Урок "Noise Pollution" ("Шумовое загрязнение"). 10–11-й класс

Кузнецова Галина Генриховна, учитель английского языка

Классы: 10, 11

Тема: Экология.

Тип учебного занятия: урок актуализации ранее изученных знаний.

Место урока в теме: пятый урок в теме “Экология. Экологические проблемы современности”. (Предыдущий урок смотреть в материалах Фестиваля “Открытый урок” 2012-2013 уч.г. Тема предыдущего урока A New Threat to the World’s Ecology. Урок посвящён проблеме утилизации электронного мусора).

Дидактическая цель: создание условий для активизации лексического материала.

Познавательный аспект — знакомство с мнениями людей о шумовом загрязнении.

Развивающий аспект — развитие способности к обобщению, развитие логичности и доказательности.

Воспитательный аспект — формирование уважительного отношения к мнению другого человека, потребности в высказывании собственного мнения.

Учебный аспект — совершенствование речевых навыков.

Формы организации работы на уроке: фронтальная, индивидуальная, парная, групповая.

Participant’s Name: Kuznetsova Galina Genrikhovna, school №88 Yaroslavl.

Lesson name: Noise Pollution.

Level: 10-11 form.

Student’s interests: healthy lifestyles, living in a healthy environment, nature protection, listening to music, using modern devices.

Objectives: – to engage students to learn about noise pollution and to better understand noise pollution issues; – to develop a critical analytical ability about noise pollution and human health; – to give advice how people can protect their hearing.

By the end of the lesson students will be able to read for the purpose of finding specific information and for detailed understanding to be able to identify different sources of noise pollution to explain the meaning of some new words to state an opinion about noise pollution.

Materials: LCD projector or other means of viewing a video as a class. Short video about noise pollution. Hand-outs with texts and exercises. Pictures describing health problems.

Lesson plan

1. Warm-up.

Teacher: During the previous lesson we spoke about pollution as one of the main ecological issues. We touched upon the problems of electronic waste and its impact on human health and environment. I think all of you understand that recycling electronic waste has become an issue of universal concern.

Now you are going to present your posters about an e-waste drop off day in our school.

(Students’ home task for this lesson was to make a poster about an e-waste drop off day in our school. They put their posters on the magnet board for everybody to see. The assessment of the posters is done by the teacher after the lesson.)

Teacher: You know that there are a lot of ecological problems to touch upon. Today we are going to speak about one more type of pollution which is not much spoken about. Watch a short video and find out what type of pollution it is.

(The teacher shows a short video about noise pollution. Students watch it and speak about the idea of the film.) http://yandex.ru/video/search?p=2&filmId=s87R5Ss8UXI&where=all&text=noise%20pollution Video about noise pollution. Supplement 1.

Students: This video is about noise pollution.

Teacher: Right you are! Ironically, the subject of noise pollution is one of the most silent of all forms of pollutions. But this little-spoken about form of pollution causes as many problems as other forms do. Today we are going to answer the following questions:

What is considered to be noise?
What are the sources of noise pollution?
Why has noise pollution become a problem in society?
Does noise pollution have physical effects on the human body?
What is society doing about noise pollution?

(You can write the questions on the blackboard or show them on the slide with the help of the slide projector.)

2. Pre-reading.

2.1. Read the dictionary entries about noise. Give a short summary about what noise is.

Noise is sound or a sound that is loud, unpleasant, unexpected, or undesired. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)
Noise is a loud, confused, or senseless shouting or outcry. Sound that lacks agreeable musical quality or is noticeably unpleasant. Any sound that is undesired or interferes with one's hearing of something. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noise)
Noise is a general word that usually refers to loud, harsh, or discordant sounds. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/noise)
Noise is defined as a sound, especially a loud one. (http://www.yourdictionary.com/noise)
Noise is a sound, especially one that is loud, unpleasant, or frightening. (http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/noise_1)
Noise is a loud or unpleasant sound. (http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/noise)

(Students read the definitions from different dictionaries and write down in their own ones in their copybooks.)

Teacher: The word noise comes from Latin word nauseas which means “sickness”. Noise can block, distort or interfere with the meaning of the message in human, animal and electronic communication.

2.2. Work in pairs. In our modern world especially in towns and cities there are practically no places to escape noise. You can hear it from everywhere. Fill in a spidergram about the sources of noise pollution.

In pairs students fill in the spidergram.

3. Reading.

3.1. Read the text and check your ideas about the sources of noise pollution with those given in the text (reading for specific information).

3.2. Answer the following questions (reading for the main idea).

Is noise pollution a universal problem?
Are governments prepared to solve the problem of noise pollution?

No other pollutant ruins nearly as many lives as noise. It is the only one known to drive sufferers to murder; yet it receives so little public attention. Green pressure groups, which struggle actively on so many environmental threats, are almost universally silent about it. Noise pollution seems to be growing fast in many countries around the world. But in fact no government in the world seems prepared to deal with the problem.

