheletes, royals, artists etc, here you can read their stories.
This reading can be suitable for C1 students and upwards.

Floods in the UK

In February there were severe floods in the UK caused by Storm Dennis. Here you can find several BBC reports about this recent example of extreme weather.  There are witten reports, videos with interviews to local people, pictures etc. Some of these materials can be suitable for B2 level 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.

Boris Johnson Wins the General Elections

The Conservative candidate Boris Johnson has recently won the general elections in the UK with a big majority. The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) has also made important gains, and the Labour Party, on the other hand has suffered a crushing defeat, as it has lost several safe seats in its traditional heartlands in the North of England. Here you can read a report on the key points of the election results.

And here you can find all the election results and a map to see where each party won their seats.  A very interesting, interactive page by the BBC News.

Both these texts and the video with subtitles should be accessible to B2 students.

Guy Fawkes Night, an Explosive British Tradition

The Anonymous mask has become a common brand to protest against tyranny, but, many people ignore that this mask represents Guy Fawkes, a Catholic terrorist who plotted to blow up the British Parliament in 1605 with 36 barrels of gunpowder. This article from National Geographic gives you more historical background to Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot (B2).

If you want to do a B2 listening task  about the tradition of Bonfire Night in Britain today, you can follow this link to LearnEnglish, a section of the British Council website. The video alone can also be clicked directly below:

Finally, you can also read this current report from The Sun about some violent incidents on Bonfire Night yesterday, when minorities of "yobs" (hooligans) threw fireworks at police officers and firefightes, and a "lad" (boy) was stabbed in Merseyside, near Liverpool. This report is a good example of sensationalist journalist style, the vocabulary is very snappy and colloquial, but it should be accessible to B2 students.

Greta Thunberg, a Young Green Activist

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.

Domestic Violence Outcry in Turkey

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.

It's a Boy!

Meghan and Prince Harry have had a baby son! The news came out this morning, and you can read all about it in this report from the Daily Mail, you can also watch a short video where Prince Harry announces the birth of their first child.
Both the report and the video can be accessible to B2 students.

Six Weird Ways Nature Loves or Hates Music

Scientists have carried out research to find out how different animals can be positively or negatively influenced by music:  from cheese bacteria, to sharks, mosquitoes or cows, they all have proven to show preferences for some music genres over others. 
This BBC text can be read by B2 students and above.

In the video below, you can watch Snowball, a cockatoo, dancing to the music of Backstreet Boys.

Belinda Gates, a Female Philantropist

Belinda Gates, the co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, has published a book where she talks about how empowering women can bring about positive changes in society all over the world.  In this NPR interview, she talks about gender equality in the US and in her own relationship with Bill Gates, about philantropy and a fair tax system within the capitalist society and more.

This short interview (6':52'') with a script can be accessible to B2 students.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones returned for its eighth and final season yesterday.  It was premiered simultaneously in the USA and the UK.  This BBC article collects some extracts of the reviews from the press, a trailer of the programme and some reactions from viewers and stars.
The text can be classified as B2. The video as C1.

The Archers: a British Radio Tradition

British people love long-lasting traditions like the Monarchy, Parliament or drinking a "nice, cup of tea".  The Archers is one of them -the longest-running radio soap-opera in the world- The Archers is "a contemporary drama in a rural setting", called Ambridge, which has been running non-stop since 1951 on Radio- 4, the main talk channel on the BBC. It has over 5 million listeners every day, one million of them via the internet, according to Wikipedia.  Here you can find a synopsis of the soap, and a lot of background information (Link B2).

On The Archers web page, you can find videos, clips, podcasts, a list of characters, a blog, and, of course, you can listen to the latest episodes on the archive.  These audios and videos, without subtitles, are problably suitable for C2 students.

Grit: The Key to Success

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.

Men's & Women's Brains

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:

"Men & Women", a set of controversial statements which students can discuss, first in pairs and then, as a class.

