Walt Disney British English Teacher

HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
GENERAL ENGLISH · HISTORICAL FIGURES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)
WALT
DISNEY
QrrkoD Scan to review worksheet
Expemo code:
17IS-R4I9-ZEQC
1 Warm up
Identify the character in the picture and the Disney film she appears in.
Work in pairs or small groups. You have one minute to write down as many Disney films as you can.
Use the English titles if possible.
What do you know about Walt Disney, the man behind the films?
FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 1/6

Scan the QR at the top of Page 1 to review the lesson flashcards with Expemo.
© Linguahouse.com. Photocopiable and licensed for use in Anna Kathrina Gatchalian's lessons.
HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)
WALT DISNEY
2 Vocabulary
Read the paragraph and match the words in bold with their meanings.
Cartoons
Cartoons, or animated films, have been popular for over 100 years. Everyone has
their favourite cartoon series from childhood: classics like The Simpsons and SpongeBob
SquarePants, or stories that feature superheroes like Batman or Superman. Kids and adults
also enjoy watching feature-length animations at the cinema. These are often versions of
familiar stories like Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin.
1. : a set of TV programmes which tell stories about the same characters but in
different situations
2. : describing a type of film which shows drawings that appear to move
3. : forms of the same story that are slightly different from each other
4. : include a person or thing as an important part
5. : taking the same time as the main film shown in the cinema
6. : the most famous and best quality works
Choose the best option to complete these sentences.
1. I wish you wouldn’t critic / criticise my cooking all the time. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to
eat it!
2. Elon Musk has built up a huge business empire / emperor and is now one of the richest men in
the world.
3. If you want to be a successful social media influencer / influential, you’ll have to get a lot of
followers on sites like Instagram and TikTok.
4. I’m on strike / in strike! I’m not going to walk the dog anymore - it’s your turn.
5. That kind of racism / racist behaviour is not only unacceptable, it’s against the law!
6. Mark Zuckerberg was to pioneer / a pioneer of social media.
7. She broke up with her boyfriend because he was completely unsensitive / insensitive and never
understood how she was feeling.
How do you think these words will be used in the story of Walt Disney’s life?
FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 2/6

HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
3 Listening 1
You are going to listen to information about the life of Walt Disney (1901-1966). Before you listen,
look through the list of events and places. Then listen and match items on the two lists.
1. drew cartoons for the school newspaper a. Burbank, California
2. produced Laugh-O-Grams and Alice in Cartoonland b. Chicago
3. created Mickey Mouse and other related characters c. Glendale, California
4. suffered negative effects from a strike and the d. Kansas City

Second World War
5. built his first theme park, Disneyland e. Hollywood
6. burial after death from lung cancer f. Anaheim, California
4 Language in context
Read these sentences from the recording and explain the meaning of the words in bold.
1. The pair went on to make Alice in Cartoonland, mixing animation and live action.
2. After moving to a new location in 1939, the business suffered a setback when their animators
went on strike.
3. Disney was one of the first people to recognise the possibilities of the new mass media, television,
in the 1950s.
5 Listening 2
Read the questions. Can you remember the answers? Listen again to check.
1. How did Disney improve his art skills when he was in high school?
2. Why did Disney, Roy and Iwerks decide to leave Kansas City?
3. Give two reasons why the 1937 film Snow White was so special.
4. How many feature films did Disney make and how many Academy Awards did he win?
5. When did Disneyland open and how much did it cost to build?
6. In what different ways do people think of Disney nowadays?

HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
6 Language point
We can add extra information to a sentence in different ways. Look at the examples and answer the
questions.
1. The pair went on to make Alice in Cartoonland, which mixed animation and live action.
2. The pair went on to make Alice in Cartoonland, mixing animation and live action.
1. Which sentence uses a relative clause to add extra information?
2. How does the other sentence introduce the extra information?
Match these sentence halves from the recording.
1. Altogether, Disney made one hundred a. featuring one of their new characters
feature films during his lifetime, called Mickey Mouse.
2. In 1928, they created Steamboat Willie, a b. appearing in colour after 1932.
short cartoon
3. Characters like Minnie Mouse and Donald c. including classics like Fantasia, Bambi and
Duck soon joined Mickey in a series called One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
"Silly Symphonies,"

HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
Read this extra information about Walt Disney’s life and work and combine the two sentences into
one sentence which uses a present participle.
1. Flowers and Trees was an early colour cartoon, which won an Oscar for Disney Studios in 1932.
2. Disney’s brother Roy had the idea of selling watches, dolls, T-shirts and other merchandise which
made the company a lot of money.
3. Walt Disney wanted to watch the construction of Disneyland, so he kept an apartment on site,
where he lived over the Fire Station on Main Street.
4. On Disneyland’s opening day in 1955, some criminals sold fake tickets outside the gates, which
allowed thousands of extra visitors to crowd into the park.
5. The man who voiced Mickey Mouse and the woman who voiced Minnie Mouse were a real-life
couple, who married in 1991.
6. After his death, there were untrue reports that Disney’s body was frozen, rather than buried, which
suggested that he was hoping to come back to life in the future.
7 Talking point
Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.
1. What would you ask Walt Disney if you could meet him?
2. What do you think Disney would be working on if he were alive today?
3. A role model is a person who others admire and try to copy. Do you think the characters in Disney
films provide good role models for the children who watch them?
4. Disney’s films have been criticised for racism and political insensitivity. What has the company
done (or could it do) to fix this?
5. Which of these Disney quotes do you like best and why?

HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
8 Optional extension
There are lots of different types of rides at theme parks like Disneyland. Read the descriptions and
match the words.
1. This has animals or little cars that you sit on as you a. a haunted house
go around and around in a circle.
2. This is like a very fast train that goes up and down b. a ferris wheel
big hills and around sharp corners.
3. This is more of a means of transportation than a ride, c. bumper cars
but sometimes you get a good view of the park while
you travel from one place to another.
4. This takes you up and down around a circle several d. a carousel or roundabout
times.
5. This ride has several arms, and each arm has several e. a roller coaster
places to sit. You go around as well as up and down,
very fast.
6. This takes you up and when you come down you get f. a water slide or log ride
wet.
7. You drive your own little vehicle and try to crash into g. a scrambler
other people.
8. You ride or walk through a place full of ghosts and h. a monorail
skeletons.
How many of these rides can you see in this picture?
Answer the questions below.
1. Which of these rides do like the best? Why?

2. What’s the best theme park you have ever visited?
3. Are there any rides or theme parks you would like to experience in the future?

HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
TEACHER MATERIALS · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)
WALT DISNEY
Transcripts
3. Listening 1
Narrator: Walt Disney was born in Chicago in the United States in 1901. As a child, he loved drawing
and painting and sometimes sold his artwork to friends and neighbours. In high school,
Disney studied drawing and photography and drew cartoons for the school newspaper.
He also attended extra art classes at night. His education was delayed for a time when he
drove an ambulance during the First World War.
Narrator: At the age of nineteen, Disney moved to Kansas City. His brother Roy got him a job at
an art studio and introduced him to a talented artist known as Ub Iwerks. They started
producing short, animated films called Laugh-o-Grams which were shown in a local theatre.
The pair went on to make Alice in Cartoonland, mixing animation and live action. However,
in 1923, they went out of business after a New York partner stole their ideas.
Narrator: Disney, his brother and Iwerks moved to Hollywood and opened another cartoon studio.
They continued the Alice series and started developing other characters. In 1928, they
created SteamboatWillie, a short cartoon featuring one of their new characters called
Mickey Mouse. This animation made use of new technology by including voices and
music and it was an instant hit. Disney himself was the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1947.
Characters like Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck soon joined Mickey in a series called Silly
Symphonies, appearing in colour after 1932. A feature-length animated version of the fairy
tale Snow White reached the cinemas in 1937 and made one point five million dollars, an
amazing result considering the terrible economic problems of the 1930s.
Narrator: After moving to a new location in Burbank, California 1939, the business suffered a
setback when their animators went on strike. The Second World War also affected
production and in the mid-1940s, the studio mostly produced short films which were
joined together to make feature-length programmes. Altogether, Disney made one
hundred feature films during his lifetime, including classics like Fantasia, Bambi and One
Hundred and One Dalmatians. Twenty-two of his films won Academy Awards.
Narrator: Disney was one of the first people to recognise the possibilities of the new mass media,
television, in the 1950s. His company produced live action documentaries, dramas and
variety shows for children and families. Disney also pioneered the development of theme
parks, starting with Disneyland, in Anaheim, California in 1955. The original park cost
seventeen million dollars to create and has grown into a business empire worth well over
a billion dollars, with parks in Florida, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
FOOOOTERAPPENDIXRIGHT
Learn without forgetting! i
HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
Narrator: These achievements make Disney one of the most important cultural influencers of the
twentieth and twenty-first century, although some of his films have been criticised as racist
and politically insensitive. Even so, many people wish to remember him as a hard-working
businessman who experienced failures and overcame these to enjoy huge success. Disney
died in 1966 of lung cancer; he is buried in Glendale, California.
FOOOOTERAPPENDIXLEFT
Learn without forgetting! ii
HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
Key
1. Warm up
5 mins.
Work with the whole class to identify the character and film and set the task that follows. If possible, the class
should identify the films in English, but it’s also fine if they use their own language - the aim is to lead students
into the topic of the lesson. Quickly recognise the winning pair/group as the one with the most titles - you could
assign double points for titles in English.
Answer: Princess Jasmine, in Aladdin
Variation: find a picture on the Internet which shows a montage of 15-20 Disney characters and display this to
the class for thirty seconds. Then take the picture down and give them one minute to recall as many characters
as they can.
Pose the follow-up question.
2. Vocabulary
10 mins.
Explain that students will need to know some vocabulary to understand the listening. First, students complete an
exercise focusing on words related to cartoons. In the second exercise, students discriminate between items in
the same word family (or similar). When you check answers, drill pronunciation - stressed syllables are underlined.
Note that sensitive (easily upset by events) is a false friend for students with many L1s who confuse it with sensible
(able to make good decisions based on understanding a situation). Unsensitive is not a correct form.
Pose the follow-up question for students to discuss briefly in pairs. This will help to prepare them for the listening.
You could elicit some short responses around the class to conclude this stage.
Part 1
1. series 2. animated 3. versions 4. feature 5. feature-length
6. classics
Part 2
1. criticise 2. empire 3. influencer 4. on strike
5. racist 6. a pioneer 7. insensitive
3. Listening 1
10 mins.
First go over the sentences and ask students to work in pairs to predict the answers before they listen – this stage
will probably be very brief. Then students can listen to the recording and check their ideas. Before you check
answers with the whole class, students can check answers in pairs.
Sources: https://www.biography.com/business-figure/walt-disney https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walt-
Disney
https://www.biography.com/news/walt-disney-biography-facts-video https://www.insider.com/moments-themes-
in-disney-movies-that-havent-aged-well-problematic
1. → b. 2. → d. 3. → e. 4. → a. 5. → f. 6. → c.
FOOOOTERAPPENDIXRIGHT
Learn without forgetting! iii
HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
4. Language in context
5 mins.
This is a quick practice in deducing meaning from context, an important skill for students at this level. Go over
