Emily Tregelles ©2012
Sample Project Lesson Plan
Topic : Talking about Trends
Teaching Context: This lesson plan is intended for high-intermediate ESL learners in Seoul, South Korea.
The students are enrolled in an English class of about 30 students at a public high school. Many of the
students, ages 16-18, have goals to pass the TOEFL exam and enter a good university. This requires that
they are often drilled in vocabulary and grammar. However, beyond memorization, many of them
desire to have real-world practice with a native speaker and improve their listening and English skills.
This activity is designed to achieve the latter goals of improving speaking and listening skills, as well as
improve sociolinguistic competence. The class meets everyday for 50 minutes. Because the lesson is
long, the lesson is broken up into two parts. On the second day, the teacher needs to reserve the
computer lab for the activity.
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to…
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Improve their listening skills by listening to a radio excerpt and communicating with one another.
Gain sociolinguistic competence while learning phrases relevant to talking about trends.
Expand their understanding of other cultures by a comparison of trends in different countries.
Practice speaking skills through partner-based activities.
Enhance collaboration ability through partner exercises.
Develop critical thinking skills by inquiring, researching, inferring, and analyzing.
Obtain a better understanding of worldwide popular culture using English.
Preparation: Prior to today’s class, students have been studying English as a global language in business,
the sciences, and politics. Thus, they have been introduced to the fact that one culture can influence
another through the use of a dominant language. Today’s lesson in particular will expand upon this
topic. Although the first activity is individual, students are assigned a partner at the beginning of class
for later organization in the partner activity. (For day 2, students will be accessing corpus.byu.edu/coca
in order to look up collocations, a process they are familiar with already.)
Teaching Steps:
Day 1
1) Brainstorm: Ask students what they know about the power of language to influence another
culture; ask them to give examples from their own experience. (3 min.)
a. Students answer with examples of American culture and English.
2) Listen: Teacher then introduces the radio show by telling them that “the tables have turned,”
and their culture is also having a large cultural impact lately, even though Korean is not a
dominant language world-wide. (5 min.)
a. Curious students ask what “the tables have turned” means, teacher clarifies.
b. Students listen to an excerpt of NPR Morning Edition’s article “Gangnam Style: Three
Reasons Kpop is Taking Over the World” ( 0’00” - 1’52”)
Emily Tregelles ©2012
3) Respond: Teacher asks the class to find their partner and ask them their thoughts about the
article. Students record each other’s answers on a piece of paper and take turns presenting
their partner’s thoughts to the class. (10 min.)
4) Reinforce: Teacher hands out a transcription of the article found on the website and asks the
students to listen again while they follow along.
5) Practice: Teacher asks students to underline and circle words or phrases they do not understand
to be reviewed after the vocabulary activity. The teacher has prepared a set of vocabulary lists
A and B, which are distributed to the pairs. It is an information gap exercise: student A has
definitions that student B wants to know and vice versa. Students draw, act out, or explain to
each other the definitions of the words. Each student writes down synonyms he/she thinks
describe the word based upon their partner’s examples. The teacher then goes over the list
with the class and asks them to volunteer the answers. Afterwards, any vocabulary that the
students circled that they still do not know is addressed. (25 min.)
a. Vocab: planet, worldwide, superstar, indicator, dismiss recognize, hysterical, high-tech,
novelty, recruit, sophisticated, remarkable, fluke, product, export.
Day 2
6) Refresh: Students pair up and review the vocabulary from last class. Teacher asks for a summary
of what happened last class from a volunteer. Any questions from last class are answered. (5
min.)
7) Inquire: In their pairs (from last class), students, using corpus.byu.edu/coca, perform an online
activity and search a database of collocations of the following word sets in the article (15 min):
a. Collocations: “based on” “building up to” “turning into” “sending __ on tour” and “went
worldwide”
b. Students are required to write down one or two of the most frequent forms that they
see and give examples to support each finding. While looking up collocations, students
discuss the meaning of the examples they find and decide which ones are best.
8) Expand: Students expand their sociolinguistic competence by learning phrases related to talking
about trends (10 min.).
a. “over the top” “you’ve got to see it” “can’t help but…” Idiom: “pouring in”
9) Learn: Teacher gives a grammar lesson on making comparisons using structures found in the
article (20 min).
a. “go from __ to __” “as famous for ___ as ___” “seem(s)”
10) Assess: As a form of assessment, students are given homework to be completed by the day
after the following class. They will be assessed on their use of the grammar forms and phrases
covered in the lesson by writing an essay. They are to go home and research a recent trend of
their choice, using their new vocab and grammar to analyze the trend and then compare it to a
trend they want to know about in another culture. They will write a three-paragraph essay that
the teacher will later read and give feedback on. If time permits, short verbal presentations may
also be conducted.
Emily Tregelles ©2012
Handout – Transcript
Media Player link:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=162740623&m=162
767856
Transcript link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=162740623
Heard on Morning Edition
October 12, 2012 –
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GANGNAM STYLE")
PSY: (Singing) Oppa Gangnam style.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
You know, this little song has become a big deal. "Gangnam Style" is a Korean pop song that went
worldwide. The YouTube video is hysterical or at least the people who viewed it 436 million times seem
to think so. The song got our Planet Money team wondering if sending a song to the top of the charts in
country after country is a good indicator of the strength of the home country's economy. Here's NPR's
Zoe Chace.
