An Authentic Text at the English Lesson. By Alla Razhik Last December one of my students brought an English article about cosmetic surgery to school and asked me to help her to understand the details. Of course, I did that. It should be mentioned, all her classmates were interested in the topic and we discussed pros and cons of the item. Later we had a talk about cosmetic surgery with the teenagers of my class though we did it in Russian. So, I realized that modern young people are concerned about the problem a lot. That’s why I have chosen the article «When cosmetic surgery is a marker of ambition» from the Guardian. It might be used as additional material at the lesson. The author of the article Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor comments on the problems of cosmetic surgery and tells us about the risk of it. I believe the article suits the aims to expand Upper Intermediate students’ background experience and to help them to decide if cosmetic surgery is really worth dealing with it. Moreover, the authentic material gives students an opportunity to enlarge their everyday vocabulary. According to Jim Scrivener «texts are often more useful for teaching lexis than lessons that focus on lexis as separated stand-alone items without such surrounding language». In reading lessons it is very effective to use «top-down» strategy because it allows to move from overview to details. The images of two different people will help me to start an initial discussion of key themes. It is called a Pre-text task which includes pre-reading task as well and that is prediction from the illustration to the article and the headline. Such kinds of tasks may also include reading questions about the text or composing students’ own questions. They are to get the students interested in the topic. Text tasks focus on fast reading for gist first or specific details and then on meaning (general points). The tasks should descend from simple to more difficult ones, e. g. from checking the prediction to answering questions about meaning and summarizing arguments. Post-text tasks may vary from role-play or debate to written tasks. Turning back to the article about cosmetic surgery it may be the debate about pros and cons of cosmetic surgery. «It’s important to remember that no one area of skills or language systems exists in isolation: there can be no speaking if you don’t have the vocabulary to speak with; there’s no point learning words unless you can do something useful with them». (Jim Scrivener. Learning teaching: A Guidebook for English Language Teachers. Oxford: Heinemann).
These are the outline of the stages of a 60 minute lesson: Stage 1: (5 min) Lead-in (2 min): to show pictures or slides illustrating pluses and minuses of cosmetic surgery. Pre-text task (3 min): according to the illustration and the headline to predict the main idea of the text. Ask students to compose two or three questions about possible idea. Stage 2: (5 min) Reading for gist: to read and check the ideas. To answer the question «Were you surprised by any of the facts? » Stage 3: (20 min) Intensive reading: to focus on meaning. To decide if the statements are True/ False/. To find the information about pros and cons of cosmetic surgery from different points of view. Stage 4: (10 min) Post-text: to guess the meaning of some words in pairs. To answer questions. Stage 5: (20 min) Debate about cosmetic surgery. Team work: «Optimists and Pessimists». 10 minutes to collect the ideas in a team. 7 minutes for debate. 3 minutes for presenting the best argument of the opponent. For gist reading I chose the task to check text against prediction made beforehand. The aim is to develop students’ skills in skim reading. It helps to focus on the main idea. For intensive reading I designed the exercise «True/False/». They should also summarize arguments for or against cosmetic surgery. The aim is to improve students’ skills in reading for detail. The exercise will give the idea of the debate which is planned as a post reading task. For improving a productive skill that is speaking I have chosen the debate. Students are to work first in teams, then in pairs (opposite each other) and in the end each of them should present the most interesting argument of his or her opponent. Students will improve their oral fluency, the ability to find key points in the text, to express their thoughts and ideas.
An exercise for gist reading (Stage 2): Read and check. Answer the question «Were you surprised by any of the facts? » An exercise for intensive reading (Stage 3): Decide if the statements are True or False 1. Claudia Aderotimi realized the risk of cosmetic surgery. F 2. She was accustomed to the procedure. F 3. The authors’ interviewees had a talk about surgery before going abroad. T 4. It dealt with medical items about surgery. F 5. A great deal of young women wanted to get higher education. F 6. Looking nice is a way to raise their self-esteem. T 7. 100,000 UK citizens apply for cosmetic surgery abroad each year. F 8. The state pays a lot of attention to clinics providing cosmetic surgery. F 9. The author appeals young women to common sense. T An exercise for Stage 4: Use the context to guess the meaning of these words a aware of (line 2) b downplay (line 12) c socialize (line 16) d encourage (line 20) e run business (line 22) f fake hair (line 23) g individualistic mantra (line 24) h to meet demand (line 32) i assume (line 43) j pick-and-mix (line 51) k obsessed with (line 53) Answer the question Would you ever consider having cosmetic surgery? Why? Why not?
