Resources: Videos

A Bridge between Generation: Communities.

Celebration, Florida: Disney´s Utopia.

General Objective

* To enable undergraduate English teachers develop necessary word power, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and sentence structures for engaging in discussions based on urbanism and its challenges.

Specific Objectives

By the end of this unit, the undergraduate English teachers should be able to:

1. Apply the acquired vocabulary and expressions in language production (written and spoken).
2. Differentiate between the mains ideas and details in both oral and written texts.
3. Make inferences from a speaker´s tone of voice or speaking style
4. Take part in a discussion observing rules for politeness
5. Use analogies to compare different realities

PREPARATION

Small talk: which is the ideal place or community for you to live in the city? What should that place have? If you were a designer how would you organize an ideal community?

* Disney’s Utopia

Do you know Walt Disney? What do you know about him? What did he do? He is the creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of the Disney theme parks. He also dreamed of creating the ideal American community, a utopian city where real people lived and worked.

* Getting ready

Read background text (timeline of American utopian communities- principles behind them, the driving utopia which that led to their creation).

* Vocabulary for comprehension

Main Tasks

Listening One: The Celebration Experiment

Listen to an interview from the radio news broadcast Marketplace, aired on National Public Radio in the United States in which David Brancaccio, the host of the show, interviews Andrew Ross, a professor of American studies at New York University who lived in celebration and wrote a book about his experience there.

Then, discuss why it was disappointing to live at celebration (brainstorming). E.g. houses were poorly constructed. Carry out the exercises on pages 28-29 (listening and speaking)

React to the listening

Listening Two: Living in Celebration

Douglas Frantz, a reporter for the New York Times, lived in Celebration for two years with his family, then wrote a book about the experience with his wife, Catherine Collins. In this excerpt, discuss the town and the houses, as well as the rules for Celebration residents to follow. Use a T-list to take notes on the main ideas and details from the listening

Linking listening one and two

In groups discuss who of the three speakers (Andrew Ross (L1), Douglas Frantz (L2), Catherine Collins (L2) is most positive about Celebration and reasons behind that. Who among them is most negative and why?

Vocabulary

Exercise: on pages 34-36 (useful words)

tired, exhausted, access, assess, burned out, callous, civic, dictate, envision, hotter than hell, live by, make ends meet, nostalgia, nurture, play out, scrutiny, sprawl, vibrant

STYLE: Discussing Opinions

Asking for an opinion:

* What’s your take on ...?
* (What do you think?)
* What’s your view on ...?
* Would you agree ...?

Agreeing

* Yes, exactly. There’s no doubt in my mind that ...
* We are exactly on the same page.
* I couldn’t agree with you more.

Expressing an Opinion

* My take is ...
* As far as I’m concerned ...
* Well, if you ask me ...

Disagreeing politely

* Yes, don’t you think that ...
* Perhaps, but I can’t help thinking that ...
* I take your point, but I see it differently. I think ...

READING

Vocabulary for comprehension

Then, read texts 1 and 2 and answer the corresponding questions. Text 1: Senior Citizens at Wilton High. Text 2: I don’t Feel or Look My Age.

Writing Style

The structure of an essay in academic writing

1. an introduction (to capture the reader’s a attention with a provocative sentence, topic sentence, ideas from general to specific, question, anecdote, statistics, etc.)
2. a body (develop your main ideas here using well connectors and micro-structure – topic sentence, supporting ideas, and conclusion), and
3. a conclusion (summarise the main concepts and express your stand regarding the topic you wrote about).

LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

Noun clauses after verbs of urgency (demand, insist, suggest, recommend, propose, request, and urge) are formed by using the base form of the verb in the noun clause. E.g.

* The Disney Company suggested that the famous architect, Robert Stern, design only six styles of homes.
* The official demanded that she remove the “For Sale” sign from her front lawn.

Expressions of urgency include: it is essential, it is critical, it is vital, it is necessary, it is important, it is urgent, it is advisable, and it is preferable.

* It is critical that all new residents read the Patter Book before moving to Celebration.

The verb in the main clause can be in any tense-present, past, or future.

* The Celebration Foundation will suggest that Jane Mansfield get the celebration Good Neighbor Award.

For negative statements, use not plus the base form.

* The architects insisted that garages not face the street.

For the passive voice, use be plus the past participle form of the verb.

* The new Celebration principal suggested that textbooks be required in all classes.

Using that after a verb is optional.

* The Celebration “Old-Timers” club recommended (that) all new residents attend the welcome event.

Watch the following video and express your opinion regarding shyness.

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