ZOE CHACE, BYLINE: Korea exports a lot of products - cars, computers, phones. You use Korean products
every day. A Korean pop song is just another product. But a very high tech, very sophisticated product.
And it's done something remarkable in the music industry over here. You can go to a Top 40 radio
station in New York City and hear them go from this...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE FOUND LOVE")
RIHANNA: (Singing) We found love in a hopeless place. We found love in a hopeless place.
CHACE: Rihanna, one of the most recognized pop names in the world, to a guy named Psy, spelled P-S-Y.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GANGNAM STYLE")
PSY: (Singing) Oppa Gangnam style, Gangnam style.
CHACE: The DJ here at 92.3, Micki, she's trying to sing along.
MICKI: (Singing) Zana(ph) hair, zana hair.
CHACE: Do you even know what that means?
MICKI: No.
(LAUGHTER)
CHACE: But the requests to hear this song are pouring into this station. Now, this could just be a novelty,
based on people laughing at this video that is so over the top and crazy - it's this guy, doing this horse
dance on the subway, you've got to see it - that people can't help but watch it. But in this case, it's very
hard to dismiss this song as a fluke.
Korea has been building up to this moment for 20 years, creating record labels, recruiting young people,
turning them into superstars, sending them on tour. Already teenagers all over Asia listen to tons of
Korean pop.
Emily Tregelles ©2012
Gap Exercise – Student A
Instructions: Help your partner learn new vocabulary! Draw, act out, give examples, or describe (in your
own words) the meaning of the vocabulary defined on this paper. Then, write definitions or examples of
the words your partner explains in the blanks on this paper. Take turns going back and forth. You and
your partner have opposite papers. Do not cheat! You may use the transcript for context clues.
Example: charts: list, listing (ex: Billboard top 100, Naver top 20)
planet: ex: moon, earth
superstar : ___________________________
worldwide : ___________________________
indicator: sign, measure
high tech: advanced technology (ex: robot, CGI
animation, photoshop)
to recognize : ___________________________
novelty : _____________________________
fluke: chance, accident
sophisticated: advanced, modern, complex
remarkable : __________________________
to recruit: sign-up, gather, hire, employ
hysterical : ____________________________
to dismiss : _____________________________
export: def. object sent out of a country for sale
Gap Exercise Student B
Instructions: Help your partner learn new vocabulary! Draw, act out, give examples, or describe (in your
own words) the meaning of the vocabulary defined on this paper. Then, write definitions or examples of
the words your partner explains in the blanks on this paper. Take turns going back and forth. You and
your partner have opposite papers. Do not cheat! You may use the transcript for context clues.
Example: charts: list, listing (ex: Billboard top 100, Naver top 20)
planet :_________________________________
worldwide: universal, widespread
high tech : ______________________________
novelty: new and uncommon item
fluke : _________________________________
superstar: known worldwide, very famous
person. (ex: Michael Jackson)
indicator : ______________________________
to recognize: know, recall, remember
sophisticated : __________________________
hysterical: very funny
remarkable: amazing, outstanding,
unbelievable
export : ________________________________
to recruit : ______________________________
to dismiss: disregard, ignore
Emily Tregelles ©2012
Collocation Activity (Example)
Instructions: Use COCA to look up the collocations for three of these words “based” “building (up)”
“turning” “went worldwide” and “on tour”. Write down two common collocations for each and at least
one example for each collocation. (If there is only one common collocation that is fine.) Compare what
you find with what is in the transcript and search what you don’t understand.
1. Based __________based on____________
Based on: The experimental software is based on a lightweight software component.
2. Building __________building up____ ______
Building up: Building up muscle also has a skin smoothing effect.
3. Turning _________turning into___________
She was turning into more of a rebellious teenager.
4. On tour __go/went on tour, on tour with___
Went on tour: Whitney Houston did very little live performing, very rarely went on tour.
Go on tour: She seldom goes on tour, but sometimes her group goes to
New York to produce a CD.
On tour with: We were both on tour for Brad Paisley, opening up for him.
After examining the differences, choose three collocations from this lesson and create your own
examples below. Please write two examples for each collocation (they do not have to be the same one
you searched in COCA).
Example: The fashion trend went worldwide overnight. It became an overnight sensation.
1. _Josh Groban went on tour with Angelique Kidjo.________________________
_Gangnam Style has become so popular, Psy will probably go on tour._________________
2. Today is turning into a good day. When you bake flour, it turns into bread.________
3. Based on my English knowledge, I can communicate in English.__________________
__Based on the evidence, the defendant was found guilty._________________________
Emily Tregelles ©2012
Handout - Essay
Write a three-paragraph essay about a recent trend you know. Then, research other trends in the world.
It can be about fashion, music, art, books, or movies, as long as it deals with popular culture. Compare
the two trends using your new grammar and vocabulary.
Suggestions of things to write about:
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Why are you interested in the trend?
When did it become popular?
Why did it become popular?
How is it different from the other trend? Did the trends gain popularity at the same time or in
the same way?
Is the trend a domestic or international phenomenon?
What language is dominant in the spread of the trend?
Requirements (15 points):
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Students must discuss two trends from different cultures and compare them. (6 points)
Students must include two new structures (grammar points and/or phrases) and two vocabulary
words learned from this lesson (used correctly). (4 points).
It must be three paragraphs in length, with at least four sentences in each paragraph. The body
paragraph should be the longest paragraph. (3 points).
Vocabulary words should be free of spelling errors. (2 points)