In this episode of Ramping Up your English, we return to Africa to share encounters with chimpanzees and mountain gorillas. Viewers will stretch their listening comprehension skills when they watch and listen to an interview with a traveler who shares her experiences of a safari with the National Geographic Society to parts of the great African continent.
Watching Episode 74
You can watch Episode 74 – just as viewers of RVTV Voices saw it in Southern Oregon – by visiting the archive site. Simply click here to see Episode 74 ad-free.
Watching Episode 74 in Segments
Are you short of time? You don’t have to devote 30 minutes in one chunk of time. You can watch Episode 74 in three short segments – each about 10 minutes long. Choose your segment below.
View Segment 2
Episode 74 Summary
Host John Letz interviews RVTV producer and host Regina Ayars. We test viewers’ listening comprehension skills in this episode as they watch this interview by the producer and host of Getaway Girl. We talk about Ayars’s visit to Africa with a group led by National Geographic – specifically she shares what she saw and learned about chimpanzees and gorillas.
Language Objectives
Listening Comprehension: Recall the main idea of a story (about an experience with Chimpanzees in Africa). List important details of a story. Recall important details of a non-fiction story (about the visit to Gorillas). List precautions that are taken to protect gorillas and those who visit them. State an opinion about the efforts to protect wildlife in Africa.
Academic Content Objectives
Science: Describe the traits that apes have in common. List 3 traits that chimpanzees and Gorillas have in common with humans. Identify social behaviors of chimpanzees and Gorillas. List precautions that are taken to protect apes and the people who visit them. Identify threats to populations of Chimpanzees and Gorillas.
Social Studies: Describe the actions that organizations take to protect and conserve wildlife populations. List ways that human activities have a negative impact on wildlife. Explain how human intervention can help wildlife.
Links to Videos
In this episode, we used video clips from a program entitled Getaway Girl. For the episode on Chimpanzees, click here.
We also used a Getaway Girl episode that featured Gorillas. Click here to see that episode.
Here’s the mash-up I used from the show about Gorillas You can see it and download it by clicking here.. See it on my You Tube channel by clicking here.
Here’s the mash-up I used from the Getaway Girl episode that focused on Chimpanzees. To see the ad-free version, Click here. You can watch the same video on You Tube, but there may be an ad. Click here.
Listening Skills: Interview
Comprehending an interview can be a real challenge in a target language. Even the interviewer can’t predict everything the subject may say. The questions that are asked may be puzzling to the listener or viewer. Two or more people sitting at a table is a sight that lacks visual content that would help with the context of the conversation.
It’s all about comprehensible input. Let’s look at some strategies that could help achieve greater listening comprehension:
- Introductory remarks – It’s important to listen carefully to these. This sets up what the interview is about – the context of what you’ll hear.
- Which person has which role? We try to make interviews feel like a casual chat between 2 or more people. The interviewer is asking the questions, while the interviewee (the subject) is answering. This can help the viewer understand what the subject is saying
- Use your prior knowledge – If you’ve followed this unit on animals, you know that this interview has something to do with animals. We even had an episode about apes. Use what you know about animals and apes to make sense of the conversation.
- If there are visuals, use them! This interview included images of chimpanzees and gorillas. It also included video clips from the guest’s travels. These clues can really help you understand the conversation.
- A note with this interview – In the mashups I did of the TV program my guest produces and hosts, my guest speaks quite slowly and enunciates very carefully. That makes her content easier to understand, even by listeners with limited English.
Next Episode
If you’re undertaking the project of writing a report on an animal of your choice, Episode 75 is one you’ll want to see. Episode 75 lists half of the report topics and reviews the language functions and forms that you’ll need to employ. Click here to visit the Episode 75 page.