Time: 15-20 minutes Level: A2+ and higher Aims: to develop students’ empathy to introduce the topic of tolerance / refugees
1. Ask students:What can you do for four minutes? Give them some time to think and then gather ideas. Tell them that some time ago a psychologist Arthur Aron did some research thanks to which he concluded that four minutes of looking each other in the eyes can make people closer to each other. Tell students that they are going to watch a film based on this experiment. Their task will be to name emotions of the people and their actions.
2. Play the film to 0:30 (in this fragment people have closed eyes), stop and ask them to name emotions of the participants of the experiment.
3. Play the film to 1:00 (people open eyes), stop and ask them to name emotions and reactions of the participants of the experiment.
4. Play the rest of the video. Ask students to write down all the reactions and actions of the people appearing in the film. Students present the activities.
5. After students have watched the film ask them to choose one pair from the film and prepare a short imaginary conversation between them which might have happened just after the end of the experiment. Some pairs present their dialogues.
6. Ask students to sit in pairs and look each other in the eyes for 30 seconds. If you see it’s working you can extend the time.