Náměty aktivit - anglický jazyk

Topic/theme

What are the most livable cities in the world?

Content aims

Students name the top most livable cities in the world and their basic characteristics

Students list aspects of city life that define the quality of living. 

Key language

City life, comparative

Practiced skills

speaking, listening, reading, writing

Level

A2 and higher

Target age group

13 and above

Time

90 mins

Preparation/materials

Text about Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Survey (geography_material_1)

Worksheet (geography_material_2)

PC with speakers and data projector to show three videos and pictures

What to do/procedure

Write the following question on the board: What makes a good city to live in?

Put students into groups of three (they stay in the groups the whole class) and ask them to brainstorm characteristics of livable cities and answer the question on the board. Ask one group to share their ideas with the whole class. Other groups listen and add comments if they have anything that hasn’t been mentioned. Keep a track of the ideas on the board for the upcoming activity. After the ideas have been shared, ask students to identify possible areas that the aspects fall under, e.g. education, health care system etc. Create a spider web with the expression ‘livable city’ in the middle and categories of quality life around. 

Explain that there are various rankings of livability worldwide and the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Survey is one of them.

Hand out the text that outlines the criteria of the EIU. Tell students to compare the class notes and the actual survey. Ask them if there is anything missing on the class list that is listed there or vice versa. Point out the language of the text, such as the names of the five categories and then sample expressions under each that you find useful for your students. 

Write the names of the seven continents on the board: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Ask each student to come to the board and mark the continent which they think has the top livable cities in the world. 

Share the following table with the students. The table includes findings from 2014. 

If possible, have students find the cities on the map of the world. You can also provide pictures of the individual cities or just the three top cities to make the cities more real to the students. 

Compare the results of the survey with the students’ answers regarding a most livable continent. Ask them if there is any information that has surprised them.  

Explain that they are going to visit briefly each of the cities. Say that you will show 3 different clips and their task is to note down anything that they see or understand about the city. Provide students with the worksheet to record their answers on. 

Show each clip and after each clip, allow students to share their notes about the cities in their groups. 

These are possible clips to use:

• Melbourne:
• Vienna:
• Vancouver:
   

Tell students to choose one of the three cities that they would like to live in. Tell them to prepare a short talk about the city based on their notes. Have them mingle and talk about their city of choice to two different people. Conclude the activity by having students group into those who want to live in Melbourne, Vienna, and Vancouver.   

In these new groups, ask students to come up with 10-15 comparative sentences between their home city and the city of their choice. The division of work is up to you. You can have them work individually or in pairs or bigger groups.  Review the expressions they may use in their sentences (as x as, more than, etc.). Have students report their sentences to the whole class. Ask the students who are to listen to think whether they agree or disagree with the statements. Encourage discussion when different opinions are shared. Conclude the lesson by asking students to say what they personally like about the place where they live. 

Variations/Follow up

Students can conduct online research and find more information about the cities of their preference. 

Rather than comparing the cities of their choice and their hometown, students can review their hometown using selected  criteria from the survey or those they decide on and use the following marking: 

Source: http://capcity.adelaide.sa.gov.au/cities/global-city-rankings/economist-intelligence-unit-liveability-rankings/ 

Data can be collected from each student (the process can be suggested by the teacher or students can decide on their own how they will approach the problem. Subsequently, the quality of living in the hometown is discussed based on the results.