Pet Talk British English Teacher BW

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GENERAL ENGLISH · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
PET
TALK
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1 Warm up
Look at the pictures and match the words with how the animals are feeling.
1. Do you think pets have more complicated feelings and ideas than these to tell us?
2. How can we learn to communicate with our cats and dogs?
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UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
PET TALK
2 Watch a video
Dog owner Alexis Devine communicates with her dog Bunny in a surprising way. Watch the video
(00:00-02:05) and then answer the questions.
1. How long has Devine had Bunny?
2. What was Devine’s goal when she got Bunny?
3. How does Bunny communicate with Devine?
4. How old was Bunny when she began to learn how to do this?
5. What are three types of things that Bunny can talk about?
6. Is Devine sure that Bunny can really use language? Why/not?
3 Language in context
Read these sentences from the video and put the words in bold in the right order to make common
informal expressions. Explain what these expressions mean.
1. My goal before bringing Bunny home was to have the most connected relationship possible with
her, and dream / of / that’s / the / sort for us to be able to communicate
with our animals in that way.
2. I think a lot of it feels like ego, be / honest / perfectly / to . We

want to hear our dogs say things that we know they’re feeling or that we assume they’re feeling,
but we want to hear it in our language.
3. for / greatest / I / would love / takeaway / the to be not that our

dogs can talk, but that they’ve already been saying it all along and we just haven’t been listening.
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4 Vocabulary
Complete these sentences from the video with the correct form of the word in brackets. You may
need to add suffixes.
1. Bunny is a very (think) dog, talking constantly with her (express).
2. My sense is that it’s (enrich) for her, just another way to (strong)
and (deep) our bond.
3. I’ve always considered myself a (hope) sceptic ...
4. ... a lot of the experts that I’m talking to now are saying that it does seem to be
(receive) and (express) language.
What do you think sceptic means?
Are you sceptical about Bunny’s abilities or do you think Bunny is really communicating with Devine?

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PET TALK
5 Reading
Read more about the project that Bunny and Devine are taking part in. Choose the best form of the
words 1-10 to complete the article.
If only they could talk

The project that’s helping pets and owners to communicate
1. Many people have been following the Sheepadoodle sceptic that she is really using language. She seems
Bunny and her owner Alexis Devine on social media to be as expressive as a human toddler - she has
and (1) marvellous / marvelling at the bond they requested play dates with other dogs and asked
share, but these people may not realise that the for help when she hurt her paw. Even more (6)
pair are just one of several thousand taking part remarkable / remarkably is that Bunny has told
in a serious large-scale research project at the Devine about a dream, or "night talk sleep" where she
Comparative Cognition Lab at the University of saw a "stranger animal."
California San Diego. The They Can Talk research 4. Most of the animals taking part in They Can Talk are
project was inspired by the work of speech and dogs, but a small number of horses and cats are
language (2) specialist / speciality Christine Hunger, also involved. Cat owner Kendra Baker decided to
who first designed a set of speaking buttons for (7) enrolment / enrol her thirteen-year-old cat Billi
her own dog in 2018, based on her professional after watching online videos of dogs "speaking." Cats
experience of using these devices to help human certainly have a (8) reputation / reputable for being
patients with language problems. less sociable than dogs, but they are receptive to the
2. (3) Participaters / Participants in the They Can Talk idea of using the buttons to share their thoughts and
project receive detailed instructions about how to feelings. Billi uses fifty buttons, but her messages
use the buttons and are requested to film their pets are mostly single words. Baker says that if Billi does
interacting with them. Researchers also visit them at put words together, she is very thoughtful about her
home to (4) authentic / authenticate the data. Pets (9) selection / selective of buttons. Baker reports
start off with one or two buttons and gradually build that Billi has been much happier since they joined
up their "vocabulary" - Bunny uses 78 buttons. The the project and suggests that this is because many
buttons are organised into categories which include housecats are bored and depressed and enjoy the
social words like Love you and Hi, verbs like play and (10) stimulant / stimulation.
help, places like outside and bed and descriptors like 5. Some people are attracted to taking part in the
more or later. project because they are keen to deepen scientific
3. Researchers are interested in seeing how many understanding of animal psychology. Others are
animals can go beyond merely asking for food or seeking to strengthen their emotional connection
attention. They are hopeful of finding evidence that with their pets or enrich their animals’ day-to-day
pets are using language in a similar way to humans, lives. However, considering that this project really
ie sharing emotions and referring to memories of started to take off during the pandemic, the takeaway
previous events. Some of Bunny’s videos on social here may be that it’s the owners who were bored and
media would convince even a (5) hardened / hardly depressed in lockdown, rather than the pets.

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PET TALK
6 Reading comprehension
Answer these questions according to the information in the article. Explain in your own words as
much as possible.
1. What’s the history behind the project that Devine and Bunny are part of?
2. How do researchers make sure that the information they receive from pet owners is accurate?
3. What are two ways to use language that researchers consider “human-like”?
4. How well do you think Bunny’s use of language fits this definition?
5. How do Bunny and Billi use the buttons differently?
6. How many reasons are given for people wanting to take part in the They Can Talk project? In your
opinion, which do you think explains why most people signed up?

