Celebrity breakups: Shakira and Piqué

This ESL lesson is dedicated to relationships, breakups and revenge, and more specifically to Shakira’s recently released revenge diss track aimed at Piqué, which has proven to be both extremely successful and controversial. It is focused on speaking and is sure to spark a discussion among your students. They will learn interesting slang terms such as diss, take a dig at someone, slam, roast, shade, and troll. You can combine it with the following lessons: “Phrasal verbs: relationships and dating”, “Phrasal verbs: emotions”, “Idioms: love”, and “How to spot a liar”.
Speaking: The lesson begins with 10 conversation questions about relationships, breakups and revenge, as well as Shakira’s new song and what students think of it.
Vocabulary: Students look at 5 headings about Shakira’s diss track and learn different slang words (e.g. diss track, to pocket something, dig, shade, mock, troll), which they match to their definitions. To practise, students complete 5 sentences with the correct word.
Video: Students watch a video: “Shakira opens up in new song, ‘BZRP Music Sessions #53′” and complete extracts from the video with the words given in the correct form.
Speaking: the last 3 activities are focused on speaking. First, students look at 3 comments made by social media users about Shakira’s song and its implications. Then students are given a few more questions and debate statements to discuss (whether or not celebrities should monetise their relationship problems, how this conflict might affect their children, etc). Finally, students talk about forgiveness and revenge in their lives.
You can use the conversation cards for additional speaking practice!