Despite the fact that different nationalities and cultures have different cuisines, overall, people all around the world love food and enjoy talking about it. Jamie Oliver is one of Britain’s celebrity chefs and what makes him stand out is his outspoken, passionate and no-nonsense philosophy about cooking that people find appealing. He is seen on many TV shows and his books have made him a familiar face all over the world, so there is a good chance the students, who have different nationalities, have heard of Jamie Oliver.
Additionally, a healthy epistyle has become a very current topic which is why this article is interesting and relevant material, suitable for reading activities. The text has a good length, around 1 AY. Too long a text will require too much from the students, too short a text and the students aren’t challenged enough.
Lead-in In order to raise students’ awareness, I would consider showing them some realize in the classroom, for example a frying pan and ask the students WHOSE name comes to mind when they see it. Perhaps they can come up with some names of famous cooks. Then show a book by Jamie Oliver and elicit his name.
I would ask the students what they know about him, whether they have ever seen his shows, if they have ever tried his recipes, if they like cooking in general. If so why, or why not. “If we can get the students engaged in the task there is a much better chance they will read (or listen) with commitment and concentration, whether or not they were interested in the topic to start with” says Jeremy Harmer in ‘The practice of English Language Teaching, 3rd edition, 2001, page 206. By allowing the students to work in pairs, they get the chance to practice their speaking skills a little bit.
Initial receptive skills task On a hand-out, students would be given the interview text and my initial receptive skills task would be to ask the students to come up with a different title for the text. The original title is of the text is: ‘I’m a big fan of chilies’. Jamie Oliver does mention chilies in the interview but talks about many other things. In order for the students to find another title, they would have to read the entire interview and to get a general understanding of the article. Purpose of this task is to practice reading for gist.
Students will probably not understand all the scapulars but they will hopefully get a feel for the passion Jamie Oliver feels towards food and cooking, and how he wants to accomplish his mission(s). The article contains quite a bit of vocabulary that the students may be unfamiliar with. Examples are: in fashion, chat, have it rough, merchandise, noble, knowledge, affordable, treat, do justice, prepare, tastier, chopping board, equipment, sink, rubbish, fortune, contributions, inspired, accessible, watched, consider, transform, bland, excitement, sneak, flavor, versatile.
The students, however, are asked to skim the text, as explained by Jeremy Harmer in ‘The reactive of English Language Teaching 3rd edition, 2001, page 202: ‘the reader has made a choice not to attend to every detail but to use their processing powers to get more of a top-down view of what is going on”. I would refrain from pre-teaching vocabulary at this stage because “if we want to give students practice in what it is like to tackle authentic reading and listening texts for general understanding, then getting past words they do not understand is one of the skills they need to develop.
By giving them some or all of those words, we deny them that chance” stated Jeremy Harmer in ‘The practice of English Language Teaching 3rd edition, 2001, page 203. After the students have invented a new title, I would ask them to discuss their ideas with their partners to give them some speaking practice. In the class room session, some suggestions would then be shared with the entire class and the teacher is able to do some error- correction.
The second task is a more difficult one and requires the students to read the text for specific information. The purpose of this task is read for detail and interpret the opinion of the interviewer as well as the person being interviewed. Because the majority of difficult words are in context, students should be able to understand the meaning of them. I could encourage the students to read fast, as mentioned in ‘Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener, 3rd edition, 2011, page 264: “A good first strategy could be to help them to read fast; not worrying about understanding every word; not, perhaps, even understanding most words, but still achieving a specific and useful goal”.
In this task, the students will be given a number of statements – see Appendix – and they will have to indicate whether they are true or false. After this activity, students get the opportunity to check their answers with their partners which will enable to correct their own mistakes before the answers are discussed in class.
In the class room feedback session, the really difficult words that students struggled with, can be addressed. Would use realize, pictures and/ or mime to elicit the meaning of vocabulary. For example, show pictures of a chopping board, sink, rubbish, merchandise. To convey the meaning of for example ‘noble’ or ‘have it rough’, I could revert back to the context in the article and use concept checking questions.
Productive skills follow-up activity As a follow-on task, it might be good idea for the students to practice speaking language related to food and food culture in groups and have a little debate about it. Students should think about what people like to eat in the country where they are from.
If there are foods their countries are famous for. For example Spain: taps; Netherlands: cheese, France: also cheese, bread etc. What would you recommend a visitor to eat in your country and why? Or why not? The students get some freer oral fluency practice related to different food cultures. Afterwards, one person may present some of the group’s findings to the rest of the class. Another follow-on task might involve some writing practice where students, individually, write a paragraph with ‘all your favorite foods in one day’.
To start off with, students should describe their ideal breakfast, followed by lunch and dinner, including drinks. What would the perfect menu look like? This may include foods from the country that they are from or from another country. For example: in the morning, I want to eat bread with cheese and have cup of tea. I would also like to drink a glass of milk or orange juice for breakfast etc. This would enable to students to have controlled written practice in the context of food.
