Урок "In Search of Good British Food"

Theme: In Search of Good English Food

Objectives: practical: to develop pupils’ speaking and reading skills;                               educative: to develop pupils’ readiness for taking part in the process                                           of English communication;

  developing: to incorporate pair work; to teach pupils to express                              their opinions; to develop a creative way of thinking and the ability to                             think logically;

  cultural: to teach children to respect the traditions of other country

Materials:  Cards for pair work (HO1), Text “In Search of Good English Food”(HO2),  Comprehension check (HO3); Assessment cards (HO4)

Procedure

I .STARTING THE LESSON

Greeting. Motivation

II. INTRODUCTION THE THEME AND EXPECTED RESULTS

T: Look at the blackboard. There is a sentence here. But all the words in it are written together. Try to divide these words and read the sentence.

Onemen’smeatisanotherman’spoison

(One man’s meat is another man’s poison.)

Do you agree with the English proverb?

T; So, today we’ll have a discussion about national meals from different countries. By the end of the lesson you’ll learn to express your own opinion about English food.

III. WARMING UP.

Work in pairs.

(HO1)

1. Do you know any typical meals from the following countries?

 

France	Turkey	Italy	England
India	Spain	Mexico
Switzerland	America	Greece

 

What do you think influences a country’s food? What influences the food in your country?

 

 

IV. Reading “In Search of Good English Food”

1. Pre-reading.

 T: Look at the blackboard. Read these quotations about English food. Do all the people have the same opinion about English food?

 

'It takes some skill to spoil a breakfast— even the English can't do it!'

J K Galbraith, economist

'On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners.'

George Mikes, writer and humorist

'If the English can survive their food, they can survive anything!'

George Bernard Shaw, writer

'Even today, well-brought up English girls are taught to boil all vegetables for at least a month and a half, just in case one of the dinner guests comes without his teeth!'

Calvin Trillin, American writer

'English cooking? You just put things into boiling water and then take them out again after a long while!'

An anonymous French chef

 

2. While-Reading

Read the text quickly. (HO2)

Match a paragraph 1-5 with a summary below.

1. Historical and climatic influences on British cooking
2. There's everything except an English restaurant.
3. The legacy of World War II
4. Where there is hope for the future
5. The British love affair with international cooking

In Search of Good English Food

(by Verona Paul and Jason Winner)

1. How come it is so difficult to find English food in England? In Greece you eat Greek food, in France French food, in Italy Italian food, but in England, in any High Street in the land, it is easier to find Indian and Chinese restaurants than English ones. In London you can eat Thai, Portuguese, Turkish, Lebanese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Swiss, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian-—but where are the English restaurants?

 

2  It is not only in restaurants that foreign dishes are replacing traditional British food. In every supermarket, sales of pasta, pizza and poppadoms are booming. Why has this happened? What is wrong with the cooks of Britain that they prefer cooking pasta to potatoes? Why do the British choose to eat lasagna instead of shepherd's pie? Why do they now like cooking in wine and olive oil? But perhaps it is a good thing.

After all, this is the end of the 20th century and we can get ingredients from all over the world in just a few hours. Anyway, wasn't English food always disgusting and tasteless? Wasn’t it always boiled to death and swimming in fat? The answer to these questions is a resounding 'No', but to understand this, we have to go back to before World War II.

 

|3. The British have in fact always imported food from abroad. From the time of the Roman invasion foreign trade was a major influence on British cooking. English kitchens, like the English language, absorbed ingredients from all over the world—chickens, rabbits, apples, and tea. All of these and more were successfully incorporated into British dishes. Another important influence on British cooking was of course the weather. The good old British rain gives us rich soil and green grass, and means that we are able to produce some of the finest varieties of meat, fruit and vegetables, which don't need fancy sauces or complicated recipes to disguise their taste.

4 However, World War II changed everything. Wartime women had to forget 600 years of British cooking, learn to do without foreign imports, and ration their use of home-grown food. The Ministry of Food published cheap, boring recipes. The joke of the war was a dish called Woolton Pie (named after the Minister for Food!). This consisted of a mixture of boiled vegetables covered in white sauce with mashed potato on the top. Britain never managed to recover from the wartime attitude to food. We were| left with a loss of confidence in our cooking skills and after years of Ministry recipes we began to believe that British food was boring, and we searched the world for sophisticated, new dishes which gave hope of a better future. The British people became tourists at their own dining tables and in the restaurants of their land! This is a tragedy! Surely food is as much a part of our culture as our landscape, our language, and our literature. Nowadays, cooking British food is like speaking a dead language. It is almost as bizarre as having a conversation in Anglo-Saxon English!

5. However, there is still one small ray of hope. British pubs are often the best places to eat well and cheaply in Britain, and they also increasingly try to serve tasty British food. Can we recommend to you our two favourite places to eat in Britain? The Shepherd's Inn in Melmerby, Cumbria, and the Dolphin Inn in Kingston, Devon. Their steak and mushroom pie, Lancashire hotpot, and bread and butter pudding are three of the gastronomic wonders of the world!

 

3. Comprehension check

(HO3)

 Read the article more carefully. Choose the best answer, a, b or c.

 1 The writers believe that British cooking ...

1.  has always been very bad.
2.  was good until World War II.
3.  is good because it is so international.

2 They say that the British ...

1.     eat only traditional British food in their homes,
2.     don't like cooking with foreign ingredients,
3.     buy lots of foreign ingredients.

3 They say that the British weather ...

1. enables the British to produce good quality food.
2. often ruins fruit and vegetables,
3. is not such an important influence on British food as foreign trade.

4 They say that World War II had a great influence on British cooking because ...

1. traditional British cooking was rediscovered and some good cheap recipes were produced.
2. people had limitless supplies of home-grown food. .
3. people started to believe that British food was boring, so after the war they wanted to cook more interesting and international dishes.

5 They say that ...

1. British tourists try lots of new dishes when they are abroad.
2. nowadays it is very unusual for British people to cook British food,
3. literature and language are more culturally important than food.

6 The writers' final conclusion about British cooking is that ...

1. there is no hope.
2. you will only be able to get British food in expensive restaurants,
3. you will be able to get more good traditional British dishes, especially in pubs.

 

V. Discussion

1. Do you agree that food is as much a part of a country's culture as its landscape, language, and literature?
2. Which are your favourite places to eat in your country? Why?

 

 

Some useful tips for students:          In my opinion…          …because…          For example…          That’s why…

 

VI. Language work

Work in pairs. Study the text and find the following.

1. One example of  like used as a verb and two examples of  like used as a preposition.
2. Two examples of the pattern, adjective + infinitive. It's impossible to learn English.
3. Examples of verbs that are followed by an -ing form. I love learning English.
4. Examples of verbs that are followed by an infinitive with to. I want to learn Italian.

VII. Summing-up. Reflection.

T: Now you know more about English food and you can express your opinion about it.

What information was new for you at the lesson?

What information don’t you agree with?

What information do you consider to be the most useful for you?

VII. Evaluation

T: So our lesson is coming to an end. Thank you very much for your work, enthusiasm and original ideas. Your marks are the total marks according to your opinion, your partner’s opinion and my opinion. Let’s fill this form.

(HO4)

Assessment card

Name, surname	Marks
	Self-assessment	Partner’s assessment	Teacher’s assessment	Total assessment

VIII. Homework

T: Your hometask is to prepare the information about Ukrainian traditional food. Try to find some quotations