Two thirds of Europeans are exposed every day to noise levels that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) are unacceptable. About one in ten people are particularly sensitive to noise. In Britain, more than half a million people appear to move home every year to escape the noise. Ten years ago, a survey found that 12 million of UK citizens were disturbed by traffic, 3.5 million by passing aircraft, and 11 million by noisy neighbours. The situation is constantly getting worse: household noise complaints have risen five-fold over the past two decades. More people say they hate piped music in shops, restaurants and public buildings than like it.

Of course, we have been surrounded by sound since before birth and noise pollution is as old as civilization. Like other pollutant it is a by-product of industrialization, urbanization and modern civilization. Generally speaking, the noise pollution has two sources, industrial and non-industrial. The industrial source includes the noise from various industries and big machines working at a very high speed and high noise intensity. Non-industrial source of noise includes the noise created by traffic and the neighbourhood noise generated by various noise pollution.

Most leading noise sources fall into the following categories: road traffic, aircraft, railroads, construction, industry, noise in buildings and consumer products. Indoor and outdoor noise pollution sources include car alarms, emergency service sirens, mechanical equipment, fireworks, compressed air horns, grounds keeping equipment, barking dogs, appliances, audio entertainment systems, electric megaphones, and loud people.

(Students add some ideas of noise pollution sources to their spidegrams if there are any.)

4. Work in groups of four. Make a survey about your personal noise exposure. Use such phrases as none of us/ we all/ most students/only few

	Student 1	St.2	St.3	St.4
Do you have noisy neighbours?
Are there any construction sites near the place you live?
Does your house face any main road?
Do you live near an airport/factory/ plant?
Are there any green spaces (parks, recreational areas) near your house?
Do you listen to your MP3/iPod every day?
Do you often go to rock/pop concerts?

(Students make a survey. One student from each group presents its results to the class.)

5. Speaking.

5.1. Noise pollution can affect your health. Match the pictures with the health problems caused by noise.

Health problems: headache, heart diseases, sleep problems, chronic stress, poor concentration, hearing loss.

(You can either put pictures on the blackboard or show them with the help of a slide projector. Students match pictures and health problems. Supplement 2)

5.2. Read a short text and:

1) say if you agree or disagree with the doctors’ opinion about teenagers;

2) find the meaning of the underlined words.

Teen Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is becoming more common in teens and the cause is obvious: loud noise. Have you often seen a young person with a headset such as MP3 and iPod? You can be sure that the volume is very high, especially when they can't hear you or someone else calling their name. They are glued to their cell phones and often speak loudly into them. More than that the listener, another teen, has a cell phone pressed very close to his/her ears. More young people today have "boom boxes" and other high-tech sound systems than they did a generation ago. And then there's a number of young rock and pop stars attracting crowds of teens to their concerts. From a common-sense point of view, we should mention that today's teens live in an environment that is louder than ever before.

Studies in different countries show that many teens know the cause and effect relationship between high volume and damaged ears, but continue to crank up their iPods because these kids believe they are immune to hearing loss! Teenagers think that only "old people" get bad hearing. However, the damaged hearing begins at much younger age, perhaps during primary school!

A study from Children's Hospital Boston and City University of New York says that most college students play their iPods and MP3s too loud. Another American study reports that 20 percent of teenagers have some hearing loss. If the fact that one in five teens has this problem is still hard to believe, it's because it is painless. Hearing loss is a gradual process. Many medical conditions can be reversed. Hearing loss is not one of them!

5.3. What should be done about the unwanted noise? Can you give any advice?

(Students give their ideas about reducing noise and teens’ hearing loss process.)

5.4. Now read some tips from hearing specialists.

These tips come from the "Listen to Your Buds," campaign by the American Speech Language Hearing Association to the loud music fans:

Many personal music players don't have volume control indicators. An easy way to set a safe listening level is to crank it up all the way, then back to halfway.
It is healthy to take "listening breaks" from loud music or other sources of loud noise to give ears a chance to recover.

"Turn it to the Left" is a public campaign launched by the American Academy of the Audiology which also gives its ideas for preventing hearing loss:

Turn down the volume
Walk away from the noise
Wear hearing protection

6. Summing up.

Teacher: How can you sum up the idea of today’s lesson?

Student 1: Noise pollution is something that you cannot easily get away from.

Student 2: For people who live in noisy areas or work in loud environments noise is a huge problem.

Student 3: Environmental groups and governments should put pressure on this issue and start fighting against noise pollution.

Teacher: I would like to add that if you are not able to get away from noise, remember a few ideas how to cope with it. And, of course, you should not produce noise in your neighbourhood, community and nearby recreational areas.

7. Home Task.

At home you will read about how noise affects marine animals. Read the text Human Noise Pollution: A Danger to Sea Life and do exercises to it. Supplement 3.

Bibliography

28.03.2014