The Best Songs, Books and Movies of 2020

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, technical and slangy at times, so it is very suitable for C2 students, but C1 and even B2 learners can still enjoy the music of the songs and understand the gist of the texts. Here is some of the less frequent vocabulary you will find:  

In the first 5 entries of NPR's 100 Best Songs: whopper, a mixtape, to drop, crappy, shred, jam, at a loss for words, buoyant, to be stuck, [the] forseeable [future], [silver] lining, to craft, relentless, chart-topping, juggernaut, hashtag-ready [exclamations], truly sublime, damned it, to work wonders, desperado, sounds at home, bluegrass, string band album, sardonic, trippy, cryptic, an [ambitious] go-getter, to pray, to live lean, to come off as a fluttering, ethereal ode to newfound [love], a lens, to shed light on, self-confidence, gaze, debut, thereafter, cataclysmic [events], [an eight-year] hiatus, to feature, [the] sole [appearance], [the] grim [theme], uplifting [beats], the soundtrack, a funk-rock house party, to throw [a party], [its] opening [song], a mildly psychedelic welcome mat, bassist, to settle into a groove, wandering [voice], off-kilter synth riffs, to hum etc.

In the NYT's Best Movies of 2020: the screening rooms, blockbusters, in storage, to bleed, to doomscroll, to prompt, to put down [my phone], to tether [me to the world], our preferred [movies], first- and second-run cinemas, art houses, cinémathèques, sightlines, moviegoing, it was instrumental to, texture, to clock [many hours], unmoored, classy, shades, to tape [shopping bags], to figure out, to soak up, the stream [of faces], devastating [Trump] performances, skateboarding, sneezes, coughs, to settle [into a new home], to march [for Black lives], to mourn [the deaths], joyous, enlivening, to grow fond of [people], well-being, [a] shameful [day], discrete [pleasures], [the] seemingly [endless], fleeting [Instagram stories], GIFs, to bypass, to blur [time], respite [from the clock-and-capitalism-determined flow of everyday life], every so often, I haven't a clue, [my] conviction, to weather [the crisis], streaming, to morph, to outlive, time will tell, [a brilliant] take, to embrace, bootstraps, sow, rambunctious litter [of piglets], [a] one-legged [chicken], to roam blissfully, exhilating genre-buster, to upend, weird, deeply [political], a rebuke to rugged [individualism], rage, to waft [off the screen], gripping, to track the aftermath, a floundering playwright, to stake a claim, wit, rap, a burst [of glorious colour], dazzingly, a heartbreaker.

In the BBC Best Books article: [a] bumper [year], dystopian [fiction], a memoir, to round up, [BBC Culture's] picks, to deliver, to burrow down, his outlook, the hotly-anticipaped sequel, to embark on [a new quest], vaults, to be hooked, a playful [viewpoint], afterlives, hyperreal, surreal, a mind-bending [collection], multifaceted [scariness], her struggles [and dilemmas],[to be] relayed, revealing [moments], poignant, to unpick [society's racist structures], hidden [histories], to home in on [the role of white patriarchy], to uphold [a system], to disenfranchise etc.

A simple lesson plan for a distance class: There is plenty to read, listen and learn on this post. If you want to activate some of those words, and you already have your "distance speaking partner", you can give them a call or make a videoconference and talk about what you have discovered in these lists, or just anwer these simple questions:

• What is the best song you have heard in 2020? Why do you like it?
• What is the best book you have read in 2020? Why do you like it?
• What is the best film you have watched in 2020? Why do you like it?

It is really hard to choose one song among 100, as the best of 2020. #69 Joy Oladokum's "I See America" captures this year's spirit of despair and hope; #56 Steady Holiday's "Living the Life" oozes simple beauty; # 75 Mireya Ramos' version of "Angelitos Negros" is just amazing; #63 Lido Pimienta's "Eso Que Tu Haces" discovers the power of the new Latino woman; #43 RMR's video is really striking with its blend of images and melody; #39 Dua Lipa's "Break my Heart" is so much fun to celebrate the coming of the New Year; #38 singer-songwriter Soccer Mummy's "Circle the Drain" is a matter-of-fact description of the pains of mental illness which chills your heart; #37 Sun-El Musician's "Uhuru" brings some authentic African flavour to this year's music crop; #28 Stephanie Lambring performs in "Joy of Jesus" a beautifully-crafted Christian country song; #24 Fiona Apple "I Want You to Love Me" is fresh, original, bold and perfect in its rendition; #19 Joshua Reman's, Brad Mehldan, Christian McBride and Brian Blade's "Right Back Round Again" shows that the jazz tradition is alive and kicking; #7 Bob Dylan's "Murder Most Foul" is a tour de force and a musical master-class by the old bard and #4 Mickey Guyton's "Black Like Me" is a distressing and compelling anthem about the everyday racial tensions in a small American town.  

There are many other wonderful tunes which haven't been included in this shortlist (#98, 36, 33, 22, 17, 16, 13, 12, 10, 9, 6, 2, 1 among others), but to top the list of the best song of 2020, I would like choose #55 Shemkia Copeland's blues"Walk Until I Ride" 'cause it has the beat, the lyrics and the faith to touch my heart, my brain and to move my feet. Keep healthy and happy in 2021.

Abelone Kelley December 31, 2020 0

Common European Framework of Reference Self-Assessment & Learners' Beliefs

This is a lesson plan based on the Common European Framework of Reference and the European Language Portfolio, which can help students to reflect upon their history as language learners, their goals, beliefs and interests, and to do informal self-assessment of their language level using the Self-Assessment Grid of the CEFR.  It can be used the first or the second day of the course, before starting with the textbook, but it can also be used as distance conversation practice in the topic "Languages". The questionnaire is supposed to be for C1 students, but, with minimum changes, it can be adapted for B2 and even C2 learners.

Here you can find a link to the Questionnaire "Language Learning Experiences and Beliefs" for conversation practice, again the Self-Assessment Grid of the CEFR and a lesson plan with suggestions for teachers.

The less frequent vocabulary includes the following words and expressions: concening, current affairs, delivery, [to be] implied, predictable [information], attitudes, viewpoints, prose, with ease, rate [of speech], to handle [social exchanges], to keep the conversation going, to search for [expressions], [for social and professional] purposes, skilfully, to convey finer shades of meaning, to backtrack, [my educational] background, events, to round off [with an appropriate conclusion], a [clear] smooth-flowing [description or argument], the recipient, a wide-range [of subjects], to highlight, a wellstructured [text], at [some] length, salient [issues], [to present] a case.

Abelone Kelley December 28, 2020 0

Oral Presentations and Public Speaking Tips

December is a good month for oral presentations. Students have a long bank holiday in Spain and not many university exams yet, so they can prepare a short, five-minute presentation about a topic of their choice. This activity takes only three lessons, one to give them encouragement and basic guidelines and two lessons for the presentations themselves, all in all, from 5/ 6:30 hours of classroom time and the results are always impressive.

Here you can find a Lesson Plan for B2, C1 and C2 students which revolves around an Interactive Exercise that was originally published by Allyn & Bacon Public Speaking (www.abpublicspeaking.com, but this link is no longer available on the web), which has been adapted for B2, C1 and C2 students. You can also find the Key to the Interactive Exercise, which the teacher can use to give students the main guidelines for the task, and an Oral Presentation Checklist to help the teacher assess the presentations. 

You can also find three more handouts: 10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills by Marjorie North from Harvard Extension School, Oral Presentations from Duke University Writing Studio, and a glossary with Useful Language for Oral Presentations, that my colleague Mar C. once passed me, which can be a really useful vocabulary list. In addition, C1 and C2 students can also watch this 14':46" video with subtitles by Thomas Frank and listen to his 9 Public Speaking Tips:

YouTube is loaded with videos to help students start speaking in public, here you can find two more links: Presentations in English, How to Give a Presentation by Oxford Online English, which is suitable for B2 and less experienced students, and 6 Public Speaking Tips to Hook Any Audience, by Mohamed Qahtani, which can be interesting for C2 students who want to incorporate basic acting techniques to present longer monologues and engage their audiences. And the best models for modern, oral rhetoric  can currently be found at TED Talks.

Some of the words you will find in the Interacative Exercise Key are: to churn, to wring [wet], to spell disaster, to dispel, the flow [of your points], setting, reservations to overcome, the adrenaline rush, to tighten, self-defeating, to discard, time constraints, time slot, to disrupt, an issue, to undermine, to strive [for comfort], a cap with a bill, overly loose clothing, blousy sleeves, smooth, to mar [the flow of speech], to interject, to stare, to scan, to dwell, the prevailing [norm], to avert from [direct eye contact], to pace [back and forth], to sway [to and fro], the culprit, to set up [a display table], a slide show, to enhance [my presentation], to engage [the audience], a rule of thumb, the razzle and dazzle, a back up [plan], a [computer] crashes, a bulb blows, overhead [transparencies].

Abelone Kelley December 11, 2020 0

"Shirley" Starring Elisabeth Moss

Elisabeth Moss plays the role of writer Shirley Jackson in the movie Shirley, which began to stream on virtual cinema platforms on June 5th.  Here you can read and listen to a 7 minute review of the film by Los Angeles Times critic Justin Chang, broadcast on NPR's Fresh Air. Film reviews are usually very rich in language, and when they are broadcast on the radio, they are particularly difficult to understand for the density of information, as they are usually literary essays read out loud, so both the audio and the text are classified as C2.  You will come across words like bond, fraught, glimpse, to chime, to deserve, script, loosely, insight, bout, to pursue, chore, vicious, to thrive, to get back on track, to root, wrinkle, muse, stand-in, layers, dizzyingly, jagged, close-up, to swerve, handheld, score, to pulse, to grapple with, conundrums, to blur, uncannily, to excel at, exertion, to tease out, odd, tenderness, prickly, to awe, to bind, to cheat on somebody, to endure to chafe against something, and snobbery. 

You can also do a listening comprehension exercise based on the interview that Elisabeth Moss gave to NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday when she was promoting her film The One I Love.  The pace of this 5 minute, 7 sec radio interview is fast, but natural, and the language is rather colloquial, you will find words like time-shifting, impressive, rom-com, widespread, to set up, plot, crossroads, to send off, retreat, to reset, hijinks (high jinks), to ensure, to end up doing something, boundaries, shooting, breakneck, naive, calculating, gullible, weird, show runner, roles, to get something down, to work on something.  In the file you will find a recording of the interview, the script, a multiple-choice listening task and the key.  You will also find a lesson plan for both the film review above and this radio interview. The listening and speaking task has been designed for C1 students.

If you still want to listen on, you can click here to find a 47 minute long interview to Elisabeth Moss from NPR's Bullseye with Jesse Thorn.  As there is no script, this interview is recommended for C2 students or for experts.

Abelone Kelley June 11, 2020 0