Youngest Chess Champ

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 17 December 2024 > In the News

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju just made history by becoming the youngest ever World Chess Champion at the age of just 18. Gukesh defeated China’s Ding Liren, a grandmaster and the defending champion, at the World Championship in Singapore on 12 December. Previously the youngest champion was Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he won. Gukesh … Continue reading “Youngest Chess Champ”

Thanksgiving Stories

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 19 November 2021 > Webpicks

A Thanksgiving intergenerational project in the U.S.A. would make an excellent language activity anywhere. StoryCorps is an innovative oral history project that has been recording ordinary Americans having conversations with people they love since 2003. The concept is simple: the mobile StoryCorps recording booth sets up in a town. Anyone who wants to can come … Continue reading “Thanksgiving Stories”

In Conversation with Kenneth Branagh

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 13 October 2021 > Webpicks

If you are studying Much Ado About Nothing with your LLCER students, or anything about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, you’ll want to download this long-form interview with actor-director Kenneth Branagh from BBC Radio 4. In the first of a new series called This Cultural Life, presenter John Wilson had a 45-minute conversation with Branagh … Continue reading “In Conversation with Kenneth Branagh”

The Great Hack

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 01 August 2019 >

The Great Hack is a new documentary made for Netflix on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal over the use of social-media users’ data to potentially manipulate the outcome of elections including the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum. This B1-level resource based on an interview with the two directors of the documentary is … Continue reading “The Great Hack”

Staging the Brontë Sisters

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 12 June 2019 > What's On

Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were wonderful storytellers, but their lives have fascinated generations of audiences almost as much as their books. The play Brontë by Polly Teale combines their biographies and their fiction. We talked to Barry Purves, who directed a recent production. Brontë by Polly Teale (2005), intertwines the biography of the Brontë … Continue reading “Staging the Brontë Sisters”

The Hate U Give

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 29 January 2019 > Ready to Use

The Hate U Give is a bestselling young-adult novel and now a new film. The carefully nuanced novel, written in part from experience by young African-American author Angie Thomas, gives a fascinating  insight into the life of a teenager caught between two worlds: the mostly black neighbourhood where she lives and the mostly white private … Continue reading “The Hate U Give”

Suffragettes Interview

Posted by Speakeasy News > Monday 19 November 2018 > Ready to Use

2018 marks the centenary of the 1918 law which gave some British women the right to vote in parliamentary elections for the first time. Dr Helen Pankhurst has particular insight into this subject, not just as an academic but as the great-granddaughter and granddaughter of Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst, two of the leaders of the … Continue reading “Suffragettes Interview”

Mexico Olympics Black Power Protest Video

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 16 October 2018 > Webpicks

The silent protest of two African American athletes on the podium at the 1968 Mexico Olympics was an iconic moment in civil-rights history. We’ve selected some teaching tools for language classes on the Black Power protest. In 2016, the prestigious Smithsonian opened a new, and long-awaited museum, the National Museum of African American History and … Continue reading “Mexico Olympics Black Power Protest Video”

Teaching with BlacKkKlansman

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 30 August 2018 > Shine Bright Lycée Webpicks

Spike Lee’s new film BlacKkKlansman is based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, a Colorado Springs policeman who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. This downloadable audio interview with Stallworth is excellent for listening comprehension. The 13-minute interview is a downloadable podcast from the BBC World Service. It’s very clear and extracts are understandable from … Continue reading “Teaching with BlacKkKlansman”