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Анастасия Новикова

МЕДИАОБРАЗОВАНИЕ
НА ЗАНЯТИЯХ ПО
АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ

Anastasia Novikova
TEACHING MEDIA
IN THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
Activities for
Media Education
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Novikova, Anastasia. Teaching Media in the English Language Classroom.

Activities for Media Education. – Taganrog: Kuchma Publishing House,
2004. - 52 p.
This is a guide for teachers of English as a foreign language, who teach in
secondary schools, higher education institutions or extra-curricular classes of
English. The activities are meant for upper intermediate through advanced
levels but can be adapted for a lower level of English proficiency.

The Research for this publication was supported under a grant funded
by the Fulbright Scholar Program Advanced Research and University
Lecturing Awards.

Contents
Preface p.4
1 Photography p.6
2 Film p.10
3 Television p.15
4 Advertisement p.19
5 News p.25
6 Popular Music p.30
7 Internet p.34
References p.40
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Preface

“Media education is a quest for meaning. Much of the value of a quest lies in
the search itself as well as in the achievement of the goal.”
(Chris Worsnop, Canadian Media Educator, author of the book “Screening
Images: Ideas for Media Education”)

Media education today is one of the fastest developing trends in the field
of education around the world. I will not go into the detailed account of the
history, theory foundations or the current research related to media education
(also known as media literacy in some countries, e.g. the USA) because there is
already an abundance of different print and online resources available (see
References). What I want to say introducing this collection of activities is why I
think media education is important in teaching English as a foreign language. As
teachers of English we teach grammar to our students, but not just for the sake
of their ability to put in the correct form of the verb in a sentence or pass a test
in the end of the semester. We teach grammar, as with any other aspect of the
language, so that our students can communicate in English successfully,
understand oral and written speech, speak and write. What are the main sources
of the English language for our students? We are – I refer to our own speech and
the textbook, sometimes supplemented by audiotapes. What can we do to take
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our students out from the textbook context and into a “real world” context? The
best way would be the immersion into the English-language and culture,
preferably by sending them to England or the United States for 6 months. And
while this is possible for some young people, most of our students cannot do
that. But what we can do is to bring part of the English language world into our
classroom. Where do we obtain our knowledge about foreign cultures and
foreign countries? Besides our personal experiences we gain it from the media-
television, radio, feature films, Internet, music, etc. Media has become an
indispensable part of our lives; children spend more time watching TV than on
doing their homework, media are sometimes called “a parallel school”! Direct or
indirect influence of media on our lives is growing constantly, and traditional
literacy skills- the ability to read and to write print texts, must be supplemented
with media literacy skills- the ability to “read” and “write” audiovisual materials
along with print media texts (television programs, films, web sites,
advertisements, etc.). You could challenge me by saying that films, audio tapes
with stories or dialogues of native speakers, songs, authentic newspaper articles
have been used by the teachers of English for decades, that using technology is
not a novel concept. So how is media education different? The argument for
media education is that, drawing upon the students’ real life experiences, it
teaches about the media, opposed to teaching with the media (or ТСО in
Russian). I’ll cite my two favorite definitions of media literacy, one by the
American professor Dr. Renee Hobbs: “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate,
and communicate messages in the variety of forms” (Hobbs, 1997), and the
other by Canadian professor, Chris Worsnop: “critical understanding of how the
media work, how we interact with them and how we can make the most of
them” (Worsnop, 1999). The last point made by Worsnop, “how we can make
the most of them” in our case would be how. Teaching about the media, we can
assist our students’ learning process of the English language and cultures of the
English-speaking countries. We can also motivate our students, enhance our
lessons, and develop students’ critical thinking, encourage them to become
active viewers, listeners, thus becoming producers of their own messages.

Unit 1.Photography

“Photography is a system of visual editing. At bottom, it is a matter of

surrounding with a frame a portion of one's cone of vision, while standing in the
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right place at the right time. Like chess, or writing, it is a matter of choosing
from among given possibilities, but in the case of photography the number of
possibilities is not finite but infinite.”

Technology and materials: photo cameras, photographs.

Unit objectives:
students will:
- describe the photo in English;
- identify and describe the basic composition terms (framing, arrangement,
placement, lighting, color);
- discuss photo images;
- take photos, display them for the class and explain their intentions as
photographers.

Activity1. Family Album.

Media concepts: representation
Language skills: speaking, listening.
For this activity ask your students to bring their baby pictures to class.. First
have them put all their pictures on one table, shuffle them and ask the students to
choose one picture (but not their own). Each student is to describe the child in
the picture and, together with class, guess who is depicted in the picture. Talk to
the students about photography in our lives. For example, family albums are, in
a way, a family’s history, written not in words, but in images. Usually these are
the images of happy moments in life, like a birthday celebration, vacation,
friends’ party, a new baby in the family, etc. Even after many years, the
photographs have a power to triggerSMK emotions and memories connected to
the moment when they were taken. What are characteristics of family pictures?
(E.g. people usually pose standing or sitting in a row, smiling, holding each
other, etc.) How many of you have ever taken a picture of family or friends?
What are some other objects that you photographed (pets, landscape, historical
sights, etc.)? How many of you have your own camera? Photography was
invented in 1827, and the word comes from 2 Greek words: photo (light) and
graph (to write). What does the word “photography” literally mean in this case?
(Writing with light). Cameras have changed greatly during their relatively short
history. What types of cameras are familiar to you? What are recent types of
cameras that have appeared on the market? (Digital camera) How are they
different from others?
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Activity 2. Who am I?
Media concepts: representation, language, audience
Language skills: speaking, listening.
In case digital cameras are available, for the home assignment, ask your students
to form teams of 3-4 people, and take picture of someone they know well. Try
to have the photograph tell us something about the personality of a person in the
picture (using props, body language, gestures, facial expression, background). In
the next lesson, students exchange photos with another group (e.g. there are 3
groups in your class, each consisting of 4 students, so there are 3 pictures. Group
A gives their picture to Group B, Group B- to Group C, Group C- to Group A.
Each group tries to decide who the person is, what he/she is like, what is his/hers
occupation, mood at the time when the photo is taken, his/her personality,
hobbies and importantly, what made them think so). After each group presents
their findings to the class, the authors of the photograph tell their version. This is
a good exercise for realizing how different people looking at the same photo see
different things.
Another option:
In preparation for this lesson, find a photo of a man or a woman and bring it to
class. Show the photo to your students and ask them to write down what they
think of this person. How old is he/she? What is he/she? (What does she/he do
for a living?) What kind of person do you think he/she is? Why do you think so?
(What elements of the photo made you think so?)

