Resourced from: https://eslmaterialsdeveloper.wordpress.com/ Tree Change Dolls: Listening & Speaking Practice (B2+) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG-7e1vaB18 1: Discuss the following questions with a partner: a) What are typical toys for boys and girls to play with? b) Do you remember your favourite toy(s) when you were a child? ______________________________________fold_______________________________________ 2: Here are some dolls that have had a make-under. Match the before and after pictures? 1 A 2 B 3 C
Tree Change Dolls: Listening & Speaking Practice (B2+) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG-7e1vaB18
1: Discuss the following questions with a partner:
a) What are typical toys for boys and girls to play with? b) Do you remember your favourite toy(s) when you were a child?
______________________________________fold_______________________________________ 2: Here are some dolls that have had a make-under. Match the before and after pictures?
3: Discuss the following questions: A. Which type of doll (before or after) is more appealing to you? Why?
B. Which type of doll do you think is more appealing to children in general? Why/Why not?
4: Match these words and phrases with their definitions.
5: You are going to watch a video in which Sonia Singh and her family explain how the
‘Tree Change Dolls’ project started and the reasons for its popularity. Make notes about
the following things.
a) How would you describe Sonia and her family?
b) Why does John think the Tree Change Dolls have gone viral?
c) Why does the mother think children like Tree Change Dolls?
1. to discard something 2. overwhelmed
3. to go viral 4. gumboots 5. second-hand 6. nail polish remover 7. down to earth
8. make a statement 9. to knit 10. to snowball 11. sexualisation 12. Mattel 13. make-up (n)
a) Create an impression; communicate an idea without using words. b) A leading toy manufacturer. c) Get rid of (someone or something) as no longer useful or desirable. d) Have a strong emotional effect on someone. e) Cosmetics used to enhance or alter the appearance.
f) A substance used to remove another substance from nails. g) With no illusions or pretensions; practical and realistic. h) A long rubber boot; a wellington. i) Attributing sex or a sex role to something.
j) Make clothing by interlocking loops of yarn (e.g. wool). k) Increase rapidly in size, intensity, or importance. l) Having had a previous owner; not new.
m) To spread rapidly via the Internet, email, or other media.
1. to discard something 2. overwhelmed 3. to go viral 4. gumboots 5. second-hand 6. nail polish remover 7. down to earth 8. make a statement 9. to knit 10. to snowball 11. sexualisation 12. Mattel 13. make-up (n)
c) Get rid of (something) as no longer useful or desirable. d) Have a strong emotional effect on someone. m) To spread rapidly via the Internet, email, or other media. h) A long rubber boot; a wellington. l) Having had a previous owner; not new. f) A substance used to remove another substance from nails. g) With no illusions or pretensions; practical and realistic. a) Create an impression; communicate an idea without using words. j) Make clothing by interlocking loops of yarn (e.g. wool). k) Increase rapidly in size, intensity, or importance. i) Attributing sex or a sex role to something. b) A leading toy manufacturer. e) Cosmetics used to enhance or alter the appearance.
5: a) The answer will depend on the students. Some of the vocabulary that may be useful is: Unassuming,
modest, fun, happy, real, light-hearted, down to earth, positive, humble, coy.
b) John says: “She’s tapped into this debate around the hyper-sexualisation of dolls and children’s toys and
marketing towards children and there’s been a big response.”
c) Sonia’s Mother says: “A lot of manufactured dollies don’t look like anybody. The children would like the ones
that might look like someone they know.”
6a: 1-b …something enjoyable for Sonia to do in her free time. 2-c …was made redundant from her job. 3-a …the dolls could be reused and seen in a different way. 4-c …posted some pictures she had taken of the dolls on her Facebook page. 5-a …demonstrate that toy companies make specific choices about their dolls. 6-b …is open to the idea of working with large toy manufacturers. 7-c …have enjoyed playing with dolls as much as she did.
Grammar: Hedging 1: a) There’s sort of something I don’t like about her. b) It’s kind of hot in here. c) I’ll see you at about nine tomorrow morning. d) We expect to take in or around seven months to complete the project. e) In a way, having the accident was, (in a way), the best thing that could have happened to him, (in a way). f) We’re meeting Jessica at eightish. g) We’ve been living here for more or less three years and two months, (more or less). 2: a) stuff
Sonia: The dolls I use, a lot of them actually come from the tip shops that we have here in Tasmania. Because I loved dolls when I
was a kid, I just can see the potential in these dolls that have been discarded.
S: “That one’s got no hands and they’ve both lost their feet.” Tip Shop Assistant: “Right!” S: “One dollar for both of them?” TSA: “One dollar for both?” S: “Yeah, well, I don’t think anyone is going to want that except me.” S: Initially, this little doll project of mine was just a fun hobby of mine that I wanted to see if anyone was interested. And I’ve just
been overwhelmed with the responses from people. I did not expect them to go viral.
