Conversation session 1
Intermediate, B1 level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide fluency speaking practice in a discussion in the context of movie evaluation
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide clarification of descriptive movie genre lexis in the context of movie evaluation
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To provide clarification of language used for expressing opinion and criticism in the context of movie evaluation
Procedure (55-60 minutes)
- Introduce yourself to the ss and get acquainted with them. - Is Netflix popular in Armenia? How about cinema? - Who watched the Oscars? What is your opinion about it? - What are some of your favorite movies?
- Show pictures of movie genres elicit the genres. - Elicit the words describing feelings and atmosphere that are associated to each movie genre. - Elicit characteristics of a good horror movie -How is the sense of fear created in such movies? -What are some of the techniques to create a scary atmosphere? -How would you describe a good horror movie? -What are some of the repetitive and unwanted features that you have seen a lot in these movies? - Explain how Saw the movie has an interesting story and an effective soundtrack but it is not visually appealing. - Play the extracted highlight footages from The room and ask what the students think about it. -Then Elicit the negative aspects of the movie by asking if they see something wrong with the scenes of the movie. -Explain that the movie features a lot of poor acting. However despite that the movie has been popular. -Elicit some of the speculated reasons for its popularity -Explain that the movie has been popular for its bad qualities and that such qualities have turned it into a comedy which was not the original intended genre for the movie.
- Introduce some words and phrases that are appropriate to the context. Do so by playing the game hot-seat. Example words and phrases: Soundtrack Atmospheric (creating mood) Ambience (the character and atmosphere of a place) Nostalgic (e.g. The great Gatsby) Cinematography Script Plot Box office hit Hilarious Visually appealing Genuine acting
- Topic: Discuss and evaluate a movie of choice. Cues: 1- What is the genre of the chosen movie? 2- What are the characteristics of a good movie in that genre? How would you define the genre? What is typical in this genre? 3- What do you think has made this movie successful in particular? 4- Is this movie generic and similar to many others from its genre or is it unique in its own way? 5-What do you like about the movie yourself? What strikes your interest? 6- Which parts would you change? what are its weaknesses? - Topic: Discuss and decide which movies belong to the top five movies of all time. Cues: 1- Brainstorm some of the movies that you think can potentially be in the top five. 2- Describe the atmosphere in those movies 3- Point out your favorite character and favorite scenes from the movies. 4- Name some of the strong and some of the weak aspects of each movie. 5- List the factors that you agree are important for a movie's success (i.e. What makes a movie a success). 6- Determine whether the proposed/selected movies fulfil your criteria for success. - Topic: Burglary plot (role-play) Cues: 1- Ask how the students would plan it. 2- Then ask them to come up with a scenario and a screenplay (time, location, people involved, events' sequence, dialogues, interactions and emotional states) 3- How would you put the set together for filming (lighting, visual effects, camera angles/movements, sound volumes, music) - Topic: Discuss the influences of the movies. Cues: 1- What kind of effects do they have on different cultures? 2- What are some of the cases in which they have been used to educate people? 3- Can they have negative impacts on societies? How? 4- Should people pay more attention to the messages carried by the movies and evaluate movies accordingly? If so how much?
- Provide quick feedback on contents/result/outcomes. Explain the strong points and discuss/elicit some better approaches with students. - Pinpoint the generic errors by eliciting the correct forms. - Based on observations write some sentences on the board that are wrong and ask the students to correct them.