Laura Elena Biculescu Laura Elena Biculescu

Holidays - interview
Upper elementary/Pre-intermediate level

Description

In this lesson, the students learn functional language about holidays, they practice asking and answering specific questions and use the newly acquired information in a situational role-play.

Materials

Abc Vocabulary flashcards
Abc Student's worksheet - fill in the missing sentences
Abc Flashcards - situational role-play
Abc Student's worksheet A and B - questionnaire
Abc Student's worksheet - questions

Main Aims

  • To provide review and practice of language used for booking hotels in the context of holidays.

Subsidiary Aims

  • To provide fluency speaking practice in functional role-play activities in the context of holidays.

Procedure

Warmer/Lead-in (8-10 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students; to revise vocabulary related to holidays;

Greet the students and go over the class routines. Put a photo of a sunny beach on the board. Elicit the idea of holiday/vacation from the students. Tell them that today's lesson will be about holidays. Tell the students that they are going to play a quick game of charades. They will draw a flashcard and they will have to describe the word written on it for the rest of the class to guess. (Note: if there are more than 9 students in the class, it would be a good idea to have two/three sets of flashcards and work in groups) Model the activity with the word HOTEL. Draw the card, pretend to study it intensely and then ask questions to elicit the expected answer. Do you like holidays? How do you spend your holidays? Where do you usually go on holidays? And where do you stay? etc. Now they will continue the activity with the remaining words.

Exposure (10-12 minutes) • To provide a model of production expected in coming tasks through reading; to provide controlled language practice by acting out a dialogue;

Remind the students that we spoke about hotels earlier. Ask them what is the best hotel they have ever stayed in or heard about. What information do we need to know before we chose a hotel? Create a quick mind map on the board eliciting ideas such as: price, rooms, meals, location, etc. Divide the students into groups of 3 to 5 depending on the class size and tell them they will read a hotel dialogue which has a few missing sentences. They will have to work in groups choosing sentences from the list and complete the dialogues. Monitor the activity and walk around the classroom listening to the students and provide assistance when needed. When they have finished, instruct them to turn to other groups and compare their answers until the whole class has agreed. Intervene only if they have misplaced sentences and guide them towards the right answer. Now, put them into pairs and assign the roles of either tourist or hotel worker and they act out the dialogue. Model the first two lines if needed.

Useful Language (5-7 minutes) • To highlight and clarify useful language exponets for coming productive tasks;

Direct the students' attention towards the mind map you previously created on the board. Ask them look back at the dialogues and think about what kind of questions we can ask to find the information we need. Put the questions on the board, to expand the mind map. For example under price, write "How much are the rooms?", under meals write " Is breakfast included in the price of the room?" "Can I have lunch and dinner at the hotel?" etc.

Productive Task #1 (15-20 minutes) • To provide an opportunity to practice target productive skills; to provide freer language practice and the chance to use the functional exponents they've learned.

Explain to the students that for the next activity, half of them are going to be tourists and the other half are going to be hotel workers and they are going to have a phone conversation. The tourists will call two hotels and ask about their rooms, prices, meals and locations and the hotel workers will have to answer their questions. Each tourist will have to decide which hotel is better for them. Divide the students into groups of either 3 or 4 depending on class size. If they will be 3, assign two students to be hotel workers and only one as a tourist. Hand out the cards and allow the students to read them and make sure they understand the information written on them. For this activity's success, the setup and organization of the room is important. When making calls set up the chairs and desk so that the students are sitting back-to-back. After the first call, ask them to switch partners so they can talk to the other hotel worker. Model the activity with a volunteer student by butting two chairs back to back at the front of the class so everyone could see it. Take the role of the tourist and call a hotel asking a few questions. When they all finish their calls, ask the tourist who chose the Golfer's Hotel to put their hands up. Ask one or two students to explain why they chose it. Repeat with City Hotel, asking the tourists who chose it to put their hands up and and explain why they chose it.

Productive Task #2 (15-20 minutes) • To provide freer language practice and practice asking and answering questions;

Tell the students that today, they are going to learn more things about each other. Divide the class into two groups; Give the first group worksheet A and the second group worksheet B. Allow them to read the worksheet and ask if they do not understand something. Tell them they will interview 5 students from the other group and write down their names and answers. Monitor the activity walking around the classroom, listening to the students and providing help when needed. Ask the students with worksheet A to work as a group and to put all the answers on a graph for easy visualization. The students with worksheet B will discuss and choose the most common and the most interesting answers to their questions. They take turns presenting their answers to the other groups.

Productive Task #3 (6-10 minutes) • To provide free language practice in the context of holidays.

Print out the questions from the worksheet and cut them into strips with a question on each strip. Divide the students into groups of 3-4 students. Each group draws a question and they discuss it in their group. If you have a few groups, they can draw more questions. Monitor the class and listen to the language they use to provide feedback and error correction.

Feedback and Error Correction (3-6 minutes) • To provide feedback on students' production and use of language

Write on the board pieces of language containing the mistakes the students made during the previous activity and ask them if they are correct or not? What changes can be made to correct them. If they mispronounced words during the free speaking activity do a whole class drill with the most common words.

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