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7 Final activity
Choose one of these activities.

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PET TALK
8 Optional extension
What do you think these animals are thinking or saying? Write a caption for each picture. Share your
ideas with the class to find the best one.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
PET TALK
Transcripts
2. Watch a video
Devine: Bunny is my one-year-old Sheepadoodle. (I’ve) had her in my life for just about a
year. She’s a very thoughtful dog, talking constantly with her body language, with her
expressions. My goal before bringing Bunny home was to have the most connected
relationship possible with her, and that’s sort of the dream for us to be able to
communicate with our animals in that way.
Button: "Hear."
Devine: What do you hear? There’s a big barge going by.
Devine: Bunny has been using buttons to communicate with me since she was eight weeks old.
Button: "Mom, love you."
Devine: Love you too!
Button: "What."
Devine: What? That’s a bird.
Devine: We have different sentence parts. We’ve got people, places: outside, park, beach. Some
of her favourite toys: piggy, ball, tug.
Button: "Hippo."
Devine: You want to play hide the hippo?
Devine: So anytime I think about what she would want to be able to express, I try to add a button.
There it is! Good girl.
Button: "Beach."
Devine: Yeah, we’ll go to the beach soon, baby.
Devine: My sense is that it’s enriching for her, just another way to communicate, and to strengthen
and deepen our bond. I’ve always sort of considered myself a hopeful sceptic. I don’t know
enough to say that it is developing into language, but a lot of the experts that I’m talking
to now are saying that it does seem to be receptive and expressive language.
Devine: I think a lot of it feels like ego, to be perfectly honest. We want to hear our dogs say things
that we know they’re feeling or that we assume they’re feeling, but we want to hear it in
our language. I would love for the greatest takeaway to be not that our dogs can talk, but
that they’ve already been saying it all along and we just haven’t been listening.
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Key
1. Warm up
5 mins.
Students start to consider how we can identify animal feelings by matching the moods and body language for two
familiar pets. Check answers (given from top to bottom) and then pose the two follow-up questions to the class,
eliciting a range of ideas, to anticipate the content of the video that follows.
1) relaxed, 2) trusting, 3) nervous, 4) scared, 5) angry
2. Watch a video
10 mins.
Introduce the video and preview the questions so students know what they’re listening for. Play the video (00:00-
02:05) - it’s short so it’s best if students focus on watching it rather than making notes. They can compare ideas in
pairs; it’s fine if they want to have a second viewing. Check the answers with the whole class. Students will have
an opportunity to react to the video later in the lesson.
1. One year 2. To have the most connected relationship possible
with her.
3. She presses different buttons which generate spoken 4. 8 weeks old.
words.
5. People, places, toys. 6. No, because she doesn’t know enough about the
subject, but some experts are saying it seems to be real
language use.
3. Language in context
5 mins.
This mini stage calls students’ attention to three very natural informal phrases used in the video. They reorder
words to make the phrase and explain what it means from the context. Sample answers are given with some
additional notes to point out. Students could use these phrases later in the lesson as well in everyday speaking
and for speaking exams.
1. that’s sort of the dream: that’s what Devine was hoping for as the best outcome; we often say sort of in informal
speaking to sound less direct.
2. to be perfectly honest: this phrase indicates that Devine is admitting to something not entirely positive, ie that
her ego may be what drives her to communicate with Bunny more than trying to meet Bunny’s needs.
3. I would love for the greatest takeaway: I hope that the most important thing we all learn and remember. This
type of takeaway is often mentioned in academic or business environments.
4. Vocabulary
10 mins.
This exercise revises word families and sentence syntax and relates to the word formation exercise in Cambridge
Use of English exams. Demonstrate with the first item, taking students through the process of identifying that
the missing word is an adjective relating to Bunny and helping them form the word with a suffix. Students can
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PET TALK
continue in pairs. Check answers and then elicit/explain a definition for sceptic (spelt skeptic in American English).
Students will encounter these items again in the reading stage and also complete a similar exercise type with
different vocabulary.
A sceptic is a person who doubts whether something is true or has any real value. (American English: skeptic).
1. thoughtful ≀ expressions
2. enriching ≀ strengthen ≀ deepen
3. hopeful
4. receptive ≀ expressive
5. Reading
10 mins.
Students read a follow-up text which provides detailed information about the research project that Bunny and
Devine are part of. As they read the article, they should select the correct form of the word family to complete
the text - demonstrate with the first item, eliciting that we need an -ing form to extend the verb phrase have
been following rather than an adjective. Students should be familiar with most of these items and are thus using
their knowledge of sentence syntax and typical endings for various parts of speech to complete the task, as in the
Cambridge Use of English word formation exercise. Students could work alone or in pairs, and you may wish to
allow the use of English-English dictionaries for unfamiliar items. Check answers - the notes below may be helpful
- and pronunciation.
Notes on answers: marvel can be a verb meaning to express wonder and surprise, used here in a continuous form,
