What if you spent a night at ‘Hotel California’? A ‘song-telling’ activity for advanced learners

We are all more than aware that music is a great tool in the classroom. In particular, Murphy (1992), who analysed the discourse of pop songs, stressed their effectiveness in the foreign language classroom for their highly affective and dialogic features. He also added that pop songs present vague references (he also referred to them as ghost discourse) which allow listeners to use them in personally associative ways. Ding dong. Yes, it does ring a bell to you too, right? These are some of the reasons why we love using songs in class.  

Starting from the ideas above I decided to create a lesson plan based on the song ‘Hotel California’. (Yes, I went back to the Seventies). It was pretty successful because my learners had had bad experiences (well, not as bad as in the song, of course) at hotels during their holidays. 

Happy to share some of my ideas with you!

WARM-UP ACTIVITY

(In order to engage Ls).

Show Ls this text and these two pictures and ask them to match the text with the picture they think it is describing. (Remember to ask, 'Why?')

*The word 'colitas' might put you in trouble, sorry!

https://www.flickr.com

www.flickr.com 

SONG TELLING ACTIVITY

1) Ask Ls to answer the following questions in pairs.

1. Who do you think the person speaking is?

2. Where is s/he?

3. What is s/he been doing? Why?

4. What do you think s/he going to do? What would you personally do? 

2) Now you can tell Ls that our ‘friend’ is actually going to stop over at a hotel. 

Show Ls the following picture and ask them to brainstorm ideas about what can possibly go wrong there. (E.g. no hot water, too much noise, etc.)

picture taken from www.google.com 

3) Ls listen to the song 'Hotel California' and check whether the problems they brainstormed are the same or different the singer experiences. 

4) Ls listen to the song again, this time with the support of the lyrics.

Elicit or explain new vocabulary.

5) Tell them that the singer was not happy with the hotel services. Thus, he decided to write a complaint letter.

I found useful phrases for writing a  (Cambridge CAE exam) complaint letter in this website. Hand out the worksheet you can download from the page. Ls go through the expressions in small groups. Provide them with translation if necessary.

6) Ls complete this text with phrases from the handout. 

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY

What will the manager of the Hotel California do when he gets the singer's complaint letter? This type of task will let Ls be autonomous and go for either a writing or a speaking activity.

My students really enjoyed this lesson and I hope so do yours. If you use these activities or change them a bit, please let me know!

Bye for now ;)

SING ENGLISH: JUST GIVE ME A REASON... to review tenses

Per la serie SING ENGLISH oggi propongo una dei singoli in vetta nella UK CHART: JUST GIVE ME A REASON di Pink.

Questa canzone ci dà un'ottima opportunità per ripetere molti tempi verbali inglesi!

Level: Intermediate +

"Just Give Me A Reason"
(Pink feat. Nate Ruess)

Listen to the song following this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQFFLBMEPI

Complete the lyrics with the right tense of the verb in brackets. (Pay attention to continuous and passive forms)

Right from the start
You _________(to be) a thief
You __________(to steal) my heart
And I your willing victim
I ________(let) you see the parts of me
That __________(not to be) all that pretty
And with every touch you _______(to fix) them

Now you_______________(to talk) in your sleep, oh, oh
Things you never ___________(to say) to me, oh, oh
Tell me that you____________(to have) enough
Of our love, our love

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we___________(not to break)  just bent
And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars
It ___________(to write) in the scars on our hearts
We're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

I'm sorry I don't understand
Where all of this _____________(to come) from
I ___________(to think) that we __________(to be) fine
(Oh, we had everything)
Your head ______________(to run) wild again
My dear we still have everythin'
And it's all in your mind
(Yeah, but this is happenin')

You____________(to have) real bad dreams, oh, oh
You __________(to lie) so close to me, oh, oh
There's nothing more than empty sheets
Between our love, our love
Oh, our love, our love

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
I never___________(to stop)
You're still written in the scars on my heart
You're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

Oh, tear ducts and rust
I_________(to fix) it for us
We __________(to collect) dust
But our love's enough
You ___________(to hold) it in
You ____________(to pour) a drink
No nothing is as bad as it seems
We__________(to come) clean

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars
It's been written in the scars on our hearts
That we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars
It's been written in the scars on our hearts
That we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

Oh, we can learn to love again
Oh, we can learn to love again
Oh, oh, that we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again

1.      For each sentence write the name of the tense used, then explain its use in the context.

Sentence	Tense	Use
Just give me a reason.
You stole my heart.
You’ve been talking in your sleep.
You’ve had enough of our love.
We’re not broken.
I don’t understand.
Your head is running wild.
You used to lie so close to me.
I’ll fix it for us.
We’ll come clean.
It’s been written in the scars on our hearts.

