The Psychology of Serial Killers

The debate of nature versus nurture is an ageless debate among the psychological community. Is it one or the other? Or, is it a mixture of the two? “Theories that base their understanding of human behavior on "nature," focus on characteristics that we are born with, like our genetic make-up, stable personality traits, and physical predispositions.” (Hartney, 2010). Nurture is quite the opposite. People on the side of nurture are of the opinion that it is the environment that determines who a person is and becomes. Nature and nurture can be studied in various ways on many different types of people. The extreme classification though is when these theories are applied to a group of people who are hard to examine at best. Serial killers, for example, are so complex that the nature vs. nurture debate seems to have just gravitated towards them in the hopes of answering the age old question; do they kill because of nature or because of nurture?

Watch the video and be ready to answer the questions below:

1. What is said to be the main motivation of serial killers as defined by an encyclopedia?

2. What do all the serial killers have in common? How they differentiate from other criminals?

3. How does David Berkowitz accounts for his actions? How his childhood was different from a childhood of other children?

4. How does John Huse explain his behavior?

5. How does Aileen Wuornos feel on the day before her execution? Who or what does she blame for becoming a serial killer?   Does she feel any pains of remorse?

6. To what do people attribute John Wayne Gacy’s inclination to murders?

7. What disorders did Arthur Shawcross was diagnosed with? What was he sentenced to? 

8. What was Tommy Sells’ penalty? How did he feel during murders?

9. How does Tom Bundy different from other serial killers? What drove Bundy into committing murders?

10. How are all serial killers classified by FBI?

Who Am I

Throughout the history of mankind, philosophers, scientists, academics, artists, musicians, writers have been speculating on this question but somehow the answer to it still haven't been found. What makes answering this question so difficult? Can you come up with an answer?

Click on the image below to watch the video and then do the follow-up tasks.

Tune into FCE Use of English

How many times have we had to deal with those last lessons before the end of a term when our students, anticipating holidays, can’t perceive any new information (who can blame them?) but there’s still a lot of material to be revised from course- and grammar- and skills books and past papers?  More than once, I bet. Apparently, almost every teacher has a number of enjoyable activities to help recapture students’ attention and bring them back to the learning process.  Using popular song lyrics is one of mine.

A lot has been said about the advantages of using songs in EFL, the most obvious of which are the authenticity of the language, a wide range of vocabulary and accents, an easy access to lyrics and songs themselves for the teacher, the opportunity to introduce or revise grammar patterns, to teach cultural phenomena, to initiate a discussion. As Harmer put it “it can make a satisfactory connection between the world of leisure and the world of learning.” (Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, p. 242)

It’s worth mentioning that using songs in class helps a teacher to build a rapport with the students. One of my teenage students used to say that “if a teacher listens to this song (take any popular song), he/she must be really cool”, which might make it easier to deal with even unruly students and possibly win their respect.

Aware though as we, Greek teachers, may be of the benefits of using songs in class, we don’t have the luxury of using them on a regular basis (as we all have course- and grammar books “to finish” and past papers in exam classes) and we are extremely pressed for time.  Nevertheless, there are certain occasions (the end of a term, the end of an extra-hour lesson taken place on Saturday or late at night, the last 30 minutes of a “difficult” lesson) on which it’s excusable to deviate from the course books, enjoy our favourite songs and at the same time still have our students practice for the exam.

Why not turn the lyrics of our favourite songs into exam-based exercises, i.e. into four parts of the Use of English, FCE exam, namely a multiple-choice exercise, an open cloze, an exercise with derivatives and transformation exercise, and deal with the lyrics as text first, using listening stage for checking the answers.  Does it make any difference to using a past paper exercise? It does, especially as far as the first three parts of the exam are concerned. Besides the apparent reasons, mentioned above, such texts, which are actually lyrics, arouse interest among students, making them read the texts through before choosing the correct answer or guessing the correct word.  In most cases, as we all know, students deal with the task on a sentence level rather than on a text level, which causes numerous inevitable mistakes. It’s the understanding of the text as a whole that makes it possible to succeed in the Use of English part of the FCE exam. “In the absence of any global understanding of the text, post-reading tasks may well be a waste of time.” (Thornbury, 2005:54).

