Fantasy Dinner Party
Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To have students practise their speaking skills to express their opinions in the context of a fantasy dinner party
Subsidiary Aims
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To practise listening for gist and specific details in the context of a model of the subsequent speaking activity
Procedure (32-44 minutes)
Students will look at a picture of a group of famous people, trying to understand who they are what the context for the picture is, thus introducing the idea of a celebrity dinner party.
Students will listen to the listening of six speakers explaining who they would invite and why. Students will take notes on a handout with a special folded over "help" section to make it more accessible for lower level students. If necessary, the listening wil be played a second time but hopefully this will not be necessary given the pre-teaching and help section. After taking notes, students will discuss in pairs the proposed dinner guests, expressing their opinion about whether they are good or logical choices.
In pairs, students will discuss and take notes on five possible dinner guests, writing notes on who and why they want to invite. They will have a "Useful Language" sentence starters to help them.
Students will be re-grouped (depends on number of students) and asked to make selections from their different list, proposing their ideas and responding to the alternatives proposed by other students. Again, they have a "Useful Language" box to help them. In the end they should produce a final list of six guests that they agree on.
Students will then take their guests and seat them in the table plan logically, considering the guests history, topics of interest, gender etc. They will again have a "Useful Language" section to encourage language use.
If time allows, students will be re-formed in new groups and then present their dinner party guests and ideas to the group. Depending on number of students and the efficiency of the pacing, this section may be dropped. Alternatively, this may be a language feedback portion, where common errors noticed by the teacher can be addressed.