Travel and Technology
A2 Pre-Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide gist and scan reading practice using a text about planning for and having a trip with the help of technology in the context of travel
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide gist and detailed reading practice using a text about traveller experiences of using certain tech-tools while having a trip in the context of travel
Procedure (43-54 minutes)
The instructor asks the names of the apps that students know or use for travelling, booking a flight, renting a room, searching for tourist destinations through Mentimeter word cloud by showing some logos of companies from the text (eg. Airbnb, Tripadvisor, Google Maps, Couchsurfing).
The instructor makes groups of 3 and gives each group member a different person from the text. Sample Card: Geoff 37 married 2 kids reads comments careful about other tourists' experiences doesn't pay attention to adverts The instructor wants students to pull a question from the box and guess the correct answer for the person they have in their groups. Questions in the box: Do you think he-she goes to a travel agency before the trip? Why? How does he-she book his flight? Do you think he-she reads or writes reviews about the places they visit? Do you think he-she buys pacakage tours? Which travel apps can be useful for this person? Do you think he-she looks at the rating of a hotel or a restaurant for their trip?
Each student read the person on their own card. They find the answers to the questions for the previous activity and share them with their friends. The instructor gives feedback as a whole class.
Students are asked to read the whole text by themselves and answer True-False statements and fill in the blank statements. Then they share their answers on Quizizz. Sample statements: Geoff can understand others' feelings about a hotel because of the ratings and comments they share online. It isn't important for Geoff to find a place to stay based on where it is located. Hanna doesn't care about the prices of the hotels in her destination. Learning about people's lifestyles is also entertaining for Hanna. Fill in the blank: __________ likes to walk often while travelling so he can use Google Maps frequently. All three travellers use technology such as ____________, ____________, and ___________. In some online reviews, Geoff can find _________________ about the best restaurants and hotels.
The instructor distributes random cities around the world. Asks students to assume that they visited those places as the person who was given to them previously. They have to pay attention to the preferences of the person they are assigned to. They should make a mini plan, then share it as if they were the people in the text within their group. They can ask ChatGPT for the travel apps or offline maps etc., to complete the planning phase faster.
