This lesson was designed around the Let’s Talk 1 chapter, 15B: “Fads and Fashions.”
Firstly, I show my students this amusing skit from Key and Peele:
We discuss what is happening, pointing out any useful vocabulary. I try to correct “hat” to “cap” where necessary. Useful vocabulary here is: “jealous,” “fashion,” and so on.
I tell them that we will now look at fashion in relation to clothes, and that they need to practice the vocabulary for clothing. So I show them this video, which is a bit slow and silly. You might want to make your own PPT instead. I will do that in future.
You can then demonstrate on the board how to add details to clothing by adding adjectives. I point out what I’m wearing and elicit details. For example: “black coat,” “smart trousers,” “warm scarf,” and so on.
I’ll then have the students talk about changing fashion over the decades (maybe pre-teach “decade,” which will appear again in the book). I show them this video, which always amuses my students. Chinese fashion is pretty conservative even today and it’s unimaginable for my students to think of a girl showing so much skin in the 1950s!
This usually gets them interested and sparks their imaginations, so I’ll have them work in pairs or small groups to talk about changing fashions in China over the past few decades.
After that, I’ll go through the textbook p.68-69 and try to make a point whenever words or ideas are repeated from the videos.
