Write the words Problem Page on the board and ask the whole class what they think it means. Ask the students whether problem pages exist in their country. Brainstorm, as a class, what sort of problems people write in about and make a list of these on the board.

Elicit the word advice and put students in pairs to discuss the two questions: a. Who do you ask for advice? Does it depend on the problem? b. Are you good at giving advice? Give examples if you can. Give each pair 1-2 minutes to talk about it and ask them to report back. Elicit the term agony aunt (a woman whose job is to give advice about personal problems in a newspaper or magazine by answering people’s letters / emails) and tell them that they are going to read an email that someone has sent to the Dear Ellen problem page. Give ss Handout 1. And tell them to read the text and answer the questions in pairs.

Tell the students that they will be helping Nuria with her problem later, but first they will focus on some of the structures used for giving advice. Hand out Worksheet 2. Ask the students to work through the Language exercise in pairs before checking the answers as a class. Elicit answers from ss to see if everyone agrees.

Divide the class into groups and give them a few minutes to complete the discussion task on Handout 3 and decide what they think Nuria should do. Get feedback from each of the groups and encourage the students to use the structures demonstrated in the previous exercise. Next, ask ss to think about a personal problem they have recently had. Put ss in groups by calling out ice-cream and cookies to give them the role of the advice seeker and advice giver and tell them that if they are ice-cream they have to tell their friend about a problem and if they are cookies they have to give advice to their friends problem. Tell ss to work in pairs and tell their friend about their problem very shortly. If they can't think of anything or they don't want to share personal information, they can get help from Handout 4 and talk about an imaginary situation. While ss are giving advice, keep the functional language on the board so that they can refer back to it as they are speaking with their friends. Let ss know that they can use the phrases on the board as they are speaking. Tell each pair to listen to their friends problem and give them advice using the highlighted language before. After 5 minutes regroup ss by telling them to find an ice-cream if they are cookies and vica-versa but they have to find a new pair from another group. This time tell them that if they are cookies they have to tell their friend about a personal problem and the ice-cream give their friends advice. Help students as necessary and note down some of the things students are saying.

Ask ss to report back some of the problems they heard and what their advice was.

Use this stage only if ss made a lot of mistakes while using the functional language. Use the notes you have taken during the productive task stage. Write 1-2 examples of good language and 3-4 examples of language which needs correction on the board. Tell ss to discuss the language in pairs, deciding which ones are correct and which ones need correction. Praise ss for the good language and elicit corrections for the rest.