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:

Computers Could Read Mammograms

Artificial Intelligence professor at MIT, Regina Barzilay, and Connie Lehman, the chief radiologist for breast imaging at Massachussetts General Hospital, are developing algorithms to train computers to read mammograms and prevent disease in general.  But there are also examples in the past of promising new technologies, such as CAD (Computer Aided Detection), which failed to deliver what was expected from them.
This NPR story can be read as an article or heard as an audio report with a script (6':25").  The technicality of the vocabulary can make this a C2 reading or listening task.

Rural Depopulation in Spain

Rural depopulation is number one problem in Spain, according to this BBC Assignment report. This documentary explores the "Caravans of Love" that have succesfully matched couples in rural Spain for several decades; Marta Corella, the mayor of Orea, who tries to create meeting points like the church, the social bar, or the social bakery to promote human contact in villages under 500 people; "neorurales" who move back to the countryside and other initiatives to make villages in Spain more attractive to live.
This report has extracts is Spanish and the topic is close to Spanish learners, but there is no script, so it is classified as C2.

Educated

Tara Westover started school at the age of 17.  She was brought up on a farm in Idaho, in a survivalist family who stocked food and weapons to defend themselves from the government and to prepare for some kind of war. She had no birth certificate, she never saw a doctor and she was home schooled until she felt she wanted to learn music and was admitted to college at 17.  She finally earned a PhD in History from Cambridge University and she has recently published the book "Educated", about her personal journey to become an independent woman.
This long NPR interview (38':21") can be used by C1 students with the support of the script.

Happy Nowruz, Persian New Year!

It's Nowruz, Persian New Year, a celebration of Spring for more than 300 million people around the world, including Iran, Tajikistan, Russia, Turkey, India and Iraq.
Find out more about the celebrations, Persian style, in this short BBC video with subtitles which is accessible from B2 level.

Rock Climbing in Yosemite National Park

"The Dawn Wall" is a documentary film that shows how Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson managed to climb El Capitan's southeastern face, called "The Dawn Wall" in Yosemite National Park, California.  It took them 19 days to go up the vertical granite, and six or seven years to prepare that remarkable feat.  "It's highly precise" Jorgeson says of the preparations and he compares the moves across the rock to a dance choreography or to a gymnastics routine in this NPR interview.

The beginning of the interview contains some technical descriptions of the climbing equipment, so this 31':49" interview could be classified as C2.

Peugeot Ready to Buy New Car Companies

The Peugeot family, one of the main shareholders of the PSA group (Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel, Vauxhall) has stated that they are ready to support a new acquisition, if an opportunity presents itself.  Fiat Christler is a candidate for a merger, New Delhi TV reports.  This short article is classified as B2.

Reuters reports that shares of Fiat Chrisler jumped 5.2%  yesterday as a result of the Peugeot family announcement while shares of Peugeot also rose 2.7%.  Reuters mentions General Motors and Jaguar Land Rover as other ideal partners in a future merger.  This financial story contains more technical language, so it is classified as C2.

The Most Popular Walks in Britain

Britain is a paradise for hikers: the green countryside, the hills, forests and lakes, the weather, which is never too hot, allow you to enjoy rambling 12 months a year (always with a mackintosh in your backpack in case it rains).  Here you can find a short BBC article with beautiful pictures about some of the most popular walks on the island: the Lake District, the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales in the north of England; Snowdonia in north Wales; the Hebrides and north Aberdeenshire in Scotland; Dartmoor and the north Devon coast in the south of England.  But wherever you go, you are certain to find a beautiful walk to relax and breathe.
This is a very short and easy text to read, so it is classified as B2.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1)

This short video is a perfect example of British comedy at its best, with Stephen Fry (Peter's Friends, etc) and Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) in "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", a BBC production. An absurd humorous sketch starting from a couple of simple questions at a police station: "What's your name? and What's your address?"
Humour is always a challenge for learners of a foreign language, but the subtitles can be invaluable help, so this video is classified as a B2 link.

Dynasties

Dynasties is a BBC Wildlife documentary that explores the social structure of 5 different animal species, tigers, emperor penguins, chimpanzees, lions and painted wolves. Producer Michael Gunton talks to Fresh Air on NPR about the social relationships of these groups of animals:  their kinship and affections, their rivalries and power struggles and about the two years that the naturalists took to shoot the documentary, which is narrated by Sir David Attenborough. This is a C1 listening task with the script.

