Vocabulary lesson
Elementary level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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By the end of the lesson, students will have been introduced to and practised vocabulary words in the context of describing people's appearances.
Subsidiary Aims
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To practise the language they need to describe people.
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To practise speaking and describing a person they know.
Procedure (37-45 minutes)
Show the students 2 pictures and ask them to describe the 2 famous people in order to know how much vocabulary they already know about describing people's appearances. Elicit as much information from them as possible. For example: Who are they? What do they do? / What's their job? What colour is their hair? What colour are their eyes? Do you think they are tall / short? Do you think they are thin / fat? Is she beautiful? Is he handsome?
Show the students some pictures of celibrities and elicit the vocabulary words from them. Picture 1: Is she old? Yes (in her sixties) / Does she have brown hair? Yes / Is it long? No, it's short/ Is it curly or straight? / Does she have brown eyes? Yes/ Is she beautiful or handsome? Beautiful (highlight that we use beautiful for women and handsome for men) / Is she thin or fat ? Fat (Highlight that we use slim instead of fat because it has negative meaning and we use over-weight instead of fat because it's impolite to say that a person is fat. Picture 2: Is she young? Yes (in her thirties) / Does she have blonde hair? Yes / Is it short? Yes / Is it straight? Yes / Does she have green eyes? Yes / Is she good-looking? Yes / Is she slim ? Yes / What is she wearing? She is wearing a red coat. Picture 3: Is he old or young ? Middle-aged (in his late forties) / Does he have hair ? No, he's bald / Does he have a moustache? Yes / Does he have a beard ? Yes / Does he have brown eyes? Yes / Is he attractive ? No (Not in this picture) / What is he wearing? He is wearing a suit. Hightlight that we say dark hair and not black hair. Drill then write the words. Highlight that we say: he/she's tall/ short/ slim ... He/she has long/ short/ brown ... hair He/she is wearing trousers/ a shirt/ a suit ... Drill then write the sentences.
Divide the students into 2 groups and give each group 9 picture cards. One student has to choose a picture card and describe the person without saying his/her name. The other students try to guess the name of the person. Demonstration: gather students around the table, choose a picture card and describe the person without saying his/her name. Ask students to guess the name of the person. After demonstrating Ask the students to do the same. To chech if they understood, ask the students to demonstrate an example (open pair) and ask them if they are going to say the name of the person.
Imagine your friend or a member of your family is in front you and you're going to describe him/her to at least 2 students in the classroom. Students have to stand up, walk around the classroom and talk to each other. Demonstration: Imagine my best friend is in front of me and describe her: she is short. she has long brown straight hair. she has green eyes. she is slim. she is beautiful. she is wearing jeans, pink shirt and trainers. Have 2 or 3 students (depending on time) talk about the other students they had a conversation with. Time left: Do a delayed error correction.