TP 5 Food and Drink
Elementary level
Description
Main Aims
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To provide clarification and practice of countable and uncountable nouns in the context of food and drink
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide review of food and drink lexis in the context of food and eating
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To provide accuracy and fluency speaking practice in a conversation in the context of food and eating
Procedure (38-52 minutes)
Teacher asks some questions about food to the students: What do you like eating? What don't you like eating? What food is good for you? What food is bad for you?) and elicits some ideas. Then may discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Teacher listens carefully to them but doesn't make any corrections. This section is to get students engaged and involved in the lesson.
In this stage teacher introduces some basic vocabulary about food and drink. Teacher does it through pictures with food items on them. Teacher hols up a picture at a time and elicits the food or drink name from the students. Teacher after eliciting, models and drills the words round the class. If needed, teacher writes some problematic words on the board and drills more on pronunciation and stress and syllable. Once teacher has introduced all the words, he/she holds up two pictures at once and asks individual students to say, e.g. 'fruit and vegetables'. Teacher then passes out handouts to the students with the food and drink words they have practiced on them. Teacher asks students to work in pairs and point to food and drink items and ask their partner to say the right words. Teacher monitors and deals with some errors.
Teacher elicits the verb 'count'.Teacher uses realia to check if they know what they can count and what they cannot count and introduces the concept of countable and uncountable nouns. Teacher focuses students on the pictures and asks them to think about the food and drink words that they can/cannot count. Teacher gives instructions about a task in which students are supposed to look at food items and categorize them as countable and uncountable nouns and write the words in correct part. Teacher checks if they understand 'singular' and 'plural' and does the first one as an example for them. Teacher passes handouts to the students. They work alone and put the words from the list or the pictures (the list is the same as the pictures) in correct part. When they're done, They'll check their answers with their partners. Teacher finally gives the answer key in feedback.
Teacher gives instruction about a grammar rule activity, in which students choose between the correct words in italics. In order to do so, students look at the table in categorizing task and read the rules and decide which rules are about countable nouns and which rules are about uncountable nouns. Students work in pairs and when finished, teacher asks pairs to stand up and mingle around and check their answers with other pairs. In feed back teacher elicits the correct answers. For more clarification and checking the meaning, if needed, teacher may ask some CCQs to make meaning and form clearer and may ask them to give examples. Teacher drills some examples and writes some examples on the board. Teacher highlights the form in singular and plural countable nouns and draws their attention on weak forms and stress as in: ‘an apple’.
In this stage, teacher gives instructions about a controlled practice activity, in which students fill in the blanks with articles ‘a’, ‘an’ or ‘no article’. Teacher passes the handouts around and students work in pairs and do the task. Teacher monitors and checks if they’re doing the right thing. In feedback, teacher gives them the answer keys. If there is enough time, teacher gives the students another controlled practice activity in which they find mistakes in sentences and correct the mistakes. They work in groups of three and in feedback teacher elicits the correct answers and writes then on the board.
In this stage students will have a mingle activity and they’re supposed to do a survey about eating habits. They mingle around the class and ask questions in simple present and use the target language in their questions and answers. When they get an answer from a person in the class, they write the name of that person in the specified part in the sentences provided in their questionnaire. They’re supposed to use the correct TL, so teacher monitors them and helps them if needed. Teacher deals with some errors and mistakes. In feedback, teacher elicits from volunteers to report some facts about their survey.
For a much freer practice, teacher describes his/her perfect breakfast. Students then work on their own and use the questions on the board: Where are you? What time is it? Who are you with? What do you have for breakfast? to make notes about their own perfect breakfast. Then students work in groups and tell one another about their perfect breakfast. Each group then can choose which students has the best breakfast. Finally teacher asks those students to tell the class about their breakfast. During the activity teacher monitors and makes notes of any errors or mistakes and deals with some errors when they are finished.