Media Scan

  Love is the driving force that moves our hearts and inspires our mind. There are thousands of songs and poems that talk about the miriad of emotions love can arouse. Here you can find a short text about heartbreak and hope, written by Teresa M., who won one of the awards in the 2021 Valentine Competition at the E.O.I. nº 1, Zaragoza, and below you can find two very different love songs: the video " Break My Heart " by Dua Lipa released in 2020 and a 1960 hit by Etta James, " A Sunday Kind of Love ". The vocabulary is quite easy and the songs can be heard with subtitles, so this post is suitable for B1 students and above.  The less frequent words you will come across are: skylight, a letdown, to grip [my heart], relief, serenity, to get it wrong, to know for sure, letting you go, love at first sight, on the square, scheming, to enfold [someone] in my arms. I hope you can feel Cupid's arrows deep in your heart. Enjoy Valentine's Day! IS A MATTER OF TIME by T...

This year has been particularly tough, but if you look back you will surely remember wonderful moments, lessons you had never learnt before, and, perhaps, a song, a book or a film that will stay with you long after 2020 has gone by. It's time to take stock, and here you can find several lists of the best in 2020:  the 100 Best Songs of 2020 by NPR ,with their official video and an extract from a review, and  NPR's Best Books of the Year 2020 , with a mini review at one click. The New York Times is another renowned and respected source of cultural information. Here you can find the Best Movies of 2020 , the 10 Best Books of 2020 and if you are into music, the Best Albums of 2020 . Finally, for a more European viewpoint, you can check the BBC's Best Albums and Songs of 2020 (text only, no direct links to the music, sorry!), the BBC's Best Films of 2020 and the BBC's Best Books of the Year 2020. The vocabulary of cultural reviews is incredibly rich: literary, technic...

Christmas is a commercial and religious family holiday which is celebrated in many countries around the world, including Spain and the UK. It is also a school holiday and each student always has something to say about Christmas: whether they find it exciting and uplifting, or gloomy and depressing, Christmas is always a very productive conversation topic in EFL and there are so many carols and songs that is very easy to find some music to bring to class.  Here, you can find a lesson plan for a B1 conversation class which includes a Learn English with Ben video which compares British and Spanish Christmas , one of the most popular Christmas carols,  Silent Night, in Tori Kelly's a capella voice , with a fill-in the gap listening task and the full lyrics to serve as the key , this link to Dougie MacLean's version of Auld Lang Syne , which is mentioned in the video.  In addition, you can listen to this BBC 5 Live podcast with an exculsive interview to Father Christmas...

Morgan Bullock is a 20-year-old African American from Richmond, Virginia, who uploaded an Irish dance version of Beyoncé's " The Savage Remix " on Tik Tok, which went viral. Many people loved her artistic performance, but there were some who accused her of "cultural misappropriation".  If you want to find out the end of the story you can click on the following BBC link to watch a 4:15 video of the story with subtitles, which could be accessible to B2 students:  bbc.in/30p2Y6w But if your level of English is higher, you can try the full BBC video report below, which is 10:51, and has no subtitles The video above is more suitable for C1 or C2 students, but I have taken rough notes of some salient words on this worksheet, which can be used as a viewing guide in class or as homework, for those students who might often get lost in the long flow of speech.  There is also a simple lesson plan to use this video with C1 students in class.   Finally, if you want some more...

Bruce Springsteen published a memoir in 2016, entitled " Born to Run ", after his greatest hit, where he reveals some hidden aspects of his life and personality, so, he was interviewed by Terry Gross, to present his book on NPR's Fresh Air radio programme.  The listening is long, 22 minutes, so, it is problably very suitable for "extensive listening", that is, to listen to while you are doing something else, like walking, driving, or ironing, but you can always go the the script, if you are lost or if you want to check a word that you didn't pick up. I have used this interview as listening homework with my B2 students, although it is problably more suitable for C1 students.  I include some notes about how we discussed the interview in class and the cultural information I had to give my students to help them understand the context of the book, the musician and the journalist. Here are my notes on a link to Google Drive.

Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91 in Rome. He was the composer of the score of  more than 500 films, including successful "spaghetti westerns" like " The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ", " Once Upon a Time in the West " with director Sergio Leone and other box office hits like " Cinema Paradiso ", " The Mission " or Brian de Palma's " The Untouchables ".  He won an honorary Oscar in 2007, and an outright one for Quentin Tarantino's film " The Hateful Eight " in 2015.  He was recently awarded the 2020 Princess of Asturias Prize for the Arts by the Spanish Crown. He managed to create an atmosphere of mystery, toughness and humour by orchestrating music based on "howls, gunshots and groans".  Rose Friedman, writing an appreciation for NPR, says that in Western movies, where dialogue was minimal, "music did the talking".   Here you can listen to a 4-minute radio report with its script, an...

You Don't Own Me (1963) is a feminist song that makes a strong statement in favour of women's emancipation in the second wave of the feminist movement (1960s-1980s), (you can find out more about this on this Wikipedia link). The song is quite easy to understand, here you can find a lesson plan for B1 students with a fill-in-the gap listening task, the full lyrics and a speaking activity which includes a discussion and an sing-along exercise to promote articulatory fluency. I would like to thank my student Cristina T. for sending me the video of this song. In 2015, one month after Lesley Gore died, the Australian singer song-writer Grace released a cover of the song which was a hit in the  music charts of Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Here, you can find a link to Grace's video and compare the two versions of the song:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEt7bnuO5y0

If you want to feel the "craic" of Galway from your own home, even if your level is B1, you can watch this You Tube video of some Galway buskers performing Hit the Road Jack : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUQaf_kcPK0 But if you prefer something more Celtic, this video of Irish folk music and dance is for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t03aMiKnU4A Here, you can find some buskers playing an anthem, Song for Ireland by James Gallagher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4TYvl6xub4 If you like an unpretentious, young, hippy style, try this cover of The House of the Rising Sun : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkn-RfhyFeU More street talent with a fiddle and some Mexican flavour:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKL1EwoIE0 This video shows the largest performance of the song Galway Girl in the streets of Galway in 2016:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNs0vKDvs0g I hope you have enjoyed Galway's "craic" wherever you are,  But if you still want some more, y...