Customs and Traditions in Great Britain
Lesson plan
Number of learners (in the group):
Level:
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Topic of the lesson: Customs and Traditions in Great Britain
Topic of the lesson in Ukrainian: Звичаї і традиції у Великобританії
Glossary of the terms (key words of the lesson):
Aims:
- teaching:
- educational:
- developing:
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Type of the lesson: combined lesson
The procedure of the lesson
Tentative/planned timing |
Contents/activities |
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1 |
Organizing. Greeting. |
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5 |
Warmer up activity |
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5 |
Homework checking/Review material of the previous lesson
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Introducing the topic of the lesson – Today we are going to speak about the British customs. |
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20 |
Introducing the new materialMany people in Britain today accept most of the beliefs, customs and behaviour of their parents most of the time. But they have become much more independent since the Pop Revolution in the 1960s. At that time they developed their own separate culture: they listened to different music, wore different clothes, had different ideas about life, used different words and behaved differently. But youth culture is always changing. The young people of the 60s who rebelled against the traditional ideas of their parents are now considered out of date by today’s youth. So are the hippies, who disapproved so strongly of materialism and who believed in “free love” and “doing your own thing”. So are the punks who appeared in the mid 70s as a result of mass unemployment among the youth. They dyed their hair in pink, orange, green, purple and other bright colours, wore rings, safety pins and other metal objects pierced through their ears, noses and cheeks. They made their own kind of music, punk rock, and they sniffed glue when they couldn’t afford other drugs. They claimed that their ambition was to die before the age of thirty, and some did. Today unemployment continues to have a strong influence on the attitudes and behaviour of young people in Great Britain. They fear unemployment and believe that the good things in life will come to them if they can get a good job. So most of them are not interested in being rebels any more; they want to become adults as quickly as possible. Students are less interested in global problems and student politics and more interested in examination results which can assure them of good positions. Smart clothes, money and success have become fashionable again. Hippies, teddy-boys and punks have been replaceed by “yuppies” (young urban proffesionals) whose main ambition is to earn a lot of money and to spend it on expensive possessions and activities. Most young people eventually get married, buy or rent a house or a flat of their own and start a family. However, as in many other Western European countries, more and more young people are living together without being married. Most of them register their marriage only if a child is on the way. And in general people get married later than they used to: women in late 20s, men in late 30s. However, marriages are still popular even among those whose first marriage has failed. About 36% of all marriages are between the divorced. Britain now has the highest divorce rate in Europe, and 10% of all families have one parent. Families have also become smaller and the birth rate in Britain has declined dramatically. Elderly people tend to live alone; it is unusual now to find three generations living in one house as they used to do in the past. It is quite common for close relatives to live in different parts of the country and hardly ever meet. So the family ties have become much looser. One reason for this is that British people tend to move house every five years on average to change jobs or to buy a bigger and better house. It is impossible not to mention pubs when speaking about British way of life. Pubs are the most popular places of meeting people in an informal atmosphere. They are like local clubs where people from the neighbourhood come in the evening to have a beer and a chat. Practically every British person has his or her favourite pub. There all kind of pubs: city pubs for rich businessmen where the seats are soft and there are bowls of flowers on the tables; simple “out of the way” pubs where young people and artists like to go; old country pubs with solid beams and open wood fires. Many pubs offer food as well as drinks and “family rooms” where parents can take their children are becoming more and more popular. Another important custom of the British that just can’t be missed is their tea drinking. They are the world’s greatest tea drinkers. The British drink tea at meals and between meals; in the morning and in the evening, when they are happy and when they are upset; to get hot and to get cold; to calm down and to cheer up. Making good tea is an art, so when you are treated to tea in Britain, don’t forget to praise it. |
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Practising the new material1. What do you know about hippies, punks and yuppies? 2. What is the difference among them? 3. Do they have traditions in meals? 4. What do you know about British pubs? |
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Evaluating the learners activity and knowledge of the lesson |
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Summarizing the whole material of the lesson |
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Homework giving |
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End-of-lesson activity |
APPENDIX – CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN
1. Warmer up activity
Jumbled story
Aims: Writing skill, make up a story
Level: Pre-intermediate-Advanced
Time: 15-20 minutes
Organisation: Groups
Procedure: The students, working in groups, have to write two short stories of about four to six sentences each. The stories can be about the same person or similar event. The stories are then cut up into separate sentences and given to another group to sort out into the two original stories.