the sentences with the whole class and elicit the correct answers. Encourage students to notice the whole phrase
and drill pronunciation - note that live (adjective) is pronounced /laIv/.
1. this is the opposite of animation - it involves filming real people rather than using drawings
2. experienced a serious problem that resulted in slower than expected progress
3. communication that reaches large numbers of people - it also includes newspapers, radio, and the internet
5. Listening 2
10 mins.
Go over the questions with the whole class. Students should work in pairs before listening to recall/predict the
answers and then listen again to confirm/find the answers. They can check answers again in pairs before you go
over the answers with the whole class.
If any students need extra support for this exercise, you could make the transcript available to them while they
listen or after they listen. Students often enjoy listening and reading anyway – if you haven’t repeated the listening
more than twice so far, they may want to do this now.
1. He studied art and photography, he drew cartoons for the school newspaper, and he took art classes at night.
2. They went out of business after a New York partner stole their ideas.
3. It was a feature-length cartoon, and it made a lot of money.
4. Over one hundred feature films, and twenty-two Academy Awards.
5. It opened in 1955 and cost $17 million dollars.
6. Some people have criticised his films for racism and political insensitivity while others remember him as a
cultural influencer and successful businessman.
6. Language point
10 mins.
This is a quick look at how we can substitute a present participle for the pronoun and verb in a relative clause if
it has an active meaning. Students at this level should be familiar with relative clauses and will find this language
point helpful for reading or listening comprehension; those with a higher level will be ready to experiment with
using these forms in speaking or writing.
Go over the introduction with the class and elicit answers to the questions. You may wish to point out that the
present participle form can replace a past verb in the relative clause. Work through the short matching activity
which contains further examples from the recording. Then students complete a sentence transformation exercise
and discover more information related to the biography - you can do this as a writing or a speaking activity, or even
both, asking students to speak first and then to make changes to the sentence in writing. Note that in sentence 5
the present participle can be used three times.
Part 1
1. Sentence 1 uses a relative clause (the pronoun which + verb used).
2. Sentence 2 introduces the same information using verb + -ing, also called a present participle.
Part 2
1. → c. 2. → a. 3. → b.
Part 3
FOOOOTERAPPENDIXLEFT
Learn without forgetting! iv
HEAAADERLOGORIGHT
WALT DISNEY
1. Flowers and Trees was an early colour cartoon, winning an Oscar for Disney Studios in 1932.
2. Disney’s brother Roy had the idea of selling watches, dolls, T-shirts and other merchandise, making the company
a lot of money.
3. Walt Disney wanted to watch the construction of Disneyland, so he kept an apartment on site, living over the
Fire Station on Main Street.
4. On Disneyland’s opening day in 1955, some criminals sold fake tickets outside the gates, allowing thousands
of extra visitors to crowd into the park.
5. The man who voiced / voicing Mickey Mouse and the woman who voiced / voicing Minnie Mouse were a
real-life couple, marrying in 1991.
6. After his death, there were untrue reports that Disney’s body was frozen, rather than buried, suggesting that
he was hoping to come back to life in the future.
7. Talking point
10 mins.
Students can work in pairs or small groups to discuss these questions. If your classroom set-up allows, students
could move round the room, forming small groups to discuss one question at a time, changing groups for each new
question. Conduct a quick round-up of answers either after each question or at the end, encouraging students to
give reasons and examples for their answers.
Source for quotes: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/walt_disney_100644
8. Optional extension
10 mins.
This activity is intended as a filler or cooler if you have time in your lesson. Students identify some theme park
rides and discuss them briefly.
1. → d. 2. → e. 3. → h. 4. → b.
5. → g. 6. → f. 7. → c. 8. → a.
How many of these rides can you see in this picture? ferris wheel, roller coaster, carousel
FOOOOTERAPPENDIXRIGHT v
Learn without forgetting!

Walt Disney British English Teacher

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Walt Disney British English Teacher

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

HEAAADERLOGORIGHT

GENERAL ENGLISH · HISTORICAL FIGURES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 1/6

4. : include a person or thing as an important part

6. : the most famous and best quality works

Choose the best option to complete these sentences.

6. Mark Zuckerberg was to pioneer / a pioneer of social media.

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 2/6

1. drew cartoons for the school newspaper a. Burbank, California

2. produced Laugh-O-Grams and Alice in Cartoonland b. Chicago

3. created Mickey Mouse and other related characters c. Glendale, California

4. suﬀered negative eﬀects from a strike and the d. Kansas City

6. burial after death from lung cancer f. Anaheim, California

6. In what diﬀerent ways do people think of Disney nowadays?

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 3/6

1. Which sentence uses a relative clause to add extra information?

2. How does the other sentence introduce the extra information?

Match these sentence halves from the recording.

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 4/6

Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 5/6

How many of these rides can you see in this picture?

Answer the questions below.

1. Which of these rides do like the best? Why?

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 6/6

You might also like