The Internet TESL Journal
Activities for the ESL Classroom Incorporating Reality-based TV
R. Alan Davis
rald40 [at] yahoo.com
South-East Asia University (Bangkok, Thailand)
This paper lists several ideas about using 'The Amazing Race'
as a teaching aide in an ESL classroom. The activities utilize
authentic English and emphasize the skills of listening, speaking, reading
and writing, group decision making, and reasoning.
The following activities incorporate the use of a reality-based TV show
called 'The Amazing Race' into an ESL class. This is a weekly
American television show, but is broadcast in many countries via cable.
It features 12 teams who race around the world. The activities
presented here can be used to teach a variety of English language skills
including speaking and listening, reading and writing, as well as group
decision making, cultural understanding and reasoning.
Reasons for Using Reality TV in the ESL Classroom
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The introduction of authentic language into the classroom.
Too often listening exercises found in textbooks are vastly different from
anything that is heard outside of the classroom. Language is
scripted and acted out, spoken clearly and steadily, and always uses proper
grammar. While there is obviously a place for this in an ESL
classroom, there is also a place for authentic, unscripted English, language
that is spontaneous and full of incomplete sentence structures, cut-offs,
mumbling, utterances and idioms.
-
Students enjoy the classes.
They get involved with the
teams, pick their favorites, cheer when they do well and groan when they
do poorly. They are excited by the show and the classes.
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The shows occur weekly.
You can establish a routine
of watching the program with your class, adapting the programs to cover
the area that you are studying. You can use as many or as few
of the episodes as you and the class decide. Although the activities
are divided up here, you may want to use a combination of them during one
day if the class time is long enough.
-
Each show takes place in a different location.
This
opens up the opportunity for cultural discussion, classes on different
countries and if you are lucky enough to have students from the area, it
gives them the opportunity to talk about their home to the other students.
I originally designed these activities for an intermediate General English
class in Sydney. The class was composed of students from mixed
nationalities including China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Slovakia and
the Czech Republic. We watched the program for three weeks
until it was preempted by the World Cup for three weeks. The
classes were quite successful and enjoyable and we probably would have
kept on watching, but the semester was coming to an end. Since
that class, I have used a modified form of the same lesson in two courses.
One was a media analysis course, also with a class of mixed nationalities
and the other was a high school preparation class composed entirely of
Chinese students between the ages of 17 and 19. For this last
class, I used the program as a means of exploring group dynamics and working
together.
Preparation Time
-
For each episode you will need at least one hour to record the show and
take notes. Depending on the activity, you will need 45 minutes to an hour
for creating materials.
Supplies needed
-
Television, VCR, worksheets, white board or OHP, and a computer with the
Internet to gather information about the teams and the shows
Class time needed
Opening Procedures
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Before doing anything, you need to introduce the program's concept. The
show sends eleven pairs of contestants on a global race. The two-person
teams must face various challenges and perform certain duties around the
world. Each week, the slowest participants are eliminated from the competition
until just one team remains. This team receives a prize of
one million US dollars. You could choose to introduce this
information verbally or you might give the students the information from
one of the many web sites devoted to the show. One of these
can be found at http://www.sirlinksalot.net/amazingrace.html.
The students should be aware of the ways in which challenges are presented.
These include roadblocks, fast forwards and detours.
-
Brainstorm with the students about the problems people encounter when traveling.
Share one or two anecdotes about your own travel experiences and then ask
for some more from the students. Make a list of these on one
side of the board. They will probably come up with communication
difficulties, strange food, getting sick, running out of money, etc.
Ask them to identify what travelers might do when encountering these situations.
Elicit the students opinions about why people like to travel when there
are so many problems.
Activities
Activity 1
In this activity, students will be predicting the outcome of the race by
reading a biography and interview of the participants. It is
a communicative activity that emphasizes working with a group to reach
a consensus, reading and summarizing information and predicting outcomes
based on reasoning. In groups of three or four, students will
summarize the given information about the team, categorizing what they
feel are their strengths and weaknesses. The bios and interviews
can be found at http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/.
Each team should predict who will win and lose this leg of the race and
be able to explain why they reached that decision. Each of the groups will
present their predictions to the class discussing their reasons for their
choices. They should support their choices with information
from the texts provided. After watching the first and second
segments of the program, give students an opportunity to change their predictions
based on what they have seen so far. At the conclusion of the
race, ask students to come up with suggestions that might have helped their
chosen teams to do better.
Activity 2
This is a listening activity focusing on phrases, idioms and sayings common
in everyday speech. Students will match team members with the
things that they say. Give students a worksheet with the pictures
of the teams on one side and quotes from the teams on the opposite side
of the paper. Students can draw a line matching the phrase
with the team. Before watching the show, go over what
each of the phrases mean and how they might be used. Have students
try to come up with situations in which they might use the phrases.
I used this activity alongside other activities every time I used the program.
In every instance, the students did quite well on this exercise.
Activity 3
In this activity, the students design their own course for the teammates.
It gives them an opportunity to share something about their country with
the rest of the class and emphasizes writing and presentation skills.
Students work with others from their country (if possible) and decide on
three tasks that the participants must do in their country.
They should employ the use of a route marker (detour or roadblock), choose
a pit stop, and decide how much money the teammates can spend.
After the groups have finished they should explain their leg of the trip
to the rest of the class. This presentation may include the
potential difficulties that the contestants will encounter as well as some
of the interesting things that they will be able to see. Either
you or one of the students, should plot the coordinates on a map.
You might consider (I wish I had) sending the information the show producers.
This might motivate the students to really think about what they are doing.
Activity 4
This is a two part activity with the goal of students writing a recount
of one leg of the race. Sometime after watching the show, have
students engage in a running dictation. Using a recount of
the show sliced into pieces, the students will dictate to another student.
After finishing with the dictation, the students should number the actions
from one to six. Have students write their own recount after
watching the next show.
Activity 5
This activity gives students the opportunity to explore one aspect of computer
literacy, as well as giving them the opportunity to communicate with an
international audience. If you have one to one Internet access,
go to one of the numerous bulletin boards devoted to the program. TV Clubhouse
or to one of the fan club pages (there are plenty). If you
don't have access, you can print it out for the class. Have
students respond to one of the topics that are being talked about.
Be careful using bulletin boards as occasionally there is language that
may not be appropriate for the classroom.
Other Ideas
This is only a partial list as the programs are adaptable to a number of
different learning concepts. Some of the other areas that might
be considered include grammar points such as a lesson on superlatives,
asking for directions, inappropriate/appropriate behavior of guests in
foreign countries and for higher level classes a debate on how real are
reality TV shows.
References
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX, No. 4, April 2003
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Davis-RealityTV.html