Teaching English to intermediate and upper

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – UFMG
Faculdade de Letras – FALE
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos – POSLIN
Curso de Especialização em Ensino de Inglês – CEI
Teaching English to intermediate and upper-intermediate
students from private language institutes: from health to
weather
Trabalho apresentado ao Curso de Especialização
em Ensino de Inglês, atividade do Programa de
Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos da
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal de
Minas Gerais como requisito parcial para a
obtenção do título de Especialista em Ensino de
Língua Inglesa.
Caroline Freire Xavier
Belo Horizonte
2013
Index
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...3
Unit: Health Problems……………………………………………………………………5
Test Booklet: Health Problems………………………………………………………….15
Teacher’s guide: Health Problems………………………………………………………20
Unit: Natural Disasters and Extreme Weather………………………………………….26
Test Booklet: Natural Disasters and Extreme Weather………………………………....36
Teacher’s guide: Natural Disasters and Extreme Weather……………………………...41
Rationale………………………………………………………………………………...47
Websites consulted……………………………………………………………………...52
Introduction
This teaching material was created with the objective of promoting communicative practice
among students, using different patterns of interaction, with the use of authentic materials,
aiming at the practice of all four skills involved in language learning: listening, speaking,
reading and writing. It consists of two units, with different themes and devised for different
audiences. Each unit is followed by a test booklet that can be used to test students’ knowledge
of the features taught in the unit and a teacher’s guide, with the answer-key for the activities
in the unit itself and also in the test booklet, as well as instructions, guidance and suggestions
for the teacher in charge of the class. The units were organized as described:
Health problems: this unit was devised having in mind intermediate level students from
private language institutes with an age range from 18 years old (young adults) to adults. The
topic is very relevant and rich and exposes students to related vocabulary (health problems),
grammar (imperatives), texts (self-help guide, hospital signs and posters), videos (TV
commercial) and communicative situations (interaction patient-doctor) very useful and likely
to be found in real life.
Natural disasters and Extreme Weather: this unit deals with extreme situations, impacting
pictures and videos and surprising facts, what has proved to be able to generate curiosity and
interest among students. They have the chance to share knowledge they acquired about the
theme by reading different materials or watching programmes related to it or even by their
own experiences in their countries or other countries they might have had the chance to visit.
The language is suitable for upper-intermediate students with an age range from 18 years old
(young adults) to adults, also from private language institutes. Students are exposed to natural
disasters and extreme weather words (vocabulary), superlatives (grammar), different texts
such as quizzes, news article and news report (reading and writing), a video documentary
(listening) and have also the chance of interacting among themselves in a collaborative
speaking task.
Each unit is composed by the following sections:
Getting started: this section aims at introducing the topic to be discussed in the unit. It can
be used as a warm-up activity, setting the scene for further sections, revealing students’
previous knowledge about the subject and bringing out related vocabulary which will be
useful later on.
3
Vocabulary: expands and organizes the vocabulary that has probably popped out in the
previous section in a more precise and systematized way. It also pre-teaches vocabulary that is
likely to appear in the next section, working also as pre-reading activities.
Reading: entirely conceived with authentic texts taken from websites, exposes students to
two different reading genres commonly found online – self-help guide and news article. The
texts are followed by different types of interpretation questions in which students have to refer
back to the text in order to answer, as well as questions in which their opinions and reactions
towards what was read is also valued.
Pronunciation: familiarizes students to the phonetic symbols they may find in dictionaries,
reinforces correct pronunciation of especially challenging sounds and provides practice on
words/sounds somehow related to the topic, vocabulary or grammar exposed in the unit.
Figure it out: in this section students are led to think about the form, meaning and use of the
grammar topic using contextualized examples as starting point. After that, they have the
chance to practice by completing tasks which are related to the topic, likely to be found in
real-life context and based in authentic materials.
Speaking: provides interaction among students in two different ways: a role-play and a
collaborative activity. Students have the chance to put together grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation to complete the tasks, with the support of the ‘useful language’ box. They have
also the opportunity of applying different language functions, such as agreeing, disagreeing,
exposing one’s point of view, suggesting, giving advice, etc.
Listening: each unit has a listening section that uses authentic videos taken from youtube.
The videos are connected to the theme and provide exposure to different accents and speech
speeds. They also express different purposes, since one of the videos used is a TV commercial
and the other is part of a documentary.
Writing: its objective is to generate genre awareness, making students reflect on what
constitutes each specific genre – poster and news report - by answering the questions
proposed after the authentic texts. After that, students are asked to write a sample of the same
genre discussed before, with the help of a writing checklist.
This material has been created without commercial purposes and cannot be reproduced, unless
with previous consent from the author.
4
Getting started
01) Discuss the questions below in pairs:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Can you list some health problems people commonly have?
Have you ever experienced any of them? Which ones?
What do you usually do when you have a health problem?
How often do you seek for medical health?
Have you ever searched for medical advice in websites? If so, was the information
useful?
Vocabulary
01) The pictures below show some common health problems. Choose the correct option
in the box to label them:
SORE THROAT – BACK PAIN – SPRAIN – COLD – NOSEBLEED - COUGH
a)
__________
d)
________
b)
_________
c)
__________
e)
________
f)
__________
Reading
01) The text below is a self-help and first aid guide with medical advice taken from a
hospital website. Read the text and insert the words and expressions from the previous
activity in the correct place:
http://www.richmondpractice.scot.nhs.uk/selfhelp.shtml
5
Self Help for common health problems
a) ___________________
Treat with rest, fluids, regular paracetamol. A cold will last for five to seven days and will
then subside. If after five days you are feeling worse, then consult the doctor.
b) ___________________
If your throat is sore but you are otherwise fine, there is no need to see a doctor. Simply take
paracetamol, syrup and fluids.
c) ___________________
If you do not feel particularly ill there is no need to see a doctor. If you are hot and unwell and
coughing up green spit you may need antibiotics and should come to the surgery.
Diarrhea & Vomiting
Avoid all food and milk as well as tea and coffee for a full 24 hours. Drink plenty of clear
fluids starting with small amounts first if vomiting is a problem. After 24 hours, and if
symptoms have been absent for at least six hours, start to eat a light diet. A normal diet can be
resumed a day later. If symptoms persist longer than 48 hours or come on after a trip abroad
come and see us at the surgery for further advice.
d) ___________________
If the pain is not severe and does not go down your leg, take it easy and take any simple
painkiller for a few days and things should settle. If pain persists for longer than three days,
contact your doctor in surgery hours. If you develop persistent numbness or weakness of your
leg, seek medical advice.
e) ___________________
Remember “RICE” - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Rest the injured part, particularly an
ankle or knee. Ice the area of injury immediately. Compression is best effected with a crepe
bandage. Elevate the injury, particularly legs. If you are a keen sportsman advice from a
physiotherapist may be valuable.
Burns
Place the burnt area under running cold water until the pain eases. This may take up to 15
minutes. Cover the area with a clean dry tea towel or something similar. Do not pull clothes
off a burnt area. Do not prick blisters. Do not put oil or cream on a burn. If the burn is large
then seek medical advice at casualty.
f) ___________________
Sit in a chair leaning forwards with your mouth open and pinch the soft lower part of the
nose, not the bone, for 10 minutes. Avoid blowing the nose for 24 hours. If the bleeding
persists, contact the doctor.