Activity 3. Reading a photograph

Media concepts: representative, language
Language skills: reading, speaking, listening
This activity will introduce the students to some basics of composition. You can
write them on the blackboard or provide photocopies of this page for your
students. (Adapted from Seeing and Believing by Ellen Krueger and Mary
T.Christel)

FRAME Limits the field of vision or draws the

viewer’s attention to a specific aspect of the
shot
PLACEMENT Position of the camera in relationship to the
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subject of the shot (close-up shot, medium

shot, long shot, high angle, low angle)
ARRANGEMENT The physical relationship or position of
people, objects, and background in a
single shot (foreground, middle ground,
background)
LIGHTING Spot, concentrated or diffused
COLOR Saturation (intensification of a specific
color within a shot)

Prepare and show to the students some photographs from the book, slides or
single copies. A good source is the web site of Pulitzer-winning photographs at
www.pulitzer.org . Sample questions to ask at this stage:
• What is the first thing that you notice? Why? What attracts your attention
to it?
• When you continue to look at the photograph, what else do you see?
• What is in the foreground, middle ground and background of the picture?
• How does the photographer use color and lighting?
• What is the camera position? From where could this picture be taken, e.g.
was the photographer sitting on the ground, or standing on hill, or stairs, or from
a helicopter? How would the main subject of the picture look if it was taken
from another angle? Why do you think the photographer chose this angle?
• What is the message of this photograph? Do you agree with the proverb
“A picture is worth a thousand words”? What did the photographer want to say
with this picture?

Activity 4. In Focus
Media concepts: technology, language, representation.
Language skills: writing
Ask the students to produce a photo, paying attention to the choice of objects,
camera angle, lighting, and so on. Encourage them to be creative and come up
with interesting images of a subject they choose. They can gain some
professional advice by visiting www.kodak.com , a useful site that gives tips for
taking better pictures and shows examples. Students bring their photos into the
classroom, and on a separate sheet of paper, write the text (3-5 sentences
explaining their idea, the meaning of the photograph). Photos and written texts
are displayed on the table randomly; students match pictures with texts, then the
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photographs with the written text can be displayed on a bulletin board or other
surface.

Activity 5. Story Time

Media concepts: representation, audiences.
Language skills: writing, speaking
For this activity you can use original photos or make photocopies of pictures
from different sources or if the computer lab is available, you can use Power
Point. Divide the class into groups of 4-5. Give each group a set of the same 5-7
photographs. Each group should then put the photos in order that, in their
opinion, could tell a story. Students in groups should develop the story and in
the end of the class present it for their classmates.

Unit 2. Film

“Film as dream, film as music…No art passes our conscience in the way film
does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our
souls.” (Ingmar Bergman, Swedish film director)

Useful sites: www.allmovie.com, www.filmland.com, www.paramount.com,

www.imdb.com, www.hollywood.com,
http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/TechHelp/Storyboarding4.html
http://www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/Storyboarding.html
Technology and materials: TV set, VCR, a movie poster.
Unit objectives:
students will:
- discuss their film preferences;
- identify and describe general cinema terms and professions in the media
industry;
- analyze the structure of a film poster;
- create a movie poster;
- explore the relationship between sound and image, the effects of basic
camera shots

As going to the movies or watching films on TV, video or DVD is one of the
most popular recreational activities of students. It makes sense to start this unit
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with an informal conversation about cinema. Discussion can be encouraged by

the following questions:
• Do you like to watch movies?
• Where do you prefer to watch a film, in the movie theatre or at home?
• What are your favorite movies? (You can list them on the blackboard, and
then ask the students to try to determine which genre dominates in their “hit
list”). Introduce the names of other film genres in English: western, science
fiction, fantasy, horror, action, thriller, drama, comedy.
• What affects your decision to see this or that movie? (a poster, TV
advertisement (trailer), a friend’s suggestion?)

Activity 1. Analysis of a Film Poster

Media concepts: category, technology, representation
Language skills: speaking

Bring in the poster of a movie that students are not likely to have seen. If the
actual poster is not available, make a photocopy (preferably, colored and
enlarged) of a poster. Initiate a whole-class discussion:
• What do you see in the poster? (Have the students name all the objects,
beginning from the most dominant image to the less vivid).
• Is there print text besides the images?
• Describe the colors and lighting. What image is in the spot light? Are the
rest of the images in diffused or normal lighting? What colors are dominant in
the poster?
• What is genre of the movie?
• What is the film about?
• What is the relationship between the characters shown in the poster?
• Does this poster make you want to see the movie?

After the analysis, ask the students to form groups of 2-3 and design an original
movie poster for the film they know, and present it to the class, explaining the
choices they made (for more elaborate results, you might want to assign this
project as a homework assignment).

Activity 2. Analysis of the Film Opening or Clips

Media concepts: language, category
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Language skills: listening, speaking

Choose and prepare a videotape of a movie that is available in English in your

school/college. Examine the videotape before using in the classroom for the
appropriateness for this activity (I prefer using the opening sequences with
music only, no dialogue). In the classroom, cover the television screen with a
sheet of paper or piece of fabric. Play the opening sequence (3-5 minutes),
students listen to the music without seeing the images. Ask them to guess what
this movie might be about, what genre it is. Then, turn off the sound on your
TV set and let the students watch the same sequence but without sound. This
time, ask them what exactly they saw, who the main characters might be, what
might happen next. Finally, play the opening sequence again, both image and
sound. Draw the students’ attention to the relationship between the sound and
image in audiovisual medium like film.

