Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name:

Maria Segura

Maria Glukhova

Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez

Day and Date:

Week 3-4, Fall 2020

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):

All

Class theme/topics discussed:

Social Media

How did you structure the class?

Warm up questions

  • Would you rather have everything on your phone right now (browsing history, photos, etc.) made public to anyone who searches your name or never use a cell phone again?
  • Would you rather never run out of battery power for whatever phone and tablet you own or always have free Wi-Fi wherever you go?
  • Short poll: Do you…
  • Check your phone as soon as you wake up (Consulter son smartphone dès son réveil)
  • Use different devices to watch/read stuff at the same time (Lire des informations ou regarder du contenu (photos ou vidéos) sur plusieurs écrans simultanément.)
  • Check your phone every 10mn just in case (Consulter son smartphone toutes les 10 minutes au cas où.)
  • Reply to every text in less than 10mn (Répondre à chaque message en moins de 10 minutes)
  • Texting and driving at the same time (Utiliser son smartphone au volant)

> Do a quick graph with the answers to show how students use their phones/social media/technology.

General discussion questions

  • Some people “collect” friends in social networks. Is it possible to have 500 friends in real life?
  • What do you think about social media? 
  • How would you define them? 
  • What types of social media do you know/use? 
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media?

Activity 1 – Carmen & Twitter

  • Carmen: show the video. Ask students, in pairs, to focus on one of the characters: either Stromae or the bird. How do they change throughout the song?
  • Compare with the original opera Carmen. Quels éléments linguistiques, musicaux, etc. Stromae emprunte-t-il à « Carmen » ? À votre avis, pourquoi Stromae a-t-il fait ce choix ? Que pensez-vous de ce clip ? Atteint-il les objectifs supposés ?

Activity 2 – Create your own social media (cf Katty SP LR 2019)

  • Made-up social media platform: After giving an example of  a social media platform a friend and I created, in groups of three, students have to create new social platforms using either of the criteria provided in the table (they can also add new ones). They have to consider three different categories: Topic, target audience and functions. Also, they have to create a name and a logo for their platforms

Activity 3 – Social media and social movements

Article on how social media affected the “Printemps Arabe” back in 2011. Could be the starting point of a discussion on the impact of social media on social movements: 

  • Do they think social media can be used for more than fun?
  • How different are they from more traditional ways of communicating information? What are their specific characteristics? (direct access/easy to share with a lot of people/younger target audience)
  • What are the risks?

Activity 4 [For Rus] – VKontakte

Go to vk.com and create your own VK account! (you can talk about the structure, differences with FB, copyright..)