The class divides up into two groups: waiters and customers. Customers
go from restaurant to restaurant and order food. As a complication,
everybody has something to complain about.
7) Banking Role-Play: A Simulation Role-play
Language for Conducting Bank Transactions
A one hour banking role-play that explores the expressions needed to do
five basic transactions at a bank: deposit money, withdraw money, cash
checks, exchange currency, and pay bills. Students are divided into bank
tellers and bank clients. Bank clients approach tellers and conduct
banking transactions
8) Doctor Role-Play: A Simulation Role-play
Language for Visiting the Doctor
A one hour role-play for visiting the doctor's that explores the
expressions needed to visit the doctor's office and talk about ailments
and prescriptions.
9) Directions I: A Lineup Role-play
Language for Giving Directions Based on Street Name and Buildings in
the Vicinity.
A one hour role-play for asking someone out and giving directions to a
restaurant. Students also practice superlative (hottest, freshest, best)
and nationality adjectives (Japanese, Chinese, Italian)
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Target:
The aim of this lesson is to teach students how to ask for information
when they don't understand what was said to them.
Preparation:
First print the activity sheet and activity cards. Photocopy one activity
sheet for each student in the class, and make one set of cards for each
group of four or five students. It works well if you paste the card sheet
on to cardboard and then cut out the cards.
Introduction:
After going through your regular review and teacher talk. Tell the
students that you 'read a great book about dinoflagellates' . . .or
whatever, just so long as the word is incomprehensible. See what
responses this elicits and write them on the board.
One by one, write the five target questions on the board and compare
what they say or didn't say with what they should have said.
Now choose one of the cards and and try a sample run of the activity
that you are going to do. Go through the card question by question,
writing questions on the board.
Group Activity
Break the students up into groups of four or five. One student draws a
card and the other students take turns asking questions. Usually, I have
the students go around in a circle where the student to the left of the
student who drew the card asks the first question and so on. After the
card is finished, another student draws a card and the process begins
again. Repeat until the whole activity sheet is filled out.
Wrap Up
The students break up their groups and come together as a class again.
Quickly, try the routine as a class without letting the students look at
their sheets.
Usually, I pretend to pick up two new cards:
I am reading a book about glaciers.
And:
Yesterday, I bought a new telescope.
The students go through questions and answers as a class, hopefully,
without having to look at their sheet.
Correcting Errors
When should you correct an error? The issue is still not resolved within
the ESL world. What follows is my personal intuition on what kind of error
correction to give and when to give it. I see at least four ways of dealing
with student errors:
(1) To stop the conversation and point out the error, there and then.
(2) To reiterate what your student has said, rephrasing their language so
that it is correct, and at the same time keep the conversation going.
(3) To wait for a free moment and then explain to the class or to the
individual about the error you heard and what could have been said
instead.
(4) To ignore it and hope correction will come naturally at a later date.
I usually I prefer 2,3,or 4 but this is one occasion to 'get it right from the
beginning'. After this lesson, when your student says, 'meaning?' or
'spelling?' correct them there and then. It is more acceptable to correct
them in this circumstance because it is unlikely you will destroy the flow
of the conversation (which is the main reason why I rarely use method
one).
Classroom English
Target:
(1) Can you repeat that please?
(2) How do you spell __________?
(3) What does __________ mean?
(4) Can you give me an example?
(5) How do you say ___________
in Japanese/Spanish/French . . .?
'I read a good book about dinoflagellates"
Huh? Dino . . ..
Teacher: I'm reading a book about amphibians.
Students: Can you repeat that please?
Teacher: I said, "I'm reading a book amphibians."
Students: How do you spell amphibians?
Teacher: A-M-P-H-I-B-I-A-N-S
Students write down amphibians on their activity sheet beside 'Word'.
Students: What does amphibian mean?
Teacher: It's an animal that is born in water but can live on land.
Students write down the meaning on their activity sheet beside
'meaning'.
Students: Can you give me an example?
Teacher: A frog.
Students write down 'frog' on their activity sheet beside 'example'.
Students: How do you say amphibian in Korean (or whatever language
they speak)?
Teacher: In Korean you say 'Yangseoryu'.
Method 1
Student: I took off the bus.