Activity 3. Film language

Media concepts: language
Language skills: listening, speaking, reading

In Unit 1 on Photography we introduced some basic vocabulary of visual

composition of the still image- a photograph. This vocabulary is also
transferable to analyzing moving images - a film. However certain terms can be
added to enrich the vocabulary related to the topic and to help students “read”
and interpret film language.

Shot (take) An image captured by a single continuous running of a camera

Long shot Is usually used to show the general location, environment
Medium shot Usually shows a human figure down to the waist
Close-up A face of a person or an object is the main element in the frame
(extreme close-up if the camera looks at the specific part of the
object or part of a person’s face)
Camera angle The position of the camera in relation to the object, “point of view”
Tilt-up Camera “looks up” to the object (low-angle)
Tilt-down Camera “looks down” on the object (high angle)

It is important to practice the skills of decoding the audiovisual images, to gain a

more profound and richer understanding of the media text. All media are
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carefully constructed by people. Every production begins with step by step

decision making. Understanding this enables students to proceed with the
analysis of a media product.
1. Show a movie clip and ask the students to recognize the single shots by
raising a hand or calling out “shot”.
2. Prepare a videotape with clips from several films illustrating the above
basic terms, show it to the students and ask them to identify the type of a shot
and camera angle.
3. Take the scene from a short story or other literature that the students have
recently read and ask them to think how they would film this scene. What shot
would they use? Why? What camera angles would they use and why?

Activity 4. Storyboard
Media concepts: language, technology
Language skills: writing, speaking

Analysis is only one part of media education, while production is equally

important in exploration of media texts. A storyboard is one of the most widely
used production activities in media education. Film makers produce a series of
simple drawings before they actually shoot an episode. These drawings show the
schematic frame: the objects or actors, the type of camera shot and angle. It is
important to ask the students to write a description of each shot, explaining the
visual images. You can start by suggesting simple situations to develop on a
storyboard, like:
- a woman is shopping and buying something;
- children are playing football;
- a couple is eating in a restaurant;
- people are waiting at a bus stop;
- an old man is making tea, etc.
Besides the description of each shot, you can ask your students to write the
“soundtrack” for their sequence. This may include dialogue/ monologue of
characters and choice of music/sound effects. I found it more productive when
the students worked on this assignment in small groups of 3, so that the students
who do not have drawing experience would not be intimidated, and each
member of the group can contribute his/her ideas to the benefit of the project.
After the appropriate time limit for this activity has elapsed, ask the students to
present their storyboards for the rest of the class.
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A variation of the same task would be to make a storyboard based on part of a

short story or a novel.

Activity 5. Producers
Media concepts: agency, audience
Language skills: speaking
Read a short story or play with your students. Then ask them to imagine that
they are producers of a movie based on that story. They must choose the
director, actors and locations for shooting the film. Let the students work in
small groups and present their ideas both, visually (by using magazine cut outs,
booklets, postcards, etc.) and orally (explaining why they chose this or that
director/actor, location, etc.).

Unit 3. Television

"Television is teaching all the time. Does more educating than the schools and
all the institutions of higher learning" (Marshal McLuhan, author of
Understanding Media).

Useful sites: www.tvguide.com, www.bbc.co.uk, www.centraltv.co.uk

Technology and materials: TV set, VCR, a videotape
Unit objectives:
students will:
- identify and discuss different types of television programs;
- compare and contrast different television genres;
- analyze representations of different groups of people on television;
- identify/recognize stereotypes on television;
- summarize plots, predict future events;
- write script proposals.

Activity 1. What’s Your Favorite?

Media concepts: category
Language skills: speaking
Ask the students to form groups of 5 and discuss within the groups (in English!)
their favorite television programs. Each group then comes up with 1-3 most
popular programs and lists them on the blackboard. Then ask the students why
they like these programs, and what they do not like about them. In order to get
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a more detailed response than “I like it because it is interesting”, encourage

students to think in terms of time of the broadcast (convenient, inconvenient,
etc.); characters (realistic/unrealistic, funny, etc.); situations; action (fights,
chases, etc.); special effects, etc. Students return to their groups and arrive at
the reasons for liking this or that program, then share their views with the other
groups.
You can then suggest to the students that they define their most popular genres
(soap operas, sitcoms, talk shows, game shows, reality shows, the news,
dramas, science fiction (or sci-fi), children’s show, etc.) What is characteristic
to each of these genres? Compare and contrast them. For example, does the host
of the reality show behave similar to the host of a talk show or a game show?
What do the sitcoms and soap operas have in common and how are they
different?

Activity 2. Dubbing
Media concepts: audience
Language skills: speaking

This is a good activity for practicing communication skills in English,

specifically speaking. On the other hand, it requires decision making, bearing in
mind the genre codes and conventions. One of the popular sitcoms like Friends
or Everybody Loves Raymond, which are shown on Russian TV, can be used
for this purpose. Tape an episode of a sitcom and bring it to class. Show the 3-5
minute sequence with the sound turned off. Then have the class divide into
groups (the number of students in each group must correspond to the number of
characters in the sequence) and ask the students to write the lines for each
character, assign a part for every member of their group and then, with the
sequence playing again, students say their characters’ lines and role-play the
scene. No doubt, the dialogues composed by different groups will be different.
Using an analogy, this exercise gives an insight into the media concept of
audience, i.e. how do different audiences interpret media differently? How the
same media text can mean different things to different people?

