Modern Manners
Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide gist, scan and detailed reading practice using the text 'mother-in-law from hell or daughter-in-law from hell'.
Subsidiary Aims
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Product writing practice of a comment in the context of manners and to provide speaking practice in the context of good or bad manners.
Procedure (43-55 minutes)
Watch the video. Task- What kind of manners can we see in the video? Are they good or bad manners? Students work in pairs and brainstorm about the manners in the video. Elicit some bad manners from the students related to the video.
Tell them to imagine that they have been invited to stay for a weekend with your partner's family. Think of 'three things' that you think it would be bad manners to do. Students work in pairs and brainstorm the bad manners. Elicit some answers and write them on the board. 'not bring a present, use your mobile at the dinner table, not say please or thank you etc' Write 'daugter-in-law from hell or mother-in-law from hell' on the board. Ask what hell means here. Elicit some answers and explain the meaning (the worst possible kind of mother in law or daughter in law) Tell the students that they are going to read an article about a girl, Heide, who was invited to spend the weekend with her fiance's family. What kind of bad manners do you think she did? Students look at the board and choose some of the bad manners they have said before and put ticks next to the chosen manners.
Task- Read the article and find out if your ideas are there. Elicit some answers such as 'she started eating before anyone else.' Ask students if it is a true story or not. Tell them it is.
Give out the lexis activity. Students work in pairs and find the words or phrases from the article. Two pairs come together and check their answers in the group. Check answers. Drill the pronunciation. Ask students what Heidi did when she received the e-mail. (She forwarded to some of his friends) Then ask students what happened. ( The friends also forwarded it to other people ) What happened after that? ( thousands of people wrote comments about the mother-in-law from hell)
Tell students that they are going to read some comments that were posted on the internet by people. Tell students 'write H next to the comments which support Heidi. Write C next to the ones that support Carolyn.' Students work in pairs and check answers. Elicit the answers from the students. Give out small papers to the students and tell them to write a comment of your own either supporting Heidi or Carolyn. Ask students how many people supported Heidi or Carolyn. Students compare the answers with their partners and see ıf they supported the same person. Optional:Tell students to pass the comments to each other. They pass several times to read each other's comments. Ask students what Heidi should do now. Elicit some answers and then tell students that they are going to read about what happened at their wedding. Students read in pairs and talk about what they think. Optional: Elicit some words or phrases students like and want to use.