English File third edition Advanced Weblink Mini-Projects

File 1

1A
Activity type: Speaking
Language: Art
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/sep/04/t
he-top-10-self-portraits-in-art-lucian-freud-sherman-rembrandt
Preparation: If there is no internet available in the classroom, print out the
paintings with their commentary from the weblink. Print enough copies for one
per pair. Bring blank paper for each student plus some artist tools (e.g. pencils,
paints, crayons, chalk, etc.) to the class.
In class: Put students into pairs and ask them to look at the paintings. Ask them
to discuss what they think the self-portraits mean, and what they think about the
artist having viewed them. Encourage students to critique the work, explaining
their opinions. Discuss as a class, eliciting useful art vocabulary as you go.

1B
Activity type: Reading and Speaking
Language: Jobs
http://money.howstuffworks.com/10-high-paying-dirty-job.htm#page=0
Start the lesson by asking students: In what job do you think your hands would
get the dirtiest? Elicit answers like train operator, toilet cleaner, etc. Write the 10
jobs featured on the weblink on the board, and then tell students these are the 10
messiest (but high paying) jobs in the world. Add the salaries, but mix them up
so that they don’t correspond with the correct job. Ask students to work in pairs,
matching the salaries to the right jobs.
Get students to read the article to check whether they were right. Hold open
feedback in class. Discuss the jobs: which jobs would the students like/hate to
have?Focus on any emergent language by writing it on the board.

File 2

2A
Activity type: Game
Language: Unusual words
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/weird-and-wonderful-words
Preparation: Choose any 10 words and write them individually onto 10 cards.
Do the same with the meanings of each word. Repeat enough times for each
group of three to four students to have a set of cards with the words, and a set
with the meanings.

©Oxford University Press 2015

In class: Choose one other random word from the website and write it on the
board. Ask students to guess what it means (you could give hints). If nobody
guesses correctly, tell them the answer and then explain that they’re going to
look at some more weird and wonderful English words and guess their
meanings. Give out the cards and tell them they have 20 minutes to pair the
correct words and meanings. Encourage class members to ask you for help – you
can give clues and answer questions, but don’t reveal any answers! When
everyone is finished, discuss the answers as a whole class.
Extension: Ask students to look up another word, and tell their partner about it
and its meaning. This could be optional homework if there is no internet
available in class.

2B
Activity type: Listening
Language: Storytelling
http://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/stories/1980s/the-bfg
Ask the class whether anyone has heard of The BFG, or knows what it means.
Reveal that it stands for the Big Friendly Giant, and is one of Roald Dahl’s most
famous novels. Tell them they are going to listen to a recording of Roald Dahl
reading an extract of the book, and direct them to the weblink. Ask students to
find out the answers to the following questions while listening:
1. What does Sophie [girl voice] think is marvellous?
2. What did the BFG borrow?
3. Can you spot any grammatical errors in the way the BFG speaks?
Have students discuss their answers in small groups then in general class
feedback.
Extension: Get students to read about Roald Dahl’s revolting recipes here:
http://www.roalddahl.com/create-and-learn/make/revolting-recipes. Would
they like to try to make any? Which sound truly revolting?

File 3

3A
Activity type: Reading and Writing
Language: Phrases with get
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-1708393/How-fight-
parking-ticket.html
Tell / make up a quick story about the last thing you ‘got out of’ (e.g. doing the
dishes, cleaning, paying a train fare, etc.), and explain the term. Ask students:
what was the last thing you ‘got out of’? Write their answers on the board, and
then explain that in this lesson they are going to try to get out of paying a parking
ticket. Give each student a scenario (e.g. ‘you parked your car outside a bakery
for five minutes while you picked up some bread and got a £200 ticket’ / ‘you
parked your van outside an accident and emergency hospital entrance for an
hour because you needed to help your grandmother, who had had a serious

©Oxford University Press 2015

accident, and got a £1,000 ticket’). You can repeat the scenarios if you have a
large class. Give them 20–25 minutes to write a letter to an imaginary ticket
issuing body. Tell them to use the weblink, particularly the section ‘Grounds for
appealing your ticket’, for help.
Once everyone has finished their letters, pair up students with different
scenarios, and get them to read each other’s letters. Then they have to decide
whether or not the driver has successfully gotten him or herself out of paying the
fine.
Extension: Take the letters in at the end of the lesson and mark them up with
helpful corrections and suggestions on how to improve their writing.

