Songlines
Summary
Topic: Aboriginal culture Reading: Songlines
Vocabulary: Adjective suffixes: -able and -ible Grammar: Future time clauses
Lead-in
•
Put students into four or five teams. Tell them that you are going to set a quiz on natural geographical features of the world and write the following names of famous landmarks on the board:•
Uluru (Australia) Mount Fuji (Japan) Vesuvius (Italy) the Angel Falls (Venezuela) Grand Canyon (USA) Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) the Giant’s Causeway (Ireland) the Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe)•
Give students three minutes to write the correct country for each geographical feature. Set a time limit. The team that gets the most correct answers is the winner. Exercise 1 page 22•
Go through the discussion questions with the class. Elicit examples of manmade landmarks in the students’ local area, e.g. a famous church or castle.•
Give students a few minutes to discuss how they find their way and then ask them to read the text quickly.•
Check answers as a class.The Aborigines use songs, dance and paintings to find their way around. They use natural landmarks and traditional stories passed down through the generations.
Culture note: Songlines
A songline is an Aboriginal trail, and in traditional Aboriginal society there were songlines going across the landscape of Australia, linking important sites. They were marked by natural landmarks and also by ‘marker trees’ – trees which had been cut in a special way so that they grew into a certain shape.
The routes along these different tracks were described in special songs, and the Aboriginal people memorized these songs and then sung them in order to find their way along the correct route. There were thousands of different songlines to learn, and these songlines are powerfully linked to the landscape and the ecology of the land. Songlines can stretch for hundreds of miles, crossing from one tribe’s territory to another. When a songline crossed over into another tribe’s territory, the language of the song would change into that tribe’s language. Exercise 2 page 22
•
Give students one or two minutes to read sentences A–F. Tell them to look carefully at the first word of each sentence, as this often gives a clue about the sentence that precedes it, e.g. if the sentence begins with They, the preceding sentence might refer to more than one thing.•
Students work individually or in pairs to do the exercise.•
Check answers as a class. 1 D 2 C 3 E 4 A 5 BExercise 3 page 22
•
Ask students to brainstorm names of famous landmarks in their country and write their ideas on the board.•
Students choose one of the places on the board and discuss any stories or myths related to this place.V insight Word adjective suffixes: -able and -ible We often use suffixes to transform one type of word to another type of word, e.g. a noun to an adjective (help –
helpful) or a verb to a noun (apply – application).
The suffixes -ible and -able give the meaning of being capable of or suitable for something. When we create new adjectives, e.g. bloggable, we use -able rather than -ible. Exercise 4 page 22
•
Write the highlighted words in a list on the board, leaving a space between the root of the word and the suffix, e.g. sens -ible, navig -able, leg -ible. Point out that the root word before the suffix is not always a complete word.•
Go through questions 1–3 with the class. Explain that there are many exceptions to the rule, including amicable and navigable. Stress the importance of checking new vocabulary in a dictionary.1 considerable, valuable 2 navigable, amicable
3 legible, visible, audible, navigable, amicable
Alternative activity
Ask students to make -ible or -able adjectives from the following nouns: destroy, terror, permit, afford, renew. They then write an example sentence for each adjective. Exercise 5 page 23
•
Students work individually to complete the sentences.•
They then exchange their answers with a partner and check their partner’s answers using a dictionary. 1 incredible 2 eligible, unacceptable3 incomprehensible 4 fashionable, collectible 5 inaccessible, advisable 6 edible, horrible 7 treatable
Additional vocabulary
The following words are from the article Songlines:
•
wilderness (n) /ˈwɪldənəs/ a large area of land that has never been developed or used for growing crops because it is difficult to live there•
terrain (n) /təˈreɪn/ used to refer to an area of land when you are mentioning its natural features, for example, if it is rough, flat, etc.•
etching (n) /ˈetʃɪŋ/ strong, clear marks or patterns•
sacred (adj) /ˈseɪkrɪd/ very important and treated with great respect•
serpent (n) /ˈsɜːpənt/ a snake, especially a large one•
preserve (v) /prɪˈzɜːv/ to keep something in its original state in good conditionExtra activity: Further discussion
In groups, students discuss the following questions:
•
Could you survive in a natural landscape? Would you know how to get food, water and shelter?•
Imagine you have to write a song about a journey you regularly make. What would you include in the song?Language note: Future time clauses
Future time clauses are dependent clauses and they are attached to a main clause. The verb of a future time clause can be in the present perfect, present simple or present continuous, but we never use a future tense in the future time clause.
After I’ve finished my work, I’ll go to bed. After I finish my work, I’ll go to bed.
While I’m finishing my work, I’ll have a biscuit.
Exercise 6 page 23
•
Give students a few minutes to look at sentences a–e in the last paragraph of the article and answer the questions.•
Students compare their answers in pairs.•
Check answers as a class. 1 present perfect, present simple2 unless
3 until
4 … Baamba is waiting outside Arkaroo Rock until we’ve finished exploring. … as soon as we’ve taken some photos, we leave. By the time we reach camp, the rain will be here.
5 as soon as we’ve taken some photos, we leave
6 as long as; suppose / supposing
Grammar reference and practice 2.3 Workbook page 112 1 1 I’ve bought the tickets, I’ll call you
2 he reads the guidebook, he won’t understand what he’s looking at
3 you arrive at the hotel, it will already be dark
4 we know what the result is, we won’t be happy
5 she’s studying for the exam, he will be rebuilding his house
6 I leave the house, I’ll lock the doors
Exercise 7 page 23
•
Remind students to think about the correct tense, word order and punctuation when they rewrite the sentences.•
Students work individually to do the exercise. They then compare answers with a partner.•
Check answers as a class.1 Baamba won’t do the tour unless he has a GPS system.
2 We’ll tell people where we’re going in case we get lost.
3 As soon as you enter the outback, you’ll lose your phone signal.
4 As long as you take a satellite phone, you’ll be perfectly safe.
5 Supposing we get lost, what will we do?
6 Stay close to the car until a helicopter sees you.
Exercise 8 page 23
•
Ask students to brainstorm some general plans for the future and write their ideas on the board, e.g. get married, start my own company, have children, travel, work for a charity, write a best-selling song, move to another country.•
Students discuss the questions. Circulate and monitor, checking that students are using future time clauses. Alternative activityRather than talking about their real plans, students can make up very extravagant or extreme plans, e.g. By the
time I’ve finished school, I will have made my first million dollars. Go round the class, with each student trying to
make an increasingly absurd sentence, and award a prize for the funniest or most extreme plan.
Learning outcome
Ask students: What have you learned today? What can you
do now? and elicit answers: I can understand an article about Aboriginal songlines. I can use adjectives ending in -ible and
-able. I can use future time clauses. I can talk about my plans for
the future.