Activity 3.Cliche and Stereotypes

Media concepts: representation, agency, audience
Language skills: speaking, writing, listening
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Ask your students to describe a typical Englishman/ American. Write their

comments on the blackboard. Then ask them if they know any Englishmen or
Americans personally, or if they have ever met one. Since most probably, would
answer negative to this question, ask them why they think so, what sources led
them to these conclusions. Ask them to remember specific examples from a
television program, news coverage, or a movie that suggested these ideas to
them. Remind them that stereotypes can be ethnic, racial, national, gender,
occupational, religious and others. Ask them to describe a typical TV character
(e.g. a scientist- usually male, single, a little bit crazy, wears glasses, cares only
about his research or experiments). Show the excerpts from several TV shows
with stereotypical characters, stop after each segment and ask students to discuss
the character. What does he/she look like? What is he/she wearing? What is
he/she doing in the episode? What does the character’s appearance, clothes and
actions tell us about him/her? Think of the three adjectives that could best
describe this person. Do you think it is a realistic representation? Have students
play charades. Ask them to divide into two teams, each team thinks of
stereotypical television characters and lists them on separate sheets of paper (3-4
for each team, e.g. “a hero”, “a policeman”, “a model”, “a lawyer”). Then they
fold the pieces of paper and put them in a box or someone’s hat. The player
from the opposite team draws the paper, reads what character he is supposed to
play and acts it out without words. His or her team has to guess who the
character is. The team, which guessed most of the characters, wins. As the
students were acting their parts in this game so that their team would guess the
character in a few seconds, producers of TV programs like sitcoms, soap operas
or drama series also stereotype their characters so that the audience can identify
the characters quickly and understand the plot easily even if they haven’t been
watching the program from the beginning. It results in a one-sided, limited
representation of many characters. So on the one hand, media agencies use
stereotyping for the convenience of their audience, but one the other,
stereotyping can present certain danger as the viewers may transfer their
perception of television characters to real-life people, and we must be aware of
that.

Activity 4. One World, One TV?

Media concepts: agency, audience, category
Language skills: reading, listening
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In the last few years national television has opened its boundaries for
international TV shows and foreign TV series. Today, someone traveling from
the USA to Russia for example will find many of the familiar reality and game
shows on Russian television. Record short clips from such programs and show
them in the class. Are they popular with your students? Reality shows are a
recent phenomenon on television that is successful in many countries of the
world. Ask your students what reality shows they saw. What is their favorite?
What is the one they didn’t like? Ask them to explain the reasons for their
interest in these programs. Did they find a character with whom they could
identify? Encourage them to do Internet research on the corresponding shows in
English-speaking countries, and compare the Russian and English/American
variants, like Survivor – Последний герой, or American Idol - Народный
артист, etc. This work can be assigned as homework in groups, with students
presenting their findings during the next lesson. Or you can do research on two
programs yourself and prepare materials for the classroom. Some guidelines for
researching this issue are:
• find out who owns this program (who owns the original idea and project,
who else profits from it);
• find out in what countries this program was aired , what rating it had in
these countries;
• look at the Russian TV guide and describe the information about the
channel that this program is aired on in Russia, the time it is scheduled;
• compare the rating of the program in Russia to that of other countries;
• watch one program and record your observations about the plot of the
program, characters, typical situations, competitions;
• what do you think makes reality shows so appealing to the public, so
popular?

Activity 5. Co-writers
Media concepts: category, audience, agency
Language skills: writing

Divide the class into teams of two. Tell them to imagine themselves as script
writers that write the proposal of a new TV series (they can choose the genre,
e.g. a drama, a sitcom, reality show, game show, documentary or a soap opera).
They should create the title, main characters, time, setting, time and channel
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where this show can be aired, possible audience, and the content of the first
episode. After they develop their ideas and write them down, each team reads
their proposals to the class, and role plays the episode.

Unit 4. Advertising

“The basis of advertising is not what products are being sold, but what dreams
are being sold.” (Sut Jhally, professor of Communications at the University of
Massachusetts, USA, media critic, director of the Media Education Foundation
in Northampton).

Useful sites: www.adflip.com, http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess,

http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/teachersguide.html
Technology and materials: a TV, VCR, videocassette with taped commercials,
magazines, newspapers
Unit objectives:
students will:
- describe and analyze print and TV advertisements;
- develop an awareness of the advertising techniques and their effects on
people;
- create their own advertisements;
- discuss how words, sounds and images are used together to communicate the
message of the ad;
- discuss gender representation in advertisements

Activity 1. Introduction.
Media concepts: representation, language, audience
Language skills: speaking
Begin the class by asking the students about their personal experiences with
advertising. Do you see or hear advertisements every day? Where (print, radio,
TV, billboard)? How often? Divide the class into small groups and develop a
definition of advertising. Then compare it to a dictionary definition. (For
example, my dictionary defines if as “the action of calling something to the
attention of the public especially by emphasizing desirable qualities so as to
arouse a desire to buy or patronize”)
Prepare the photocopies of the cut-out of a magazine advertisement. Ask the
students first to look at it briefly and tell what was the first thing that they
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noticed. Was it a picture or a text? Then ask them to look at it once again,
examine it in detail and answer the following questions:
• What is the product?
• Does it appear in the ad alone or accompanied by other images (package,
other objects or people)?
• What qualities does this product have according to the ad?
• Who is the potential buyer of this product? Is it a man or a woman? What
is his/her age, social and marital status? What is the target audience of this ad?
In what newspaper/magazine is this ad likely to be published?

Activity 2. Do You See What I See?

Media concepts: language, audience, agency
Language skills: listening, speaking, writing

As Professor Sut Jhally suggested, “the basis of advertising is not what products
are being sold, but what dreams are being sold.” Advertising agencies use the
variety of techniques to persuade consumers to buy their product or service.
Often they put more emphasis not on the qualities of the product itself but
instead, they try to connect, to associate this product with the desires of the
target audience. These may include the feeling of patriotism, desire to have a
certain lifestyle, attractive appearance, be successful, etc. This exercise will help
the students to identify these techniques, start thinking about how advertising
works and how it affects them personally. Record several advertisements from
television (preferably in English if satellite television is available; if not- in the
Russian language) and bring the tape in.
Play the tape and ask the students which commercial they liked and why. On the
blackboard write their reasons and then hand out the list of techniques with
definitions. First read those techniques that “worked” for your students (the ones
that were used in commercials they liked), then the rest of them. The following
list can be used (and extended from the other sources):

Bandwagon Says that other people are using the product or doing the same
thing, so you should too.
Testimonial A celebrity, e.g. a famous actor or a sportsman is
recommending the product
Plain Folks Shows average-looking people telling us that it is a good
product for ordinary people “like you and me”
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Transfer Tries to associate positive images of something or someone

with the product
Fear Shows frightened people and the product that can prevent a
bad thing to happen to us or protect us; suggests the feeling of
security
Sex Appeal Shows young beautiful women or handsome men in the ad
Humor Amuses the audience with comical characters or situations

Ask the students to give some examples of magazine of TV commercials for

each of these techniques. Next ask the students to watch the commercials again
and then, in pairs, list one (or several) techniques that the particular commercial
used and the possible target audience. Pause the tape after each commercial so
that the students have time to write down their ideas. Discuss the results with the
class.

