Resources

Resource 1: A project idea for designing an advertisement

After doing an activity in class in which you analyse an advertisement, ask your students to start a project to design their own. You could start the activity in class and ask students to continue it at home.

Tell the students that they are going to design their own advertisement in English. It should will contain a picture, a slogan and some text.

Give the students 15 minutes to discuss their ideas with a partner. Write the questions below on the blackboard. Have each student ask their partner these questions:

The final comment allows students to give their partner some feedback and suggests further ideas for their project.

As they discuss this, walk around the room and help students who are struggling to find language and ideas.

Students can then develop these ideas for a project. Projects are an important way of assessing students, and can form part of their overall grades (see the unit Supporting language learning through formative assessment). You could use the advertisement that students make in this activity for assessment purposes, focusing on the oral and written contributions made by each student, and also on how they have collaborated with each other.

When students have finished, hang some of their advertisements on the wall to display. Students could vote on which advertisement is the most effective.

You could extend the project by asking students to collect advertisements from various sources (such as billboards (i.e. advertisements on walls, buildings and roads), wall notices, pamphlets and newspapers), and analyse the use of language in them. Advertisements in other languages can also be used.

Resource 2: Lyrics of the song ‘English Vinglish’