Unlike most texts in past papers, songs directly appeal to the reader’s feelings and emotions. As a vast majority of FCE students in Greece are young people, they are keen to read about eternal values like parents/children relations, love, friendship, breakup, getting over difficulties, first date, etc. Such texts evoke a strong emotional response with students and arouse their interest, making the process of preparing for the exam more effective and enjoyable.

When choosing a song, it’s advisable not to get carried away by the music but deal with the lyrics first and make sure there is a recognizable topic in the song, which allows students to get the grasp of the main idea of the text. Although it can be rather daunting to find suitable lyrics, for example, full of derivatives, tested in FCE level, you could easily use different tasks in one song. 

Song lyrics can be a powerful (apart from being a very pleasant) tool for preparing students for ESL exams as long as the content of the song we chose to use clearly makes sense.  After trying out some of the songs-exercises with your students, they might get interested in making such exercises themselves – they take a song they like and make part 1, 2 (the easiest parts to make) and then distribute their songs among each other. Making their own tests familiarizes students with the format of the exam and, more importantly, provides them with a better understanding of lexical and grammar items examined at B2 level.  

Listen to songs, get your students involved and… good luck with the results!

The worksheets I made help my FCE students deal with exam-based exercises can be found under the labels songs, exam-based.

Wake Me Up - AVICII (transformation exercises)

A beautiful song made in the format of transformation exercises.

You can download this worksheet here

Keep on Rising - Jan Carey (derivatives)

A lovely song, whose lyrics I turned into part 3 of FCE Use of English to help my students revise derivatives.

You can download this worksheet here.

Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd (open cloze)

The lyrics from this rock song are turned into an open cloze exercise.

 You can download this file here.

Try Again - Aalyah (multiple choice)

 A lovely R&B song. The worksheet includes pre- and post-listening questions (topic:first date) and a teacher´s copy.

You can download the worksheet here.

Personality Types

How much does your personality change when you go online participating in various forums and chat rooms? Who are all these people you're involved in a hot debate with? Check this personality guide from Mike Reed, who made a great effort to enlighten us on who is who there.
Here's the foreword from the author:

"Some years ago, a calm and quiet discussion forum that I belonged to erupted into a burning flame war. While the forum burnt, I amused myself by drawing caricatures of the main participants. Over the years, the list of online fighters has grown into the Flame Warriors - the different personalities we become when we go online."

A big thanks to my colleague Sofia (uslteacher) from Eslprintables for putting it up on the forum. Cheers! 

And now it's time to meet your online reflection and that of your opponents

Sincerely Yours, Coffee Clutch!

The importance of reading books

It's more and more rarely that you come across people who declare reading books as their hobby. On the face of it, there's nothing strange about it - nowadays a great number of people simply don't have any free time for any hobby whatsoever in the attempt to earn money; those who do have some spare time give their preferences to what seems to be more sophisticated hobbies, such as extreme sport, travelling or simply living an active social life whether online or offline. However, this is a very sad fact that reading books for pleasure has stopped to be fun  and an image of a person enjoying a good book curled up in a comfortable  armchair has become obsolete (I can even imagine the perplexed look on the face of some people: "What? Reading books for fun? for pleasure? OMG, how boring").
This is an amazing speech and a script on the importance of reading. Look at an excerpt from the speech:

"Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. "If you want your children to be intelligent," he said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
 Listen and then ... enjoy your literary trip!  

Meat vs Vegetarian Diet

There's has been a lot said about the advantages and disadvantages of both diets, so which is healthier?
Can you think of pros and cons of both diets?
Is the word vegetarian tantamount (=equal) to the word healthy eater? 

Watch  the video from http://www.huffingtonpost.com, a website about healthy lifestyle, which will help you answer the questions above

What is beauty?

