How many friends do you need?

You are going to

• discuss friendship
• listen to a song about friends and do a gap-fill
• listen to a discussion on friendship
• practise the 1st conditional

1) Discuss

• What's a friend?
• What do friends do?

2) Listen
Watch and listen to the song from the comedy TV series Flight of the Conchords.
What do friends do?

• What do you think of the song?
• Is it true?
• Is it funny?

Listen again and do the gap fill

"Friends" is written by Jemaine Atea Mahana Clement, Bret Peter T. Mckenzie
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LL








3) Discuss
How many friends do you need?
Justin Bieber said this week that he only has four friends. "I only have like four people that I keep in contact with... I don't need a bunch of friends to make me happy," he said.
Social media like Facebook allows us to have hundreds if not thousands. What is the best number of friends to have?






4) Listen 
Nikki Moore, founder of the online technology site girlgeekchic.com, and Sarfraz Manzoor, writer and broadcaster, discuss how many friends is good for you.

• How many friends do they think is the right number
• What is a friend?

listen to ‘Do you need more friends than Bieber?’ on Audioboo

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday 6 April 2013.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22050453




Listen again and do the quiz below.

Printed worksheets available here




5) Discuss

• Do you agree / disagree with the comments made in the radio clip? Which ones? Why?
• What's the best way to make friends?
• Do you think it's better to have lots of friends or just few close friends? Why?

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More
Classroom ice breaking activity - Speed dating
Best done at the start of a course. Students have to find the person in the class they have the most in common with.

1. Organize students in a circle.
2. Students have two minutes to interview each other on habits, likes, dislikes etc.
3. After 2 minutes students change places to talk to someone new. Continue until everyone has finished
4. Each student reports to class who they have the most in common with.

Flight of the Conchords  http://flightoftheconchords.co.nz/

Should parents follow their children on facebook?

You are going to

• discuss social networks
• listen to some teenagers discussing social networks
• listen to some teenagers and parents talking about their online relationships and order their comments
• look at some language used for writing - connectives
• write a discursive essay on the topic

1) Discuss

• Do you use any social networks?
• Why do people use them?
• What do you do on them?
• What effect do you think they have on people?
• Do they change how you think about other people?
• Do they make people happy?

2) Listen

An American study suggests that social media can affect your thinking about other people. VOA Learning English talked to some young people to find out what they thought

Questions
Researchers at Utah Valley University wanted to explore if the amount of time spent on Facebook affected how users saw others.

• What questions did they ask college students?
• What did they find?
• Do you think it's true?
• What does Tod Kashdan say is important to do?

Answers - Highlight here = They asked college students if other people have better and happier lives. And, how long they had used the website and how many hours a week they spend following Facebook friends. The study found students who were more involved with Facebook were more likely to think other people's lives were happier.
Tod Kashdan says it is important to live your own life.

3) Discuss

Should parents to follow their children's activities on social network sites? Why / Why not?
Are you "friends" with your parents / children?

4) Listen

Students from around the UK told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour about how involved their parents get in their social media lives.

They discussed whether parents should be "friends" on sites like Facebook, and how much privacy they were allowed.

Answer

• How many of the comments are by parents / teenagers?
• Do they think being "friends" is a good idea?

Click play to listen

listen to ‘Should parents know about your social media life?’ on Audioboo

School Report is an annual BBC project which helps young people make their own news reports for a real audience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/17388168

5) Put the comments in order

Read the comments below. Listen again and put them in the order you hear by choosing a number form the drop-down menu.

6) Informal expressions

These common informal expressions have been edited out
... and stuff... 
 ...it's like...  it's kind of like sort of...
I'm like...

What do they mean?
Highlight = for answers 
... and stuff...   = etc 
 ...it's like...  it's kind of like sort of... = describing something 
I'm like... = can be used like reported speech eg I'm like "Leave me alone!" or describe feelings eg I'm like so angry / happy...

7) Discuss

"If you post something that your mum won't be happy with then it's really not suitable"

• What kind of things do you think are suitable to post on a social network?
• What are the dangers of posting unsuitable material?

8) Writing / Connectives

If we are speaking we use quite informal language. However if we are writing we should use more formal expressions. Look at these connectives / linking words.