When cosmetic surgery is a marker of ambition People who travel abroad for surgery are often concerned about displaying go-getting initiative – but don't appreciate the risks
Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 February 2011 13.30 GMT
'We are increasingly socialised to believe we must invest in ourselves to improve our life chances and opportunities.' Photograph: Jutta Klee/fStop/Getty Images When 20-year-old Claudia Aderotimi jumped on a plane to the US for her buttock implant, it's unlikely that she was aware of the risks associated with the surgery she had booked over the internet. If my research with women and men in the UK who had had cosmetic surgery at home and abroad is anything to go by, Aderotimi would have been feeling confident. This was her second round of surgery and acquaintances had had the same procedure without complications. What could go wrong? As part of my research into cosmetic surgery tourism, I have interviewed many people who have travelled abroad for such procedures. They think of them as "beauty treatments", not major surgery. They search online for the cheapest option and flight, have their treatment and come home with new breasts or noses. Although my interviewees all attended a brief consultation (on average half an hour) prior to travelling, they hadn't gone armed with medical questions about the surgery. They relied on friends who had already had the operation for information and unsurprisingly, their friends tended to minimise the risks and downplay any post-operative problems that might arise. So great was their trust that one young woman even drove herself home from the airport the day after surgery, against the explicit advice of the surgeon. Sadly, Aderotimi died in a US hotel after her buttock surgery. Why aren't people more concerned about the medical risks of cosmetic surgery? We are increasingly socialised to believe we must invest in ourselves to improve our life chances and opportunities, whether that means paying for higher education, looks or both. Most of my interviewees were smart and ambitious young women, but they were not from families that encouraged them to think of higher education as the route into well-paid and satisfying work. They were trying to make their way in sales work and other service sector occupations, and often dreamed of running their own small businesses. Their investment in fake hair, nails, tans and other non-invasive beauty treatments, as well as surgery, was linked to these ambitions. They accepted the individualistic mantra of our times – that success comes to those with "can do" attitudes – and saw investing in their appearance not simply as a way of making the most of themselves, but also of publicly displaying their gumption and nous. Looking fake shows you have made the investment; it is proof that you have self-respect and, as one young woman put it, "the balls to change your life". Cosmetic surgery was "life changing", but, through their eyes, no more risky than getting a tattoo. Pain was also minimised – described for example as no worse than a miscarriage, but with a more positive outcome. For these young women, the greater risk would be not to look fake. How then could they demonstrate their go-getting initiative or command respect? There is a huge and increasingly global industry ready to meet demand for surgery from such people. Although comprehensive and reliable data is hard to source, the International Passenger Survey shows that approximately 100,000 UK citizens go abroad each year for medical treatment (a number rising by about 20% annually). How many are travel for cosmetic procedures is difficult to know, but clinics in developing and developed countries advertise in an international market. Often, they draw on the same national and racial stereotypes employed by the tourist industry to do so. Belgian clinics sell themselves to British audiences as being hi-tech, clean, MRSA-free and with expertly trained surgeons, but cheaper than the UK; clinics in India and Thailand claim the same expertise (for instance, their internationally trained surgeons) but far cheaper, and additionally stress both sun, sea, sand, five star tourism facilities and "naturally" caring, friendly nursing staff. Consumers in this global market often assume that the industry is closely regulated. In reality however, there is no global standard to which clinics must adhere. Even in the UK, there is very little state regulation of clinics providing cosmetic surgery, despite a damning report in 2005 by the Healthcare Commission. The picture is even worse for injectable and non-surgical cosmetic treatments such as Botox. There is growing pressure for tighter regulation, not least from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, many of whom have experience of repairing botched procedures performed in the UK or abroad. My interviewees approached cosmetic surgery as consumers, buying teeth from Hungary and breasts from Belgium in a pick-and-mix fashion, searching for bargains in the same way they might when putting together an outfit from the high street. As young people without educational aspirations or opportunities, trying to make their way in a world ever more obsessed with appearance, they sought to advance their project of self-improvement through cosmetic surgery. Unless opportunities are widened and cultural ideas about appearance challenged, young women like Aderotimi will continue to put their lives at risk for a bottom or a breast implant.