If you want to look directly at the documentary webpage and watch some clips of the episodes you can click here, on the BBC.

Headteacher Cleans School Toilets

Siobhan Lowe, the headteacher at Tolworth Girls' School in Surbiton, South London, admitted that she had to scrub school loos and work in the school canteen because of the shortage of funds. According to the Education Policy Institute, the number of local authority (state-run) secondary schools in deficit has risen from 8.1% to 30.3% in the past 4 years. If you want to read more, you can find the BBC report here, a B2 reading task.

But if you actually want to listen to the original BBC Radio 4 interview to headteacher Siobhan Lowe on Today (08/03/19), you can find the full recording of the radio programme here.  The interview runs from 1:17:37 to 1:23:44. There is no script, so listening to this interview directly, without reading the report above first, could be a C2 task.

Woman's Day (1): RBG "We Can Do It"

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the second woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in history.  She was a brilliant Law student who had to face work discrimination in her youth, before she turned into a staunch advocate for gender equality and women's rights.  She has earned deep respect from her colleagues at the Court and in recent years, she has become a popular icon for her refusal to step down, despite her age, her serious health problems and her minority position in the Supreme Court.  She is known as "Notorious R.B.G."  In this B2 text from Inc. magazine you can read some of her most inspiring quotes.

You can read more about her life and career on this Wikipedia link.

Woman's Day (2): Theresa May

Theresa May has served as Prime Minister during the stormy times of Brexit in the UK.  She has often been dismissed as a weak leader, but she has grabbed the helm of the country with determination to survive defections in her Cabinet and a no-confidence vote in Parliament and to sail over her political rivals in the opposition and in her own Conservative party. This article from Fox News talks about her political career, her gritty character and her upbringing as the daughter of an Anglican vicar. 
The rich vocabulary of the text and the references to the ins and outs of British politics make this report a C1 reading task.

Woman's Day (3): Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the most powerful female politician in the USA now, and the leader of the opposition. She has fought long and hard to get respect and power from her fellow male colleagues in the Democratic Party "Nobody gives you power, you have to take it away from them", she says.  She lives in San Francisco, she is rich and this makes her "the quintaessence of California limousine liberalism", an easy target for Republicans to caricature. But she is one of the toughest, hardest working and shrewdest politicians in Capitol Hill.  Nancy Pelosi is also the mother of 5 children.  Here you can listen to a long NPR interview (36:59) to New York Times Magazine journalist Robert Draper who is an expert in Washington politics.

Although this radio interview is scripted, the complexity of American politics makes it a C2 listening task.

Shallow (A Star is Born): A Cinema Conversation

This is a conversation lesson about "Cinema" which can be used with B1, B2 and C1 students (with adaptations). Here you can find the lesson plan, two lists of the winners of the Goya and Oscar Awards 2019, an article about the 2019 edition of the Goya Awards, a fill-in the gap task with the lyrics of the song "Shallow" form A Star is Born, and the full script of the lyrics.

Laughter

Laughter is, basically, a social activity.  Humans laugh as a way to bond with each other -or to separate from those who belong to another social group. Other animal species also laugh, rats or apes, but the reasons why humans laugh are many and very nuanced.  This BBC article describes laughter and explains some of the reasons why we laugh.
Although the vocabulary in this article is very rich, the text can be accessible to B2 learners.

Best Tech of World Mobile Congress 2019

The World Mobile Congress in Barcelona whirled around 5G technology -which won't be widely available until 2020- while it showcased the latest in mobile phones, foldable smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S10, the Huawei Mate X or the Nokia 9 PureView -with more rear cameras than any other. But there were other gadgets on the Fira Gran Via floor:  Microsoft presented its HoloLens 2, a light mixed reality headset only available for enterprises right now.  The best camera zoom was the Oppo 10x and the biggest microSD card was the ScanDisk Extreme with 1TB of storage capacity.  Huawei launched a faster and more powerful laptop, the MateBook X Pro (2019). The prices of these devices match their top-notch quality, as you can read in this link to Mashable, which opens the door to the technology you will be using in the future.

