Email
Upper - intermediate level
Description
Main Aims
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To introduce and provide practice of writing a formal email for making arrangements.
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide review and clarification of the components of a formal email
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To provide the opportunity for students to assess themselves in BORs
Procedure (33-46 minutes)
Set the context for the topic by showing students a slide with some images (about formal and informal emails, then start to ask them "when was the last time you send or received an email?" proceed by giving your own example and then go over students' answers. If students have not written an email for a long time, tell them that in today's class they will have the opportunity to do so.
For this stage proceed to tell students the email they will be seeing is to make arrangements (to organize a meeting, a discussion, etc). Show students your own model and ask if it's a formal or informal email, let students answer your question, and then ask "how do they know it's a formal email" (students are not expected to know the answers at this point. The teacher will proceed to show a slide and go over the main components of a formal email to make arrangements. Components Formal greeting Reason for writing Information The request you are making Conclusion Go over the components of the email by showing students your own example, the text will be highlighted with different colors for students to identify each of the aspects mentioned above. Try to elicit students' responses as much as possible. Ask students who are you writing to (is it an email for your boss? a coworker? or a new job?. Answer: is for a teacher
Proceed to make emphasis on the words you have in bold (from your own text). Ask students if there are any words unfamiliar to them (clarify if necessary). Tell them they will need to identify and match the expressions to their opposite sentence (formal and informal). Give students a few seconds to read the sentences and match them as a group, after doing so, ask students if they have any doubts, then proceed to show them another slide with the sentences that were highlighted. Tell them those are other examples of how they can rephrase the sentences
Show students a slide and tell them it's now their turn to create their own formal email about making arrangements about any aspect they would like to cover. Provide students with different ideas in case they do not know what to write about. Tell them they need to make an arrangement and they can choose to write to their teacher, boss, coworkers, a group they enrolled in, to organize a meeting etc. Have a slide and a document ready to share with them, since all the students should follow the same template to avoid complications. They will have 10 - 15 minutes to write their own emails. Remember students need to make use of at least four sentences out of the ones seen in the lesson.
After students have finished writing their emails, tell them you will be sending them to BORs to share the screen and their emails with their classmates. They will need to identify the formal expressions used by their classmates as well as if they implemented the correct structure for the formal email When you go back to the main session allow time for students to tell you what they discussed in their teams as well as you cover DEC