THE UNBELIEVABLE LANGUAGE MAN!

Part I
Learning Objectives: To offer reading practice Preparation Time: 5 minutes
encourage speculation and creative thinking / to revise
Completion Time: 40–50 minutes
grammar. To offer speaking practice.

Skill/Grammar: Speaking, reading and writing/revision Age/Level: Teenagers–Adults/Intermediate

of tenses

Resources: Unbelievable Language Man Episode 1 ‘How it all began, part 1’, student handouts

Preparation
Before the lesson, photocopy the story for the group work and cut it up.

Pre-Reading Activities (10–15 minutes)

1 Pair work: Write on the board THE UNBELIEVABLE LANGUAGE MAN and invite students to speculate:
– Who is he?
– Why is he called that?
– What makes him so … “unbelievable” ?
– What will the story be about?

To create anticipation, accept all answers but do not confirm or correct .

2 Students change partners and do the True/False exersice.

(You will perhaps need to explain/or elicit the job and responsibilities of a Director of Studies)
To create anticipation, you should not confirm or correct their guesses.

While-reading Activities (20 minutes)

3.1 After they have finished with Exercise 2, separate students in groups. Hand out the cut-up story and
inform them that in order to find out if their guesses were correct, they should worktogether to put the
story first in the right order and then check their answers to exercises 1 and 2 in the pre-reading stage.

Answer Key: 1 Yes; 2 No; 3 No; 4 No; 5 Yes; 6 Yes; 7 Yes

Author: Dimitra Eleftheriou-Ernst

r:©Katie Jones.
Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
 THE UNBELIEVABLE LANGUAGE MAN! Part I
3.1.1 Draw students’ attention to panel 6 (where Charlie gets electrocuted), and ask them to describe
what is happening there. (You might need to pre-teach/elicit the target vocabulary here, e.g. wires short
circuit, electrocution, etc.)

3.2 Invite students to fill in Dr McSleepy’s speech bubble. Walk around, monitor and offer your
assistance where necessary. (There is no right or wrong response at this stage so accept all possibilities –
encourage creative thinking and praise students on their ideas.)

3.3 In this activity students should “distil” information about the characters in the text and write them into
the right branch of the tree-diagram. This will engage them further into the plot of the story and will
create anticipation for the episodes to come.

Grammar Focus
4 Draw attention on Present Perfect and review/revise functions and form if necessary.
In question d, you can do what Charlie does in panel 2 in the story: write “I have never ____________ in
________________’’ and encourage students to give you as many examples as possible (encourage
“crazy” and “funny” examples).
Question e could be an opportunity to revise tenses and their functions. Invite students to work in groups
and help each other in this activity, encourage peer work as it is an essential part in the learning process.
Walk around, monitor and help if it is necessary.

Speaking
5 Invite students to write the essential information in the story map and retell the story to each other.
Alternatively, one of the students could prepare the first part of the story and the other the last part.
Allow them to use extra information and use their own expressions and vocabulary to do so. Praise them
for good language use.

6 Finally, ask them what they think is going to happen in the next episode and have a short discussion
about it.

Author: Dimitra Eleftheriou-Ernst

r:©Katie Jones.
Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
 THE UNBELIEVABLE LANGUAGE MAN! Part I
Pre-reading Activities
1 Look at the key information below and discuss what the story is going to be about.

2 True or False? Try to guess what the contents of the story:

Yes No
1 You are going to read a comic
2 You are going to read a short text
3 The name of the main character is Charlie Shallow
4 Charlie is the Director of Studies at a language school
5 An accident happens
6 Mr Nary is Charlie’s boss
7 Charlie has a girlfriend who is worried about him
Author: Dimitra Eleftheriou-Ernst
r:©Katie Jones.
Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
 THE UNBELIEVABLE LANGUAGE MAN! Part I
While Reading Activities
3.1 Put the story in order and check your answers in 2.

3.2 What does the doctor say to Abby Lee in the last panel? Write his response to her question.

3.3 Who are the characters and what are their roles in the story? Fill in the information in the tree diagram
below.

Author: Dimitra Eleftheriou-Ernst

r:©Katie Jones.
Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
 THE UNBELIEVABLE LANGUAGE MAN! Part I
Grammar Focus
4 Work in pairs or groups and answer the questions:
a What tense was Charlie teaching in panel 2 in the story?
b What do you know about this tense and when is it used?
c I have never___________ in _______________. In groups, find as many examples as possible and write
them on a piece of paper. Afterwards, check your answers with another group.
d Find examples of Past Simple, Past Progressive, Present Simple and Imperative.

Past Simple Past Progressive Present Simple Imperative

Speaking
5 Put the key information of the story in order and retell the story to each other.

Discussion
6 What do you think is going to happen next in the story? Will Charlie survive this terrible accident?

Author: Dimitra Eleftheriou-Ernst

r:©Katie Jones.
Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE