English File third edition Intermediate Plus

Weblink Mini-Projects
File 1

1A
Activity type: Speaking and Reading
Language: Etymology, Adjectives of personality
http://www.behindthename.com
Preparation: Before class, look up the names of each of your students via the
above weblink to get their meanings. Print out the pages in large print and cut
them up so that the name is no longer visible. Stick the papers up around the
classroom walls.
In class: If your name has an interesting meaning behind it, write it on the board
and tell the class about it. Ask them whether they know the meaning behind their
name, and invite them to share what they know. Explain that you have found out
the story behind all their names, and you want to see whether they can identify
theirs. Show them the walls, and tell students they have five minutes (or more if
it’s a big class) to read the different name meanings, and then stand by the one
they think is theirs. Once the activity is over, ask students to read out the
meanings they have stood beside and tell the class why they think it explains
their name. At the end, reveal the answers, and briefly discuss any surprises.

1B
Activity type: Speaking
Language: Adjectives of personality
http://www.testcolor.com
Give students coloured pens or ask them to bring some in, and some blank paper.
Tell them you are going to say a word, and when you say it they must scribble
whichever colour comes to mind on the paper. Reel off a list of 10-15 personality
adjectives, some of which could be recycled from the previous lesson, e.g. angry,
loving, jealous, fun, happy, depressed. Ask students to compare and discuss their
colour choices, before discussing briefly in open class. Explain that the colours
we are drawn to often reveal a lot about our personalities. Point them to the
weblink, and tell them to take the personality test. Then tell students to compare
their answers in pairs and discuss any interesting points as a class.
Extension: Tell students to do the personality test with a family member or
friend and ask them to report back on their findings in class. Did the test results
match that person’s true colours?

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 2

2A
Activity type: Reading for specific information, Writing
Language: Holidays
http://travel.ninemsn.com.au/world/829030/holiday-horror-stories

Choose one of the stories from the weblink and briefly tell it to the class, then ask
whether anyone has had a worse holiday experience than that. Invite students to
share their stories with their peers. Tell them to read all the different horrific
holiday stories via the weblink then, in pairs, choose the worst one. Discuss this
briefly in class, before directing them to the comments below the stories and
inviting them to write their own horrific holiday tale – real or, if necessary,
imaginary – and post it as a comment.

2B
Activity type: Blogging
Language: Economy, Lifestyle
http://blogs.channel4.com/siobhan-kennedy/british-high-street-reinvent/342
Tell students they are going to write a blog on the topic of how economic
struggle is reflected in modern society. Briefly invite them to share stories of
how recent economic downturn has affected their hometown or a place they
know. Tell them to read about the town of Swindon, and then as a class discuss
similarities with the places they know. Ask students to write a blog in a similar
style about the place they know. Briefly review typical blog–style-writing
conventions (informal language and style, use of the first person, etc) before they
begin.
Extension: Review their blogs after class and make note of any common errors
to focus on in the following lesson.

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 3

3A
Activity type: Speaking and Reading
Language: Talking about the past and future
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/10-signs-youre-having-your-quarter-
life-crisis
Ask students to write down a few things that are great about being the age they
are now, a few things that were great when they were 10 or 15 years younger,
and a few things that will be great in 10 or 15 years time. Discuss in small groups.
Ask them the following questions: What do you think is the best age to be, any
why? When do people really have the most freedom and the most fun? Ask
whether they have heard of a ‘mid-life crisis’, and briefly explain it to anyone that
doesn’t know what it is. Then introduce the concept of a quarter-life crisis, and
show them the weblink above. Discuss as a class: Have you experienced a
quarter-life crisis? Does anyone really believe in it? Are you worried about
reaching a certain age? Why?
Note: This can work with classes of any age, although if you have any older
students it is a good idea to be sensitive to that, as they may not want to talk
about being old!