SING ENGLISH: CANDY BY ROBBIE WILLIAMS

CANDY Robbie Williams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtOV7bp-gys 

1 Cross out the wrong option.

I was there to witness
Candice’s inner princess/princes
She wants the boys to notise/notice
Her rainbows, and her ponies/ponys
She was educated
But could not count to ten
How she got lots of different horses
By lots of different men/man
And I say

Liberate your sons and daughters
The bush is high
But in the hole there’s water/weather
You can get some, when they give it
Nothing sacred, but it's a living

Hey ho here she goes
Either a little too high or a little too low/law
Got no self-esteem and vertigo
Cause she thinks she’s made of candy
Hey ho here she goes
Either a little too loud or a little too close
There's a hurricane in the back of her throat
And she thinks she’s made of candy

Ring a ring of roses
Whoever gets the closest/closer
She comes and she goes
As the war of the roses/ross
Mother was a victim
Father beat the system
By moving bricks to Brixton
And learning how to fix them
Liberate your sons and daughters
The bush is high
But in the hole there’s water
As you win
She’ll be the Hollywood love
And if it don’t feel good
What are you doing this for
Now tell me

Hey ho here she goes
Either a little too high or a little too low/law
Got no self-esteem and vertigo
Cause she thinks she’s made of candy
Hey ho here she goes
Either a little too loud or a little too close
There's a hurricane in the back of her throat
And she thinks she’s made of candy

Liberate your sons and daughters
The bush is high
But in the hole there’s water
As you win
She’ll be the Hollywood love
And if you don’t feel good
What are you doing this for
What are you doing this for
What are you doing this for

Hey ho here she goes
Either a little too high or a little too low/law
Got no self-esteem and vertigo
Cause she thinks she’s made of candy
Hey ho here she goes
Either a little too loud or a little too close
There's a hurricane in the back of her throat
And she thinks she’s made of candy

Comprehension

1)      What is the song about?

2)       Can you describe the girl in the video by using only three adjectives?

Grammar

1)      Underline all the verbs whose subject is Candice. 

Pronunciation THE SOUND -S

Voiceless sounds take /s/ Imagine the sound a snake  might make...ssssssssss	Voiced sounds take /z/ Imagine the sound a bee  might make...zzzzzzzz	These sounds take /iz/ Similar to the word 'is'
These sounds are voiceless: /f/ /h/ /k/ /p/ /t/	These sounds are voiced: /b/ /d/ /g/ /j/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/ /r/ /v/ /w/ + all vowel sounds	/s/ /ks/ /z/ /dg/
EXAMPLES: laughs talks	EXAMPLES: lives sings	EXAMPLES: watches dresses

Culture

Ring a ring o'roses, a pocketful of posies, atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down.

It is often suggested that the rhyme relates to the symptoms of plague, specifically the Black Death - the bubonic plague that spread through Europe in the 1340s, or to the Great Plague of London, 1665/6. The plausible-sounding theory has it that the 'ring' was the ring of sores around the mouths of plague victims, who subsequently sneezed and fell down dead.

Set Fire to the Rain: learn the past simple pronunciation!

Sabato scorso la nostra nuova activity SING ENGLISH ha riscosso molto successo! Perchè?
Abbiamo studiato la pronuncia del past simple dei verbi regolari. E cosa ci sarà di eccezionale? Guardate un po' qui...
Dopo aver ascoltato la canzone ed aver inserito i verbi giusti nelle LYRICS
Adele Set Fire to the rain
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0mzLQyd36A
Complete with the verbs in the past and listen to the song:
I [1] ______(to let) it fall, my heart
And as it [2] _______(to fall), you [3] ______ (to rise) to
claim it
It [4] _______ (to be) dark and I [5] ______ (to be) over
Until you [6] ______(to kiss) my lips and you [7] ______(to save)me
My hands, they [8] ______ (to be) strong
But my knees [9] ______ (to be) far too weak
To stand in your arms
Without falling to your feet
chorus
But there's a side, to you, that I never [10] ______(to know), never [11] ______ (to know)
All the things you'd say, they were never true, never true
And the games you'd play, you would always win, always win
But I [12] ______ (to set) fire to the rain
[13] ______ (to watch) it pour as I [14]______ (to touch) your face
Well, it [15] ______ (to burn) while I [16] ______ (to cry)
'Cause I [17] ______ (to hear) it screaming out your name, your name!
When I lay, with you
I [18] _______(can) stay there, close my eyes
Feel you here forever
You and me together, nothing is better!
chorus
I set fire to the rain
And I [19] _______(to throw) us into the flames
Well, it [20] _______ (to feel) something died
Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time!
Sometimes I wake up by the door
That heart you [21] _______ (to catch) must be waiting for ya…
Even now when we're already over
I can't help myself from looking for ya
I set fire to the rain
Watched it pour as I touched your face
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I [22] _______ (to hear) it screaming out your name, your name!
I set fire to the rain
And I threw us into the flames
Well, it felt something [23] _______(to die),
'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time!
Oh oh oh oh oh…
Let it burn…

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