Tag: ESL conversation

What do you do differently in your culture?

I grew up in multicultural Canada. Just in my small group of friends there was me (franco-british), an Indian girl, a Lebanese girl, an Israeli girl, and a German girl. We loved to compare ourselves. We could spend all evening just playing “how do you say…in your language,” we would compare breakfast rituals, religions, fatherly roles, mothers, everything.

Back then I took the wealth of this environment for granted, but now I see how it has shaped me into an open, curious and culturally inclusive person. It takes a lot for me to make negative cultural generalizations about any one person, yet I do allow myself to notice certain patterns and rituals that can  define us more than we know. Even though that may seem contradictory, in my head it makes sense and it is beautiful.

Derek Sivers presents a very short TED talk on this very topic. But in areas that we probably never ponder. Like how home addresses are organized, or how the world map is looked at. It seems a good launching pad to think about some of the aspects cultures may differ and take a look at the world for the opposite perspective.

Pre discussion

  • Tell us something about your culture that we probably don’t know.
  • What habits or rituals surprised you about other cultures?

The Video: Weird, or just different

  • What bubbles up in your mind after watching this talk?
  • Why do you think Sivers in making this point?
  • Make a list of what is the same across cultures and what is different.
  • What do you think would happen if we were more exposed to cultural differences?

Please share the results of your discussion.

 

 

 

How do we test new medicines?

Clinical testing of new medicines and therapies is quite a layered and rigorous process. And still, when a drug reaches the general public, there can be unexpected outcomes. This TED talk features Nina Tandon introducing a new biotechnology process that may prevent some of these outcomes.

For your science students…and perhaps your science aficionados, watch Tandon’s presentation and see if your participants can pull out the main points and features this new technology offers.

Pre discussion 

  • What do you know about the process of drug testing?
  • Do you think the process is solid enough to protect against unpredictable outcomes?
  • What could be improved?

The Video: TED-Could tissue engineering mean personalized medicine?

  • Cut the video into as many parts as you need depending on the level of your participants.
  • Do a Tell Back and Mind Map of the main points
  • What are the features of this technology that improve on what was done in the past?
  • How would it change the current practices in drug testing?

What makes you say yes?

This post is devoted to all the students who are in the business and sales field. But if you are like me and enjoy a little behavioural psychology, this presentation will fascinate you.

Pre discussion

  • What is it that makes us say yes to one person and no to the other?
  • What are the elements that make us trust in a product or a person?
  • Have you ever bought a good or service and was disappointed? What about the opposite?

The Video: The Science of Persuasion

I would divide the video into 2-3 min segments and stop after each principle to do a Tell Back.

This would also be a great presentation to do a comprehension mind map (video to come). That is to say, write down the 6 principles and ask students to say what they remember about them.

Ask students if these principles conjures any memories of times they were convinced of something. In other words, ask them about times when they trusted something or someone and why.

Finally, what do you think the author means by “ethical” persuasion?

Have a great discussion…

 

 

 

Can you identify these famous paintings?

I love silly quizzes that tell me which Star Wars character I am or whether I am an introvert or extrovert. I definitely take them with a grain of salt, but I do find them entertaining. What’s more, the suspense creates a great natural motivation to read. So here is one I find pretty generic and adds an educational aspect to it. But you can find the all the quizzes in the to get things going section of this Website.

Pre discussion

  • Have you ever done a silly pop-psychology quiz?
  • What was the result?
  • How much do you know about art?
  • What artists do you admire?

The Website

  • What was your result?
  • Which paintings did you recognize?
  • Which paintings left you puzzled?

Let me know how it goes…

Mel

8 secrets to success…can you name them?

Ah success! I feel as though this topic has been done to death. Yet I cannot resist this TED talk by Richard St. John. So short, so simple, so predictable, yet so thought provoking.

St. John interviewed over 400 people, some famous, to succinctly summarize the ‘ingredients’  to success. Although the results are not necessarily surprising, I think they are worth reminding.

Of course we all have our  cultural capital which is to say, depending on upbringing and background, some of us start the journey with a head start.  However, in St. John’s TED talk, he looks at the more unbiased predispositions that contribute success. It is a short presentation (3 min.) and may lead to some interesting personal anecdotes.

