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V IDEO-LESSON. BACK TO SQUARE ONE (Voice of America – English in a Minute – American Idioms).

The aim of the lesson is to learn the meaning of the idiom “back to square one” and use it speaking about some failures. (Learning level – from Pre-Intermediate to Advanced).

PRE-WATCHING ACTIVITY – WARM-UP

1. Answer the questions:

• Do you like playing a monopoly-game?

• Is it easy for you to start doing something once again if you fail?

• Does it irritate you when you have to start doing something if you fail?

WHILE-WATCHING ACTIVITY

2. Watch the video and answer the following questions:

• What does the idiom “back to square one” mean?

• In what case can we use it?

Use the discourse devices: As for the meaning of this idiom, I can say that; I don’t need to come back to square one to say that this idiom means; I doubt, but let’s try to guess that this idiom means; That’s not a serious riddle, so I think that.

3. Now look through the video-script and do the following:

• listen to the people speaking and follow their words in the video-script;

• listen to the people speaking and read the words from the video-script with them;

• listen to the teacher reading the video-script and repeat after him.

4. Work in pairs or threes, act out the video-script (two students act out only the context-dialogue, three people act out the whole video).

AFTER-WATCHING ACTIVITY – DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILLS

4. Read the following situations, choose some (3-5) of them and say why it is or isn’t possible to come back to square one. (In pairs: student 1 says the sentence-starter student 2 reacts to it).

Example: You’ve failed a driving test. – That’s not a problem. I have a little time to prepare for the test better. So I think it’s possible to come back to square one to succeed.

1. Your boss has just fired you.

2. You have got a bad mark for your test.

3. You have lost your way in the forest.

4. You have quarreled with your best friend.

5. You don’t like the film you have just watched.

6. You can’t understand the idea of the book.

7. You don’t like the dish your mother has cooked.

8. You are dissatisfied with your life.

9. You have lost a chess-game.

10. You have divorced.

11. You have failed some business project.

12. You have overslept.

13. You have sewed a very bad shirt.

14. You have got a wrong sum of money in your financial report.

15. You have put too much sugar in your tea.

5. Work in pairs. Ask and answer the following questions (or choose only some of them):

1. Can you get back to square one in any situation? Why?

2. Do you really need to go back to square one in any case? Why?

3. How can you go back to square one if you don’t know where you have failed? Why?

4. Do you always understand that you need to go back to square one? Why?

5. In what situation you can get back to square one? Why?

6. If you come back to square one, can this solve the problem? Why?

7. Is it always enough to come back to square one only once? Why?

8. Do you like to come back to square one? Why?

9. Is it difficult for you to come back to square one? Why?

10. If you did something wrong, would you come back to square one or wouldn’t change anything? Why?