6
02) Write true (T) or false (F) for the sentences below:
a) You can have light food 18 hours after the beginning of diarrhea symptoms. ______
b) Putting cream on a burn is advisable in some situations. ______
c) In the case of a sprain, you should put ice in the area before applying compression. ______
d) It is necessary to seek medical help if you feel worse 7 days after you have started
experiencing the symptoms of a cold. ______
e) If you are coughing up green spit you probably need to take some medicine. ______
f) Drinking water is not a good advice for a sore throat. ______
03) There are three situations in which a person should see a doctor in case of back pain.
What are they?
1___________________________________________________________________________
2___________________________________________________________________________
3___________________________________________________________________________
04) Did you find the information in the text useful? In which situations would someone
need to be aware of first aid and self-help instructions for health problems?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
05) Were you surprised by any of the information you’ve read or you were aware of all
of them?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
06) Have you done something different from what was advised in a particular situation
and found out it was wrong after reading the text? What happened?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
7
Pronunciation
th can be pronounced in two different ways.
01) Using a dictionary to help you (http://www.macmillandictionary.com/), listen and
repeat the words below, taken from the previous text:
with
throat
three
the
than
this
02) Now, insert the following words in the chart:
otherwise - things - further - physiotherapist - there – mouth
with
the
throat
three
than
this
Figure it out!
01) Look at the sentences below, taken directly from the self help guide you’ve read:
Avoid all food and milk as well as tea and coffee for a full 24 hours.
Do not put oil or cream on a burn.
If the bleeding persists, contact the doctor.
02) The verbs in bold are called imperatives. Read the sentences again and complete the
chart below:
Base form
Affirmative imperative
Avoid
Contact
Pull
Put
Take
Treat
Negative imperative
don’t contact
treat
03) Complete the imperatives rule:
Affirmative imperatives are formed with the ________________________ of the verb,
whereas negative imperatives are formed with ________________________ + the
________________________of the verb.
8
04) Check the alternatives that describe situations in which imperatives can be used:
(
) to give a direct order or command
(
) to express possibilities
(
) to give instructions
(
) to give advice
(
) to greet people
05) Apart from medical guides, give 2 other examples of where else you would expect to
find imperative forms.
_________________________________
_________________________________
6) Look at the hospital signs and write a sentence using the correct imperative form.
There’s an example for you.
Keep silence.
a)
___________________
d)
b)
____________________
e)
________________
f)
___________________
c)
____________________
____________________
9
Speaking
01) Work in pairs (A and B). Student A is a doctor, student B is a patient seeking for
help. Use the information in the cards and exchange roles.
Student A
You are a doctor. Give medical advice to your patient. Ask about the following topics and
complete the chart. Suggest a treatment and explain for how long your patient must follow it.
•
•
•
•
Name
Health problem (reason for the visit)
Symptoms
Duration of the problem
Patient’s
Health
name
problem
Symptoms
Duration of
Medical
Duration
the
advice /
of the
symptoms
prescription
treatment
Helpful language
-
What’s the (matter/problem)?
How long have you had the (burn/cold/strain/etc…)
(Take/apply/use/etc…) this (medication/cream/antibiotics/etc…) for 7 days…
Student B
•
•
•
You are a patient. Visit your doctor and ask for medical advice for a health problem.
Complete the chart with your problem, symptoms and duration of the symptoms.
Listen and answer to the doctor’s questions and insert information about the medical
advice in the chart.
Doctor’s
Health
name
problem
Symptoms
Duration of
Medical
Duration
the
advice /
of the
symptoms
prescription
treatment
Helpful language
-
I have a (cold/burn/strain/etc…)?
I have (fever/headache/diarrhea/etc…)
I’ve had it for 5 days…
10
Listening
01) You are going to watch an Asian TV commercial about Dengue fever. In pairs,
discuss the questions:
a) What do you know about Dengue? How is it transmitted?
b) Have you had this disease before? How did you feel? What were the symptoms?
c) Do you know any prevention actions we can take to prevent the mosquito from breeding?
Which ones?
02) After watching the video, answer the questions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0GCG2zn5o
a) What’s the purpose of the TV commercial?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b) In your opinion, why have they chosen a famous actress to talk about that?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
c) According to the commercial, how much time does it take for you to protect your house
against dengue?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
11
03) The extracts below were taken from the video. Complete the missing information
according to what you hear:
a) ___________ water
from flower pot
plates; ___________
granular insecticide
c) ___________ blockages
in roof gutters and
___________ BTI
insecticide.
b) ___________ over water
storage containers.
d) ___________ pole
holders when not at use.
04) From the prevention actions shown in the video, which ones have you tried doing in
your house?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
05) Do you intend to include others after watching the video? If so, which ones?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
12
Writing
01) The posters below are part of a university campaign that aims at informing people
about H1N1 flu symptoms and prevention. Read them and answer the questions:
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2010/aug/H1N1082809.html
a) Did the posters clearly inform about H1N1 flu symptoms and prevention? Why?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b) Was the amount of text used and the organization in topics useful to make you understand
the information in the posters? Why?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
c) Would the posters have the same impact if they were printed in black and white and had no
images? Why/why not?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
d) What’s the importance of having an attractive and impacting title in posters?
13
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
e) Would it make a difference if you didn’t know the institution responsible for the poster?
Would this fact impact the credibility of the information given?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
02) In pairs or small groups create a digital poster (a glog) in www.glogster.com about
Dengue Fever symptoms and prevention. Use the checklist below to help you creating an
effective poster with attractive visual aids and useful information.
POSTER CHECKLIST
1) Does the title attract attention?
(
) yes
(
) no
2) Did you use colors and images?
(
) yes
(
) no
3) Is the information useful, brief and objective?
(
) yes
(
) no
4) Is the institution responsible for the poster informed?
(
) yes
(
) no
5) Did you revise spelling, punctuation and capitalization?
(
) yes
(
) no
14
01) Read the cues and insert the words in the crossword below:
02) Below you can find useful information taken from the British Red Cross website
about accidents in roads. Put the sentences in the correct order:
What to do in a road accident:
a) turn off park and the safely engine
____________________________________________
b) the move injured person don’t
____________________________________________
c) stop you can the if blood
____________________________________________
d) resuscitation start cardio-pulmonary
__________________________________________
e) the call services emergency
__________________________________________
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/First-aid-campaigns/Road-safety/What-to-do-in-a-road-accident
15
03) Read the article about Diabetes from the health section of the online New York
Times newspaper:
Diabetes is usually a lifelong (chronic) disease in which there are high levels of sugar in the
blood.
Causes
Symptoms
People with diabetes have high
blood sugar because their body
cannot move sugar into fat, liver,
and muscle cells to be stored for
energy. This is because either:
High blood sugar levels can cause several
symptoms, including:
•
•
•
Their pancreas does not
make enough insulin;
Their cells do not respond
to insulin normally;
Both of the above.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Blurry vision
Excess thirst
Fatigue
Hunger
Urinating often
Weight loss
Because type 2 diabetes develops slowly, some
people with high blood sugar have no symptoms.
Types
Treatment
Type 1 diabetes can occur at
any age, but it is most often
diagnosed in children, teens,
or young adults. In this
disease, the body makes little
or no insulin. Daily injections
of insulin are needed. The
exact cause is unknown.
Type 2 diabetes most often
occurs in adulthood. Many
people with type 2 diabetes
do not know they have it.
