Morning Glory: TV Ratings, Expressing Opinions

This is a wonderful segment with multiple possibilities, especially if you want to talk about TV shows. Because TV is a controversial topic, I used it to make students practice expressing opinions in a genuine manner, without using the expression "I think...". Be careful with your audience. It is a segment for adults.





I. Watch the movie segment and discuss these questions in small groups.

RATINGS: a list of television and radio programmes showing how popular they are



1. What were the changes she decided to implement in order to raise the TV shows ratings?



2. Why did the ratings go up?



3. Are there TV shows like the one in the segment in your city? What are they? Do you watch them? Why (not)?



II. Let's practice expressing opinions without saying the expression "I think...". Of course that saying it to express an opinion is fine, but you can enrich your language if you use certain ways to vary your language production. This is called functional language.


What can you say instead of "I think" ?



I would say

In my opinion

To my mind

I am of the opinion that

I hold the opinion that

As far as I'm concerned,

I understand that

From my point of view, 

I'm not sure, but I suppose

That's an interesting question, 

I believe that

Now work in small groups and express your opinions about the questions below. YOU MUST NOT USE the expression "I think". You must also use all of the expressions above to answer the questions.


1. Do you think TV ratings help improve TV programs or does it have the opposite effect, lowering the quality of TV shows?


2. What do you think about her strategies to raise the ratings?


3. Do you think that the higher the TV show's ratings are the better the show is?


4. What were the best and worst changes she made in the TV show? Explain it.


5. What's your opinion about this kind of TV show?


6. Give examples of TV shows with very high TV ratings, but that you consider stupid.


7. Give examples of TV shows with very high TV ratings, and that you consider extremely clever.


8. What's your opinion about Brazilian (your country) TV?

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - MORNING GLORY