Speaking lesson
Upper-intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
-
To provide fluency speaking practice in discussions in the context of brain facts
Subsidiary Aims
-
to read for detail, to listen for specific information and to practice vocabulary
Procedure (31-44 minutes)
I will ask the students to tell me what they know about the brain. After a brief talk with them, I will get them to read the Brain Facts to tell me what they have learnt about the brain. I will make sure to elicit that the brain has two halves. Finally I will ask them if they know whether they are primarily right or left-brained.
I will tell the students that they will do a quiz to find out if they are right or left-brained. I will pair them A and B, and I will explain that they will read the questions to each other and note their partner's answers. I will do a demo. I will get the students to sit facing each other rather than side by side. I will give out the A and B quizzes and let them interview each other. When finished, I will get them to total up each other's a and b answers but I will not let them tell each other the results.
I will write on the board these words: linear thinking, logical thinking, verbal skills, learning by explanation, intuition, interest in the 'big picture', artistic creativity, the ability to visualise, learning by doing. I will ask the students to check them to see if they know them all or not. I will get students to help each other to explain. At the end, if they still don't know any words, I'll explain.
I'll tell the students that they will listen to an audio to find out what the answers to the quiz questions mean. I'll give them a handout of the recently studied vocabulary and I'll tell them that they should decide if the words in the handout are typical of left or right brained people. The students will listen and note Left or Right next to the items. After listening, they will check in pairs and I'll have a WC FB.
I will give the students a 'Useful Language' phrases handout andtell them they will use the phrases there to explain each other what their quiz results mean. I will do a demo about the language phrases.
If time, I will get the students to discuss these questions in small groups. If not, I will ask a couple of questions in open class FB.
I will write on the board both the good and bad language use that I've come across during monitoring. I will do WC error correction