This is an EFL class. It is meant for the students of the fifth grade that had EFL classes since their first grade at school. There are about 12 students in the classroom. Their general goals are academically and socially oriented. Their native languages are Ukrainian and Russian. The length of the class is approximately 45 minutes.

Lesson Theme: Walt Disney World

***The theme of the lesson will surely attract the student’s attention and will create the desire to listen and learn more. To my mind, it is very important to choose the appropriate theme, and after that the students of this age can be given all different kinds of tasks to complete, which they will gladly do, not necessarily realizing that they are developing their reading, listening, writing, etc. skills.***

1. Goal

Students will increase their reading, speaking, and listening comprehension skills on the basis of cultural learning.

2. Objectives

(1) Students will activate listening skills in the theme of the lesson.

(2) Students will develop their speaking skills on the basis of a part of a movie being watched in the classroom and listening to the teacher.

(3) Students will activate their reading skills by reading and working with the given text on the topic of the lesson.

(4) Students will receive cultural schemata on American culture connected with movies and cartoons based on the movie and teacher’s experience.

(5) Students will comprehend and produce necessary vocabulary for this topic.

3. Materials and Equipment

Materials/equipment needed are:

1) introductory fragment of the movie ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Disney)

2) TV / VCR

3) blackboard and chalk /white board and markers

4) text ‘Walt Disney’s World’ (see appendix)

4. Procedures

(1) Introduction. Greetings.

Good morning, children.

Today we are going to dive into a magic world of Walt Disney. Are you excited? Well, I am very anxious to take you there.

(2) Pronunciation Warm-Up.

In order to get into our magic world, we must be ready to meet the best actors and the most favorite characters of Disney’s movies.

What would you imagine our first task to be then? We need to learn a good pronunciation. Let’s prepare by learning my favorite English tongue twister. It is written on the board.

Please, follow me:

Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled pepper.

A pack of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled pepper,

Where is the pack of pickled pepper that Peter Piper picked?

What Disney’s character do these words remind you of?

Yes, it’s Peter Pan.

Now let’s repeat this tongue twister twice.

***This activity will help the students develop their listening and reading skills. From my personal experience, children always like tongue twisters, so by reading and eventually learning this one, they will automatically enlarge their vocabulary and reading techniques.***

(3) Speaking Warm -Up.

And now I want you to think of one Disney film or cartoon.

Let’s invite one student here and the rest of you will ask questions to find out its title. This is called a ‘guessing game’.

Examples:

- Is it a comedy?

- No, it isn’t.

- Is it a cartoon?

- Yes, it is.

- Is its main character an animal?

- No, it isn’t.

etc.

(4) Listening Comprehension.

Now you will see a short fragment of a video film that will tell you about the creation and the main characters of Walt Disney movie ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

I have written some new words and expressions that you will hear in the film on the board. Let me explain what they mean while you will be writing them into your vocabularies.

animated feature

character presentation

to bring to live

extraordinary

enchanted

Let’s watch the fragment now. Please, be very attentive and try to understand everything that will be said.

***This activity will activate the students’ listening skills not only by simple listening, but also by making connections between previously unknown and recently learned vocabulary. The students will also learn to combine listening/watching for pleasure with listening with the purpose. The teacher may explain the difference between the two to the students prior to watching the film fragment.***

(5) Speaking/Dialogue - based on the movie fragment that the students have just seen.

Now, after you have seen the feature presentation, I want you to discuss your favorite Disney movie with your neighbor in a form of a dialogue.

Remember to use the new words and expressions. Try to be good listeners as well as good speakers.

(6) Speaking/Monologue - based on the movie fragment that the students have just seen.

I am sure that you have enjoyed sharing your brilliant memories of your most favorite Disney movies. Now I would like to ask you to come up here and tell everyone about the favorite movie of your neighbor. In your little presentations don’t forget to mention the following:

1) the title

2) the main characters

3) where the story takes place

4) why your friend likes the movie

(7) Reading Comprehension -- activity # 1 -- checking reading skills.

One of the last steps on our trip to the magic world of Walt Disney is actually meeting Mr. Disney himself and learning about his life and creativity. Let’s read the text ‘Walt Disney’s World’ outloud. Since you were to read it at home, you will get grades for reading.

***This activity will help the students practice their reading techniques. The goal of it is to check their reading ability level and speed. This reading activity can be also used without previous reading at home. In that way the students will activate their English reading techniques of the unknown text.***

(8) Reading Comprehension -- activity # 2 -- working with the text.

The text was very informative, wasn’t it? Now let’s divide the text into three parts and name them. For our next lesson you will have to retell the text, so this plan will help you.

(Part I. The life of Walt Disney.

Part II. Creation of famous characters.

Part III. Disneyland.)

***This activity will activate the students’ ability to comprehend the text (possibly unknown) and to develop their global view of the text as one whole piece.***

(9) Reading Comprehension -- activity # 3 -- working with the text. (This activity is to be used with the actual textbook where the text includes illustrations.)

As you see, there are several pictures to the text. Your next task is to find and read the sentences to illustrate the pictures.

***This activity will activate the students’ ability not only to comprehend the text, but also to connect the pre-read text with the illustrations next to it. If some of the vocabulary used in the text is unknown, the students will learn to guess the meanings by the illustrations provided by the authors.***

(10) Conclusion. Explanation of the Homework Assignment.

APPENDIX - text for the reading comprehension that was used in the lesson -

Walt Disney’s World

I think you know the name of Walt Disney. To many people in our century his name means the world of cartoon. Walt Disney has created a lot of short cartoons and many longer films. His name is very famous, and not only in America.

Walt Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. Then his family left that city in the North of America for a place in the South. When Walt Disney grew up, he began to draw pictures and create cartoons, and one day he had an idea to make a mouse the main character of the cartoons.

He told his wife, Lillian, about this. He saw this mouse character as a funny friendly little thing, who could speak, dance and sing and who, in fact, could live like a man. ‘That’s a good idea,’ Lillian said. ‘Call him Mickey.’ So that is what Disney called him. In 1928 the audience saw Mickey

Mouse on the screen for the first time. Mickey became very popular and soon Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse were famous stars.

Then came other characters: Donald Duck, Pluto, and many, many more. Some of them are bright, some are not, but all of them were usually kind and friendly. And Disney’s main characters are always clever. In fact, Disney has created a special animal world full of optimism and success.

Disney’s stories end happily. All his films are easy and nice to watch. The audience always feels comfortable and enjoys his cartoons very much.

One day an idea came to Disney. He wanted to create a special place, a special land for children and parents to have fun together. So he built Disneyland. It is built in California near Los Angeles.

It is a place for children of all ages. It is also a place for their parents to return to the world of childhood because that is what happens when they spend a day at Disneyland. There you can have a voyage on a boat, you can take a train, you can travel to the stars, take a trip to the mountains, meet all the Disney characters... or just sit in the sun and eat ice-cream!

/from ‘English’ (part IV), I.M.Vereshchagina and O.V.Afanasieva, Moscow, Prosveshcheniye, 1995, pp. 290-292/