CONSTRUCTING A TASK-BASED READING ACTIVITY
PRE-READING TASK:
Task 1
Look at the words and the meanings. Match the words with the meanings. Work in pairs:
motto main lights
granted
The British Secret Service
eternal
the work he has to do
MI 6
proverb, phrase
job profile
permanent
headlights
that is true
saw
a sharp instrument for cutting
Task 2
[pic]
Work in the groups of 5. Look at the picture. What is on the picture? What is the text we are going to read about? Make your group suggestions and present to the other groups
Task 3
Interview fellow-students and present the results of your survey to the class:
Do you know who James Bond is?
Do you like James Bond films? Why? Why not?
Which film about James Bond is your favorite?
READING
Task 4
Read the text and try to remember as many facts as you can. Work in group of four.
WHO IS JAMES BOND ?
BOND IS BACK AGAIN.... and the latest Bond film, Spectre, is certain to be an enormous box-office hit (as all the others). But who is James Bond, and where does he come from ? AuthorIan Fleming, the creator of James Bond, told us something about the origins of the world's most famous secret agent.......
[pic] Poster from one of the early "Cold War" Bond movies
In one of the first Bond novels, Ian Fleming tells us that James Bond - the classic “Englishman"? - was the son of a Scottish father and an Oriental mother. But perhaps this was not really true.
The title of the 19th Bond film, “The World is Not Enough", was based on the Latin motto of the Bond family, which is mentioned in one of the early novels. However, it now appears that the motto is not that of the Scottish Bonds, but that of a different Bond family, who came from the South West of England. So perhaps, Bond really is English, not Scottish, after all. Who knows?
Bond went to school in England, anyway - to Eton College, the same school as his creator Ian Fleming. This is where Princes William and Harry were educated, and also many British Prime Ministers, including David Cameron! It is a school where young people learn how to move in high society, like Bond does so well.
After leaving school, Bond did not go to university - it wasn’t necessary in the 1950’s......
Oh? You didn’t know Bond was so old? He doesn’t look it, granted, but he is! Like a few other famous people, he seems to have found the secret of eternal middle age (we can’t call it “eternal youth", can we?).
Bond joined the British Secret Service, where he soon got promoted to the top of the spyrachy, the “double O
" category. From then on he was 007, “licensed to kill", and so began a career which would take him to all the corners of the earth.
In the early days, Bond’s role was quite clear. He was working for the West, and his main enemies were men from the KGB, and other dangerous organisations. Since the end of the Cold War, the role of MI6 has changed, and Bond’s job profile has changed with it. Now his main enemies are the big bosses of organised crime and international terrorism.
Unlike the Cold War, organised crime is unlikely to come to an end - at least, not in the near future. We can therefore be sure that James Bond, the best-known English fictional hero of the 20th century, has many more exciting adventures ahead of him.
Hollywood has already begun making sure of that! The original films were based on the fifteen novels written by Ian Fleming; but after the last of these was made into a film, it was clear that Hollywood was not going to stop! Bond films are too popular and too profitable to abandon. So Hollywood has invented new James Bond stories...
In many ways, Bond has changed a lot since the early days. To start with, several different actors have played the part of Bond, most notably Sean Connery, Roger Moore and today’s Daniel Craig; but over the years, Bond movies have become more and more fantastic. Fleming’s original character was fantastic, because he always came out alive; his adventures were incredible, but they were based on some sort of realism. Bond’s original car (his Aston Martin DB5) had gadgets, but they were all plausible! They were gadgets that would let him escape if he was being chased.
More recently, Bond has had cars that can fire missiles from the headlights, and do other remarkable things! In a sense, the modern Bond is Agent Gadget - and the people who try to get him have some even more amazing gadgets - like the enormous circular saw that hangs under a helicopter, cutting through everything that gets in its way (except Bond, of course!).
In the next Bond films, there will surely be lots more amazing things; but Bond will continue to be the same, cool, calm and collected – the classic Englishman.; Craig is unlikely to be the last 007, and Bond will doubtless go on entertaining us for many more years!
POST-READING TASKS
Task 5
Create short fact-sheet about James Bond with your group. Present your fact-sheet to each group of students
Task 6
Working in pairs, and using information from this article and any other information they may have, students should imagine an interview between a reporter and James Bond. The reporter should ask at least eight questions, including questions starting with:
What.... Where..... Why..... How...... When..... How many...... Are you.... Do you...... (the questions can be in any order).
James Bond must answer the questions using the words from task 1
Text and tasks are designed for the teenagers who are at intermediate level of English. I took into consideration the fact that teenagers like films, and supposed that mots of the students watched James Bond film (s).
Task 1 prepares students to read the text and helps to eliminate future difficulties in reading the text. I do not want to give the students direct meaning of the words and want them to guess the meaning using the prompts that will help them to memorize the new words.
Task 2 and 3 are designed to create interest in reading the text as students guess what the text will be about (and have the opportunity to compare their answers with the text), students are involved in speaking process and interview each other. Tasks are personalized as students share their opinions and experiences and sum up the results
Task 4 pleads students to be attentive during reading process, makes them to be attentive for the details
Tasks 5 and 6 contain n elements of competition as students create fact-sheet, help them to generalize and group the information, develops to choose important fact from the informational flow. Task 6 develops speaking skill, adds to text understanding, using and remembering new vocabulary.