Activity 3. Perfect Picture

Media concepts: agency, language, audience
Language skills: speaking, listening

Besides the visual images, persuasive power is contained in the slogan. This is
usually a short “catchy” phrase that is easy to remember (e.g. Just Do It, Always
Coca-Cola, etc.) Show an episode from the film “Picture Perfect” where the
whole advertising agency is brainstorming the original advertisement of
mayonnaise, and the character played by Jennifer Aniston comes up with the
idea of an image and a slogan. The term “alliteration” is worth being brought up
at this point, because it is very frequently used in news headlines and
advertisements. Explain the term as a literary technique in which two or more
words begin with the same consonant sound and give examples of alliteration
from literature, English nursery rhymes or ads (e.g. Sing a Song of Sixpence,
Pease Porridge, Jack and Jill, etc.). Give the assignment to small groups of 3-4
students to create an advertisement, both with an image and a slogan, using one
or several advertising techniques that they learned, and present their projects to
the class. Give them several options from which to choose, for example,
promoting: a) home town for tourists; b) a new restaurant; or c) a beauty
product.

Activity 4. Closer Look

19

Media concepts: language

Language skills: listening, speaking

Tape several television commercials and then choose the best suited for closer
analysis. Note the time of the day and during which program the commercial
was presented. In the classroom, before showing it to the students, ask them to
pay close attention to everything they see and hear: the visual images, colors,
lighting, music, tone of the voices, and camera angles. They can watch the
commercial as it is, or you can first play it with the screen covered (like we did
with the movies) for them concentrate on the sound only, and then show only
the picture with the sound turned off to focus on the images. After that show the
advertisement once again playing both picture and sound. Ask the students
leading questions and record their observations on the board.
Sample questions:
• What kind of music did you hear? Did you hear any particular tune or
recognize familiar instruments? What was the general mood of the music?
• What was the tone of voice of the speaker(s)? Did it sound happy?
Serious? Frightened?
• What images did you see? What was the most dominant image? What
images were in the background?
• How many people did you see? Describe them (gender, age, appearance,
clothing)
• What colors were used in the commercial?
• What types of camera angles were used?
Discuss how all these elements come together in one piece. Stress once again
that all media texts are carefully constructed for a particular purpose. Ask the
students what is the implied message of this text, what impact the producers
wanted to achieve, identify the techniques that were used (bandwagon, plain
folks, humour, etc.).
Finally, ask their opinion about the effectiveness of this ad. Tell them what time
and what program this commercial appeared on television and ask why it was
shown at that time. What was its target audience? Did the advertisement reach
its goal, in your mind? Did it succeed in transferring the message?

Activity 5. Gender Representation in Advertising

Media concepts: representation, audience
Language skills: speaking
20

Bring different print materials or (and) a tape with the recorded television
commercials. First, discuss the following issues as a whole class:
- What do men and women in advertisements usually look like? Describe the
typical woman/man that you see in print media. Does this image suggest to us
the idea of femininity/ masculinity?

- How are men and women usually portrayed in advertisements? Make a list of
most commonly seen men’s and women’s roles in ads (e.g. housewife, teacher,
model for women; sportsman, businessman for men).
- What products are advertised using the images of men, which products are
sold using the images of women?
- What “suggestions” or “commands” do the ads give women and men? (e.g.
for women- “wear high heels”, “wear make-up”, “be sexy”, “color your hair”,
“don’t get old” etc.; for men- “be cool”, “build big muscles”, etc.)
Let the students look at the magazines; choose one of them for closer analysis
and, working in pairs, explore the gender representation in advertisements,
focusing on the following questions:
- What product is being advertised?
- What does this ad promise?
- Describe the physical appearance of a woman/a man, his/her facial
expression, pose.
- Does this image suggest the ideal of femininity/masculinity? What effect do
you think ads like this have on the self esteem of women/men? Do they
reinforce gender stereotypes?
Student pairs then merge into larger groups of four and share their observations
and ideas. In the new groups students are to create the advertisement of a
make-up item or a men’s cologne that would challenge the stereotypical gender
representation.

Unit 5. News
“I don't think people ought to believe only one news medium. They ought to
read and they ought to go to opinion journals and all the rest of it. I think it's
terribly important that this be taught in the public schools, because otherwise,
we're gonna get to a situation because of economic pressures and other things
where television's all you've got left. And that would be disastrous. We can't
21

cover the news in a half-hour event evening. That's ridiculous”. – Walter

Cronkite (former CBS anchor, once named the “most trusted” in America)

Useful sites: www.nytimes.com, www.cnn.com, www.usatoday.com,

http://news.bbc.co.uk, http://nytimes.com/learning/teachers
Technology and materials: TV set, VCR, newspapers, computer(s) with an
Internet access
Unit objectives:
students will:
- examine the authenticity of news reports;
- extract the main idea from the articles and write headlines;
- analyze television news presentations;
- compare the content of the news from different sources;
- compare the news coverage in Russian and English-language media;
- create their own newspaper

Activity 1. Introduction
Media concepts: category, agency
Language skills: reading, speaking

Begin this unit by asking the students what they know about news. From where
do they learn the news, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet?
What is news? Who decides what is going to be in today’s news?
Bring into the classroom copies of American, British or any available English-
language newspapers. Distribute them around the class and ask students to look
at the front page, the back page, name of the newspaper, and main headlines.
Then divide the class into groups of 3-4 and give one newspaper for each group.
Introduce the terms broadsheet, tabloid, editorial, headline, and classifieds. Ask
the groups to examine their newspaper and jot down the information about the
following:
- name of the newspaper, country and city where it was published;
- main stories, their headlines, accompanying photographs;
- editorial;
- advertising;
- sports section;
- world news section
Then gather the class together and ask them to describe their observations.
22

Bring some photographs cut out of the newspapers (Russian or foreign) and
make copies for the students. Give them to the students and ask them to look at
the photograph and tell what section of the newspaper this picture comes from
and what story this picture might accompany.