Teacher: You mean you got off the bus. You ' get off' a bus not 'take off' a
bus.
Method 2
Student: I took off the bus.
Teacher: Ah. You got off the bus and then where did you go?
(or) I see. Where did you go when you got off the bus?
It gets more and more difficult as the chain gets longer and longer. You
will get lots of respect from your students if you yourself go last.
This exercise is excellent in that students do practice some basic
sentence stems over and over again. Second, student will be able to get
to know each other. Third, you, the teacher, will get a good start at
memorizing your students' names. If the class is too large you may have
to omit the exercise or else keep the chain length to a maximum of five
people.
Line up:
Line up is probably my favorite activity for conversation classes. If you
can keep your students' disciplined then you can use it almost every
week. And it's pretty satisfying as a teacher to here the classroom fill up
with the sounds of conversation.
Basically, you form two lines of chairs facing each other. Students sit in
the chairs and face each other. Students will have conversations with the
people across from them for about 3-4 minutes. Then, the teacher yell
"change" and all of the students in one row move over one chair. The
person at the end will come around to the front of the row.
In this particular line-up, students have to exchange their personal
information that is on the Getting to Know You worksheet. An important
aspect of line-up is getting students to experiment with different
greetings. Students should choose one of the greetings on the left side
of their worksheet when they first sit down in front of a new partner. And
they should also choose another parting phrase when the teacher tells
them to change.
Target Language:
Personal Information:
I grew up in ___________
I work for ____________
I'm into ____________
I have ________ brothers and ________ sisters.
In the future, I'd like to _______
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Time: 1 hour
Focus:
The purpose of this lesson is to give students the skills to pass customs
with as little trouble as possible.
This lesson follows a simple format of an introduction and discussion,
followed by a role-play activity.
Preparation:
The Teacher will need to print off and photocopy customs officer roleplay sheets, traveler role-play sheets, and passport and character
prompt cards. Note: There are two versions of the customs officer roleplay sheet, A and B. This is so that students can hear common customs
questions asked in more than one way.
Introduction:
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Tell the students that they will be studying airport English. Have one
student come up to the front. Give that student a passport card and
explain that you are a customs officer. The student will have to pass
customs. Because you are the customs officer, you will be able to lead
the conversation.
I often have students try to accomplish a task cold, before I actually set
out to teach them the skills to do it. This accomplishes two things: One,
it lets me know if the lesson will be too easy and hence a waste of time
for them. Two, if it's not too easy, it lets the students know why they are
studying it. One problem with false beginners is that they sometimes
feel the subject material is below them, yet they are unable to function
in that subject material. It is a way to show them their limitations.
Discussion:
After a few students have tried to get through your customs and
immigration, then go over the conversation. Write the questions on the
board and ask the students what possible answers could be. With all of
the questions and possible answers on the board, have a few more
students try to come through your customs. Hopefully, they will have no
problems doing it well.
Role-play Activity:
Now, comes the real focus of the class: role-playing going through
customs. The class will be divided into two groups of students: customs
officers and travelers. Hand out the custom officer role-play sheet to the
custom officers. Each custom officer represents a country of their
choosing and they will briefly interview each traveler before letting them
into the country. It works well when you put their desks in a line so that
the travelers can go from one customs officer to another in an orderly
fashion.
Handout the passports and traveler role-play prompts to the travelers.
Have the travelers read their prompts. Note: you should be able to fold
the character prompts and paste them onto the back of the passports. It
is very convenient like that.
As travelers get interviewed, the customs agents take down the
travelers' information. The travelers write down what countries they
visited. Finally, if time permits have the students change roles.
Target Language:
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Time: 1 hour
Focus:
The purpose of this lesson is to give false beginners the skills to call
somebody and make plans or make excuses.
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supposed to say, " Oh! I just remembered I have to . . . " if they want to
make an excuse.
Role-play Activity:
Now, comes the real focus of the class: a line-up activity to practice
making plans. Divide the class into two groups: callers and receivers.
Give each group their respective worksheets. Callers have to check off
ten things that they would like to do. Receivers will check off five things
that they don't want to do. Callers will make calls and asks receivers to
do the activities that the callers checked off. If the receivers are not busy
and they want to do the activity (i.e. the receivers didn't check it off),
then the receivers accept the proposal and both parties negotiate a time
and place and record the information on their worksheets.