3B
Activity type: Speaking and Listening
Language: Conflict
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1d24S_mN8M
If the majority of the class has seen the film 12 Years a Slave (enough so they can
work in pairs and fill in plot holes for their partner), have students brainstorm
what they know about the film. Discuss what the movie is about and write the
word conflict on the board. Ask students what conflict(s) are in the film (rich vs
poor; black vs white; humanity vs fear –when Solomon is forced to inflict pain on
others; strength vs integrity – for Solomon internally; selfishness vs selflessness
– protecting himself instead of others; and so on). Don’t give feedback yet. Tell
them to watch the clip, and then discuss in pairs what conflicts must be running
through Solomon’s mind at this point. Hold group feedback shortly after. Help Sts
with any new vocabulary as necessary.
Extension: If you can get hold of copies of the 12 Years a Slave book, it would
make a good reading project for students at home, as there is a lot of room for
discussion as you read.

ALTERNATIVE TASK
http://www.imdb.com/genre/war/?ref_=gnr_mn_wa_mp
If they haven’t seen the movie, ask students to name some old and new war films.
Write these on the board. Get them to explain what they like about the plots of
these films. Can war films also fit other genres too? (Historical, action, romance,
film noir, comedy?) Ask them to look at the weblink, and find a war film they
haven’t seen and would like to watch. They should watch the trailer, and then
discuss the films they picked in pairs. Prompt questions such as: What made
them want to watch that film? How did the trailer draw them in? Does it matter
who stars in the movie, or the language it’s in?

File 4

4A
Activity type: Speaking
Language: Small talk
http://talktomelondon.org/stories-left

©Oxford University Press 2015

Preparation: On slips of paper (one per student), write down a location, time
and conversation topic (e.g. café, 2pm, the food; on the bus, 9am, school; at a
park, 12pm, the weather).
In class: Direct students to the weblink and ask them to read the experiences
people had when talking to strangers in London. Invite students to share a recent
experience of talking to someone new, either at home or away. How did it
happen? Why? What did you discuss? Did you feel nervous talking to a stranger?
Do you plan to see them again?
Hand out the slips of paper, and explain to the class that they are going to meet
someone else in the room for the first time. Ask students to stand up and mingle
in the room until they find someone they don’t often chat to. Tell one student per
pair to start talking, as naturally as possible, about the topic on their paper.
When the conversation ends, switch the pairs up and ask the other student to
talk.
When the task is over, hold general feedback. Were the discussions easy or hard?
Why? Was your partner: forthcoming? Responsive? Friendly? Did they have
anything interesting to say? Were you nervous about speaking to a stranger?

4B
Activity type: Writing
Language: Describing books
http://www.welovethisbook.com/
Ask the class to look at some of the reviews on the weblink. What kind of
language is used? Do they make you want to read the books? Why / why not?
Brainstorm book genres and words to describe books, and write these on the
board.
Tell the class they are now going to write a book review. They can do this in one
of three ways: review a book you are reading / have read recently as a class;
review a book they know well or are reading independently; or, if they are
uninspired, tell them to find a book they would like to read based on an existing
review on the weblink, and write a paragraph explaining why.
Take in the reviews at the end of the lesson to mark them up for language errors.

File 5

5A
Activity type: Reading and Writing
Language: Expressions with time
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/may/04/time-management-
tips-busy-people
Ask the class: who do you think the busiest people in the world are?\Why? (You
could start them off with the Queen of England, because she has lots of duties,
etc.) Then ask how they think these busy people manage their time effectively.
Board some ideas.

©Oxford University Press 2015

Tell students to read the article to find out how some very busy, successful
people manage their time. Tell them to talk in pairs about what they have read.
Are any of these good ideas? Do students do any of these things currently or
would they like to try? What else could these people try doing to manage their
time better?
Tell the class they have to imagine a busy day at work where time is definitely of
the essence, either in their own job (if they have one), as a student or another
profession they know about. In pairs, students write down all the tasks that
person might have to do in one day (e.g. if they have ‘Teacher’, they might note
down: mark essays, admin on the computer, photocopy materials, staff meeting,
teach classes, one-to-one sessions with students, with a couple of unplanned
events thrown in, e.g. student complaint, or fire alarm). They should have about
10 tasks.
Tell the class they have an eight-hour working day, and they must leave by 5pm.
They won’t get all of the tasks done. How much time should they dedicate to each
task, in what order, and why? Ask them to put together a work day plan in pairs.
Monitor the activity, writing any emergent language on the board to highlight
during feedback.
Select a few students to share their day plan with the class at the end.