3B

Activity type: Game

Language: Celebrities, Film
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/photos/stars-disney-treatment-
2827506
Preparation: Look up the name of the celebrity(ies) in each portrait and the film
they are re-enacting a scene from, and write the answers down. Print out the
images in colour and stick them on the board.
In class: Put students in groups of 3-4 and tell them they are going to do a quiz
on their celebrity and Disney knowledge. Make sure they know it’s a competition.
Show them the portraits, and get them to write down the names of the celebrities
in them and the movies they are representing. Get groups to call out their
guesses before revealing the true answers.
Alternative activity: If this subject is age or culture-inappropriate to your class,
make it an art class instead. Arrange the chairs face-to-face and give students a
pen, artist’s paper, and a five-minute time limit to draw the person opposite
them. When time is up, clap your hands and tell students to change seats and find
another partner to draw. Repeat this until everyone has drawn at least four
different people. Ask students to display their pictures around the room and
mingle, discussing them. Which portraits are the favourites among the class, and
why?

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 4

4A
Activity type: Game, Writing
Language: Transactions, advertising
http://www.gumtree.com
Preparation: Bring in an object for each student – the less valuable, the better -
this could range from a ball, to an apple, to a packet of crisps, a broken pen, a
plastic toy, etc. Alternatively, ask students to grab a random object from their bag
and give it to you at the beginning of class.
In class: Ask the class what Gumtree is, then ask if anyone has bought or sold
anything on it. Are valuable things sold there, or is it mostly rubbish? Show them
a couple of Gumtree ads so that they get the idea if they are not familiar with it.
Tell the class they are going to try to convince someone in the class to buy an
object from them. The winning student will be the one that ‘sells’ their object for
the highest price. Give out one object per person, and tell them they can’t sit
down until they have sold their object - even if they have to give it away for free!
Stop the game once everyone has completed the task, and invite students to
share how much their objects sold for. Was anyone actually convinced that what
he or she was buying was worth the price, or was it really just rubbish?
Extension: For homework, you could ask students to write a draft Gumtree ad
for something in their house they no longer need or want to get rid of.

4B
Activity type: Roleplay
Language: Work
http://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk

Ask whether anyone has ever been an intern, and then ask how he or she would
rate the experience. Did they work for free, or get paid? Did they learn a lot? Did
it help to further their career? Is interning a valuable experience? Explain that
they will now do a roleplay activity in which they have to decide whether their
partner would be a good intern, or not. Put students in pairs, with A as the
‘employer’ and B as the ‘candidate’. Get them to choose a job from the weblink
together and then give them 10 minutes or so to research the company
individually. The ‘employer’ should use this time to think of some interview
questions relevant to the company, while the ‘candidate’ should think about the
kinds of skills and experience they could talk about to make them the ideal
intern. Ask them to roleplay the interview. When they are finished, ask them to
choose another company from the weblink and switch roles, with the employer
becoming the candidate and vice-versa. Monitor the activity and write up any
useful language that emerges on the board to reflect on after class. Once the
activity is finished, invite students to share their interviewing experience with
the class. Would their candidate have been a good intern? Why/why not?

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 5

5A
Activity type: Quiz
Language: Television
http://www.quizopolis.com/quiz/4/Are-you-a-TV-addict/
Ask students what is meant by the term ‘couch potato’. Is anyone in the class
guilty of this behaviour? How important is TV to them? Tell the class they are
going to do a quiz to find out who the biggest TV addict is. Get them to interview
each other in pairs using the questions on the weblink, and then share their quiz
results in class.
Extension: Students could write their own TV addict quiz, and use this to
interview someone they know for homework. Ask them to share the results in
the next class.

5B
Activity type: Debate
Language: Environment, Lifestyle
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/live-in-city-or-
country
Preparation: Print out copies of the article and cut them in half, so that half the
class has ‘the case for living in the country’ and the other half has ‘the case for
living in the city’.
In class: Briefly brainstorm some of the advantages and the disadvantages of
country versus city living. Tell students they are going to debate this issue, with
half the class supporting city living and the other half supporting country living.
Divide the class into the two groups and give one half ‘the case for living in the
country’ and the other ‘the case for living in the city’. Tell them to that they
should use these blogs for inspiration in the debate. Give them enough time to
read, before starting the debate. Steer the debate if necessary, encouraging all
students to share their views. At the end, briefly review the arguments they
presented for each case.