Class setup is very important for this. Basically, the class is setup so that
there are two lines of chairs. The receivers will face the wall and the
callers will sit behind them.. The receivers should have their names
pasted onto the back of their chairs if the students are not too familiar
with each other.
Callers will go to a receiver and tap on that receivers shoulder and say,
Ring! Ring!" Receivers will answer and they will either make plans to do
something or the receiver will make an excuse. After they hang up the
phone, the caller stands up and waits for the next available chair behind
a receiver and tries the conversation again. As more and more phone
calls are being made the schedules should start filling up and it will
become harder and harder for the students to negotiate a time to meet.
This will present them with a new task:
A: Are you busy on Tuesday evening.
B: Yes, sorry. I have plans with Minsu. How about Wednesday afternoon?
A: No, I'm busy on Wednesday
Target Language:
Jim: Hello.
Susan: Hello. Is Jim there please?
Jim: Speaking.
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Susan: Hi, Jim. This is Susan. How are you doing these days?
Jim: Good. What's up?
Susan: Are you busy on Friday evening?
Jim: No, I'm free. Why?
Susan: Would you like to have dinner together?
Jim: Sounds good. What time would you like to meet?
Susan: How about 7:00?
Jim: 7:00 is fine. Where would you like to meet?
Susan: Why don't we meet in front of Antico's Italian Restaurant?
Jim: Sounds good. See you there.
Susan: Great. Bye.
Time: 1 hour
Focus:
The purpose of this lesson is to give false beginners the skills to enter a
hotel and book a room.
This lesson follows a simple format of an introductory activity and
discussion, followed by a role-play activity.
Preparation:
The teacher will need to print off and photocopy five sheets:
Mixed-up Conversation: Hotel Front Desk
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Time: 1 hour
Focus:
The purpose of this lesson is to give false beginners the skills to order
food in a restaurant.
This lesson follows a simple format of an introduction and discussion,
followed by a role-play activity.
Preparation:
The teacher will need to print off and photocopy four sheets: restaurant
menus, the waiters' activity sheet, the customers' activity sheet, and the
role-play prompts.
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Introduction:
Tell the students that they will be ordering food from restaurants today.
Invite one student up to the front and give the student a menu. After the
student has had a short time to look at the menu, say ,"May I take your
order?"
Usually, the student will say something very basic, "Hamburger."
If the student gives a more sophisticated answer, then I write it on the
board and then we begin to discuss other ways of ordering food.
Discussion:
The purpose of the above demonstration is a lesson in pragmatic
competence. Just barking out orders can be perceived as being rude and
may have real consequences..
As a class we briefly discuss ways to order food: I'll have a hamburger,
please. I'd like the seafood spaghetti. Then we go over other aspects of
the conversation
Role-play Activity:
Now, comes the real focus of the class: a role-play activity to practice
ordering food.. Divide the class into three: one third of the class will
become restaurant waiters and the other two thirds will partner up and
go around to the various restaurants and order food.
The waiters should receive their 'Special of the Day' prompt cards and
their activity sheet. As customers visit their restaurants, waiters have to
write down the orders on their activity sheets. Likewise, the customers
write down what they ordered on the customer activity sheets.
Now, if you want to throw in an unscripted wrench into the works, you
can hand out the complaint cards to the customers and see how both
customers and waiters react. You can also instruct a few waiters to be
rude and insulting on purpose.
There are also these optional support materials:
Restaurant Cloze Activity
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Restaurant Crossword
Restaurant and Food Survey Activity plus Survey Action Sheet
Target Language:
Waiter: Welcome to Antico's. Here are your menus. Today's special is
grilled salmon. I'll be back to take your order in a minute.
...
Waiter: Are you ready to order?
Customer 1: I'd like the seafood spaghetti.
Waiter: And you?
Customer 2: I'll have a hamburger and fries.
Waiter: Would you like anything to drink?
Customer 1: I'll have a coke, please.
Waiter: And for you?
Customer 2: Just water, please.
Waiter: OK. So that's one seafood spaghetti, one hamburger and fries,
one coke, and one water. I'll take your menus.