5B
Activity type: Listening and Speaking
Language: Money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phCdz6IKIvM
Preparation: Watch the video and pick out words you’ll need to pre-teach
before the class watches it (e.g. jumping jacks, bald, etc.). On slips of paper, write
down all the activities mentioned in the video, and copy so that there’s enough
sets for groups of three to four. If you can access fake money from Monopoly or
another game, bring this to the class. If not, create slips of cash of different value
between £5 and £100 – enough for each student to hold £200 each.
In class: Write a million dollars in numbers on the board. What would the class
do for a million dollars? Board some ideas. Pre-teach the video vocabulary, then
ask them to watch the video and discuss in pairs whether they would do each
thing the people say, for a million pounds. Hand out £200 of fake money to each
student. Put students in groups of two or three and give them the list of activities.
Tell them they have to agree on the amount of money they would do each activity
for, and that they are only allowed one wildcard, where they wouldn’t do the
activity irrespective of how much money they were given.
When the activity is finished, hold a class discussion with groups sharing their
opinions. Discuss any new language at the end.

File 6

6A
Activity type: Reading and Speaking
Language: Compound adjectives

©Oxford University Press 2015

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150128-how-to-survive-a-disaster
Ask students to skim the article to find out the number one rule for surviving a
disaster. Discuss the answer. Assign a number (1, 2, 3) to each student. Tell
student 1s to read the first part of the article down to the heading ‘Survival
Mode’. Tell student 2s to read the part between ‘Survival Mode’ and ‘Stronger
Together’. Tell student 3s to read from ‘Stronger Together’ to the end. Students
must find out answers to the questions that correspond to their part of the
reading (to make it harder, don’t tell them which ones correspond).
Then do a more detailed reading to find out answers to the following questions:
1. Why did 55 people due on a Boeing 737 in August 1985?
2. According to the article, what could victims in the New York Twin Towers
attack have done differently to increase their chances of survival?
3. In emergency situations, why do people often react in an illogical way?
4. What can you do to prepare your reaction in an emergency situation?
5. Have you ever been in an emergency situation like those in the article
yourself? What did you do?
Put students of the same number into groups, and ask them to compare answers.
Then split them up and create groups of three with one of each number in, so
that everyone can fill in all of the answers to each question. Discuss the answers
as a class.
As a final activity, ask students to find and highlight the compound adjectives in
this article (you may wish to do so yourself before the class so that you are
prepared). Write new language on the board and discuss it.

6B
Activity type: Reading and Speaking
Language: Addictions and habits
http://www.livescience.com/49730-strangest-addictions.html
Ask students about the weirdest things they have heard of people being addicted
to and write them on the board. Tell them they are going to read about six weird
addictions and direct them to the weblink. Give them time to read the article,
then discuss the addictions: which is the strangest and why? Have any students
heard about other unusual habits?
Extension: Ask the class to research an unusual addiction / habit online (keep it
light – addictions to weird foods, superstitions, TV shows, etc.). They should be
prepared to retell that person’s story in the following lesson.

File 7

7A
Activity type: Quiz
Language: General knowledge
http://general-knowledge-quiz.co.uk
Hold this, or another, general knowledge quiz in class. Put students in groups if
you have a big class, and elect a quizmaster (this can be you). Give each group a

©Oxford University Press 2015

chance to answer questions in turn, with a time limit and no access to phones.
You could incentivise students more by bringing in a prize for the best and worst
teams / individuals.

7B
Activity type: Writing
Language: Art, language used for debating
http://www.debate.org/opinions/art-is-better-than-music
Tell students to read the debate, Art is better than music (if your class prefers a
different topic, they could look at film / books, etc. on the same website). They
then have to spend 10–15 minutes crafting a response to this, clearly illustrating
their opinions and arguing or supporting a previous poster. Monitor the activity
closely, ensuring language is appropriate before students post anything online.
Review any emergent language at the end.

File 8

8A
Activity type: Quiz and Speaking
Language: Fitness
https://www.worldfitnesslevel.org
Preparation: If you choose to do the extension activity, set up a mini assault
course. This would work very well in a gym or outdoors, but if you only have a
classroom, get creative: put chairs together to crawl under, place tables to jump
over, circular discs / frisbees to hop between, something heavy or awkward to
hold while jumping, and so on. At the beginning of each exercise on the course,
write a difficult question testing students’ sports language. Possible questions
could be:
 What does ‘lbs’ stand for in English?
 Is a papaya a fruit or a vegetable?
 What is the British English word for American soccer?
 What do tennis players use when they play?
 A bat is used in cricket. Can you think of any other sports a bat is used in?
 Can you name a style of swimming?
 Is yoga a sport?
 Can you name something that has whole wheat as an ingredient?
 What do swimmers put over their eyes to stop water getting in?
 You should eat five fruits a day. Aside from apple, banana and orange, can
you name five other fruits?
In class: How fit are you? Get students to answer the quiz at the weblink to find
out, and discuss the results.
Alternative task: Explain to the class that they are going to run an English
fitness assault course. Put them in teams of three to four, and tell them the rules:

©Oxford University Press 2015

 1. One person from each group must answer one English question (by telling
the teacher the answer) and only if it is correct, can they then complete
their sports activity.
2. Once the first activity is complete, the second person in the group should
ask the next question then complete the associated activity. Continue until
the end.
3. The next person cannot start their activity until the previous person in the
group has correctly answered their question and completed their sport.
4. If the designated person in the group can’t answer their question or do
the activity, they are disqualified, and someone else in the group must
take their place. The same person cannot complete two activities in a row.
5. The winning group is the first group to finish the course.
Note: If you can, hold the extension activity outside, preferably in a garden or
sports field, that way doing any exercise will be easier and much less inhibiting!

8B
Activity type: Speaking
Language: Travel and tourism
http://www.lastminute.com/
https://www.thomascook.com/holidays/last-minute/
http://www.teletextholidays.co.uk/
http://www.travelzoo.com/uk/last-minute/
Ask students whether they have ever been on a last minute holiday, and get them
to share their experience with the group. Put students in groups of three to four,
and give them £200 per student of Monopoly / fake money (if you don’t have
any, just tell them that’s their budget). They now have just 10 minutes to plan a
great last minute break, using one of the above weblinks. It should be a group
holiday, and the group will have to come to an agreement on each aspect by the
end of the task. They need to consider the destination, flights, spending money,
activities, accommodation, travel, experiences and going out. Monitor the
activity for new language, and write this on the board to discuss at the end.
Students can share their holiday plans at the end of the activity and vote on the
best-sounding, last minute getaway.

File 9

9A
Activity type: Debate
Language: Animals, debating language
http://www.debate.org/opinions/animal-rights-should-animals-have-rights-
preventing-their-consumption
Tell students to read over the argument and some of the opinions from the
weblink. Divide the class into two groups, for and against, and write the
argument topic on the board (Should animals have rights preventing their
consumption?). Tell them they have 15 minutes to prepare their arguments, and

©Oxford University Press 2015

then hold the debate in class, with you as the chair, ensuring everyone has a fair
chance to speak.

9B
Activity type: Reading and Speaking
Language: Preparing food
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes
Ask students what they consider to be typical British food. Board the answers
and discuss. Then, in pairs, ask them to find one savoury and one sweet recipe on
the weblink. Talk as a class about what they found. Was the recipe British? Are
they surprised it is on a British food website? Does it sound like a nice dish?
Put students in groups of two to three. Give each group one common ingredient
(e.g. eggs, lamb, carrots, potatoes, bread, tomatoes). Tell them they have 10
minutes to research different recipes via the weblink that feature that ingredient.
When they have finished, they should report to the class the different kinds of
recipes they found and how that ingredient is used in each.

File 10

10A
Activity type: Quiz, Speaking and Writing
Language: Nationality
http://www.testlifeinuk.com/
Explain what the Life in the UK test is, and what it is for. Hold a sample Life in the
UK test as a class (load the weblink and click ‘Start Practise Now’ when you are
ready). Then ask students to create a Life in … test for their country. If a few
students are from the same country, allow them to work together, but if the
entire class is one nationality divide them into groups of two to three. If the class
is mixed nationality, get groups to test each other on matters of their homeland.
Alternatively, ask the groups to test you on what you know about the country!
Note: the Life in the UK test is hard even for most British people – emphasis
shouldn’t be on getting correct answers, but on discussing the topics and the
language that emerges.

10B
Activity type: Speaking
Language: Sports
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/7615672/Bad-
behaviour-of-sports-stars-does-not-influence-the-public-say-psychologists.html
In contrast to the article in File 10b, the weblink above argues that sports don’t
have a bad influence on the public. Ask students to read the weblink then, in
pairs, get them to discuss the following: What are violent sports? Are they good
for society? Why / why not? Is the research mentioned in the article credible?
Researchers say that violent music affects its fans, so why not sports?

©Oxford University Press 2015

Extension: Ask students to find more evidence for either side of the argument
for a class debate, or a written essay exercise.

©Oxford University Press 2015