Although the Mashable report above is short and it illustrated with photos, the density of the information and the technical vocabulary makes this text a C1 reading task.

If you still want to find out more about the organization of the WMC -the exhibitors, the speakers, the seminars, the programmes, the networking  possibilities and much more- you can click here on the official web page of the congress.  Reading this long and technical text could be a C2 task.

Winter Heatwave Starts Wildfires and Picnics in Britain

The hottest winter day on record in Britain has sparked wildfires in the countryside of Sussex and Wales, while Londoners bask in the sun and go picnicking in February.  The Daily Mail reports on this freak heatwave and its connexion to climate change with amazing pictures.

Oscars 2019: Best and Worst Dressed

This is a link to a picture gallery of the best and worst dressed celebrities on the red carpet of the Oscars 2019.  You may agree or disagree with the opinion of Los Angeles Times.

And here you can find the full list of Oscar winners from The New York Times.

From Astray Cat to Local Celebrity

This story from Animalkind, a USA Today video franchise, talks about Pip, a cute street cat that was adopted by a family in the summer resort of Ocean City, Maryland, and has become a local celebrity.  Pip is a restless, adventurous cat that has helped some people overcome loss and sadness and has put a smile on the face of those who have seen him playing around. 

The speed of delivery in the speech and the vocabulary are challenging, so, this short video can be classified as C1, although the subtitles can make it accessible to lower level students.

The Neuroscience of Addiction

Psychology professor Judith Grisel talks on Fresh Air about the neuroscience of addiction.  She compares alcohol to a sledgehammer on the brain, cocaine is like a laser -it is very specific, whereas marijuana floods the brain with one specific effect. She explains how our brain learns to react against these addictive substances when they are used regularly to bring you to a state of balance, "homeostasis", which reduces the effects of drugs in the long run. Then she discusses binge drinking, the legalization of marijuana, among other things. Professor Grisel was a marijuana and alcohol addict in her youth, but she has been clean for 30 years. She is the author of the book "Never Enough: the Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction".

This NPR interview lasts 36':03", but it has a script, so it can be classified as C1.

A Quick Make-up Routine, When You Are in a Hurry

This short Beauty article from The Irish Times, gives you some tips about how to make-up quickly when you have overslept in the morning, or you are already sitting on public transport on your way to school, which is not that uncommon in the British Isles.  A quick glance at it and you may find some practical ideas for tomorrow's rush!

Jon Batiste, a Talented Pianist Live on NPR

Jon Batiste is a talented pianist who leads the band at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In this Fresh Air interview (44':25"), he starts explaining how he grew up in a musical family in Louisiana, where he started singing, and then turned to percussion and the piano. But what makes this interview unique is that he plays the piano to illustrate his technique (02':53"- 05':27"), his style (14':36"- 16'-30") and influences like the bamboula rhythm (07':37"- 10':05"), Thelonious Monk (17':20"- 20':12"), (20':38"- 21':47"), or Bach (23':20"- 24'-33").  Jon Batiste also shows how music can create an atmosphere and convey feeling like in "St James Infirmary", which he subsequently analyzes (25':43"- 29':10"), and he finally performs his own personal version of the children's song "If you are happy and you know it" (40':11"- 42'-40").  Jon Batiste has recently published an album called Hollywood Africans, "a mix of boogie woogie, blues, standards and originals, including compositions inspired by classical music".

The language in the interview is rather technical at times, so the interview is classified as C2, but the music Jon Batiste plays can be enjoyed by anyone at any level.

Valentine's Day with Bolliwood Movies

Bollywood films are extremely popular in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, the Middle East, North Africa etc. Actor Shah Rukh Khan was named the biggest movie star in the 1990's-2000's by the Los Angeles Times. Aamir Khan is the best-known actor thanks to his huge success in China and India, and Salma Khan, one of the top ten best-paid actors worldwide, has been hailed as a world star by CNN.  Yet, the general public in the West seem to know very little about the movies that are made in Bollywood.  Here you can find a list of some Bollywood romantic movies to celebrate Valentine's Day with your partner, a selection presented to you by The Indian Times.