Gestational diabetes is high
blood sugar that develops at
any time during pregnancy in
a woman who does not have
diabetes.
Treating both type 1
diabetes and type 2 diabetes
involves medicines, diet,
and exercise to control
blood sugar levels and
prevent symptoms and
problems.
Prevention
Keeping an ideal body
weight and an active lifestyle
may prevent type 2 diabetes.
Getting better control over
your blood sugar,
cholesterol, and blood
pressure levels helps reduce
the risk of kidney disease,
eye disease, nervous system
disease, heart attack, and
stroke.
There is no way yet to
prevent type 1 diabetes.
http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/diabetes/overview.html
16
a) Write true (T) or false (F) according to the information in the text:
I) Oral medication is enough to treat some cases of Diabetes 1.
(
)
II) Doctors know why people with Diabetes 1 produce little or no insulin.
(
)
III) Diabetes 2 often occurs in children, teens and young adults.
(
)
IV) Gestational diabetes is related to a previous diagnosis and family history.
(
)
V) Keeping a healthy lifestyle helps preventing Diabetes 1.
(
)
b) Answer the questions:
I) What is the objective of the text?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
II) What are the two reasons why people might have high levels of sugar in their
blood?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
III) How can Diabetes be controlled?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
IV) Looking for a doctor shortly after experiencing some of the symptoms listed in the
text is always helpful to guarantee an early diagnosis of Diabetes 2? Explain.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
V) Is it possible to prevent Diabetes 1 and 2? If so, what should be done?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
17
04) Watch the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DizdkUayQBw) and complete
the eight steps on how to prevent food poisoning:
Food poisoning: an illness affecting your
stomach, caused by eating food that contains
harmful bacteria.
Did you know? Every year, food-borne
diseases cause 76 million illnesses, 325,000
hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the
United States.
Step 1: ___________ dates on food products before purchasing them and ___________ them
again before cooking.
Step 2: ___________ meat, fruit and vegetables for storage and ___________ any food that
looks or smells questionable.
Step 3: ___________ your hands with anti-bacterial soap and hot water frequently.
Step 4: ___________ products in a solution of 1 part vinegar or lemon juice and 3 parts
water. ___________ ___________soaps, detergents or special cleaners.
Step 5: ___________ ___________ the same cutting boards on meat and vegetables unless
you wash it between uses
Step 6: ___________ a meat thermometer to ensure that meats are cooked and wash the probe
each time you check the temperature.
Step 7: ___________ food on clean plates
Step 8: Refrigerate or ___________ leftovers within 2 hours of cooking.
18
05) Your roommate has asked you to give him/her a few tips on how to avoid stress.
Write a note with a list of 3 steps to help him:
How to prevent stress:
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step3:
19
Teacher’s guide – Health problems
Overview
In this unit students will focus on giving and receiving medical advice.
Vocabulary
Common health problems: sore throat,
back pain, sprain, cold, nosebleed, cough
th pronunciation
Imperatives: affirmative and negative
Self-help and first aid guide
Genre: poster (online poster: glog)
Role-play: talking about health problems,
symptoms and treatments.
TV commercial: Dengue fever
Pronunciation
Grammar
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Listening
Getting started
This activity can be used as a warmer so the teacher has a better idea of students’ previous
knowledge regarding the theme: health problems.
1
Ask students to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Do not monitor for form
at this stage. Help them put their ideas through if necessary. Elicit the groups’ answers
and write all health problems mentioned on the board. Make sure all students in class
understand the meaning and pronunciation of the words.
Personal answers
Vocabulary
1
Still in pairs or small groups, ask students to label the pictures using the words in the
box. Elicit the answers from volunteers.
a) nosebleed
b) cough
c) back pain
d) cold
e) sore throat
f) sprain
Reading
Direct students to the title and source of the text. Remind them of the discussion the class had
in Getting Started, letter e (if any of the students answered yes to this question) or mention
that this sort of information can easily be found online.
1
a) cold
2
Individually, student’s use the words from the previous activity to complete the
blanks. Let them compare the answers in pairs before eliciting the answers from
volunteers.
b) sore throat
c)cough
d)back pain
e)sprain
f)nosebleed
Tell students to read the statements and reread the text to answer true or false. Ask for
volunteers to read their answers.
20
a)F
b)F
c)T
d)F
e)T
f)F
3
Tell students to compare their answers in pairs. Go through answers as a class.
1. If pain persist for more than 3 days.
2. If you develop persistent numbness or weakness on your leg.
3. If the pain is severe and goes down the leg.
4, 5 and 6
After setting some time for students to answer these questions, discuss their
answers as a class.
Personal answers
Pronunciation
These sounds can be particularly challenging to some students due to the fact that they may
not be part of their first language sound system. If that’s the case, show the correct position of
tongue when producing the sounds and insist on drilling.
1
;2
. Play the audio once and tell students
Draw two columns on the board: 1
to write their answers in their books. Play the audio twice and ask them to call out the
correct column, 1 or 2. Play the audio a third time and ask them to repeat. Monitor for
accuracy.
With
Throat
three
-things
physiotherapist
mouth
The
Than
this
Otherwise
further
there
Figure it out
In this section students will be lead to figure out the form, meaning and use of imperatives by
themselves.
2
Direct students’ attention to the fact that the sentences were taken from the text and
should be used to help them complete the chart. Ask them to complete the chart in
pairs. Check answers as a class.
Base form
Avoid
Contact
Pull
Put
Take
Treat
Affirmative imperative
avoid
contact
pull
put
take
treat
Negative imperative
don’t avoid
don’t contact
don't pull
don't put
don't take
don't treat
21
3
Ask students to complete the rules in pairs. Check answers as a class.
Base form – don’t (or do not) + base form
4
Ask students to check the statements in pairs. Check answers as a class.
( X ) to give a direct order or command
( X ) to give instructions
( X ) to give advice
5
After setting time for this activity, let students compare their answers before checking
answers as a class. Write all answers on the board and ask students to decide on the
correct and incorrect ones.
Suggested answers: recipes and signs
6
After setting time for this activity, let students compare their answers before checking
answers as a class. Let students know that there may be more than one answer for
some signs.
Suggested answers:
a) Wash your hands.
b) Don’t use your mobile phone.
c) Wear gloves.
d) Don’t honk.
e) Wear appropriate clothes.
f) Don’t drink inside.
Speaking
In this section students will perform a role-play about giving and receiving/asking for medical
advice, exchanging roles (doctor and patient).
1
Go through the cards with students and check understanding of the task and
information in the cards (especially the helpful language). During the activity, monitor
for accuracy but don’t interfere, unless communication is hindered. After the activity
took place, write the most frequent mistakes on the board, but don’t identify the
students who made them. Ask the class to help you correct the mistakes. Write the
correct forms on the board.
22
Listening
Tell students they are going to watch an Asian TV commercial about Dengue Fever. Ask
them if they have ever seen a TV commercial about this disease and what information they
usually bring.
1
Ask students to discuss the questions orally in pairs and to report their answers to the
rest of the class.
a) Dengue virus is a tropical infectious disease caused by the dengue virus. Dengue is
transmitted by the mosquito Aedes Aegypti.
b) Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash.
c) The prevention of dengue requires control or eradication of the mosquitoes carrying the
virus that causes dengue by emptying stagnant water from old tires, trash cans, and flower
pots, for example.
