Fancy livening up your classroom with some ready-made video activities? This is the third in a series of four articles in which Keith Harding and Rachel Appleby share ideas for using the stunning new International Express video material. Each unit of the course features a video directly related to the unit topic. Here, Keith offers some ideas for using the clip from Intermediate Unit 4 – Mercedes-Benz Museum, which focuses on making comparisons.

Watch the video

Before you watch

As with any listening or reading text it is important to prepare and predict, in order to maximise the learning potential from the video. Here are some ideas to get your students started before they watch the video.

1. Museums

Students in pairs/groups describe museums in their city/country, and talk about their favourite museum. Questions to ask include:

a. What do they like about their favourite museum?

b. Why is it better than other museums? (This will help to elicit practice of comparatives)

c. Do they know any unusual museums, e.g. for particular products and brands?

Plan a ‘Museum of Brands’

Elicit some top-of-the-range brands from the students, for example, Rolex, Apple, Nike, Mercedes Benz (prompt to elicit this one if necessary)

In groups, students decide what they would exhibit in a ‘Museum of Brands’ and what they would call each of the galleries.

2. Pre-teach vocabulary

This exercise is taken from the video worksheet that comes with the International Express Teacher’s Resource Book DVD. All the worksheets are also available for free here. You just need your Oxford Teacher’s Club log-in details to view them.

Vocabulary:

What do the words in bold mean?

1. The story is based on a local legend.
2. The prototype of the vehicle used a piston engine.
3. He is a real football enthusiast. He goes to every game.
4. My father collects a lot of Beatles memorabilia, like albums, posters, and concert tickets.
5. Phone companies need to have cutting-edge technology to be successful.
6. The documentary on deep-sea diving gave us a glimpse into life in the ocean.
7. The book gives us an insight into life in South America.

While you watch

To maximise the learning opportunities, you need to set tasks for the students to focus on. Remember tasks can be graded to the level of the learners, even if the content is not. This will involve the teacher in using pause, rewind, and sound-off facilities.

3. Silent play on fast-forward

Play the whole video on fast-forward with the sound down. Students write down what they see, then compare in groups and then watch again on normal speed.

4. Recognising difficult or technical vocabulary

As you would expect, the video contains several terms relating to vehicle transport. Understanding lexical sets of technically-related vocabulary and the differences in meaning between the different items is an important skill for the professional adult learner. Play the video in sections and ask students to write down the names of any vehicle types they hear. They should identify the following:

motor car

horse-drawn carriage

automobile

limousine

convertible

roadster

sports car

rally car (‘rallying’ on the video)

Formula 1

racing car

lorry (lorries)

police car

ambulance

fire engine

Check students’ answers, and ask them to give a definition of each type.

5. Numbers and names ‘bingo’

Design a bingo card for each student with numbers and names, including ones from the video, but other distracters as well. Students tick off the numbers/names when they hear them. When they have completed a line of three (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) they shout bingo, stop the video and check.

Here are two examples:

Example 1:

nine	60,500	Rolls Royce
Karl Benz	Daimler AG	one million euros
Formula 1	Ferrari300	SL

Example 2:

a million	16,500	Porshe
1954	seven	Mercedes Simplex
13	300 SL	convertible

After you watch

Follow-up tasks and activities will help to reinforce the language and will also provide the opportunity for more communicative and interactive language practice.

6. Practice vocabulary work on different forms of transport, and different brands and products

7. Conduct a survey of class members or any other accessible group (e.g. work colleagues, teachers and staff in school). Example questions could be:

a) Which museums have you visited?

b) Which is your favourite – or least favourite – and why?

c) What factors are important for you in a museum? Examples could include admission cost, interesting displays, interactive exhibits, a good cafe.

d) Use the results to plan a group outing.

8. Plan and present an idea for your own museum

a) Use the results from the survey (task 8) if available.

b) Decide the theme for your museum. For example, it could be a museum of your own life, with photographs, objects from your past and from your present working life.

c) Design the plan of the museum.

d) Present to the rest of the group.

I hope you enjoy trying out some of these activities in class!

Fancy livening up your classroom with some ready-made video activities? This is the second of a series of four blog posts in which Keith Harding and Rachel Appleby share ideas for using the stunning new International Express video material.

Each unit of the course features a video directly related to the unit topic. Here, Rachel explores the clip from Pre-Intermediate Unit 10 – Selexyz bookstore, which focuses on using ‘will’ to talk about the future, Zero Conditional and 1st Conditional.