Activity 2. Headlines
Media concepts: language
Language skills: reading, writing

Headlines are meant to grab the reader’s attention. They usually contain literary
devices such as alliteration, metaphor or simile. We’ve already talked about
alliteration in the unit on advertising. Introduce the terms metaphor and simile
if students are not familiar with them. Give some examples of each device (for
example, sample headlines from the web edition of New York Times on
February 10, 2004: “Southern States Are Set to Shake Democratic Race”,
“College Career Could End Before It Starts”, “Colima’s Quiet Charm”,
“Political Money Said to Sway Pension Investments”). After removing the
headlines, give the stories to be read in pairs and ask the students to write a
headline for their story. You can also play a word game with headlines. Choose
7-10 headlines from different newspapers and write out only the nouns and the
verbs on the board. Divide the class into two teams and ask them to think of the
best adjectives that could fill in the blanks in the headlines using the alliteration
device. For example:

You write on the board Students fill in the adjective

_____Hurricane Hits the City Huge (horrible, hazardous) Hurricane Hits
the City
Set a time limit. The team, that came up with adjectives for the most headlines,
wins.

Activity 3. Television News

Media concepts: language, representation, agency
Language skills: listening, speaking

Ask the students what kind of news programs they watch on TV (morning news,
evening news, local news). Ask them how many presenters are usually on one
news program and what are their roles (in-studio anchor, on-location reporters,
23

sports commentator, meteorologist, etc). Show a news program taped from an

English language channel. What does the anchor usually look like? Do his/her
gestures, facial expression, and tone influence our perception of the news? What
kind of music is used in different news programs? How does the program start?
What is the background of the studio set? What does the set of people working
on the computers, talking on the telephone, etc. suggest? Is the graphic used in
the program (usually placed in the “news box” in the corner of the screen)?
What kinds of shots are used for on-location reports? How does this choice of
shots contribute to our perception of the story?
Show a clip from the film “Up Close and Personal” with Michelle Pfeiffer and
Robert Redford illustrating some of the “behind the scenes” of a TV studio.

Activity 4. Comparing Different Sources

Media concepts: agency, category, representation
Language skills: reading, listening, speaking

Tape the evening news from a Russian TV channel, bring in the newspaper with
the events of the same day, and find an Internet site of an English language
newspaper and a TV channel of the same day, print out copies if Internet access
is not available in the classroom. Show all these resources to your students,
divide them into small groups and give the assignment to compare and contrast
the news in different media formats. Focus their attention to the following
questions:
- Compare the Russian newspaper and TV news coverage of the day. Choose
one story and examine how it is covered in one medium, and in another medium.
Are there any differences? What are they? Are there any stories that are present
in the newspaper and missing in the television program and vice versa? What
are the reasons for that?
- Likewise, compare the English language newspaper and TV news.
- Compare and contrast the Russian and American (English, etc.) news of the
same day. Are there any common stories? If yes, how is the story presented in
Russian and American news? What is the amount of space (time) is given to
international news in Russian and American media?

Activity 5. Production
24

Media concepts: agency, category, language, representation, technology,

audience
Language skills: writing

This is a production activity in which students will take on roles as the

newspaper stuff and create a wall newspaper. Ask the class to divide into teams
of 5 and decide what role they will take: one editor, 3 reporters, and a
photographer. The teams should produce a wall newspaper about student life
and current events in school/university. Give the students some guidelines; tell
them what you expect them to do, e.g.
1. Your newspaper should contain at least 3 articles and 1 editorial.
2. Accompany the articles with pictures, where possible (your newspaper
should have at least 2 photos). Before taking the photo, think of the message that
you want to communicate, keep in mind the composition basics that you learned
from the unit on photography.
3. Write the headlines using literary devices such as alliteration, simile or
metaphor.
4. Don’t forget to give a name to your newspaper!
5. Good luck!
The newspapers can be displayed on the walls of the classroom or a hallway.

Unit 6. Pop Music

“Music is the shorthand of emotion” (Leo Tolstoy, classical Russian writer)

Useful sites: www.lyrics.ch, www.rockhall.com, www.mtv.com

Technology and materials: a TV, VCR, audio tape/CD player, audio tapes/CDs
Unit objectives:
students will:
- discuss the role of music in our lives, how music can become a symbol of
time, part of the culture of an entire generation of people;
- compare a song with its music video;
- explore the appeal of girls’/boys’ bands for teenagers;
- create a storyboard for the music video;
- write the song lyrics

Activity 1. Collage
Media concepts: representation, audience
25

Language skills: listening, speaking

To my mind, it’s reasonable to begin the unit on pop music with actually
listening to music. And speaking about pop music, ask your students to bring
tapes or CDs with their favorite songs for this class (have your own tape ready
just in case). This will give a general personal association with the topic and
draw their attention to it. After listening to the excerpts of several songs, tell the
students about your favorite song, singer, type of music, listening habits (how
often do you listen to music, what is the usual source of music: TV, radio,
audiotape/CD). Then ask the students to turn to their neighbors and tell him/her
about their preferences, using the example you gave them, and vice versa. Don’t
hesitate to walk around the pairs 1) to get to know your students better and 2) to
make sure they speak English!
Hold a class discussion on the following question: “How can the music/song
make you feel?” Write the students’ answers like “happy”, “sad”, “it makes me
want to dance”, etc. on the board in a column. Then ask them to think about
what aims the composers may pursue when writing the music, for example, to
communicate their message, opinion about something, to evoke patriotism, to
make you dance, to uplift one’s mood, etc and record their ideas in the second
column. Next ask the students to think of examples of songs that are associated
with a particular place, historic event or a group of people, or symbols of the
time. For example, Russian songs that were written during the World War II to
uplift the soldiers’ spirits and those who were waiting for them; the so-called
“bard” songs in the 1970’s-80’s popular in Russia as a form of the protest
against mainstream music and a form of creative self-expression. Play the music
that would illustrate their examples. Music becomes a symbol of whole
generations, e.g. jazz for the 1920s, rock-and-roll for the 1960s, ask the students
to think what type of music, singers and songs will be considered the symbol of
their generation. Bring magazines into class, scissors, markers, paper and glue,
so that they can illustrate their ideas with collages, created in groups of 3-4.