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in other words the perception of beauty is subjective.
Do you agree with it? Can you think of examples?                     



Watch the first video and answer the following questions:

What is a matter of concern for the girls from the video? Why?
Why do they have a low self-esteem?
What can be done to help them?

If your friends tell you you're getting fatter and fatter, would you take it for consideration?  


2.   Watch the next video and answer the following questions:
Who is the man drawing and why is he drawing the women without looking at them?
Who are those women?
How many portraits of the same person did the artist make? Were they the same or different?
Why are the portraits turned out to be different? 

Would you like to try it? Describe the way you look like to yourself and then ask your friend to describe your appearance. Any difference? In what way?

8 cool websites for the learners at upper-intermediate level and higher

What can be easier than a question of a student who has successfully passed his or her English exam at an upper-intermediate level: “Miss, what shall I do now? Where can I practice my English? Are there any interesting websites out there?” The obvious answer could be: “You speak good English now, there is an indefinite number of websites in English, just choose something”. However, my students were usually less than satisfied with such an indefinite answer. The formula “Just do something” obviously doesn’t work with many of us and we prefer some specific piece of advice from our teachers and trainers. So now I provide them with a list of websites chosen to practice all four language skills in a fun way. Hope your students will also appreciate them and won’t lose touch with such a beautiful English language.    

1.   Interested  in world news? A CNN fan?

That is one of the best sites for English learners to improve their listening skills. It is run by CNN and based on their own news stories, grouped into thematic categories. The site allows visitors to read, listen and view video and do a series of interactive activities to test comprehension.

2.   Enjoy listening to the radio? Ever aspired to make your own radio program?

The site was founded by two experienced English teachers quite a long time ago and has proved to be a truly motivating and educational listening resource since then. It provides students with a vast amount of listening material from different sources, including learners themselves as it enables learners and teachers to make their own radio programs. All listening material is accompanied with a quiz, which makes any listening meaningful.

3.   In need of grammar and vocabulary practice?

While most learners have enough of grammar and vocabulary quizzes at their language schools, amazingly, but there are still quite a few of students who find grammar and vocabulary tests and quizzes exciting. The site provides numerous quizzes and games for learners of different ages and levels and has an impressive section particularly for advanced learners.

4.   Feel insecure about American idiomatic expressions?

Idioms, idioms... a nightmare for a great number of learners of English. However, native speakers do use them in their everyday conversations. Spend just a minute a day and learn the most common idioms used in American English and their origin in a very exciting way and, what is more important, in context. Just a minute and you’ll be able to understand and use frequently used idioms like “dressed to kill”, or “under the weather”.

5.       Fancy uncovering English words in a fun way?

“Find and 'pop' as many words as you can in the letter grid before your time runs out. Create words from groups of eight letters. Test your powers of deduction by uncovering the secret word.”  Word Games is a section of the website, where you are provided with 10 quite challenging but extremely exciting word games, some of which can be launched on an iphone and ipad. The site also offers a variety of short stories, all of which are rated according to the age group and length.
 Personally I absolutely adore this site - challenging but extremely exciting. "Multipopword" (the green one) is my favourite.

6.    Looking for some writing tips?

Whether you like writing or not, you can hardly avoid it in your life. So if you have to deal with it anyway, learn how to do it right. This informative website, made by a groups of professional writers, provides you with smart and useful tips on tricky vocabulary, special expressions, misused words, punctuation, different styles,  grammar etc. You can also subscribe by email and will be daily sent a grammar, punctuation or vocabulary tip.  

7.  Feel like training your logical thinking?

Here you are required to solve real life problems, mathematical puzzles and riddles. The site is not for those who are learning English but for those who think in English. You’ve learned English already – it’s time to have some fun now. 

8.   Dreaming of meeting new friends? Want a SAFE environment?

This website hosts chatrooms on different topics and, what is of vital importance, is constantly moderated to make guests feel safe. Whether you’re a music or a movie fan or just feel like contemplating about philosophical issues, you’re bound to find mates. All you need is to register and … put all you’ve learned into practice.