This nice song starts with the verse entirely in Present Perfect Continuous so I used it as an extension activity with my Intermediate students following the revision lesson on PPC.
1. Start with a song dictoglos activity. Tell the Ss that they are going to listen to the song and the first part consists of 5 sentences in PPC. Then play the verse a couple of times, allowing students to write and compare their results .(They are fairly easy to grasp since they have the same beginning). Do a whole-class check and write up the sentences on the board. Here you can focus on the language a little bit more and draw your Ss attention to the fact that there is no usual time indicator like for or since. Or ask them to listen to pronunciation changes that occur in fast speech (dropping of "v" sound).
2. Prediction. Now it's time to look at the meaning of the lines. Ask Ss to predict what's the song about based on the beginning. Depending on how much time you have the descriptions can be more or less detailed.
3. Listen to the song and check the predictions. If the Ss can't get much from listening you can elicit general idea: is it a happy or a sad story?
4. Listening more closely. Give out the lyrics of the song. Ask Ss to listen again and cross out an extra word in every line. Compare in pairs, then do a whole-class check.
5. Now it's time to look at some possibly new words and phrases. I found that the text of the song doesn't have many difficult or unknown words for Intermediate students. However, their combination can cause some problems. So we discussed some of the questions related to expressions in the text
When do people bleed? Can you bleed from non-physical causes?
If I bleed out for somebody how do I feel about the person? It's quite a tricky question, you can refer Ss to the urban dictionary definition that gives an insight into this line.
What can make a person think that he/she doesn't belong? Have you ever felt this way?
What can go wrong in the relationship?
China Town, Canal and Bowery are the places in the city. Can you guess which city it is? (answer: New York)
6. If you think your Ss understood the lyrics ask them to reconstruct the story of the couple working in pairs/groups.
What happened? Are they together or not? How do they feel? What was the reason for their break up? Why is he regretting about her not taking the bus? What would have happened if she had taken it?
Hopefully, Ss got some ideas in the previous stage and can imagine the rest. If they are having a block, you can prompt them with more questions. Help with any vocabulary or grammar questions.
7. Ss write up their stories on the pieces on papers (I don't think they should be too long, 5-7 sentences should be enough) and display them around the room. Allow everyone to read each other's stories.
8. Within the same pair/ group Ss choose the story they liked the most (it shouldn't be theirs) and write up a dialogue between the main character and the girl based on the story. Ask them to imagine their meeting on the Canal a month later and come up with a short conversation.
9. Ss role-play the dialogues. For homework, they can write a letter to the main character from the point of view of a girl.
1. Start with a song dictoglos activity. Tell the Ss that they are going to listen to the song and the first part consists of 5 sentences in PPC. Then play the verse a couple of times, allowing students to write and compare their results .(They are fairly easy to grasp since they have the same beginning). Do a whole-class check and write up the sentences on the board. Here you can focus on the language a little bit more and draw your Ss attention to the fact that there is no usual time indicator like for or since. Or ask them to listen to pronunciation changes that occur in fast speech (dropping of "v" sound).
2. Prediction. Now it's time to look at the meaning of the lines. Ask Ss to predict what's the song about based on the beginning. Depending on how much time you have the descriptions can be more or less detailed.
3. Listen to the song and check the predictions. If the Ss can't get much from listening you can elicit general idea: is it a happy or a sad story?
4. Listening more closely. Give out the lyrics of the song. Ask Ss to listen again and cross out an extra word in every line. Compare in pairs, then do a whole-class check.
5. Now it's time to look at some possibly new words and phrases. I found that the text of the song doesn't have many difficult or unknown words for Intermediate students. However, their combination can cause some problems. So we discussed some of the questions related to expressions in the text
When do people bleed? Can you bleed from non-physical causes?
If I bleed out for somebody how do I feel about the person? It's quite a tricky question, you can refer Ss to the urban dictionary definition that gives an insight into this line.
What can make a person think that he/she doesn't belong? Have you ever felt this way?
What can go wrong in the relationship?
China Town, Canal and Bowery are the places in the city. Can you guess which city it is? (answer: New York)
6. If you think your Ss understood the lyrics ask them to reconstruct the story of the couple working in pairs/groups.
What happened? Are they together or not? How do they feel? What was the reason for their break up? Why is he regretting about her not taking the bus? What would have happened if she had taken it?
Hopefully, Ss got some ideas in the previous stage and can imagine the rest. If they are having a block, you can prompt them with more questions. Help with any vocabulary or grammar questions.
7. Ss write up their stories on the pieces on papers (I don't think they should be too long, 5-7 sentences should be enough) and display them around the room. Allow everyone to read each other's stories.
8. Within the same pair/ group Ss choose the story they liked the most (it shouldn't be theirs) and write up a dialogue between the main character and the girl based on the story. Ask them to imagine their meeting on the Canal a month later and come up with a short conversation.
9. Ss role-play the dialogues. For homework, they can write a letter to the main character from the point of view of a girl.
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