Before you watch

1. Discussion in pairs

Before I play video in class, I find it useful to do plenty of lead-in activities to the topic. For example, you could start by giving students the following to discuss in pairs.

1. Do you ever shop online? What do you buy?
2. What are the benefits of shopping in real shops?
3. Do you buy books or music online, or in shops?
4. Do you think book and music shops will continue to exist in the future? Why? Why not?
5. Describe your favourite bookshop. Explain why you like it.
6. Check key vocabulary

Tell the students they are going to watch a video about a special bookshop in an historic building. Before watching the video, check they understand, and can pronounce, the following words. You’ll find the answers at the end of this blog post.

retailer, branch, archive, fiction, structure, design

2. Number work

Focus on the following numbers from the video. You could dictate them, or put them on the board.

10%; 8%; 15; 13; 500; 1794*

First, check students know how to say them, and then ask them to guess what each number could refer to. You’ll find the answers at the end of this blog post.

* NB: This is a date, so it is pronounced “17-94”

While you watch

3. More number work

Ask students to choose three of the numbers from above, and to listen, as they watch, for what they refer to. Tell them also to listen to compare their discussions from the beginning with what they hear.

4. More vocabulary work

Do this exercise before watching the video again. Students work in groups of 3 or 4. Put the following words on the board, on cards (one set per group), or on a handout. Ask the students to try to remember what they referred to in the video. If they are not sure of the meaning of any words, they should check first in their group.

 

ancient

architecture

archive

atmosphere

branch

browse

ceiling

consumer

customer

design

experience

fiction

interior

non-fiction

relaxing

retailer

stained-glass window

structure

Give the students 5 minutes. You could give them dictionaries to check the meaning and pronunciation – in particular, word stress.

Next, play the video again. While they are watching, the students should:

1. a) put the words in the order in which they hear them
2. b) check what each refers to

At the end, ask them to compare their ideas in their groups, and discuss any they found difficult. Which words are usually associated with a bookshop or with a church?

After you watch

5. A special shop, building or place

Ask students to think about a favourite or special shop, building, or place they would recommend to the others. Give them time to take notes and plan what they will say. Encourage them to use words from exercise 5 above. They should include:

1. a) why they like it
2. b) why it’s special
3. c) where it is
4. d) the best time to go

When they are ready, ask them to stand up and mingle with the other students. They should take it in turns to tell each other about their special place for approximately one minute. They should speak to at least three different people.

Ask them to sit down with a different partner, and compare what they heard. Which place would they most like to visit? Why? Are any of the places more interesting than their own? Why?

6. Guess the word

At the start of the next lesson, give each student one word, on a card, from exercise 5 above. They should stand up and mingle, and explain or define their word to someone else, to elicit the word. In turn, they should listen to their partner’s explanation, and try to guess their word. They should then swap words, and mingle to find another partner.

I hope you enjoy trying out some of these activities in class! You can also find more on the video worksheet that comes with the International Express Teacher’s Resource Book DVD. All the worksheets are available for free here.

In the next part of this series, Keith Harding explores the Mercedes-Benz Museum, from the Intermediate level. Look out for it next week.

Answers

Ex. 2

retailer (n) /ˈriːteɪlə(r) / – a person or business that sells goods to the public

branch (n) / brɑːntʃ / – a local office or shop/store belonging to a large company or organization

archive (n) / ˈɑːkaɪv / – a place where historical documents are stored

fiction (n) / ˈfɪkʃn / – a type of literature that describes imaginary people and events, not real ones

structure (n) / ˈstrʌktʃə(r) / – a thing that is made of several parts, especially a building

design (n) / dɪˈzaɪn/- the general arrangement of the different parts of something that is made, e.g. of a building

Ex. 3

10% – the percentage of online shopping out of all consumer spending

8% – the increase in one year of internet sales

15 – the number of Selexyz shops in Holland

13 – the century when the church was built

500 – the number of years it was a church

1794 – the date when Napoleon took the church

Ex. 5

Numbers refer to the order each word appears in the video

ancient 10

archive 6

architecture 17

atmosphere 8

branch 4

browse 14

ceiling 11

consumer 1

customer 2

design 13

experience 18

fiction 15

interior 12

non-fiction 16

relaxing 7

retailer 3

stained-glass window 9