Language skills related tasks reading and speaking

Fotina Tatiana

Language skills related tasks: reading and speaking.

The aim of this assignment is to work out 60 minutes lesson which helps students to develop receptive and productive skills: reading and speaking, and show how these skills are practiced during the stages of the lesson. The book "Learning Teaching" by J.Scrivener helped me to choose the appropriate text for reading in class and to plan speaking activities for practice, to design pre-reading, while-reading and after-reading activities, and logical follow-up discussion, which aim is to develop oral fluency skills.

For many people reading is one of the most important means of getting information. The Internet is one of the most popular sourceof getting information today. This is why I have chosen the newspaper article "The price of fame: pop stars are more likely to die young" from the Internet. This material is suitable for one of the classes in the context "fame and fortune" I am teaching this month .

The group which I am teaching is of the upper-intermediate level. That is why I use the no adapted text, which contains original words, phrases, and grammar structure and its volume is not very difficult to read, understand and analyze.

The aims of the lesson are: to develop the skill of reading for a gist and detail and to develop oral fluency skills in the context of the price of fame. The sub-aims are: to develop vocabulary used in reading and speaking.

Lead-in. To introduce the topic and to create the interest, to motivate the students and to make them become thoughtful it might be some photos of famous people who died young (John Lennon, Victor Zoy, Kurt Cobain…).

The questions to get students interested in reading may be as follows:

What do you know about lives of the people in the photo?When did they die?

How did they die?Why are pop stars more likely to die young?

Reading for gist: The aim of this stage is to get the gist of the article. Students read the text quickly, checking their predictions and answering the question what is the aim of this article, compare their answers in pairs. Then they say their answers to the whole class.

Look at language in context: the aim of this stage is to clarify vocabulary in the context. Students look through the text to find and underline the words in the text which definitions are given. It helps them for better understanding of the text.( meaning is the definition, form should be found and underlined in the text, then drilling of pronunciation)

Reading for details. To read the text attentively and carefully, to gain an understanding of many details is the aim of the next stage. Students read the text again trying to improve the statements according to the article. They work in pairs discussing the task, then in the whole class with the teacher.

Discuss topic =Speaking.The aim of this stage is to develop oral fluency skills and subaim is to develop useful vocabulary in the context of expressing opinions, agreement or disagreement.

After doing the reading tasks students have enough information to give their opinion to the topic. That is why oral follow-up activity is expected to be successful.

Students have a few minutes to think and prepare the answerthen the teacher gives them useful language box how to expressing opinions, agreement or disagreement. Students continue to prepare for a while and discuss their opinions in pairs, they can show their agreement and disagreement about the opinion of the partner using useful language box.

The teacher monitors, makes post activity correction and change the pairs giving students opportunity to practice more in speaking. If during monitoring students have some mistakes the teacher makes post activity correction again.

To sum up, a 60-minute lesson on the topic "Price of fame" can give students practice in reading for gist and for details and practice in speaking based on the text. Speech fluency is developed during the final discussion or one of the important topics. Stages of the lesson logically lead students from easier to more complicated tasks in improving their skills.

References:1. J. Scrivener. Learning Teaching.MACMILLAN, 2011.

2. www.independent.co.uk

3. Dictionary of contemporary English. Longman, 2010

(words - 720)

The INDEPENDENT

The price of fame: pop stars are more likely to die young

by Jeremy Laurance

Fame may be the spur that drives young rock bands to success - but it can also be a killer when it finally arrives.

From Elvis to Tupac, a life at the top of the popular music pantheon, devoutly sought after by millions of youngsters, comes with the kind of risks that would make most mothers pale.

The toll of high-octane lifestyles pursued on a tide of popular acclaim is charted in research published today showing successful rock and pop stars are twice as likely as the rest of us to die an early death.

Alcohol, drugs, accidents and violence are the chief perils but as rock stars age, cancer and heart disease pose an increasing threat to abused bodies and shriveled livers. The risk is highest in the five years after they first achieve fame, the researchers say. The findings are based on more than 1,000 North American and European musicians who shot to fame over the past 50 years. All of them featured in the All Time Top 1,000 Albums, selected in 2000.