2
Play the video once and set a time limit so that students can answer the questions. Go
through the answers as a class.
a) To warn people about how to protect their house and family against Dengue fever by taking
prevention measures.
b) To add credibility and empathy to the campaign.
c) 10 minutes
3
Play the video again. Allow students to compare their answers in pairs. Ask for
volunteers to read the answers.
a)
b)
c)
d)
4
Remove, add
Turn
Cover
Clean, add
Play the video a third time if necessary. Set a time limit so that students can
answer the questions. Go through the answers as a class.
Personal answers
5
Set a time limit so that students can answer the questions. Go through the answers as a
class.
Personal answers
Writing
The purpose of this section is to generate genre awareness: poster.
23
1
Allow students some time to read the posters and answer the questions in pairs or
small groups. When they have finished, allow them to compare their answers to
another pair or group’s answers. Go through answers as a class:
a) Yes. The information is being conveyed in an objective and effective way.
b) Brief information organized in topics is more attractive and easier to read.
c) No. Images and colors help a poster to become more attractive and to reach a greater
number of readers.
d) An attractive and impacting title draws people’s attention and increases the chances of a
poster to be read.
e) Yes. The source of the given information adds credibility to a poster.
2
This activity can be set as homework or done in a lab, if available. Help students
create an account in the mentioned website and go through the basic tools. In pairs or
small groups students should create a glog about Dengue fever: symptoms and
prevention. Draw students’ attention to the writing checklist, which can be used by the
group itself or as a tool for peer-editing. The final product can be shared with the
whole class.
Test Booklet answer key
1) Across: 1. Back pain; 5. Sore throat; 6. Cold
Down: 2. Nosebleed; 3. Sprain; 4. Cough
2) a) Turn off the engine and park safely.
b) Don’t move the injured person.
c) Stop the blood if you can.
d) Start cardio-pulmonary resuscitation
e) Call the emergency services.
3) a) I. F; II. F; III. F; IV. F; V. F
b) I. To inform about causes, types, symptoms, prevention and treatment of diabetes 1 and 2.
II. Their pancreas does not make enough insulin; their cells do not respond to insulin
normally.
III. Treating both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes involves medicines, diet, and exercise to
control blood sugar levels and prevent symptoms and problems.
24
IV. Because type 2 diabetes develops slowly, some people with high blood sugar have no
symptoms.
V. Keeping an ideal body weight and an active lifestyle may prevent type 2 diabetes. There is
no way yet to prevent type 1 diabetes.
4) Step 1: check; check
Step 2: separate, discard
Step 3: wash
Step 4: rinse, don´t use
Step 5: don’t use
Step 6: use
Step 7: serve
Step 8: freeze
5) Personal answers.
25
Getting Started
01) In pairs or small groups, discuss the questions below:
a) Use the word net below to brainstorm natural disasters. How many of them could you think
of?
b) Have you ever experienced a dangerous situation related to a natural disaster? Explain.
c) Can you think of famous cases of natural disasters that have happened around the world?
Which ones?
Vocabulary
01) Match the columns below:
1. Avalanche ____
a) a large amount of snow and ice that
suddenly falls down a mountain
2. Earthquake ____
3. Flood ____
4. Wildfire ____
5. Landslide ____
6. Tornado ____
7. Tsunami ____
8. Volcano Eruption ____
b) a very strong wind that goes quickly round
in a circle or funnel
c) a heavy fall of earth and rocks down the side
of a mountain or steep slope
d) a sudden shaking movement of the ground
e) a very large wave or series of waves caused
when something such as an earthquake moves
a large quantity of water in the sea
f) a large amount of water that covers an area
that was dry before
g) when a volcano explodes inside and flames,
rocks, and lava come out of the top
h) fire that starts in an area of countryside and
spreads very quickly
26
02) Use the words from the previous activity in the correct form to complete the chart:
a)
b)
c)
Shouting cannot cause an
_____________
Powerful _____________
strike near the Earth's plate
boundaries.
_____________ destroy
homes, take lives and spread
disease.
d)
e)
f)
Despite the damage they cause,
small _____________ can be
good for forests.
The 1970 Bangladesh
_____________ is the most
deadly in recorded history.
There was a huge
_____________ when Mount
St Helens erupted.
g)
h)
i)
__________ ____________
cause widespread destruction and
death but are vital for our survival.
_____________ form quickly
and leave trails of destruction.
Earthquakes can create deadly
_____________.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/natural_disasters
Reading
01) Read the text and answer the questions:
27
The Top 10 Most Terrifying Natural Disasters
in History
10 - Typhoon Tip
9 - The Lake Nyos Limnic Eruption
8 - The 1960 Chile Earthquake
On October 12, 1979, Tip made
history with most
the lowest air pressure
ever recorded at sea level on Earth.
Limnic eruptions are one of the most
bizarre natural disasters known.
The most powerful earthquake
ever recorded struck near Valdivia,
Chile on May 22, 1960, at 2:11 PM
local time. As many as 6,000
people were killed. Many more
would have been, had it not been
for Chile’s preparedness for
earthquakes, and the remote
location of the epicenter.
Not only was it the strongest
cyclone, it was also the largest ever
recorded, half the size of the United
States, excluding Alaska.
44 of the fatalities were fishermen in
the open Pacific. Tip sank or
grounded 8 ships.
On August 21, 1986, the carbon
dioxide at the bottom of the lake
suddenly erupted all at once and
released a cloud of carbon dioxide
from the lake. This cloud, being
heavier than air, suffocated between
1,700 and 1,800 people, not counting
all their livestock.
5 - The Great Flood of 1931
7 - The 2003 European Heat Wave
6 - The Storm of the Century
Europe is not accustomed to hot
summers. Give them a break, hot
summers almost never happen there.
But in 2003, they got hit with one
that would make the southeastern
United States, or the Australian
outback sit back and marvel.
From March 12 to 13, 1993, a
cyclonic storm formed off the east
coasts of the United States, so vast in
size that it caused a unique
hodgepodge of severe weather.
The deadliest natural disaster ever
recorded occurred through the winter,
spring, and summer of 1931 in central
China. There are three major rivers
draining this area, the Yangtze, the
Yellow, and the Huai. All three
flooded catastrophically.
There were at least 14,802 deaths
from the heat in France alone. Some
2,000 people died in Portugal from
the heat. About 300 died in
Germany; 141 in Spain, 1,500 in the
Netherlands.
The Appalachians of North Carolina,
Virginia, and West Virginia received
as much as 3.5 feet of snow, with
drifts up to 35 feet. 300 people froze
to death throughout the eastern half
of the country when the electrical
power was knocked out by falling
trees.
4 - The Tunguska Explosion
3 - The 1999 Bridge Creek F5 Tornado
On June 30, 1908, at about 7:14
AM local time, an asteroid or
comet plummeted over the lower
Tunguska River, in Krasnoyarsk,
Russia. It exploded with the
energy
of
the
largest
thermonuclear bomb the United
States has ever tested, the Castle
Bravo bomb, 10-15 megatons.
This tornado was the most powerful windstorm ever recorded on Earth. It killed
36 people, and traveled northeast from Amber, OK, through Bridge Creek and
Moore. Had the tornado veered north into the city, it would have probably
caused more deaths than any other tornado in history, and become the costliest.
