This session took place on the approach to New Years Eve and is themed on 'resolutions.'
Ice breaker - 15 minutes
What are the most common resolutions?
What are your language resolutions?
What advice could you give about resolutions?
Make 3 resolutions for yourself or another person and think about how they can be achieved
Grammar - present continuous
What do we use the present continuous for? Things that have begun but haven’t finished, that are happening now or NOT happening but are true now for example ‘I am learning to drive’
For future arrangements, for example ‘I’m meeting Ben for a pint at 20:00’
EXCEPTION – I am understanding it! State verbs, which are used for states and not actions Examples include: want, need, like love, think, know, feel, smell, taste
Open debate
Why does the calendar end when it does? The Gregorian calendar was first introduced in 1582, but it took more than 300 years for all the different countries to change from the Julian Calendar. The Julian calendar didn’t reflect the tropical year (the time around the sun). This is why the British tax year ends 5th April
Why do we make resolutions?
Babylonians made a promise to their Gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debt.
The Romans began each year by making promises to the God Janus, for whom the month of January is named. Janus had two faces — one looking forwards and one looking backwards. This allowed him to look back on the past and forward toward the future.
It is thought that people are more pessimistic nowadays, that we don’t have a relationship with the future because we only read bad news. Here we investigate some of the positive things relating to the more optimistic outlook demonstrated in the future of this article
What are the most common resolutions?
Do resolutions work?
When is the best time to start a change in your life?
Is resolution less relevant in the digital age?
PAUSE at 2.06 – So, New Years is in fact the best time to start a change in your life?
PAUSE at 2.28 – Answer the 2 questions
PAUSE at 3.53 – what is an ‘URGE’?
Debate 30 minutes
Split into groups to discuss the following questions. After 5 minutes stop and move to a new group, with different people. NEW PLACES, NEW FACES. Try to communicate with as many people as possible to benefit from different vocabulary, grammar, accents and opinions.
AT HOME: try this as a writing exercise or start a discussion in the FORUM
1 How can you ensure a successful resolution?
2 What makes a bad resolution?
3 Is ‘resolution culture’ more common with the digital generation?
4 What are your language resolutions for 2019?