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 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, 3rd
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
