Aim: to consolidate knowledge on the theme “Television”, to be able to speak about good and bad points of television, to be able to express your attitude towards commercials on TV.
The students sit down around the table, so that they can see each other well. It is “A round table” and the students shouldn’t be afraid of speaking, of making mistakes. The task of the teacher is to involve everybody into talk.
1. The teacher: Today we are going to speak about television in Russia and in Britain. All of you have TV sets at home and some families have two or three TV sets. That proves that television is popular in our country. What programmes can you watch on TV? ( the students name programmes).
2. The students get picture and programmes. Their task is to match a picture to a word.
a) commercials
b) cartoon
c) comedy
d) detective film
e) documentary
f) game show
g) music programme
h) news
i) soap opera
j) sports game
k) western
l) weather forecast
3. Teacher: Now tell me please what programmes do you like to watch and why?
Pupil 1: I like to watch music programmes because I like to listen to the music very much.
Pupil 2: As for me I like to watch comedies. They are very funny, etc.
4. Teacher: Tell me please what programmes do you hate and why?
Pupil 1: I hate soap operas. They are so long and so boring.
Pupil 2: I can tell that I don’t like commercials. They are silly and boring, etc.
5. The students tell about themselves as viewers.
6. The students tell how British television differs from Russian one.
7. The teacher gives papers with some information about British television.
“Television viewing is the most popular leisure pastime in Britain. People also call it “watching the box” or “telly”.
Britain is one of the world s foremost exporters of TV productions, which continue to win large numbers of international awards, especially for documentaries, nature programmes and drama serials.
Britain also buys programmes from abroad, nearly half the programmes came from the USA.
There are four TV channels in Britain: BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Channel 4. BBC1 and BBC2, the two state channels, do not show adverts. ITV and Channel 4, the two independent channels, do show adverts. They get most of their money from advertising.
BBC1 and ITV tend to broadcast popular programmes. They specialize in general interest programmes, sports programmes, recent films, current affairs, game shows, children’ s programmes and soaps.
BBC2 and Channel 4 show programmes that usually attract much smaller audiences: TV plays, classical concerts, foreign films, travel and educational programmes.
These are the channels, which all viewers in the country receive. British people can also connect to cable or satellite TV. These channels are fee-paying, and so only about a fifth of households receive satellite and cable TV.
8. The students are divided into 2 teams. One team tries to prove that commercials on TV are good, the other team is against commercials.
9. Each team tells about some programme, but doesn’t name it. The task of the other team is to guess this programme.
10. So one team should persuade the 2nd team to watch this programme.
The students give reasons why they don’t want to watch the programme. Each student in both teams should take part in this task. The students of the 2nd team may agree or not agree to watch the programme. Then the teams change their roles.
11. The students say what is good and bad about watching TV.
12. The teacher: of course, besides good points there are bad points. Children spend much time spending TV. They don’t read the books, walk in the fresh air, children’ s speech is not developed. Children have no wish to do anything. Television really makes them waste time. In addition there are a lot of commercials on TV which are often misleading and unhelpful.
13. Imagine that…
- You are parents and your child watches TV a lot. What will be your actions?
- You have an opportunity to start your own project on TV. What would it be about? Why?
14. Conclusion.