The researchers from the University of Liverpool say that while the deaths of individual stars such as Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain have been endlessly debated, no overall assessment of the risks has been made.

In all, 100 of the stars died between 1956 and 2005. The average age of death was 42 for the North American stars and 35 for the European ones. Drugs and alcohol contributed to at least two-thirds of the deaths.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel - at least for European stars. Their risk of dying returned to the same level as the general population 25 years after they achieved fame - provided they survived that long. North American stars however, continued to suffer higher death rates.

Professors Mark Bellis and John Ashton, public health specialists at Liverpool John Moores University, say in on-line edition of The Journal of Epidemiology that the music business needs to take the risks of success more seriously - not only to protect the health of their stars but also the legions of fans for whom they set an example.

"Pop stars can suffer high levels of stress in environments where alcohol and drugs are widely available, leading to health-damaging risk behavior. However, their behavior can also influence would-be stars and devoted fans. Collaborations between health and music industries should focus on improving both pop stars' health and their image as role models to wider populations," they say.

One in 10 children in the UK aspires to become a pop star, the authors said, confirmed by the numbers applying to take part in shows like X Factor.

They added: "Increasingly, communication of health-promoting messages to young people is being undertaken by pop stars and other celebrity figures.

"However, more needs to be learnt about how such interventions actually affect young people's behaviour ... Where popstars' behaviour remains typified by risk-taking and substance use, it is unlikely that young people will see any positive health messages they champion as credible."

04.09.07. www.independet .co.uk

Task 1. Look at the photos.

What do you know about lives of the people in the photo?

When did they die?

How did they die?

Why are pop stars more likely to die young?

Task 2. Read the text quickly, check your predictions. Tell what is the aim of this article?

Task 3. Look through the text again and underline the words in the text which mean:

1. A fact or event that makes you try harder to do something

2. A child or a young person.

3. Great danger, especially of being harmed or killed

4. A very high quality

5. A process in which you make a judgment about a person or situation, or a judgment you make

6. Work together with another person or group to achieve something, especially in science or art

7. Other difficult situation in order to change what happens

8. Praise for a person or their achievements.

Task 4. Read the text attentively and try to prove why

1. Fame can be a killer when it finally arrives. .

2. Famous people shouldn't complain when the press follow them.

3. There is too much information about private life of celebrities nowadays.

4. The government should control TV, radio programmes, Internet sites to protect children

Task 5. Look at the opinions in exercise 4. Decide if you agree or disagree with them.

Useful vocabulary: opinions, agreement and disagreement.

Expressing opinions: 1. Personally, I think that…

2. I mean, it seems to me that…

3. well, in my opinion, this shows…

4. Personally I am against too much control because…

5. I am in favour of some control because…

Expressing agreement: 1. I (completely) agree because…

2. That's true because…

Expressing disagreement: 1. I totally disagree that…

2. I don't agree that…

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Dying before they get old

* Buddy Holly

The pioneer of rock'n'roll was just 23 years old when the plane he was travelling in, along with fellow performers Ritchie Valens and J P Richardson, crashed near Minnesota in 1959. He was one of the first truly global music stars to die early.

* Janis Joplin

Joplin rose to fame as lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company. She became a giant of 1960s rock music before dying of a heroin overdose in 1970. Her last recording was a birthday song for John Lennon, who received it by post the day after she died.

* Sid Vicious

The Sex Pistols frontman met his end, after an already turbulent career, just one day after being released on bail for the suspected murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Vicious overdosed on heroine supplied by his mother at a New York party in 1979.

* Tupac Shakur

The man who epitomised US gang culture met his end in a drive-by shooting after leaving a Las Vegas casino in September 1996. Conspiracies surrounding his death still abound. Six months later Tupac Shakur's rival The Notorious BIG was also gunned down.

04.09.07. www.independet .co.uk