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 6

6A
Activity type: Writing
Language: Experiences
http://www.doityourself.com
Ask the class who is the most “DIY”, and get them to explain some of the DIY
experiences they’ve had, no matter how small. Tell them they are going to post
about one of their DIY experiences – be warned, you’ll probably get some silly
ones, but focus on the writing practice aspect of the task rather than the actual
subject. Get students to create a free account on the above weblink. Encourage
them to spend 10 minutes or so reading a few of the existing DIY stories on the
site. They should then post their own DIY story. If there is a large screen
available, display some of their stories on it at the end of class. Which is actually
the most useful for others? Who is the most practical DIY King / Queen, and who
clearly isn’t?

6B
Activity type: Roleplay
Language: Service interactions
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eimh45lfhj/1-mcdonalds
Ask students to share their worst restaurant experience. Why was it so bad?
Show them the article of the restaurants that have most angered customers in
the US. Discuss how bad a restaurant would have to be to make students never
dine there again, or even walk out during their meal. Then explain that they will
enact an example of bad restaurant service. Which students will walk out, and
which won’t let the service ruin their dining experience? Put students in pairs,
with A as the waiter/waitress and B as the customer. Tell As to be as rude as
possible, and exceptionally bad at their job, and Bs to react as they normally
would in such a situation. When the activity has begun, note down any particular
language or behaviour that emerges which affects the atmosphere of the
interaction. Stop the activity after 10-15 minutes, and ask the customers to share
how they felt in their restaurant. Did they let the bad service ruin the experience?
Why / why not? Finish the activity on a positive note, by asking students to share
experiences of great customer service.

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 7

7A
Activity type: Reading for gist and specific information
Language: Money
http://metro.co.uk/2014/05/16/students-reese-werkhoven-cally-guasti-and-
lara-russo-find-40000-in-new-york-charity-shop-sofa-4730257/
Write the opening sentence of the article on the board (‘A charity shop sofa
turned out to be a real bargain for three US students when they discovered
$40,000 (£24,000) in cash hidden inside it’). Turn to the class and ask them what
they think happened next, but don’t reveal anything. Give out copies of the
article, and tell them they have two minutes to find out what actually happened.
Once time is up, elicit the answer: ‘They gave it back to the woman it belonged
to’. Write the following questions on the board: Who gave the students the sofa?
What was their reaction when they found the money? Where in the sofa did they
find it? Who is the elderly woman? Tell students to read the article again to find
the answers. Compare in pairs before discussing as a class. Ask whether students
would have done the same, had they found the money. Spend a few minutes at
the end reviewing any new language from the article.

7B
Activity type: Speaking
Language: Socialising, nightlife
http://www.timeout.com
Put students in pairs and give each the name of a different major city around the
world that they don’t know much about. Get them to research what they can do
in that city, and in their pairs discuss and note down the activities they think
would be the most fun to do on a week’s holiday. Share their holiday nightlife
plan at the end of the activity. Which city sounds like the best place to visit at
night, and why?

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 8

8A
Activity type: Grammar review, Speaking
Language: The passive voice
http://www.gayot.com/lifestyle/health/top10/healthretreats.html
Has anyone ever been to a wellness centre? What did they have done? Show
students the weblink and tell them to read about some of the best wellness
centres across the world. Would they like to visit any of them? Why? Drawing
ideas from the article, brainstorm all the things you can ‘have/get done’ at a
wellness centre and write these on the board, encouraging students to use full
sentences, e.g., ‘You can get your nails painted’. Highlight and teach any new
language from the article at the end of the lesson.
Note: This will work particularly well as a review activity practising the passive
voice after Unit 8 has been taught.