Activity 2. Tune In
Media concepts: language, representation, category
Language skills: listening, reading, speaking

Choose one of the recent popular songs; prepare the tape and the music video of
this song. First, give the students copies of the lyrics with gaps instead of some
26

words (it may be a particular part of speech only, like nouns, verbs or
adjectives; or words in random, etc.), then play the audio tape with the song
several times and give some time to fill in the gaps. Check the correct missing
words and spelling, and write them on the board. Discuss the unfamiliar
vocabulary, grammar or idioms that students came across in that song. Proceed
to discussion questions, e.g.
• What is the song about? Tell the content of the lyrics in the form of a
story.
• What themes, problems does this song address? What is the main message
of the song?
• What kind of music is this song?
• How does this song make you feel?

Next, show the music video of this song and ask the following questions:
• What story does the music video tell us?
• Is it the same story that the song has?
• Pause selected shots (‘freeze-frame’) and have students to analyze the
visual composition of the frame (camera angles, lighting, colors).
• Did the music video change or support your perception of the song?
• Bearing in mind, that music videos are made with the primary aim of
promoting sales of tapes and CDs, how effective is this music video, to your
mind?
• Do music videos, as a comparatively new medium, affect the music
industry
• If yes, in what way? What are some recent trends in music videos (e.g.
how are men and women artists portrayed in music videos, how are the dancers,
other characters portrayed, what lifestyle is promoted in music videos, what are
some clichés of R&B, rap, pop, or rock music videos, etc.)?

Activity 3. Making Stars

Media concepts: agency, audience, category, representation
Language skills: speaking, listening, reading

Discuss such phenomenon as girl bands and boy bands with the students. Can
they give examples from the Russian and foreign music industry? Are there any
girls’ bands and boys’ bands that they like? Why or why not?
27

Show the photos from magazines and samples of music videos with such bands.
What do they all have in common? For example, there are usually 4-5 members
in a band. Each of them has a different image, e.g. blond, dark haired, red
haired, cute, cool, tough, romantic, etc.
Play couple of songs by a girls’ band or a boys’ band and give copies of the
lyrics to the students so they can examine them and write out single words,
metaphors, similes, or whole phrases that are used in both texts. What does the
repetition of the same words in different songs suggest? Is predictability part of
the success or a hindrance for these bands? Who is the target audience for girl
bands and who is the target audience for boy bands? What is the common age of
their fans?
Think of the new television shows like “Star Factory” and “Become a Star” and
their “products”- bands of young people who passed the audition and the
competition. Do you think the bands that rise quickly will last long? Why or
why not?

Activity 4. Storyboarding
Media concepts: category, technology, language, representation
Language skills: writing, speaking

Play the song that does not have a music video or it’s not shown on TV
currently. Ask the students to work in pairs and create a storyboard for the
music video of this song. The storyboard should contain boxes with schematic
pictures and an explanation of each shot on the right from the picture. Have
students present their projects and vote for the best storyboard.

Activity 5. Writing Lyrics

Media concepts: language
Language skills: listening, writing

Show a music video that the students are likely to be unfamiliar with (image
only, turn off the sound). Ask them to analyze its visual composition: camera
shots, lighting, colors, etc. and predict what the song might be about and what
type of music it is. Then play it again with both sound and picture, ask the
students to write down as many words from the song as they can. Ask them to
divide into groups of 4 and reconstruct the lyrics of the song, combining all the
words that they identified and the imagery of the music video. The point is not
28

to record the “correct” lyrics of the song, encourage students to be creative and
even if they got all the lyrics easily, have them write an additional verse for the
song.

Unit 7 Internet
“The real revolution now taking place is not the hardware of technology, but the
intellectual technology of information, communication, and the augmentation of
human intelligence. All too often, discussions about web-based learning tend to
fall back on a simplistic faith in the power of technology. Of course,
interactivity is a powerful draw for teachers and students alike. But dazzling
technology has no meaning unless it supports content that meets the needs of
learners” (from the report of the Web-based Education Commission of the USA,
www.hpcnet.org/wbec/about).

Useful sites:
www.usatoday.com, www.nytimes.com, www.cnn.com, www.hallmark.com,
www.bluemountain.com, www.celebsites.com, www.biography.com,
www.time.com/time/time100, www.nycvisit.com, www.washington.org,
www.london-photo-tour.co.uk, www.talkingcities.co.uk/london,
www.city.toronto.on.ca
Technology and materials: computers with Internet access
Unit objectives:
students will:
- describe their habits in using Internet;
- use English-language search engines to locate the information;
- extract the main biographical information from the Web site and write a
paragraph based on it;
- compose and send electronic greeting cards;
- locate information on the Internet, compare information on different sites
and convert it into another medium;
- compare and evaluate different online news resources

Activity 1. Introduction
Media concepts: category, technology, agency
Language skills: speaking, reading, writing
29

As an introduction, ask the students about their experience with computers and
Internet:
• Have you ever used the Internet?
• How often do you usually access it?
• Where? Do you have a computer at home?
• What do you use the Internet for?
• What do you know about the Internet? Give examples of what you can
find on the Internet?
• What are some advantages of the Internet over such resources as books
and magazines?
• What are its disadvantages? (anyone with a computer and Internet access
can publish their ideas on the Internet, and sometimes it’s hard to determine
whether the information is trustworthy and accurate, or just someone’s opinion
or completely false)

Write the addresses of several web pages on the board and explain that the suffix
of a Web address has a specific meaning, it tells about he origin of the
information on the site, e.g.:
.ru stands for Russia
.uk stands for Great Britain, .ca- Canada, etc.
Some American sites have suffixes that tell about the type of organization that
sponsors the site, e.g.:
.edu means it’s an educational organization;
.com means it’s commercial Web page;
.org stands for non commercial organization;
.gov means it belongs to the government;
.net means it is a network
However as “you can’t judge the book by its cover,” you can not judge a Web
side by its address either. The content of the sites within one code may vary
greatly.

