One of my favourite songs of late is Somebody That I Used To Know by Belgian-born Australian artist Gotye, featuring New Zealand singer, Kimbra. It is no surprise that this song won an award at the 55th GRAMMY AWARDS.
Interestingly, when I decided to write this lesson I was surprised to find another lesson on the same topic at http://www.english-attack.com/videobooster/gotye/somebody-i-used-know-feat-kimbra. I hope you find my ideas a good addition to the theme.
Start by showing the learners the pictures of the two artists and ask the learners to imagine they are ordinary people. Get the learners to give them names. if they wish.
In pairs, get the learners to brainstorm adjectives to describe the two characters’ appearance and personality. Tell learners to suggest both positive and negative descriptions as in Figure 1.
Figure 1
After that, get the learners to discuss whether these two people should or shouldn’t have a romantic relationship. Get them to present their opinions like this:
Listen to the ideas around the class. Write some of the learners’ opinions on the board. Then, tell the learners that you’re going to play music video entitled ‘Somebody that I used to know’. Before they watch video and listen to the song, tell the learners that the song tells the story of a romantic relationship between a man and woman. Put up the song title on the board and get the learners predict the content of the song. Get some feedback and then play the music video for them to confirm their guesses. You might have to play the song various times.
Give the learners a copy of the chorus and tell them to read it and discuss who they think might be speaking in it, the man or the woman, and why.
Conduct a discussion with the class about their ideas. Then, play the song again for them to listen to the lyrics and check who says these lines. The answer is the man.
Now, divide the class into two teams, A and B. Give team A. WORKSHEET 1.
Give team B, WORKSHEET 2.
Focus the learners on the VOCABULARY DEFINITIONS at the bottom of the worksheets.
Tell them to work together and match these definitions with the words in italics in the sentences in the table. Monitor and assist them here.
Sit with each group separately and get feedback on the answers, clarifying pronunciation and other relevant aspects of form and meaning as well. Move on to the table and show the learners the examples given on each worksheet.
It is the learners’ task to interpret what the speakers are trying to say in each line, preferably in their own words. Repeat feedback with each group.
It is time now to work on pronunciation!!!
Give the learners the PRONUNCIATION WORKSHEET below:
Instruct them to find different pronunciation features in the sentences on their worksheets and place them in the boxes under the appropriate category. Emphasise that one example of each category is done for them. The learners should also use the chorus for this. Monitor and assist where necessary. Get feedback from around the class. Be prepared for a full-on discussion about the answers to the task.
Move on to the final stage of the lesson. Tell the learners that they are going to role-play a conversation between the man and the woman. Before they start, give them time to prepare within their own groups. For this, give them the following instructions:
- make small notes about what you want to say
- try and use some of the lines from the songs in the conversation
- focus on the pronunciation of what you are saying
Wrap up the lesson by playing the music video for the learners to sing along and enjoy.
Have fun!
Pronunciation Central - Arizio Sweeting 