No one was killed, because the
nearest eyewitnesses were about
40 miles away from ground zero.
Somewhere between 3.7 and 4 million
people were drowned or starved.
Nanjing City, China’s capital at the
time, became an island surrounded by
over 100,000 square kilometers of
water, more area than the state of
Indiana, or all of Portugal.
2 - The 1815 Tambora Eruption
It erupted from April 6 to 11, 1815, but the worst of this was at the end, from 10
to 11 April. The power is rated as 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, making
this eruption the most powerful in recorded history.
The ash disrupted the weather, and caused global temperatures to decrease .
1816 was the coldest year of the 1810s, and the 1810s was the coldest decade
of the century because of the eruption.
1 - The 1958 Lituya Bay Megatsunami
Megatsunamis were only theorized until July 9, 1958, when, in Lituya Bay, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook 90 million
tons of rock and glacial ice off the mountainside at the head of the bay. This generated the highest wave ever recorded on
Earth, 1,720 feet. It is, in fact, taller than all but the five tallest skyscrapers on Earth today.
http://listverse.com/2010/03/15/top-10-most-terrifying-natural-disasters-in-history/
a) Answer true (T), false (F) or doesn’t say (DS) for the sentences below, according to
the text:
I. a Typhoon is the same as a cyclone. ______
II. Chile’s lack of preparedness for a major disaster caused the death of 6,000 people. ______
III. In 2003 Europe faced the hottest summer ever registered. ______
IV. A blizzard hit the USA in 1993 and froze 300 people to death. ______
V. The Castle Bravo bomb explosion was responsible for the disaster in Tunguska, in 1908.
______
VI. The 1999 Bridge Creek F5 Tornado was the costliest in history. ______
VII. The ash from the Tambora Eruption caused global temperatures to decrease 2 degrees
Celsius. ______
b) Which of the disasters reported was:
I. the oldest: ________________________________
II. the most recent: ________________________________
III. the deadliest: ________________________________
IV. The most powerful:
IV.I. storm: ________________________________
IV.II. volcano eruption: ________________________________
IV.III. earthquake: _________________________________
V. The largest cyclone: _________________________________
VI. The highest wave: _________________________________
c) Which of the disasters did you consider the worst? Why?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
d) Would you add any other terrifying natural disaster to the list? Which one(s)?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
29
Figure it out!
01) Complete the chart using the expression in bold from the text:
Adjective
Superlative
Low
strong
near
cold
tall
high
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
Large
_____ _________________
Hot
the hottest
Deadly
Costly
_____ _________________
_____ _________________
Terrifying
bizarre
powerful
the most terrifying
_____ _______ ________________
_____ _______ ________________
Bad
Good
_____ _________________
The best
02) How are superlatives formed? Match the columns:
1. one syllable adjectives
2. one syllable adjectives ending in
consonant + vowel + consonant
3. adjectives ending in ‘e’
4. adjectives with 2 or more syllables
5. adjectives ending in ‘y’
6. irregular
a. take out ‘y’ and add ‘iest’
b. double last consonant and add ‘est’
c. no rule
d. add ‘st’
e. add ‘est’
f. add ‘the most’ before the adjective
03) Which is the correct answer? A or B? Read and answer:
We use superlatives: _______
30
a) To talk about one thing/person/place compared with another.
b) To talk about one thing/person/place compared with all others.
04) Read the Extreme Earth quiz taken from National Geographic website and complete
the gaps with the correct form of the words in brackets:
Extreme Earth Quiz
The planet is full of superlatives. How much do you know about these one-of-a-kind places?
1) What country has 2) What is the
the I._____________ Mariana Trench’s
(great) number of
claim to fame?
active volcanoes?
a) It’s the II. _____
a) Indonesia
biologically ______
(diverse) place on
b) Japan
Earth
3) What country is
the
V.______________
(large) by area:
c) Philippines
d) Italy
b) It is the
III.____________
(cold) place on Earth
4) Where is the
world’s
VI._____________
(tall) waterfall?
5) Where is the
VII.______________
(dry) place on Earth:
a) Antarctica
a) Canada
a) South Africa
b) United Stated
b) Canada
c) Canada
c) Norway
d) Russia
d) Venezuela
b) Sahara
c) Atacama Desert,
Chile
d) Northern
Territories, Australia
c) It is the
IV.____________
(low) point on Earth
d) All of the above
4.1) Now do the quiz and check the answers below. How good are you?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
31
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/superlative-earth-quiz/
Score
0-1
2-3
4-5
Result
Extreme Earth Amateur!
Extreme Earth Learner!
Extreme Earth Expert!
Pronunciation
01) Listen and repeat the words below using an online dictionary.
Most
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/most
Largest
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/largest
Driest
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/driest
Biggest
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/biggest
Listening
01) Complete the sentence below with the correct form of the words in brackets.
Listen/watch and check your answers:
On the island of Sicily, Mount Etna is the _____________(big) and ____ _______
__________ (active) volcano in Europe.
02) Listen again and answer the questions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5FBwCZ6xOs
a) In which country of Europe is Mount Etna located?
___________________________________________________________________________
b) How many times has Mount Etna erupted since the year 2,000?
32
___________________________________________________________________________
c) Why is Mount Etna especially dangerous?
___________________________________________________________________________
d) What happens when lava flows go beyond the higher slopes of the mountain?
___________________________________________________________________________
e) Over the past 300 years, how many villages have been destroyed?
___________________________________________________________________________
Speaking
01) In pairs / groups, create a hurricane preparedness plan. Agree on what to do in the
event of a huge (the most powerful ever) hurricane approaching your town / city.
MOST IMPORTANT
THING
SECOND MOST
IMPORTANT THING
THIRD MOST
IMPORTANT THING
One week before
The day before
The day of the
hurricane
During the hurricane
The day after the
Hurricane
USEFUL LANGUAGE
Personal Point of View
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
In my experience…
As far as I'm
concerned…
Speaking for myself…
In my opinion…
Personally, I think…
I'd say that…
I'd suggest that…
I believe that…
Agreeing with an opinion
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Of course.
You're absolutely right.
Yes, I agree.
I think so too.
That's a good point.
Exactly.
I don't think so either.
So do I.
That's true.
Neither do I.
That's just what I was
thinking.
I couldn't agree more.
Disagreeing with an opinion
•
•
•
•
•
•
I don't agree with you.
That's not entirely true.
I'm sorry to disagree
with you, but…
Yes, but don't you
think…
I'm afraid I have to
disagree.
I'm not so sure about
that.
33
Writing
01) The text below is a news report about Hurricane Katrina. Read and answer the
questions:
Hurricane Katrina Smashes Gulf Coast
Willie Drye
for National Geographic News
August 29, 2005
Hurricane Katrina—a nightmare of a hurricane with 140-mile-an-hour (225-kilometer-anhour) winds and a storm surge nearly two stories tall—came ashore early this morning at the
mouth of the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Katrina is the hurricane that emergencymanagement and government officials have long feared would strike New Orleans. Many of
the Louisiana city's 500,000 residents live below sea level and are surrounded by the waters of
the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, and several bays.
"This is a biggie," said Steve Rinard, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service
office in Lake Charles, Louisiana. "We've been dreading a storm like this."
Katrina began as a tropical depression just west of the Bahamas on August 23 and began
slowly strengthening as it approached South Florida. The storm made landfall at Fort
Lauderdale Thursday as a Category One hurricane with winds of about 80 miles an hour (129
kilometers an hour). Nine people in Florida died during the storm. The storm made an
unexpected jog southward as it crossed the Florida peninsula. Katrina emerged near the
southwestern tip of the peninsula and began rapidly strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico,
making landfall as a Category Four storm.
Hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents evacuated on Saturday and Sunday as the
forecasts for Hurricane Katrina became more ominous. "All kinds of evacuations are going
on, and shelters are filling up," Rinard said Sunday night. "There are shelters as far away as
southeast Texas and all over central Louisiana."
A.J. Holloway, mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi, said Sunday night that most residents in the
lowest-lying sections of his city of 55,000 had evacuated. "We don't know what to expect,"
Holloway said.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0829_050829_katrina.html
a) What’s the importance of the title for a news report? Can you think of a better title?
___________________________________________________________________________
b) Why do you think the writer have chosen to include interesting detailed information in the
introduction?
___________________________________________________________________________
c) The text includes some quotes of people involved in the stories being told. What’s the
impact of this in the readers?
___________________________________________________________________________
34
d) Why is it so important in a news report to address the 5 W’s and H (who, what, when,
where, why, and how) concerning the fact being reported?
___________________________________________________________________________
02) Research about one of the most famous natural disasters that have occurred in the
world and write a news report about it. Use the checklist below to help you:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Does your text…
have a strong, catchy headline that gives meaning to the article?
begin with the most important or interesting detail in the introduction?
address the 5 W’s and H (who, what, when, where, why, and how)?
organize information into paragraphs?
include quotes from witnesses?
Did you...
reread your text?
make sure ideas are clear and expressed in sentences?
correct spelling?
correct punctuation, capitalization, and grammar?
35
01) Use the words from the box to complete the chart:
avalanche – earthquake – flood – wildfire – landslide – tornado – tsunami - volcano eruption
Weather Event
Ingredients present
heavy rainfall
Weather Event
clouds, strong wind,
rain, hail
flames, rocks, lava
Ingredients present
snow, ice, mountain
earth, rocks, mountain
movement, plate
tectonics
large waves,
earthquake, water, sea
heat, dry, flames,
smoke
02) Complete the gaps in the texts with the correct form of the words in brackets:
a) _____________ (high) place
on earth as we know it is Mount
Everest at 29, 035 feet (8,848m)
above sea level.
The Atacama Desert is without
doubt b) _____________ (dry)
place on Earth. A virtually
rainless plateau it lies between
the Andes Mountains and the
Pacific Ocean in Chile and Peru.
It is made up of salt basins, sand
and old lava flows.
Situated in the South Atlantic, 2800 kms from
the nearest mainland, Cape of Good Hope in
South Africa, Tristan da Cunha is without doubt
d) _____________ (isolated) habitable place on
Earth.
Earth's c) _____________ (wet)
place is Mawsynram, located in the
Khasi Hills of eastern India. The
little village receives an average of
40 feet of precipitation per annum.
Oymyakon, deep in Siberia, holds the record for being e)
______________ (cold) inhabited place on Earth.
Oymyakon lies just a few hundred miles south of the
Arctic circle, and approximately 500 miles east of
Yakust.
http://extremeearth.webs.com/themostisolated.htm
36
3) Watch the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_CRzcIT-Q) and answer the
questions:
a) What’s the objective of the video?
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
b) What’s the difference between climate and
weather?
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
c) How many climate zones does Earth have? ______________________
d) Which areas are examples of:
I) mild climate zones: ___________________ II) harsh climate zones: _________________
e) What makes possible for humans to survive in all kinds of severe and challenging climates
nowadays?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
f) What damages can severe weather cause?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
g) How much money is spent in the US due to the destruction caused by natural disasters?
________________________________________________________________________________
h) Which state in the US shows the greatest number of natural disasters? What events are these?
________________________________________________________________________________
i) Is there a way of warning people about hurricanes, tornadoes and floods before they strike? What
is necessary to do so? Which tools and equipment are used to make it possible?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
4) Read the text and answer the questions:
37
6 Most Extreme Places on Earth, Where Only Bacteria Can Live
When we think of inhospitable places, we may think of areas like Antarctica, or, frankly D.C. in July where the
almost 100% humidity makes you feel like you’re swimming down the street. But there are a whole host of other
regions where we wouldn’t like to live, where other organisms thrive. Namely, bacteria and other prokaryotes.
Ordinarily when we think of these little micro-organism critters, we think of the bugs that give us acne or
infections, but in reality these little guys can help us understand some of the mysteries of life structured differently
from our own eukaryotic selves.
Enjoy this list of places you’d never think about trying to live, but where you can actually find bacteria.
1. Earth's Upper Atmosphere
2. The Bottom of the Ocean
3. Volcanoes
The border between our atmosphere
and outer space is full of UV
radiation and seriously lacking heat
and oxygen. However, just this
month scientists from the Georgia
Institute of Technology discovered
that 20% of what they assumed was
dust on their jet plane after a flight
six miles above the earth’s surface
was actually alive! These findings
indicate that we’re surrounded by a
giant bubble of life, which has huge
implications for how we understand
environmental science.
In addition to thriving in highpressure areas where we humans
would be crushed, these bacteria
have found a way to make the most
out of a limited oxygen supply.
These bacteria create a tiny power
grid where they engage in
extracellular electron transfer that
creates an electric current that helps
couple biochemical processes —
mostly, sharing oxygen where there
is very little. These microbes have
learned the benefits of community
living.
In volcanoes in the Southern
Hemisphere,
temperatures
can
fluctuate between -10 degrees
Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) and 58
degrees Celsius (133 degrees
Fahrenheit) in less than a day. The
microbes that live there aren’t the
most efficient at converting energy,
but the fact that they survive where
the only sources of power are things
lethal to humans, like carbon
monoxide, is incredible.
4. The Dead Sea
This body of water gets its name
from the high salinity concentration
that prevents most life. (It also
makes you super buoyant, so
floating becomes even easier.)
However, certain types of microbes
are more than happy to soak up the
salt. Not so dead any more, is it?
6. YOU.
5. Antarctica
Yes, even bacteria can be found
well below zero. These frigid
conditions would ordinarily cause
the elastic membranes of most
living organisms to become
brittle and break, but certain types
of fungi, bacteria, and viruses
definitely prefer icy conditions to
even room temperature.
You may have heard that bacteria
can actually help with digestion, but
your stomach and small intestine are
just some of the environments that
microbes are happy to live in. They
also live all over the surface of your
skin, as well as the areas of your
body that are protected by a mucus
layer, like your eyes, nose and
mouth. Additionally, these bacteria
work with your immune system to
keep you healthy, and protect you
from the harmful ones you’d rather
not host.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/52753/6-most-extreme-places-on-earth-where-only-bacteria-can-live
a) Why is Earth’s upper atmosphere considered an inhospitable place to find life?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
b) Which condition do bacteria find in the bottom of the ocean? How do they manage to survive in
spite of these harsh conditions?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
c) Why are microbes which live in volcanoes inefficient at converting energy? What source of power do
they use?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
d) Why does floating become easier in the Dead Sea?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
e) What biological reasons would make it impossible for most living organisms to live in
Antarctica?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
f) In which areas and organ can bacteria be found in the human body? Which functions do they
carry out?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
39
05) Extreme Earth Magazine wants to know: What are the hottest, coldest, driest and wettest
places you’ve ever visited? Include brief descriptions of the places you mention. The best text
will be published in our next issue!