ESSAY WRITING LANGUAGE
Don’t forget to have an introduction Introduce the topic and question
ORGANISING POINTS Firstly Furthermore In addition
ANALYSIS So Therefore That is why As a consequence As a result of this / that	CONTRAST However Nevertheless On the other hand
GENERALIZING In general Generally On the whole	GIVING EXAMPLES For example For instance
OPINION It’s my opinion that… It seems to me that... I agree that... I am convinced that... It seems obvious to me that...
CONCLUSION Finally To sum up When all is said and done After careful thought we can see that... It can be seen that... In conclusion

Fill in the gaps with the connectives shown

Printable versions here

9) Read and discuss

Look at the information below.

• How many parents send a friend request to their kids?
• What do they look at on facebook?
• What else do they look at?
• Do you find any of the statistics surprising?

Vocabulary

Keep tabs = follow

Snooping = spying

nosy =  curiosity about other people's affairs.

Courtesy of: Online Schools

10) Write
"Children and teenagers are vulnerable on social networks and many are on facebook without their parents' permission" 

To what extent do you agree with this statement? Do you think it is justified for parents to follow their children's activities or is it an invasion of privacy?

Give reasons for your answer using your own ideas and experience.

More
More Connectives http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/linking-words/

More reading
http://www.safetyweb.com/social-networking-safety-tips

Quiz. Are you addicted to facebook?
http://theoatmeal.com/quiz/facebook_addict/go

More on writing arguments and linking words
http://efllecturer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/could-you-live-without-it.html





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Sexting: is technology endangering teenagers? Advanced, Discussion Activities, Health and Safety, IELTS, Listening, Sexting, Smartphones, Technology, Upper Intermediate

The Virtual Revolution (Episode 4) - BBC Series about the internet (for Upper Int EFL or IELTS)

Do you think the invention of the internet has been a revolution? Watch some Youtube clips from the BBC series The Virtual Revolution and answer the questions below. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/

This is a  useful topic if you are doing the IELTS exam and there are some typical IELTS writng questions to follow up the activity.

 
 

1) Before you watch - Introduction / Discussion. What do you think?

• What effects has the internet had on modern life?
• Do you think the internet has caused a revolution?
• What do you think Homo Interneticus means?
• Are we changing from Home Sapiens to Homo Interneticus?
• Who is Generation Web?
• Is the internet trivializing our relationships and rotting our brains?
• Does the web distort or enrich our humanity?

2) Watch  clips 1-3 and take notes on these questions. (You may find the information useful for the writing actvities which follow)

1. What do you learn about the Gutenberg Bible and why is it compared to the internet?
2. What do you find out about South Korea?
3. What do you find out about Internet addiction?
4. What are the consequences of computer use on children?
5. What do you find out about online social networks?
6. What do you find out about facebook?
7. What is its relationship with fast food?
8. What does this say about facebook "friends"?
9. What is the Dunbar number?
10. What is the average number of friends facebook users interact with?

If you want you can watch the rest of the program here

The Virtual Revolution episode 4
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

3) Writing topics -  You can use some of the ideas in the program to help you. Look at the notes you took from the questions on the video clips

1) Does modern technology make life more convenient, or was life better when technology was simpler?

2) We are becoming increasingly dependent on computers. They are used in businesses, hospitals, crime detection and even to fly planes. What things will they be used for in future?.Is this dependence on computers a good thing or should we be more suspicious of their benefits? Use specific details and examples in your answer.

3) Technology is making communication easier in today's world, but at the expense of personal contact as many people choose to work at home in front of a computer screen. What dangers are there for a society which depends on computer screens rather than face-to-face contact for its main means of communication?

4) Some people say that computers have made life easier and more convenient. Other people say that computers have made life more complex and stressful.What is your opinion? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

5) Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Modern technology is creating a single world culture. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

6) Some people say that the Internet provides people with a lot of valuable information. Others think access to so much information creates problems. Which view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

7) Some say that the internet is making the world smaller by bringing people together. To what extent do to you agree that the internet is making it easier for people to communicate with one another.

8) As computers are being used more and more in education, there will be soon no role for teachers in the classroom.
• You should give reasons for your answer using your own ideas and experience.

9) Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? With the help of technology, students nowadays can learn more information and learn it more quickly. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

 

Now watch the CEOP film Exposed to learn about some of the dangers of social networking