For the love of the game, Listening activity

David Beckham “For the love of the game”

This activity started quite by accident, I should say. One evening, at home, having dinner my husband commented he had seen the “Beckham movie” the previous night and talked to me as though I had seen it as well. When I asked him what he was talking about he couldn’t believe I didn’t know about that movie. For my husband, the fact that I’m a English teacher means I HAVE to know not only who the British Prime Minister is but also who the next candidate is, together with the population of Leeds, all the members of the Tudor family, the results of the Premier League, how to apply to a British university, just to mention a few things any teacher MUST know.

Coming back to David (Beckham, of course), I happened to find the movie the following day shown on the BBC entertainment channel. I must admit to being a football fan myself (I’m from Uruguay!!) and that I’ve always  loved Beckham, but the movie “For the love of the game” is really inspiring. So, I thought, “how can I use this in my groups?”.  Immediately, I thought I didn’t need any excuse, I could use it in my groups as a listening activity and I did. In my teenage/young adult group, where I  use English File Intermediate text book, I connected the activity with Module 2 lesson B.

Activity: David Beckham’s “For the love of the game”

Lead-in

Photograph of David  Beckam. Ask students whether they know him and those who do share any information about the footballer. At this stage, it’s interesting to see that most boys will give information about his football career and most girls will talk about his family life. 

Why is number 7 significant to him?

You can share:    www.7.org/    This is the website for his fund

Language: Present Perfect Simple

Students are told they would see an extract of the movie but before that they are given a set of sentences:

Choose the correct alternative

Football gave / has given me everything.

It’s never been/ It was never more important to me to give something back.

I’ve organized / I organized a major initiative for my charitable fund.

They have to choose the alternative they consider more appropriate and give reasons for their choice.

Note: In my country, because of the variety of Spanish that is spoken here, the Present Perfect tense is not  commonly used, the Past Simple is used instead; therefore, in English, using their transference strategies, students very rarely use Present Perfect and Past Simple is used in most cases.

Watch For the love of the game, David Beckham

Watch from beginning to 1’ 30”. 

Check. Take this opportunity to talk/revise the uses of Present Perfect.

Use the third sentence to ask students about Beckham’s “major initiative”. 

What’s the major initiative he talks about? ………………………………………………………………….

If they couldn’t get it  watch another scene:  watch minute 3, where you’ll see where he’s planning to play.

• ·         Papua New Guinea (4’)
• ·         Nepal (18’30’’)
• ·         Djibouti (31’50’’)
• ·         Buenos Aires (47’50’’)
• ·         Antarctica (58’’)
• ·         Miami (1:09’)
• ·         Manchester (1:18”)

Students are allotted one place each (except for Antarctica). For homework,  they have to watch the section of the movie which is about the place they were given and get the following information: 

*General information about the place and current situation

* Venue:

* Match number:

* Surface:

* Teams:

* Players:

* Final score:

* If he meets any locals, what does he learn about them?

* Extra information:

* After-match comments:

In class we watch the Antarctica chapter (58’)

 Watch David  Beckham in Antarctica and complete this chart

Venue:………………………………..

Match number: …………………………..

Surface: …………………………..

Teams: …………………………..

Players: …………………………

Final score: ………………………….

Watch again and answer these questions

1.      What do we learn about the journey to Antarctica?

2.      David mentions a lot of “firsts”. What do you remember about them?

3.      What do they use for the goals and lines?

Extra information: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

After match comments: ………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Language: Teachers can also exploit this video in different ways. For instance, adjectives suffixes:

ISH : safe-ish (Dave Gardner about the flight)

ABLE: unbelievable (David arriving in Antarctica)

Y: rusty (David about Dava Gardner)/slippery (the surface)

* For my intermediate group, I also asked them to compare the job done by David Beckham and his charity and that with “Adelante Africa” (English File Intermediate, 3^rd edition, Module 2 LessonB)

“ I was lucky enough to play football for twenty years.”

“These last ten days have given me another lifetime of memories”

“They say it’s only a game but it transformed my life; so for me it’s the only game”   David Beckham

For more information about his activity and the keys, do not hesitate to email me.

Cheers, teacher Ana Cabral