I enjoy a good action
film.
Vocabulary
Learning goals:
Keywords
Understanding, saying and writing words
for different types of media
book, magazine, newspaper, ebook,
play, film, TV programme
Understanding, saying and writing some
words for different TV, film and literary
genres
Contents
Aims
Year 12
Lesson 36
science fiction, romance, cartoon,
action, adventure, comedy, drama,
biography, horror, documentary,
musical, animation
romantic, dramatic, biographical,
animated
Language Analysis
Looking at genres
A genre is a style or type of music, art, literature or entertainment. There are many different types that
fall into each category. Their popularity depends on personal likes and tastes. The Lead-in screen looks
at some different genres of media. This would be a good opportunity to brainstorm other media-related
genres that students know of or have heard of. They can then go on to think of examples for each genre:
romance
science fiction
action
horror
animation
drama
thriller
western
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Procedure
Lead-in
Audio:
1 science fiction – films or books about imagined
future worlds, people or events
2 romance – a film or book about relationships
and love
3 cartoon – a series of drawings that tell a funny
story, in either a newspaper, magazine, book, film
or TV programme
4 action – films or books where the main
character gets into dangerous, often violent,
situations
5 adventure – films or books where the main
character faces a lot of challenges, often in new
or different places from usual
6 comedy – a film, play or TV programme that
makes you laugh
7 drama – a play for theatre, TV or radio, or a
type of film with a strong emphasis on character,
story and dialogue
8 biography/biopic – a book, film or TV
programme about the story of one person’s life
9 horror – books or films that frighten you
10 documentary – a film or TV programme about
real events and people
11 musical – a play or film with lots of singing and
dancing
12 animation – a type of film or TV programme
made by drawing or photographing a series of
images or models
Ask students to match the pictures with the types
of media they show.
Now get students to choose the genres matching
the descriptions. Then tell them to listen and
check their answers.
Rubric 1
Extension: Put students in pairs and give out a
copy of the Handout. Tell students to fill the
handout with as many examples as they can think
of for each picture. Then get them to cut the strips
and jumble them up.
Picture of performers on stage – stage play
Picture of newspaper – newspaper
Picture of TV screen – television
Now ask them to swap their strips with another
pair and ask them to match the pictures with the
correct categories.
Key:
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Picture of magazine pages – magazine
Picture of a cinema screen – film
Picture of an open book – book
Picture of an ebook reader – ebook
Rubric 2
1 science fiction
2 romance
3 cartoon
4 action
5 adventure
6 comedy
7 drama
8 biography
9 horror
10 documentary
11 musical
12 animation
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Main input
Audio:
A: I like reading books, or more often ebooks
now. I read quite a lot of romance, and I like
watching romantic films, too. I don’t like it when
they get too serious, though – I prefer romcom
(that’s romantic comedy!) like Bridget Jones and
any other kind of really good comedy. I’m really
interested in famous people’s lives, too, so I enjoy
reading biographies or watching biopics, and I
read magazines when I get the chance, too.
B: What do I like? Well, I enjoy a good action film,
like the James Bond ones or the Bourne
Supremacy, and I love adventure films too – I’ve
seen all the Harry Potter films, and I read all the
books too. I like to find out about things that are
going on in the real world, too, so I often watch
documentaries – either at the cinema or on TV.
And I try to read a newspaper most days, either
physically or on my tablet.
C: I’m really into drama, so I love going to the
theatre to see plays when I can – last month I
went three times, that’s more than I went to the
cinema! Of course, I watch drama on TV as well –
that’s much cheaper! I’m really into musicals, too
– I love all the old classics like West Side Story
and Grease, even though a lot of my friends
aren’t really into them.
Explain to students that they are going to hear
four speakers talking about what they like to read
and watch. Tell students to listen and complete
the chart with who mentions what.
Extension: Ask students to choose one of the
conversations and practise it. Then tell them to
make their own short dialogue about something
they like to watch or read. Monitor and feed in
ideas if necessary.
D: For me, you can’t beat science fiction, whether
it’s classics like Star Wars or something more
recent. I quite like horror, too, but not all the time
– only when I’m in the mood to be really scared!
The other thing I’m really into is cartoons, whether
it’s old stuff like Dennis the Menace or some of
the newer Japanese stuff. And I’m a big fan of
animation in general – Shrek is one of my all-time
favourite films.
Key:
Speaker 1: ebooks, romance, comedy,
biographies/biopics, magazines
Speaker 2: action, adventure, documentaries,
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
newspaper
Speaker 3: drama, plays, musicals
Speaker 4: science fiction, horror, cartoons,
animation
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 1
Key:
Give students these instructions for the Memory
game. The aim of the game is to make pairs.
On the screen you will see two sets of cards ‘face
down’.
Click on one card from each set to make a pair.
If it is a pair, the cards will fly off the screen. If it is
not a pair, the cards will turn over again.
Try and remember where the pictures and words
are.
Choose two more cards to make a pair.
Continue until you have matched all the pairs.
Ask students to do the activity individually or put
them in pairs. If students work in pairs, ask them
to count the number of pairs they found. The
player with the most matches wins.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 2
Key:
1c2a3b4c5b6a7c8b
Ask students to complete the sentences with the
correct words.
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Practice 3
Key:
1 horror
2 animation
3 musicals
4 adventure
5 ebook
6 magazine
7 films
8 action
Ask students to choose the correct words.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 4
Audio:
A: I like reading books, or more often ebooks
now. I read quite a lot of romance, and I like
watching romantic films, too. I don’t like it when
they get too serious, though – I prefer romcom
(that’s romantic comedy!) like Bridget Jones and
any other kind of really good comedy. I’m really
interested in famous people’s lives, too, so I enjoy
reading biographies or watching biopics, and I
read magazines when I get the chance, too.
D: For me, you can’t beat science fiction, whether
it’s classics like Star Wars or something more
recent. I quite like horror, too, but not all the time
– only when I’m in the mood to be really scared!
The other thing I’m really into is cartoons, whether
it’s old stuff like Dennis the Menace or some of
the newer Japanese stuff. And I’m a big fan of
animation in general – Shrek is one of my all-time
favourite films.
Key:
Ask students to complete the passages with the
correct words. Then get them to listen and check
their answers.
1 books
2 romance
3 films
4 comedy
5 biographies
6 magazines
7 science fiction
8 horror
9 cartoons
10 animation
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 5
Key:
1 romantic
2 biographical
3 dramatic
4 animated
5 cartoon
6 biography
7 romance
8 documentaries
Explain that some of the general words are
countable, some are not. Some can be used as
nouns and adjectives, others cannot, or have to
change. Then tell them to look at the chart and
complete the sentences.
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English to take away
Key:
Wordsearch contains the following words:
cartoon
musical
animation
adventure
action
romance
comedy
horror
biography
magazine
newspaper
play
This is a ‘free practice’ stage. The aim is
personalisation. Give students the following
instructions:
Now it's your turn. Find the words. Then work in
pairs to ask and answer questions. Use the words
from the wordsearch and any other words from
this lesson.
Extension: Put students in small groups. Tell
them to prepare and then make a presentation on
their favourite film/genre.
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Handout
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide