Generalitat de Catalunya
Departament d’Ensenyament
Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes
“Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka
Teaching Notes
Lead-in: Introduce the topic of renting and letting a flat by projecting questions 1 and 2 from
the student’s worksheet. (Do not show students the text of the poem at this stage).
Hand out the text to students and ask them to read it and answer questions 3-6 in pairs or
small groups. Be prepared to help with any vocabulary questions if you think them
essential.
Get feedback and check understanding with the whole class. Go on to question 7 with the
whole class.
Ask students to roleplay the activity paying special attention to intonation and expression
and reminding them it’s a telephone conversation with all that implies. (they can’t see their
partner so they shouldn’t look at them!).
Look at the videoclip from Youtube and ask the students what they think of it.
(Alternatively if there are problems for students to understand some aspects of the text, the
videoclip could be played after students have talked about questions 3-6).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFRHZL3OIeM
Materials elaborats pel grup de treball Brit-lit – Departament d’Ensenyament / British Council
Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka. Teaching Notes
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