Goodbye Oprah. Hello Lady Gaga.
Have you heard who knocked Oprah off as the world’s most powerful celebrity? You guessed it – Lady Gaga! Your students will enjoying thinking of reasons why Lady Gaga “ousted” Oprah from her #1 spot on the Forbes chart. If you have advanced learners, you can share this Reuters article: Lady Gaga ousts Oprah on Forbes celebrity power list. For your lower level students, simply tell them the news and ask them why they think this happened. You can also compare the similarities and differences between these two celebrities.
Note: Forbes editor, Dorothy Pomerantz, gave this reason for Lady Gaga’s recent success: “Lady Gaga beat Oprah this year because of her social media power. She can use Twitter and Facebook to work the “little monsters” into a frenzy that leads to record sales and media attention. She’s the best example of how celebrities will need to manage their careers in the coming years.”
We hope you will also try our full-length Famous People lesson on Oprah Winfrey. Our popular lesson has been updated now that Oprah has said her final farewell to her TV talkshow viewers. This lesson includes a reading, comprehension questions, vocabulary review, and discussion questions.
While our Something to Talk About suggestions are useful for getting your students involved in a group or pair discussion, the topics, articles, and videos can also be used if you are looking for something for your students to blog/Skype/or write an opinion essay about. This week you could have your students join twitter! Teach them about #twinglish – the hashtag that connects English learners from all over the world.