Ask students what search engines they usually use for finding the information;
introduce the high-rated English-language search engines, like
www.google.com, www.altavista.com or www.yahoo.com .
Choose a topic and preview the sites on this topic, choose 3 different sites and
ask the students to evaluate these sites on the same topic using these questions:
30

• What is the URL of the site that you found on the topic? What does it say
about the origin of the site?
• Is there any information about the author of this site? Who is the author?
• What organization sponsored this site? What do we learn about this
organization from the Web site? Is the author and the organization an authority
in the field that you’re researching?
• Search the information about the author and sponsoring organization using
the search engine. Is it the same data that is published on the site? What
additional information do we learn?
• Why was this site created? What is its purpose?
• When was the site created? When was it last updated? Do the links work?
• Are there any pictures and sounds on the site? What is their purpose?
• Give a brief summary of the information given on the site.
• Is the information published on this site valuable for your research?
• Compare the information published on the Web site with the print
materials, such as encyclopedia, scholarly magazine or a book. Does the web
site contain more information than you could find in these sources? Are there
any differences in dates, facts, etc. comparing the Internet and print sources?
• Rank the sites according to their value for your research.

Activity 2. Celebrity Party

Media concepts: representation
Language skills: reading, writing

Prepare the following cards: “a scientist”, “a sportsman/woman”, “a TV

anchor”, “a writer”, “an actor/actress”, “a politician”, “a musician”. Divide the
class into groups of 2-3. Give a card to each group without showing it to the rest
of the class. Ask the students to think of someone famous from the category they
have (you can limit their choice by time (20th century only), or by the country
(Americans/ Englishmen only) and do an Internet search about this person. Ask
them to write down their findings, and compare the information from different
web sites. After they have finished with searching and selecting the information,
ask the students to write a paragraph about their celebrity, in the first person,
like an autobiography and without mentioning his/her name. Model the
autobiographical paragraph on the board, e.g.:
31

I was born in Chicago, USA in 1901. I had 4 brothers and 1 sister. At the age of
16 during the WWI, I joined the Red Cross Corps and drove an ambulance in
France. After my return home, I decided to become an artist. In 1928 I created
the animated character that is now known all over the world. And in 1937 my
first animated feature film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was released. I
have founded several theme parks and created one of the world’s largest media
empires that makes about 22 billion dollars every year. (Walt Disney)
Emphasize that they should write the paragraph in their own words, and not just
copy from their sources word for word.
After all the groups are ready with their writing tasks, ask them to read their
paragraphs for the classmates to guess the person’s name.
Discuss with the students what new information they have learned about these
people from the websites, how many sites did they visit, did they come across
some sources contradicting each other or notice different points of view on
different sites?

Activity 3. E-cards
Media concepts: category, technology
Language skills: reading, writing

Connect this activity with a coming holiday, e.g. Halloween, Thanksgiving,

Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, etc. As a pre task, give students a home
assignment to do an Internet search and learn about the origin of the holiday, the
customs of its celebration. In the classroom, ask the students about their
findings, record on the board the main points. Ask the students if they celebrate
this holiday in Russia and how. Then ask them to go to the website that provides
free electronic greeting cards, such as www.yahoo.com, www.hallmark.com,
www.bluemountain.com, etc., look at several cards in this category, write out
the greeting expression in their notebook. Next, students are to choose one card,
write their own greeting and e-mail it to the classmate. If the students do not
have e-mail accounts, you can help them to open one with www.yahoo.com or
another free website.

Activity 4. Travel Agents

Media concepts: category, agency, representation
Language skills: reading, writing, speaking
32

Ask the students to make the teams of 3. Assign one city for every team, e.g.
Team 1- London, Team 2- New York, Team 3-Washington, Team 4- Toronto.
Each team will represent a travel agency, who develops a new itinerary for their
clients. The task is for each team to do an Internet search on their city, find the
information about the location, main sights, attractions, etc. and make the
itinerary for the 3-day tour to that city. The itinerary should include daily
sightseeing, evening entertainment, hotel description, suggestions about places
to eat, cost of the 3-day tour including the hotel. Of course the idea is to “sell”
the tour for the travel agency’s clients- choose the most interesting and attractive
sights for the pictures, find the cheaper prices for plane tickets and hotels.
Students present their projects for their classmates by creating a travel brochure
or a poster and giving an oral presentation.

Activity 5. Reading the news on-line

Media concepts: representation, language
Language skills: reading, speaking

Internet along with the newspapers, news magazines, and TV programs is a

source of the news. For we who are English teachers it is an especially useful
source of authentic English language news otherwise hard to gain. Introduce the
students to some leading news sites on the Internet, like www.usatoday.com,
www.nytimes.com, www.cnn.com, etc. Preview these sites ahead of class and
choose one story that is covered by two sites. Ask the students to work in pairs,
read these two articles and then compare and contrast them using the following
questions:
• Which headline gives you a better idea of what this news item is going to
be about?
• How is the story presented on these websites? What are the similarities?
Are there any differences?
• Look closely at the vocabulary used by two journalists. Are there any
word combinations, nouns, verbs or adjectives that are used in both sources?
Does the author use any literary devices, neutral or emotionally colored
vocabulary?
• Examine the length and the placement of the article on both Web sites.
Are there any differences? Does it tell you anything about the rank of
importance of this news item for the editors?
33

• Are there any photos accompanying the story? Examine the photos, people
and/or objects in the frame, the camera angles, lighting. Were they taken at
approximately the same time or not? Are the emotions they create the same or
different?
• What details are left out in one article and are present in another article?
Why do you think this was done?
• What do you think the continuation of this story will be? Predict the
consequences/ further events related to the story.
Let the students talk with their partners for about 10 minutes, then hold a
whole-class discussion of their findings.