Pre discussion

  • Tell us about some of your successes. What do you think contributed to them?
  • Do a Mind Map the elements that contribute to success.

The Video: TED 8 Secrets of Success by Richard St. John

  • List each point
  • Do you agree with St. John?
  • Do you think he forgot anything?
  • Can you share a personal anecdote on one or of the elements?

 

What is in the news today?

The news can be a challenging thing to talk about. For intermediate to advanced students, it can be motivating to talk about real world topics. CNN offers a 10 min news recap every day. You can put the close captions on so the vocabulary can be heard and read and you can scaffold the activity by discussion what they know about the news. It is also a good natural context to speak in the past tense.

Pre discussion

  • What kind of news stories do you follow?
  • What are some of the top news stories these days?
  • What newspapers, blogs, news channels do you use to get your news?

The Video: CNN in 10

  • Make a list of the news stories
  • Do a Tell Back of what is said in each story
  • Is there a story that you would like to discuss?
  • Why is this story significant for you?
  • Were there some interesting words or vocabulary?

Have a good discussion.

Mel

Let’s get silly…Friday ice breaker questions…

Sometimes deep or thoughtful discussions are good for days when your brain juice is flowing. But today’s lesson is for the days when you just want to talk about silly stuff. Like “if you were a vegetable, which would you be.” Ok, maybe not that one, but you get the idea.

This is a site with some light hearted questions that are originally intended as ice breakers for a meeting (glad that the vegetable one never appeared in one of my meetings)…

Relax…have fun

For more like this, visit to get things going…

How do you separate fact from fiction?

Fake news is the term “du jour.” How sharp do you think you are at spotting fake news?

What if you were a journalist? If your livelihood depended on your ability to detect fact from fiction? In Markham Nolan’s TED talk “How to separate fact from fiction online” we see how the digital dimension affects this decision.

WarmUp

  • How good are you at detecting fake news?
  • What is your criteria? How can you tell?
  • Do a Mind Map of the elements/criteria that can help separate fact from fiction.

The video: TED Markham Nolan: How to separate fact from fiction

  • Watch the video and gather some of Nolan’s debunking tools.
  • Compare your list with the mind map you did previously.
  • What elements in the digital information era make fact checking easier? What makes them harder?
  • Which anecdotes in Nolan’s talk stick with you? Why?

What museums would you recommend?

Why not indulged is some culture and beauty?

I love going to museums. They are like a breath of cultural air. Something about spending time with other people’s stories that inspires me.

Pre discussion

  • What type of museum do you enjoy (if at all…you can say you don’t like them…that’s ok too)?
  • What museums or exhibits have you been to that you would recommend?

The Article

Scan through this National Geographic article on the top 10 museums in the world and flesh out what makes each extraordinary.

  • Have you visited any of the museums on the list? What was it like?
  • Which museum would you visit?
  • What are some of the main attractions of each museum?
  • What type of museums do you like? Art? History? Science?
  • Do you have any memorable experiences at museums?

If you were a car, which would you be?

For all you car lovers our there, this is the discussion for you. Business Insider presents one of the world’s largest car collection of cars, with over 45o cars, held by business man Roger Dubbing. So if you want to feast your eyes on plenitudes of  chrome and leather, hop into this discussion…

First start by Mind Mapping some of the car related words. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to review colors, descriptive adjectives (e.g. fast, smooth, powerful, etc). Then ask your students to take the quiz. Why not make it interactive by getting your students into pairs so that one asks and the other answers. Reading out lound can be a great way to practice pronounciation…if it is not too difficutl or stressful. Finally, watch the video on the 45$ car collection.

Warm Up

  • Mind Map some of the car-related words
  • What is your favorite car?
  • If you were a car, which would you be? (you can even take a quiz)

The Video: Inside a $45 Million Car Collection

  • What did you see that stuck?
  • What are some of the strangest features?
  • If you were to rent a car from Dubbing, which would it be?
  • Why does Dubbing see himself as an art collector rather than a car collector?
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