while marvellous is an adjective; a specialist is a person, a speciality is a subject that a person knows a lot about
- note that in American English, specialty is used instead; participant is correct - "participater" is not a real word;
authenticate means to check that something is authentic, real or genuine; a hardened person is someone who
usually takes a sceptical position about something, while hardly is an adverb that means almost not; remarkable
is an adjective meaning unusual or special while remarkably is an adverb; enrolment is a noun related to the verb
enrol, meaning to sign (someone) up for something; a reputation means what people think about you, while the
adjective reputable means that it’s possible to believe or trust in something; selection refers to the act of choosing
something while selective is an adjective describing someone who is very careful to choose the right thing; a
stimulant is something that makes people feel more active (like coffee) while stimulation is the action that causes
someone to feel this way.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/dec/08/teaching-dogs-to-talk-stella-bunny
https://www.salon.com/2021/12/12/a-talking-cat-is-giving-scientists-insight-into-how-felines-think/?fbclid=IwAR1iALD-
FLrRLlcs1ITueYqMlqSI5uyFKWh8Rlh7zaBmiXPTzvwSqMhvTJQ
https://www.salon.com/2021/07/24/bunny-the-talking-dog-is-reporting-her-dreams-opening-up-a-scientific-debate/
https://www.salon.com/2020/12/20/bunny-the-talking-dog-alexis-devine-federico-rossano/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8k2upr9vCE
Answers:
(1) marvelling, (2) specialist, (3) Participants, (4) authenticate, (5) hardened, (6) remarkable, (7) enrol, (8) reputation,
(9) selection, (10) stimulation
6. Reading comprehension
10 mins.
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PET TALK
Students can work alone to prepare answers to these questions. It’s good practice for them to highlight or
underline relevant information in the text, but they should be prepared to explain their responses in their own
words rather than simply reading from the text. They can compare answers in pairs before you check with the
whole class.
1. The They Can Talk project was originally inspired by the work of a speech and language specialist who worked
with people who used buttons to communicate. She used her expertise to design a speaking board for her own
dog.
2. They ask pet owners to film their pets and they also visit them at home.
3. Sharing emotions and referring to memories of previous events.
4. Students’ own opinions, but Bunny shares feelings (a hurt paw) and memories (a dream).
5. Billi uses fewer buttons and creates mostly one-word messages. She takes longer than dogs to construct
multi-word messages.
6. Four reasons are given: to deepen scientific understanding of animal psychology, strengthen their emotional
connection with their pets, enrich their animals’ day-to-day lives or because owners themselves were bored during
lockdowns. Students’ own answers about which is the most significant.
7. Final activity
10+ mins.
You can choose which activity students complete, let each pair or small group choose for themselves, or they can
even do both if you have time.
Activity 1 - discussion questions. Encourage students to use vocabulary from the lesson and offer reasons and
examples in support of their ideas. Monitor and support as necessary and conclude the stage with some feedback
and error correction, including pronunciation.
Activity 2 - debate. This is a more formal activity in which students prepare to defend one point of view. You may
assign them to A/B roles or ask them to choose one (make sure there are more or less equal numbers on each side).
Asking students to imagine and present other points of view is a valuable exercise for those who are preparing for
English exams or for academic and business contexts. They can work in A+A/B+B roles initially to put together
a few ideas and then split in A+B groups to present these ideas to another student or pair. This activity could
also be extended into an essay writing homework task, in which students present both sides and draw their own
conclusions.
8. Optional extension
10 mins.
This is a caption competition activity that you can use as a filler or extension if you have time in your class. Elicit
a few ideas for the first picture and then students can complete the others alone or in pairs. You could encourage
them to use words and phrases from the lesson. Monitor and support as necessary, correcting grammar or other
mistakes. Share ideas around the class to find the funniest or best ones and correct incorrect or unnatural use of
language as appropriate.
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GENERAL ENGLISH · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 1/7

1. How long has Devine had Bunny?

2. What was Devine’s goal when she got Bunny?

3. How does Bunny communicate with Devine?

6. Is Devine sure that Bunny can really use language? Why/not?

2. I think a lot of it feels like ego, be / honest / perfectly / to . We

3. for / greatest / I / would love / takeaway / the to be not that our

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1. Bunny is a very (think) dog, talking constantly with her (express).

3. I’ve always considered myself a (hope) sceptic ...

What do you think sceptic means?

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If only they could talk

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5. How do Bunny and Billi use the buttons diﬀerently?

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Choose one of these activities.

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Devine: What do you hear? There’s a big barge going by.

Button: "Mom, love you."

Devine: Love you too!

Devine: What? That’s a bird.

Devine: You want to play hide the hippo?

Devine: Yeah, we’ll go to the beach soon, baby.

1) relaxed, 2) trusting, 3) nervous, 4) scared, 5) angry

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