Here’s an English lesson based on the Beatles song ‘Yesterday’.

Welcome – today we’re going to talk about love! Does anybody know any good love songs? (Teacher writes suggestions on the board)
Play ‘Yesterday’
Arrange students into two lines, facing each other. Give each person in one line a card with a character on it – Mother, Father, Child, Lover. These people must reveal their card to the person opposite them in the second line, and can only say one thing: ‘I Love You’. This has to be done in the style of the character on the card. The people in the second line have a response on their card, which they do not reveal: ‘I hate you!’; ‘I know’; ‘I love you too’; no response – simply an expression. Get the class to do one couplet, using appropriate intonation and body language, and then pass the cards to their left. After one round, the cards get passed across to the opposite line. This exercise could be great fun, and teaches the importance of how a word is spoken in different situations.
The song ‘Yesterday’ is full of phrases, and is all about the universally experienced concept of lost love. Gather a series of pictures that illustrate the different concepts and phrases included in Lennon and McCartney’s ten different lines. Split the class by line or verse (depending on class size and time available), and ask them to match a picture or pictures to their line or verse and brainstorm the main concept of each line (which you can have underlined for them in advance). ‘What does this mean?’ ‘How do I describe what it means?’ Ask each group to prepare a brief talk to the class on that thought!
Review the song and the ideas in it, line by line – each associated with a picture.
Play the song again, and end the ‘lesson’ with appropriate farewells.

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website. http://lets-talk2.com/_wsn/page2.html