...
Waiter: Here is your food. Enjoy your meal.
...
Waiter: How was everything?
Customers 2: Delicious, thanks.
Waiter: Would you like anything for dessert?
Customer 1: No, just the bill please.
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another bank teller and conduct another transaction. Each time the
students go to a teller, they should get a signature. The students can
use the conversation as a guide. If you have time remaining have the
students switch roles and go over it again.
Quirks:
I always like to throw in a few hidden quirks for the more observant
students in the hopes of eliciting some spontaneous conversation: One
passport is expired, one check is void, one bill has the wrong total, the
photo ID is awful, and some of the clients only have library cards. If
students miss these fact, that's OK. I say nothing. But sometimes, it's
nice if it generates some extra conversation.
Materials:
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12)
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usually give a tip to? Do you tip in your country? Has anybody ever
received a tip? . . . .
Finally, go over cheap, expensive, and reasonable. Ask a few students
how much they paid for articles of clothing and then ask other class
members if they think those prices were cheap, reasonable, or
expensive.
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Now, go over the conversation and have the students practice it in pairs,
using the substitutions. You can also point out the pronunciation tip for
past tense.
Finally, students will be given a survey. This activity is a simple but
effective walk-and-talk. Students take their survey sheet and walk
around the room. When they meet another student, they compliment
that other student on some article of clothing. And then they ask where
the item was bought, how much was paid for it, and other questions
about the article.
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students in the class, then the students should buy the complete
shopping list. If their are only seven students, then the teacher can
either join the role-play or just make a shopping list of seven items. If
there are fewer students, the teacher can remove more items from the
list as necessary.
The students will have a budget depending on how big the shopping list
is. If you use the complete shopping list the budget should be $750.00. If
you use a partial list you can add to the budget in the fallowing manner:
cameras ($200), sunglasses ($50), hiking boots ($100), jackets ($100),
pants ($50), sleeping bags ($100), tent ($100), and tickets ($50). You
should divide up between how much cash they have, how much they can
write in checks, and how much they can put on their credit cards.
Finally, students have to purchase the items on their shopping lists from
other students. They should use the conversation as a guide. As they
purchase the items, the students should fill out the table.
13)
play
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This unit contains a one-hour role-play where students are divided into
travelers and airline ticketing agent. Travelers have to find information
about airline tickets
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Class set up for Role Play: The students are divided into travelers and
airline-ticketing agents. The travelers are given an Activity Sheet and a
Role Card. The airline-ticketing agents are given an Activity Sheet and
the Schedule and Fares for their particular airline.
14)
This unit contains a one-hour role-play where students are divided into
post office clerks and customers wanting to mail parcels and letters
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Purpose and Audience: This role play is intended for false beginners
who need some survival English Skills. The role-play includes the
language for talking about delivering letters, parcels, packages and post
cards. The role-play also presents an opportunity to go over numbers
used for dollar amounts.
Warm-up: 1) Bring a letter into class and tell the students you have to
deliver it. Ask where the post office is. After you get directions, tell them
youre worried because the letter is very important and you dont want
it get lost in the mail. See what responses this elicits. Hopefully
somebody will suggest you use a courier or special delivery. Then, talk
about rates and schedules writing down expressions on the board as
needed. 2) Give the letter to the students and then start the class with:
Welcome to Lucres Post Office. How can I help you? If the students
simply say that they want to mail the parcel, say: That ll be $1000
dollars, please. Hopefully, this will draw a shocked response and they
should start inquiring as to why its so expensive. Tell them because its
super speedy delivery. This should get them to inquire about other more
reasonable options.
Class set-up for role play: The class is divided into customers doing
errands at the Post Office and the Post Office clerks. The customers need
a Customer Activity Sheet and an Errand list. Post Office Clerks need a
Post Office Clerk Activity Sheet and a Complete Schedule of postal rates.
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Class Activity: Customers go from post office to post office mailing one
item on their errand list, at a time. While doing this, they should record
the prices and delivery times on the Customer Activity Sheet. Post Office
Clerks wait for customers to come into their Post Offices. The clerks then
give the customers the required information and fill out their Postal Clerk
Activity Sheets.