English Lesson Planner

Natalie Hideg

Expats - Pre-intermediate level

Expats
Pre-intermediate level

Description

In this lesson, students will read an article about the best and worst places to live as an expatriate. The article will serve as a basis from which they will eventually be asked to produce a paragraph which will personalize the subject for them. They will also learn vocabulary from the article that might be useful for the writing stage. I have created a lesson plan that I would use with my students at the Bogazici University prep school. My students begin the year as pre-intermediate, but are expected to be advanced by the end of the year. I would use this lesson plan near the end of the first semester, to give them a break from Language Leader and Bogazici materials. Their more difficult task during the year is to learn how to write an essay; I have therefore chosen to make writing the main aim of this lesson, using the reading and vocabulary as material to prepare them for the task.

Materials

Article: "Want to move abroad? This map shows the best and worst countries to be an expatriate."

Main Aims

To give students practice writing a paragraph using the information given in class plus their own ideas and opinions. The paragraph will be written in class but students will turn in second drafts after correction.

Subsidiary Aims

To provide clarification of the vocabulary used in the reading
To provide gist/scan reading practice using a text about the countries where people choose to be expatriate

Procedure (53-69 minutes)

Lead-in (3-5 minutes) • To introduce the students to the topic, get them talking

T writes the word EXPAT on the board – asks Ss : what does this mean? What is the full word? T asks Ss if they would one day like be an expat? If so, where? Elicits names of countries/cities from students and asks why they would like to live there.

Warm-up (5-7 minutes) • To use prediction to get the students talking, introduce them to the topic

T then writes the names of the following countries on the board: Switzerland, Thailand (x2), Germany, Egypt, China T give Ss HO – in pairs, discuss which countries you think correspond to which questions? Thailand is used twice. T hands out Article – now Ss read first three paragraphs to see if their predictions were right.

Gist reading (10-15 minutes) • To allow students to understand the organization of the article by completing the chart, and to help them to extract the main points of the article.

T gives each Ss a HO of empty diagram. Alone, Ss scan the rest of the article and fill in the blanks with the positive and negative aspects of living in each country/region. When Ss are finished, have them check in pairs. FB: Teacher puts her diagram on Overhead - is yours the same? WC FB.

Guessing vocabulary in context (10-12 minutes) • To force students to try to the guess the meaning of words without a dictionary. As pre-intermediate students who have to take an advanced test at the end of the year, there will be many words they do not know in the readings on the test. This exercise will help them to develop this skill.

T hands out half sheet of paper with vocabulary words, and the paragraph where they are located. Ss, in pairs, must locate the words in the text and try to guess their meaning without using their dictionaries. When finished, teacher puts the words and definitions on the Overhead - how many did you get right?

Writing practice (25-30 minutes) • To give students in-class writing practice where they can use vocabulary and and information discussed in class to write a personalized paragraph about the topic

T shows writing prompt on overhead (below). "If you had to live abroad, in which country like to be an expat, and why?" Please include: Why you are choosing this place How long you might like to live there What are some positive aspects about this place? Possible negative aspects? Paragraph should be at least 150 words long. Proofread your work.