8B
Activity type: Quiz
Language: History
http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=basic-world-history-quiz
Preparation: Print enough quizzes for one per three students, and mark the
correct answers on the papers.
In class: Tell students they are going to do a quiz to find out who knows the most
world history. Put them in groups of three, appointing one student in each group
the ‘quizmaster’. Give the quizmaster a copy of the quiz, along with the answers.
Tell them to quiz the other two students, without revealing the answers. Both
students must agree on each answer before moving on to the next question. Get
the quizmaster to mark down the students’ answers as they go along. At the end,
the quizmaster can reveal the overall scores.

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 9

9A
Activity type: Listening
Language: Memory
http://www.memorypower.org/freetest.html
Tell students you are going to read a story to them, and the only thing they have
to do is remember as much as possible. Ask them to put their pens down and, if
they are comfortable, close their eyes, while you slowly read out the story from
the weblink. Read at a slightly slower than natural speed. When you have
finished, ask students to open their eyes. Get them to quickly write down
everything they remember of the story, not focusing on the language (they can
even write in their L1 for this stage, if it helps). When they have finished, tell
them to share everything they remember with the person sitting next to them,
and write down anything that person has remembered that they didn’t. Ask the
class to give you a rough account of what happened in the story, in the correct
sequence, and board their answers. At the end, fill in any gaps they have missed.
Briefly discuss why they think they remembered certain parts, but forgot others.
Were they surprised at how much/little they remembered?

9B
Activity type: Speaking and Reading
Language: Celebrations
http://www.today.com/id/30847787/ns/today-today_style/t/oh-no-real-life-
wedding-disasters/#.U4DL15R5Pvs
Ask the class whether anyone has ever witnessed a disastrous wedding. What
happened? Pick one of the stories from the weblink and read it out to the class.
Ask them what they think: was that a real disaster wedding? If they had been in
the bride/groom’s shoes, what would they have done in that situation? Direct
them to the article, and tell them to read the other wedding stories. Discuss what
they have read in pairs: which was the most embarrassing/awful disaster?
Which would they hate to happen to them? Is it really possible to create a
‘perfect day’? What would they need to make their wedding day perfect?
Highlight any new language from the article at the end of the activity.

© Oxford University Press 2015

File 10

10A
Activity type: Speaking and Reading
Language: Cultures
http://hellobeautiful.com/2011/02/03/8-stereotypes-of-americans-that-arent-
always-true-and-two-that-might-be
Ask students what they think of when you say the word ‘Americans’. Write ideas
up on the board, and elicit that these are stereotypical associations. What are the
most well known American stereotypes, and which do students think are really
true? Hand out copies of the article and ask the class to read it, and then briefly
discuss the stereotypes presented in class. Are these true only of Americans? Are
they even true at all? Invite students to tell others in the class about some
stereotypical views of people from their country, and whether or not these are
true. Are stereotypes a good or bad thing? Why?

10B
Activity type: Quiz
Language: Education
http://mensaiqtest.net/mensatest
Preparation: Go through the quiz beforehand and note down the answers. Print
out enough copies of the first page only (up to question 12) of the test for one per
student.
In class: Tell the class about the hardest exam you ever took and ask them about
the hardest exam they’ve ever taken. If your students are quite young, ask
whether they need to pass any particular exams to qualify for their chosen
profession, and whether they are worried about it. Ask them if they have heard
of Mensa, and briefly explain what it is for any that don’t know. Tell them they’re
going to do a sample Mensa test – just for fun! Hand out the tests and give them
15-20 minutes to complete the questions. Get them to compare in pairs before
discussing the answers as a class. At this point you can reveal the real answers,
but don’t really focus on what’s ‘correct’, instead use the test as a basis for
discussion about the real merits of exams, what they prove, and how useful they
are (or not) in showing true someone’s ability or intelligence.

© Oxford University Press 2015