_____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
40
Teacher’s guide: natural disasters and extreme weather
Overview
In this unit students will focus on talking about extreme events, exposing ideas, agreeing and
disagreeing.
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Grammar
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Listening
Natural disasters: avalanche, earthquake,
flood, wildfire, landslide, tornado,
tsunami, volcano eruption
Most and ‘est’ ending in superlatives
pronunciation
Superlatives
The top 10 most terrifying natural
disaster: news article
Genre: news report
Dialogue: talking about natural disasters,
exposing ideas, agreeing and disagreeing
(preparedness plan)
TV documentary: Mount Etna Eruptions
Getting started
This activity can be used as a warmer so the teacher has a better idea of students’ previous
knowledge regarding the theme: natural disasters and extreme weather.
1
Ask students to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Do not monitor for form
at this stage. Help them put their ideas through if necessary. Elicit the groups’ answers
and write all natural disasters and extreme weather words mentioned on the board
(reproducing the word net). Make sure all students in class understand the meaning
and pronunciation of the words written.
a) possible answers: blizzard, tornado, volcano eruption, flood, tsunami, earthquake,
hurricane, etc.
b and c) personal answers
Vocabulary
1
Still in pairs or small groups, ask students to match the columns. Go through the
answers as a class.
1a, 2d, 3f, 4h, 5c, 6b, 7e, 8g
2
Individually, student’s use the words from the previous activity to complete the
blanks. Let them compare the answers in pairs before eliciting the answers from
volunteers.
a) avalanche
41
b) earthquakes
c) floods
d) wildfires
e) tornado
f) landslide
g) volcano eruptions
h) tornadoes
i) tsunamis
Reading
1a
Direct students to the title and source of the text. Ask them if they can guess which
famous natural disasters that have happened in the world might be in the list. Tell
students to read the statements and next the text to answer true, false or doesn’t say
(information not mentioned in the text). Ask for volunteers to read their answers.
I. T; II. F; III. DS; IV. T; V. F; VI. F; VII. DS
1b
Tell students to reread the text to complete with the correct events. Allow them to
compare their answers. Check answers as a class.
I. The 1815 Tambora Eruption
II. The 2003 European Heat Wave
III. The Great Flood of 1931
IV.
IV.I. The 1999 Bridge Creek F5 Tornado
IV.II. The 1815 Tambora Eruption
IV.III. The 1960 Chile Earthquake
V. Typhoon Tip
VI. The 1958 Lituya Bay Megatsunami
1c and 1d
After setting some time for students to answer these questions, discuss their
answers as a class.
personal answers
Figure it out
42
In this section students will be lead to figure out the form, meaning and use of superlatives by
themselves.
1
Direct students’ attention to the fact that the chart must be completed with words and
expressions from the text. Ask them to complete the chart in pairs. Check answers as a
class.
Adjective
Low
strong
near
cold
tall
high
Superlative
The lowest
The strongest
The nearest
The coldest
The tallest
The highest
Large
The largest
Hot
the hottest
Deadly
Costly
The deadliest
The costliest
Terrifying
bizarre
powerful
the most terrifying
the most bizarre
the most powerful
Bad
Good
The worst
The best
2
Ask students to match the columns in pairs. Check answers as a class.
1e; 2b; 3d; 4f; 5a; 6c
3
Ask students to select the correct statement. Allow them to compare their answers in
pairs. Check answers as a class.
B
4
In pairs or small groups, ask students to complete the blanks. Allow them some time to
compare their answers to other pairs/groups’ answers. Go through the answers as a
class.
I. greatest – II. most diverse – III. coldest – IV. lowest – V. largest – VI. tallest –
VII.driest
43
4.1
Ask students to check their score and compare in pairs. Class follow-up: check all
students’ results and find out which category had the greatest number of learners.
Pronunciation
1
Play the audio several times to drill pronunciation. Monitor for accuracy.
Listening
Optional lead-in: give students some time to discuss the questions below in pairs and talk
about the answers as a class.
01) What do you know about volcanic eruptions? Why do they happen? (Volcanic
eruptions occur when the plates of the earth pull apart, thus causing magma to rise to
the surface.)
02) Can you name some of the world’s most active volcanoes? (Etna - Italy, Stromboli –
Italy, Kilauea – Hawaii, among others)
1
Set some time for students to complete the task. Let them compare their answers in
pairs. Play the video once so that students can check their answers.
biggest – the most active
2
Go through the questions with students. Play the audio once or twice again. Nominate
students or ask for volunteers to read their answers:
a) Italy
b) 4
c) because it’s a highly populated region
d) Larger eruptions invade towns down the mountain.
e) 16
Optional follow-up activity: ask students the following questions:
01) Would you live in an area which is close to an active volcano, like Etna? Why/why
not?
02) What do you think about people who rebuild their houses after each destruction event,
but never leave the area for good?
03) Is there any kind of natural disaster or extreme weather common in the country or city
you live that makes you consider moving to a different area?
Speaking
In this section students will have a dialogue about natural disasters by exposing ideas,
agreeing and disagreeing with the purpose of creating a preparedness plan for a natural
disaster.
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1
Go through the task with students and check understanding (especially of helpful
language). During the activity, monitor for accuracy but don’t interfere, unless
communication is hindered. After the activity took place, write the most frequent
mistakes on the board, but don’t identify the students who made them. Ask the class to
help you correct the mistakes. Write the correct forms on the board.
Writing
The purpose of this section is to generate genre awareness: news report.
1
Allow students some time to read the news report and answer the questions in pairs or
small groups. When they have finished, have them compare their answers to another
pair or group’s answers. Go through answers as a class:
a) The title attract the reader’s attention
b) The introduction is the first paragraph in a text. If it’s interesting and catchy, readers feel
stimulated and motivated to continue reading.
c) It proves that what’s being said really happened, adding a reality and curiosity factor.
d) News report are about real facts, When reading about a true story people want to know all
possible information about it, such as who, what, when, where, why, and how such a thing
happened.
2
Go through the task instructions with students and draw their attention to the writing
checklist, which can be used individually or as a tool for peer-editing. This activity can
be set as homework or done in class (if time allows).
Test Booklet answer key
1)
Weather Event
Flood
Ingredients present
heavy rainfall
Tornado
clouds, strong wind, Landslide
rain, hail
flames, rocks, lava
Earthquake
Volcano eruption
Wildfire
heat, dry,
smoke
Weather Event
Avalanche
flames, Tsunami
Ingredients present
snow, ice, mountain
earth, rocks, mountain
movement, plate
tectonics
large waves,
earthquake, water, sea
2) a) the highest b) the driest c) wettest d) the most isolated e) the coldest
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3) a) To inform the differences between climate and weather, giving examples of extreme
situations of both terms and showing how technology and the work of meteorologists can
prevent or warn people before natural disasters strike.
b) Climate refers to the average conditions of a place over a long period of time. Weather
refers to the day-to-day conditions of the Earth atmosphere, at a particular place and time.
c) 6
d) I. Mediterranean climate of southern Europe
II. arid deserts of northern Africa, frozen tundra of Greenland
e) Refrigeration for food, air conditioning and heating for homes.
f) Destruction of homes, property, transportation and crops. Threaten people’s lives.
g) 11,4 billion dollars
h) Florida. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes
i) Yes. Accurate weather forecasts. Powerful computers, radars, weather satellites, research
planes.
