The following lesson ideas can be used alongside the video Live from London: Christmas. You can use these ideas on their own, or you could group some of the activities together and choose to do them in whichever order you prefer. Each lesson idea has a recommended learner level. The transcript is attached under ‘Related files’ at the bottom of this page.

Some of the ideas can be used for flipped lessons. In this scenario, students can do tasks and preparatory work at home or in the school independently from the teacher for the following lesson. This allows more time for communicative tasks, teacher-led tasks or group-led tasks during class time.

1. Sound off

Level: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper intermediate (B2)

Summary: Students watch the video without sound and make predictions about what is happening and what the people on the video might be talking about.

Objectives: to engage students and promote speaking, imagination and predicting skills; modals; agreeing and disagreeing

Instructions: Divide students into small groups and play the video with the sound turned off. Students have to use the visual prompts such as the montage (the opening scenes) and the expressions and mannerisms of the people in the video to make predictions about what the video is about and what the people in the video are saying.

Students can make notes as they watch before discussing their ideas in their groups. Have the whole class feed back to see the varied predictions before playing the video for a second time, this time with sound. Compare predictions with the actual video as a whole class.

2. Themed discussion

Level: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper intermediate (B2)

Summary: Students use the four main questions from the video as a basis for a personalised discussion about Christmas.

Flipped: Your students could watch the video and do the worksheet at home so that in the following lesson the time can be used for comparing their answers and discussing the questions for themselves. You could then go on to do activity ‘Interview task’ steps 4–6 during class time.

Objectives: question forming; discussion; superlatives

Instructions: Place your students into pairs or small groups for this activity. Before playing the video, tell your students that the interviewer in the video, Luke, asks four main questions. Ask your students to write down the four questions that they hear (see below). Play the video.

Play the video for a second time and ask your students to note down the answers given by each person in the video. Ask your students to compare their answers in groups and then feed back as a class.

Now ask students to ask and answer the questions, giving their own opinions/answers, in pairs or small groups. You could include a focus on superlatives. See below for examples.

You could also give the students further adjectives to turn into sentences about Christmas using superlatives, such as expensive, interesting, tiring, annoying, exciting.

3. Reordering

Level: Pre-intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1)

Summary: Students watch the video through once, then arrange cut-up pieces of the transcript into the correct order. The transcript is attached under ‘Related files’ at the bottom of this page.

Objectives: listening for general understanding; memory recall practice.

Instructions: Print out the transcript (at the bottom of this article) and cut up into small manageable chunks.

Tell your students they are going to watch the video once, without further instruction. After watching the video, put students into pairs and hand out the cut-up transcript, asking them to arrange it into the correct order. Students re-watch the video to check their order is correct.

Finally, you can hand out the full transcripts to each pair to check their orders against. Whilst they read the transcript, ask the students to underline any language that is unfamiliar, and then have whole-class feedback, adding new language to the board.

4. True or false

Level: Pre-Intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1)

Summary: Students given a list of true or false statements about the video content.

Objectives: listening for specific information

Flipped: Students can do this activity at home, as well as prepare their own true and false statements for use in the following class. You could then add the ‘Interview task’ activity to be completed in the rest of the lesson.

Instructions: Look at the statements below: some are true, and others are false. You can either write them up on the board or print out the worksheet under ’Related resources’ at the bottom of this page. You may wish to change the order of the statements, play the video first to make it more challenging or even using the transcript (found at the bottom of this page) you may wish to make your own true/false statements. You could pre-teach massive, goose, turkey, Christmas tree and the suffix -ish.

Additional idea: Ask your students to write their own true and false statements about their Christmas to swap with a partner.

5. Find the difference

Level: Pre-intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1)

Summary: Students are given sections of the video transcript with slight differences to the video. As they listen they have to underline the differences, and then they correct them. 

Objectives: listening for specific information

Flipped: Students can do this activity at home so that when they come in for the next lesson they do a more communicative task based on the theme of the video, such as ‘Themed discussion’.

Instructions: Below are six sections of script with the differences underlined, which you can either write on the board (remember not to add in the underlines!) or print out the worksheet at the bottom of this page under ‘Related files’. Alternatively, you can create your own scripts. Ask students to underline the differences as they watch the video for the first time. In pairs they correct the sentences.

Finally, watch the video for a second time to check answers.

Additional idea: Ask your students to write their own statements with differences about their Christmas to see if their partner can guess them.

6. Vocabulary lesson

Level: Intermediate (B1) to upper intermediate (B2)

Summary: Students familiarise themselves with some colloquial language in the video.

Objectives: vocabulary building; speaking practice; inducing meaning from context; colloquial language

Instructions:  Write the words and expressions below on the board, or print out the worksheet under ‘Related files’ at the bottom of this page.

Explain to your students that these words and expressions are in the video. As they listen they have to consider what they mean in context. Play the video, and then place your students in groups to see if they can come up with a definition for the new language. If they are still struggling, put the following definitions on the board:

Students match each definition to the correct word.

You can then ask your student to discuss the following questions in small groups. You can write them on the board or dictate them.

7. Interview task

Level: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper intermediate (B2)

Summary: Students work in pairs or small groups to interview people in their school and/or local area.

Objectives: speaking; interviewing; listening; note-taking

Flipped: This could be set up as homework, and the interviews could take place the following day during class time.

Instructions: Use the video here as a warmer. Before playing the video, tell your students that Luke, the presenter/interviewer in the video, asks four important questions. Ask your students to write down the four questions they hear (see below). Play the video.

Now place your students into pairs and ask each pair to think of three additional questions about Christmas. Explain to the students that they are going to interview people and they can record the answers on a video camera, phone or note down answers on paper. Once your students have interviewed at least five people they can report back to class. They can then choose how they wish to present their findings. They could present them, create a video, write an article or blog, or turn the answers into a script which they can perform to the class.

Additional idea: You could include a short lesson on register and how best to present yourself when conducting interviews. This could include activities on being indirect and tactful in the language they use when they approach people.