Live from London podcasts. Vibrant Voices: Live from London Podcasts – Listening Comprehension with Free PDF and Audio
Live from London podcasts
Author: Lindsay Clandfield
Level: Intermediate +
Age: Teenagers / adults
Time needed: 40 minutes (approx)
Language and skills: Christmas vocabulary, listening for details, Christmas cultural information (UK), discourse markers and linkers (optional).
Preparation: Write the sentences for miming on separate pieces of paper, one for each student. You may wish to change these cards with examples of your own to make them more appropriate for your students.
Warm up
- Tell the students that they are going to begin the class with a miming activity. Each student has to take turns miming a sentence you give them on a piece of paper. Do an example first yourself. Then give a
card to a student and let him/her begin. The person who correctly calls out the sentence gets the next sentence to mime.
Sentences for miming:
You are opening a very big present – it’s a bicycle!
You are singing a Christmas song.
You are putting on a scarf, hat and gloves.
You are cutting and serving turkey to other people.
You are opening a bottle of champagne.
You have a stomach ache – you ate too much food.
You are wrapping a present.
You are answering the phone. It’s a person from your
family calling to say Merry Christmas.
You are opening a very small present – it’s a ring!
You are shopping for Christmas presents. You have a lot of bags.
At the end, ask students to work in pairs and try to remember the sentences they heard. They should write them down. Check answers, then ask students which activities happen at a “typical Christmas” in their house.
Stage one
- Direct students to the description of traditional Christmas activities in the UK and clarify any unknown vocabulary that comes up. Then play the listening through once. Students tick the number of times they
hear the different traditions mentioned.
Answers:
Hanging Christmas stockings. (twice)
Eating roast turkey with all the trimmings. (3 times)
Going to midnight mass at church (once)
Watching Christmas television. (once)
Listening to the Queen (once)
Stage two
- Ask students to compare their answers in pairs and look at exercise four. Can they answer any of the questions already? Play the listening again. You may wish to pause after each speaker.
Answers:
Speaker 1 – an hour and a half north of London
Speaker 2 – all day
Speaker 3 – England and France
Speaker 4 – eating, singing and listening to music
Speaker 5 – the presents are being wrapped and the room is being decorated
Speaker 6 – Australia
Speaker 7 – croissants and champagne; piano and cello
Listen to the audio
Also check out these free resources on Christmas and New Year’s Eve