4) a) Because it is full of UV radiation and seriously lacking heat and oxygen.
b) High-pressure areas and limited oxygen supply. By sharing oxygen.
c) Because of temperature fluctuation (between -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) and 58
degrees Celsius (133 degrees Fahrenheit). Carbon monoxide
d) The high salinity concentration.
e) The frigid conditions would ordinarily cause the elastic membranes of most living
organisms to become brittle and break.
f) Stomach, small intestine, skin, eyes, nose and mouth. They help with digestion, work with
the immune system and protect us from harmful bacteria.
5) Personal answers
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Rationale
The pedagogical units were developed under the perspective of Communicative Language
Teaching, having as main principle the teaching of language for communicative purposes, “by
making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and by acknowledging the
interdependence of language and communication” (LARSEN-FREEMAN, 2000, p.121)
therefore enabling students with the necessary tools to make them able to produce real
language, to be used in real life contexts in a meaningful and useful way.
The themes chosen connect all activities in the units and are of social relevance, since they are
very likely to be faced by a person living, travelling and working in an English speaking
country or even when dealing with English speakers in their own countries for multiple
reasons. When choosing the theme, one must bear in mind the students’ proficiency level,
age, interests and objectives when learning English. The theme should be capable of
generating curiosity, motivation and engagement.
All skills (listening, speaking, writing and reading) are integrated and also connected by the
theme and their activities enhance students’ comprehension and critical thinking. As
discussed by Larsen-Freeman (2000), communicative activities are student-centered and the
teacher plays the role of a facilitator and an advisor rather than the know-all used to be found
in classrooms from the past decades.
Regarding the reading skill, the texts chosen to be part of the reading sections are authentic,
taken from websites and with no pedagogical purposes, since one of the principles of
Communicative Language Teaching is that “language as it is used in a real context should be
introduced whenever possible” (LARSEN-FREEMAN, 2000, p. 125). They provide
contextualized input for vocabulary and grammar work and their reading is essential to enable
students to answer the comprehension questions, which contemplate different levels of
inference.
As also discussed by Larsen-Freeman (2000) the reading activities should aim at giving
importance to student’s previous knowledge, ideas and opinions about the subject presented,
responding to the content of a reading text, not only to the language, as stated by Harmer
(1998).
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Grammar work is conducted inductively. Students are guided to use contextualized examples
to discover form and meaning of the grammar topic. Later on, they are lead to use the
formulated information in a real life situation in which that specific grammar topic is likely to
be found. “Since our goal is to achieve a better fit between grammar and communication, it is
not helpful to think of grammar as a set of meaningless, decontextualized and static
structures” (LARSEN-FREEMAN, 2001, p. 252). As discussed by the author, a threedimensional grammar framework must concern teachers: form, meaning and use. By
demanding active participation of students and stimulating their thinking, grammar learning
becomes memorable.
The speaking sections were designed as a role-play - a communicative activity in which the
students play and exchange roles and reach an objective by means of using the language – and
a collaborative task, in which they have to expose their ideas, agree or disagree with their
partner’s ones and reach to a common solution.
Information gap is present, because it “exists when one person in an exchange knows
something the other person does not” (LARSEN-FREEMAN, 2000, p. 129). Again, the
chosen situations are likely to be found in real life and intrinsically connected to the theme,
the grammar topic and the previously explored vocabulary and pronunciation, as “the social
context of the communicative event is essential in giving meaning to utterances” (LARSENFREEMAN, 2000, p. 127.)
Although connected to the grammar topic, students can also count on a box with useful
language which contains other language forms that can be used to achieve the required
communicative purpose. During the task, they can also use any other language form they
know suitable for the function being performed (exposing ideas, disagreeing, agreeing, giving
advice, etc) since “one function can have many different linguistic forms and the emphasis is
on the process of communication rather than just mastery of language forms” (LARSENFREEMAN, 2000, p. 126). By allowing students to have free choice over what to say and
how to say it, the choice principle is being respected.
Lastly, truly communicative activities have also the feedback principle present: “a speaker can
evaluate whether or not his purpose has been achieved based upon the information he receives
from his listener. If the listener does not have an opportunity to provide the speaker with such
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feedback, then the exchange is not really communicative.” (LARSEN-FREEMAN, 2000, p.
129).
It’s important to mention that other oral practice opportunities are distributed in the units as a
whole, especially assuming the format of freer discussions in pairs, triads, small groups or
whole group (LARSEN-FREEMAN, 2000, p. 130) in order to favor different patterns of
interaction.
Similarly to the reading section, the listening skill section was devised having authentic
sources as starting point, as discussed by Larsen-Freeman (2000): “students should be given
opportunities to listen to language as it is used in authentic communication.”. The sections
include a pre-listening activity in which students have the opportunity to discuss about the
topic, coming up with related vocabulary, sharing their previous knowledge and learning from
their colleagues experiences. The comprehension questions focus on main ideas, detailed
information and also value students’ opinions and ideas. The videos chosen to be part of the
sections bring useful and relevant information and are related to the theme and grammar topic
studied before.
Finally, the writing sections brings genre-based activities, as discussed by Badger & White
(2000), in which an authentic example of the target genre is provided and analyzed to make
students discover the characteristics and main aspects of that specific text type. In genre-based
activities, “writing varies with the social context in which it is produced. So, we have a range
of kinds of writing—such as sales letters, research articles, and reports—linked with different
situations” (BADGER & WHITE, 2000, p.154). After discovering what language, visual aids,
text organization, audience and purpose underlie the genre studied, students are asked to write
a sample text.
To perform the writing production, students will have already had all necessary input
(information about the genre, content, vocabulary and grammar) but it may be required some
research, what stimulates students to become autonomous and independent learners.
The writing task may be collaborative - since one of them is supposed to be done in groups –
or individual. They can be done in class, if time allows, or set as homework. It’s important
that writing tasks have a sense of purposefulness: in one of them students should post their
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work (a health poster) in a real website that can be accessed by their colleagues or even by
other people from all over the world.
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References
BADGER, R & WHITE, G. A Process Genre Approach to Teaching Writing. ELT Journal.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 153-160.
HARMER, J. How to teach English. Harlow: Longman, 1998.
LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000.
LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. Teaching grammar In. CELCE-MURCIA, M (Ed.) Teaching
English as a second or foreign language. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 2001. p. 251-265.
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Websites consulted
http://www.richmondpractice.scot.nhs.uk/selfhelp.shtml
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0GCG2zn5o
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2010/aug/H1N1082809.html
www.glogster.com
http://www.puzzle-maker.com/
http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/diabetes/overview.html
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/First-aid-campaigns/Road-safety/What-todo-in-a-road-accident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DizdkUayQBw
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/natural_disasters
http://listverse.com/2010/03/15/top-10-most-terrifying-natural-disasters-in-history/
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/superlative-earth-quiz/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0829_050829_katrina.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5FBwCZ6xOs
http://extremeearth.webs.com/themostisolated.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_CRzcIT-Q
http://www.policymic.com/articles/52753/6-most-extreme-places-on-earth-where-onlybacteria-can-live
http://www.universalbiomat.com/toxicity-quiz.html
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