CELTA Assignment 3: Skills related task.
The text I have chosen to use for this assignment is an ‘authentic text’ from The Metro newspaper relating to Big Brother, the television reality show. The level of the class is intermediate. The reason I chose this text is because it has a theme that is both current and popular around the world. Big Brother is a concept that was first screened in the NL and has now reached almost 70 countries as a prime time hit. Therefore it is a subject that the students are highly likely to have been exposed to in one way or another.
In order to raise interest in the subject I would ask the students to talk in pairs about reality television shows, to think of a reality television programme and the format of their chosen programme. To talk in pairs and then give feedback to the group would elicit as many examples of the genre as possible whilst also (almost) guaranteeing that Big Brother will be mentioned. In fact it is highly likely that Big Brother will be mentioned by several of the class because of its popularity.
In feedback it would be good to write the examples on the board record. It would also be prudent to deal with any ‘essential’ vocabulary from the chosen text at this point. Some of which you may be able to elicit during feedback about the show. On evaluating the article the terms ‘sparse room’, ‘tensions are expectd to fray’ and ‘pittance’ are likely to cause problems.