Eurovision Fun for TEFL/ESOL and other English Teachers
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Time to read 4 min
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place in May in the British city of Liverpool. There will be two semi-finals on the 9th and 11th with the grand final taking place on Saturday 13th May.
Love it or loath it, the Eurovision Song Contest is a huge cultural and media event. It has become the most watched regular non-sports event on global television. In 2022 it is estimated that 161 million viewers around the world watched all or part of the contest and that in a third of the countries where it was broadcast, it attracted over 50% of the possible viewing audience on the night of the final. This year the contest will be held in Britain; a fact that English Teachers and all those involved in TEFL and ESOL could use to inject a little Eurovision fun into their lessons. With that in mind, we have provided two quizzes on Eurovision and Liverpool, together with some teaching ideas and suggestions.
First, we present our Eurovision Quiz. You could give the quiz to your students or try it yourself! The answers and background information can be found in our downloadable resource. The background information is intended to provide inspiration for reading comprehension and other Eurovision related activities. You can find more teaching ideas at the end of this article after the two quizzes.
Eurovision Quiz
1. What is the name of the music that is always used at the start of the Eurovision Song Contest?
2. Who won the Eurovision Song Contest last year (2022)?
3. Who were the first winners of Eurovision?
4. Which country has won Eurovision most often?
5. Which country has come second most often?
6. What is the unluckiest starting position in the contest?
7. How many points did Britain give to ABBA?
8. Which is the least successful Eurovision country?
9. How many times has Eurovision been cancelled?
10. What are the most successful languages at Eurovision?
11. What is the most watched video clip from Eurovision?
12. What is Fire Saga’s connection to Eurovision?
13. Which country did Celine Dion represent?
14. When did Madonna appear in Eurovision?
15. How and when did Eurovision start a revolution?
16. Which Eurovision winning song has the fewest words?
17. Who was the youngest winner of Eurovision?
18. What was the shortest Eurovision entry?
19. What are the most unusual languages that have been heard at Eurovision?
20. Which Eurovision winning song has been recorded by the most artists?
Now that you have tested your Eurovision knowledge, how much do you know about the city where this year’s competition will be held?
Liverpool Quiz
B1+ Testing Grammar, Vocabulary, (including colloquial expressions) and general knowledge.
Can your students fill in the gaps?
1. Liverpool is home to the oldest ______ community in Europe, dating back to the 1830s.
(a) Gypsy (b) Indian (c) Irish (d) Chinese
2. The city has more _______ and ______ than any other city in the UK, outside of London.
(a) chip-shops/cafes (b) restaurants/bars (c) museums/galleries (d) cinemas/theatres
3. Liverpool was once the second busiest ______ in the world, after New York City.
(a) port (b) shopping centre (c) city (d) junction
4. The famous ‘Liver Birds’ that sit on top of the Royal Liver Building are said to represent both the city's history as a busy port and its future as a ______ commercial centre.
(a) exciting (b) thriving (c) famous (d) surviving
5. The Beatles, one of the most successful and influential bands in history, were formed in Liverpool in ______.
(a) 1958 (b) 1959 (c) 1960 (d) 1961
6. Liverpool's football teams, Liverpool F.C. and ______, are two of the most successful clubs in English football history.
(a) Rochdale (b) Everton (c) Bolton Wanderers (d) Queen’s Park Rangers
7. The city was home to the world's first ______ ______, the Liverpool to Manchester line, which opened in 1830.
(a) passenger railway (b) railway station (c) train track (d) underground railway
8. The Liverpool Cathedral, which took over 70 years to _____, is the largest _____ cathedral in the world.
(a) make (b) build (c) built (d) completed *** (a) Catholic (b) Protestant (c) Gothic (d) Anglican
9. The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool has one of the largest collections of _____ outside of London, including _____ by Rembrandt, Rubens, and Poussin.
(a) paintings (b) sculptures (c) artworks (d) statues *** (a) works (b) pictures (c) paintings (d) statues
10. The Cavern Club, the legendary music _____ where the Beatles played some of their earliest _____, is still open and hosting live music today.
(a) label (b) arena (c) place (d) venue *** (a) music (b) songs (c) performances (d) gigs
All the answers are in the download.
Teaching Ideas
Hopefully you enjoyed the two quizzes and can now count yourself as an expert on Liverpool and all things Eurovision!
Some of your students may enjoy doing the quiz as published but there are other ways to use the materials:
The background information given in the answer section of the download can be cut up and distributed to groups of students who could then compose their own questions to test their classmates. This would allow for natural differentiation within the class. For lower-level classes the teacher could suggest question words to start the sentences.
The Eurovision section can be used to highlight the use of comparatives and superlatives. How many can your students find?
There are also a variety of colloquial expressions within the text. Can your students find them all? Could they re-write them with more standard vocabulary?
All, or selected parts of the answer sections can be used as inputs to inspire longer essays, projects or presentations.
You may wish to play and download the lyrics to this year’s winning song or well-known Beatles songs to practice listening and singing in English.
Perhaps you could organise a Eurovision or Liverpool themed party in your class.
However you plan to use the quizzes, have an enjoyable Eurovision weekend. Don’t forget to give yourself 12 points if you got all the questions right!