S: “I might try and do some orange gumboots.” Daughter: “Paint mum!” S: “Yeah, I’m getting the paint.” D: “Mummy ...(inaudible)…” John: For Sonia, she’s a scientist, she’s trained as a scientist but she also is great at other things.
D: “oogoo!” S: “It’s oogoo.” D: “...(inaudible)…oogoo.” S: “You wanna see the oogoo?” S: And this project all happened because I was given a redundancy from CSIRO.
“I’m trying to get them the same.”
…and I came up with this idea of making-under these fashion dolls.
“I’m going to take the make-up off this little dolly, take her whole face off I mean.”
A lot of them are second-hand Brats dolls…
“This is brand new nail polish remover.”
…but it was never my intention to make a particular statement about these dolls.
“This is the fun bit.”
What Tree Change Dolls is all about though is giving some old toys a new lease on life and, yeah, a more down to earth, natural
looking style.
J: I thought it was great because it was about the recycling and the reusing, taking these things that people… they don’t
consider, they don’t look at, and just is nice to them. She’s just so nice!
S: “I’ve tried to give her slightly hairy eyebrows.”
And I was a little bit embarrassed to be playing with dolls as a 34 year old. It was mostly just when there was nobody else in the
house. I was in the closet.
“This little doll has had the first part of her tree change.”
J: When Sonia first showed me the dolls, they were just really lovely… they’re just really lovely.
S: My mum makes the clothes. She is an expert knitter.
Mother: “I’m knitting a jumper for this little dolly. I’m actually doing the back and just measuring it as I go. So far, each one has been
different. I haven’t made any two exactly the same.”
J: Combined with her mum’s clothes there was such a change. The dolls, when they are incredibly made-up, they look like they’re
doing it for everyone else. Where Sonia’s dolls look like they’re doing it for themselves. That’s what a Tree Change is about .
S: And then John was always really encouraging me to put them out there, create a Tumblr, and so finally I did put up a little
gallery of pictures that I’d taken in my garden and I just shared it to my Facebook, I’ve just got about two hundred friends and
then… yeah, over the next few days we were like, “Wooww! What’s happening?”
“ACB newspaper in Spain… On Facebook, twelve thousand, four hundred and eighty seven likes.”
J: I thought she might get a couple of hundred followers, and she thought she’d set up an Etsy Store... you know… a bit of pocket
money… no idea that this sort of thing could happen.
S: It kind of started snowballing. I think when it really started going off was when somebody put it on Reddit.
M: I was surprised. I thought it was really nice how everyone was so interested and that then they could share their interest.
J: She’s accidentally sort of tapped into this debate around the hyper-sexualisation of dolls and children’s toys and marketing
towards children and there’s been a big response.
S: Post reach; a hundred and twenty eight thousand.
J: I’m quicker to call myself a feminist than she is. Erm… I guess one of the things about the before and after shots that have really
been shared around is that they really show what these dolls are, and what they could be. And that’s a choice by the toy
manufacturers.
Girl 1: ”I like their eyes. You can still see sometimes the same shape of what they used to look like.” Girl 2: “It was kind of crazy. With all the dark make-up and stuff and the giant lips.” G1: “Probably nicer to play with. Then you can kind of think they’re the same age as you.” M: A lot of manufactured dollies don’t look like anybody. The children would like the ones that might look like someone they know.
Girl 3: “This one kind of looks like my friend Maggie.” Girl 4: “She likes to bounce on the trampoline and she likes to go camping.” S: I’ve heard a lot of comments from people saying, “These are they kind of dolls I want my children to play with.”…
G1: “And the baby was running off and eating all the tomatoes.”… “Thank you very much. My daughter is a bit of a mischievous
monkey sometimes.”
S: And also people just commenting and saying, “Oh, they look so much happier now.”
G: “Weeee… this is fun.”
S: I’ve just been overwhelmed with, “Can I order your dolls?”, and there was only twelve of them.
J: “And now what do you want to do?” S: “Run.” J: “Run? Ready, set, go!” … When you google ‘What happens when you go viral?’ it’s all about how to go viral. There’s nothing on what to do if it happens by accident. S: What is my business plan? Well… oh… I have to come up with a business plan.
J: We just have to work out how we keep the artistry and not let it get ruined by business. But then again if, you know, Mr and Mrs
Mattel knocked on the door, I don’t know what we’d say.
S: “…(inaudible)…” S: “You don’t like those ones. You want to play with the other ones, with the new faces?” D: “Yes.” S: “Yeahhh”…
I’m not a doll manufacturer. I don’t want to be. But, if what I’ve done um… does influence some of the big toy companies out there
and make them rethink the kind of dolls they’re putting out there on the market, I don’t think that would be a bad thing at all. I’m
hoping that my daughter, when she grows up, has as much fun as I had playing with dolls. It was just the best fun in the world.
It’s good to know that it’s come to something, all that time I spent playing with dolls.
G5: I’m gonna name it Elsa. G1: I’ll name this one Olivia.
