Dissecting TV shows

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Speaking
class

speaking lesson about TV shows

LESSON OVERVIEW

In this speaking lesson about TV shows, students do a variety of speaking activities and watch two trailers.

B2 / Upper Intermediate
C1 / Advanced
45 min
60 min
Speaking ClassUnlimited Plan

This is a Speaking Class worksheet. It includes a variety of tasks that let your students practise their speaking skills. This lesson format does not focus on grammar or vocabulary. Learn more about it here.

WARM-UP & TRAILERS

In the warm-up activity, students share how much time they spend watching TV shows and talk about the last TV show they watched. Then, they look at the titles of some popular TV shows (e.g. The Walking Dead, Grey’s Anatomy, The Crown, The Big Bang Theory) and talk about the ones they have seen. They also say whether they would recommend the shows and need to explain why. If a student hasn’t seen any of the shows listed, the teacher should encourage them to speak about other shows they have seen. After that, students watch two trailers and say whether they would watch the shows presented in them. They also say what other films or shows they remind them of, and share how they choose which shows to watch. This part of the speaking lesson about TV shows ends with a discussion on what makes a good trailer.

DISCUSSION

In this part of the lesson, students think about some successful TV shows and need to grade how important some elements are for a show to be successful (e.g. post production, relatable characters, engaging dialogues). They do it using a provided scale, and have to explain their choices. Then, students read six statements (e.g. TV shows promote stereotypes., TV shows are the new films., TV shows don’t accurately depict real-life problems.) and need to decide to what extent they agree with them. In the final part of this speaking lesson about TV shows, students have to finish five statements (e.g. The future of TV shows is…, Compared to American shows, the TV shows in my country are…). They also compare their ideas with other students, and expand on them. 

WORKSHEETS

Comments

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  1. Irina Kramarovskaya

    Thank you for the lesson!
    Just to expand on the topic, I’ve used this article (to read before class) & it sparked some great discussion about promoting ideas through TV shows:
    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/04/tv-shows-movies-climate-crisis

    1. Ewa

      Hi, Irina! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  2. Veronika Malkevič

    thanks

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