2. End-of-lesson activity
Every country has its written and unwritten rules. There are also some stereotyped beliefs about different countries. Decided whether the following statements about Britain’s customs are true or false.
1. It is customary to shake hands when you are first introduced to someone.
2. It is fairly common for the British to shake hands with their colleagues at work every morning.
3. It is very rare for English people to shake hands with children.
4. English people rarely kiss or hug friends as a form of social greeting.
5. You would normally address someone as “sir” or “madam” if you don’t know their names.
6. British people tend to say their surname first when answering phones at home.
7. It is considered rude in Britain to ask people how much they earn.
8. It is considered bad manners to blow your nose in public.
9. Most British people tend to greet the shop assistant with “good morning” or “good afternoon” when they are served in the shop.
10. In a restaurant it is customary to attract the waiter’s attention by calling out “Waiter!”
11. In England you can’t turn you back to a statue of the Queen.
12. In English cities you can’t sound your car horn from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
13. If you are invited to dinner you shouldn’t arrive earlier than the time given and you shouldn’t arrive more than about 15 minutes late.
14. British people like stand very close to each other when they speak.
1-T, 2-F, 3-T, 4-T, 5-T, 6-F, 7-T, 8-T, 9-T, 10-T, 11-F, 12-T, 13-T, 14-F
3. Homework
Housing in Great Britain
Almost everybody in Britain dreams of living in a detached house; that is, a house which is a separate building. The saying, “An Englishman’s home is his castle” illustrates the desire for privacy and the importance attached to ownership which seem to be at the heart of the British attitude to housing.
A large, detached house not only ensures privacy. It is also s status symbol. At the extreme end of the scale there is the aristocratic “stately Home” set in a big garden. Of course, such a house is an unrealistic dream for most people. But even a small detached house, surrounded by garden, gives the feeling of rural life which is dear to the hearts of many British people. Most people would be happy to live in a cottage.
Most people try to avoid living in blocks of flats. Flats, they feel, provide the least amount of privacy. With a few exceptions, mostly in certain locations in central London, flats are the cheapest kind of home. The people who live in them are those who cannot afford to live anywhere else.
The dislike of living in flats is very strong. In the 1950s millions of poorer people lived in old, cold, uncomfortable nineteenth century houses, often with only an outside toilet and no bathroom. During the next twenty years many of them were given smart new “high rise” blocks of flats to live in which, with central heating and bathrooms, were much more comfortable and were surrounded by grassy grounds. But people hated their new homes. They said they felt cut off from the world all those floors up. They missed the neighbourliness. They couldn’t keep a watchful eye on their children playing down there in those lovely grounds. The new high-rise blocks quickly deteriorated. The lifts broke down. The lights in the corridors didn’t work. Windows got broken and were not repaired. There was graffiti all over the walls.
In theory, there is no reason why these high-rise blocks could not have been a success. In other countries millions of people live happily in flats. But in Britain they were a failure because they do not suit British attitudes. The failure has been generally recognized for several years now. No more high-rise are being built. At the present time, only 4% of the population live in one.
People prefer to live in houses a little bit set back from the road. This way, they can have a front garden. These areas are not normally very big. But they allow residents to have low fences, walls or hedges around them. Usually, these barries do not physically prevent even a two-year old child from entering, but they have psychological force. They announce to the world exactly where the private property begins. Even in the depths of the countryside, where there may be no road immediately outside, tha same phenomenon can be seen.
* Put the words and expressions into groups according to their meaning. Give each of words a title.
High-rise, detached, flat, financial, semi-detached, tax, rented, architect, rural, builder, terraced, low-rise, street, developer, house, urban, cost, privately-owned, council, cottage
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* What differences are there between housing in Britain and Ukraine?
* What type of accomodation do the majority of British people like to live in? Can you think of any reasons?
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