Starting off

Obviously, there are no right or wrong answers here. The goal is to get the students thinking about what it is like to be alone for an extended time and why this might be difficult. Allow the discussion to go on as long as interest allows but remember the main speaking task is later; this is merely a lead-in to the reading tasks.

Before you read

You will need to check the students' understanding of the items before they start. This is primarily a prediction task, designed to activate vocabulary and ideas and to help the students prepare effectively for the reading text. While the students are telling their stories you will need to monitor closely to provide help with the language as the task is a challenging one and could get frustrating without ready support.

First reading

A straightforward task. Before they start highlight the meaning of the English saying `Where there's smoke there's fire' (i.e. evidence does not come from nowhere) and ask for equivalents in the students` language(s). The students should be reading quickly for global understanding here, so give them a time limit to avoid their reading very

carefully. Key:

1. Where there's smoke...

2. Family troubles

3. Early success

4. A difficult decision

5. Four years, four months

6. Saved!

7. The island: Aguas Buenas

Vocabulary 1

Key:

1. fresh

2. dancing for joy

3. cobbler

4. run away

5. sailor

6. navy

7. tyrant

8. tools

9. permanent

10. wild

11. hide

12. inspired

Vocabulary 2

Key:

1. tools

2. hide

3. wild

4. fresh

5. inspired

6. dancing for joy

Second reading

The students will read more carefully here to check their predictions from the `Before you read' section above. If you got them to share their ideas earlier then you can do some open-class feedback on how close they were.

Third reading

Key:

1. No. They were very surprised to see him.

2. Because he was afraid he might go to prison.

3. No. He joined the Cinque Ports after some years sailing.

4. Because they were Spanish and the English and Spanish were at war.

5. Mainly because Selkirk wanted to be left on the island, whilst Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked. Your students might be interested to know that Selkirk asked to be left on the island because he was sure the Cinque Ports was doomed because of her terrible captain; he was, in fact, correct: the Cinque Ports never returned to England, sinking and losing most of her crew on the way home. So Selkirk's decision was, in fact, a good one.

6. The island is now inhabited (around 500 people) and has a landing-strip for flights from Chile. The people on the island earn a living fishing for lobsters.

Discussion

This is a pyramid discussion which should generate plenty of speaking. The key is to organise it appropriately. Start with a discussion about living on a deserted island, eliciting possible dangers and problems onto the board and asking the students how they might try to get off the island or get rescued.

Once you have a list on the board the students will be better positioned to choose their items. There are two ways to do it: either give them a list of, say, ten to twenty possible items and ask them to select, or allow them to choose freely themselves. Either way, it is important that at the preparation stage they consider how to justify their choices.

Once they have made their choices you can pair them up, put them into fours, eights and so on in a classic pyramid discussion organisation. At the end you can try to get whole-class agreement on five items to take (good luck!).

Extension

To balance the speaking tasks and to reinforce the vocabulary effectively a writing task would be useful as an extension. One way to do this would be to get the students to imagine they are Selkirk and to write diary entries for several days on the island. You could either ask them to write, say the first week's entries (seven short entries) or, perhaps better, give them several entries from different times: the end of the first week, the first Christmas Day, the first anniversary, the first time the Spanish appear on the island, the first entry after rescue. Alternatively, the students could work in groups with each group receiving one of those dates and writing collaboratively; the entries could then be displayed for the other groups to read.

Contact

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for future editions of Around English.

Peter Moran [e-mail]

TEACHER'S NOTES AND KEY

February 2009

© Pearson Education Polska 2009

THE ASTONISHING STORY

OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK

The real life Robinson Crusoe

There's no smoke... It was the 1st of February, 1709. The Duke, a British ship sailing in the Pacific Ocean, stopped at a tropical island to get water and fresh food. Suddenly, from the forest, the sailors saw the smoke from a signal fire. When they went to take a look they found a wild-looking man dancing for joy. The man was Alexander Selkirk and for over four years he had lived on the island alone, waiting for rescue. Family troubles Alexander Selkirk was born in Scotland in 1676. His father was a cobbler and he had a big family - he had six older brothers! When he was 19 one of Selkirk's brothers played a trick on him, giving him some sea water to drink. Selkirk started a fight and was arrested. Frightened that he would be sent to prison, he ran away to sea.

Early success Selkirk was a good sailor and, especially, a good navigator. After just a few years at sea he was given an important position: Sailing Master on the Cinque Ports, a sixteen-gun, ninety-ton privateer - really a pirate ship working for the English against the Spanish navy. A difficult decision The trip on the Cinque Ports was a disaster. The captain was a tyrant, hated by the crew. More importantly, the captain did not look after his ship. Selkirk asked to leave the Cinque Ports and be left on the nearest island. The captain agreed; Selkirk was left on the island with just his clothes, a gun, some tools, some blankets, some tobacco and a copy of the Bible. Four years, four months At first, Selkirk thought he would be rescued quickly but he soon understood that his stay on the island would be a long one - perhaps, even, a permanent one.

The island: Aguas Buenas

Selkirk's home for over four years is also called `Robinson Crusoe Island'. It lies 674 km west of Chile in the Pacific Ocean. Today about 500 people live on the island and it even has a small airport!

He built a `house' from pimento trees and caught wild goats to eat.

Saved!

Twice, Selkirk thought he was saved, and twice he had to hide because the `rescuers' were Spanish, not English, sailors. Finally, almost four and a half years after he first landed on the island, he was rescued. At home, he became famous and his story inspired Alexander Dumas to write the classic `Robinson Crusoe' in 1719.

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