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British Culture:  HOUSES in GB in the PASSIVE TENSE – an amusing reading and listening comprehension activity

20/2/2016

3 Comments

 
Immagine
Image credit: Streamline English Departures (Hartley & Viney, OUP 1983)
A REAL BARGAIN is an amusing unit on the PASSIVE TENSE taken from Streamline English Departures (Hartley & Viney, OUP 1983) – my absolute favourite not only for teaching the passive tense but particulary for imparting a culture lesson on Houses in Great Britain. 
 
With its beautiful illustrations, rich housing vocabulary and amusing content – it makes a fun lesson on British culture.
 
I usually ask students to read the text taking turns to be the Estate Agent and Mr. Palmer, the prospective buyer, stopping after each paragraph to explain the vocabulary and the passive tense as it develops: 
  • paragraph 1 – past passive
  • paragraph 2 – present perfect passive
  • paragraph 3 – present passive
  • paragraph 4 – future passive
 
As they read the story I ask very easy listening comprehension questions, paragraph by paragraph, which they do not have so they have to understand them and reread the paragraph to reply.  I only explain the vocabulary and cultural habits we have as the story enfolds since I do not want to spoil the amusing ending to the story.
 
Since I believe in full-immersion, I do not translate the vocabulary but define and illustrate on the board.  This is also an opportunity for students to compare their homes and cultural housing traditions to the British ones – an opportunity for class discussion.
 
VOCABULARY

Estate Agent
 
semi-detached house
detached house
cottage
bungalow
block of flats
terraced house
town house
 
owners
 
roof
tiled roof
thatched roof
flat roof
 
electrical wiring
rewired
redecorated (wallpaper is very common)
wallpaper
repainted
 
central heating
(as opposed to the old fireplace with the mantelpiece)
 
brick
stone
 
services:
- dustbins emptied
- post delivered
- milk delivered
(the milkman with his silent electric van early in the morning)
 
motorway

It was only when a friend of mine came to visit my home in Italy that he opened my eyes to differences I had never considered:  “Wow!  You have real marble windowsills!” – British windowsills are made of wood which need to be constantly repainted to stop them from rotting.  “You have beautiful wooden doors!”  British doors are usually just painted over.  “Your floors are solid marble or parquet!”  British floors are loose floorboards with some kind of covering:  carpet, lino…
Any other main differences your students may have noticed watching films?  Mine pointed out that in the USA and GB the kitchen sink is always in front of a window – true but I had never noticed.
 
You can download the materials below. 
 
I hope you find this activity as useful and enjoyable as I do.
Susan
a_real_bargain_-_passive.pdf
File Size: 2158 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

passive_–_a_real_bargain_comprehension_questions__speak___travel_.pdf
File Size: 48 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

passive_tense_for_speak___travel.pdf
File Size: 76 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

houses_in_great_britain__speak___travel_.pdf
File Size: 430 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

passive_–_a_real_bargain_-_houses_vocabulary__speak___travel_.pdf
File Size: 47 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

3 Comments
Khadidja
19/2/2016 04:34:33 pm

Very interesting and useful the ways you are using to teach English language.but I could not download the files you are publishing

Reply
cj
20/2/2016 07:14:04 am

useful and practical activity, but where is the listening section?? it seemed missing...

Reply
top-5-medieval-villages-in-spain link
15/3/2016 06:33:48 am

With its beautiful illustrations, rich housing vocabulary and amusing content – it makes a fun lesson on British culture.

Reply



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    My name is Susan Brodar, born in London into a multilingual family and brought up bilingual English / Italian.

    I went to school in London until 15 when we moved to Germany where I finished my British education at Munich International School. I started teaching Italian at evening classes aged only 17 and studied Mass Communications and Journalism at Munich University.

    I continued teaching parallel to interpreting at trade fairs and business meetings as well doing translations. After working at the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade for a year I married my Italian globetrotting companion in 1983 and we set up our home near Venice, Italy where we continue to live with our two teenaged children.

    Having taken my British High School-leaving ‘A’ Level exams in English, Italian, French & German I am completely fluent in all four languages and am taking a DELE certification in Spanish to complement them.

    ENGLISH (native)
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  • HOME
    • Samples of FAST FLUENCY TRAINER
  • IMPROVE with SUSAN
    • ABOUT
    • TESTIMONIALS
    • How Being Bilingual Led Me To Teaching
    • PUBLICATIONS by Susan Brodar
  • English SPEAKING COURSES
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    • A WEARY TRAVELLER's TALES
    • TRAVELLING the world for sports: INLINE SPEED SKATING
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