INTRODUCTION & SPEAKING ACTIVITIES UUUUU

Year of the students: 2nd Baccalaureate.

English level: B2+ /C1

Students: Spanish students with middle sociocultural background. Most of them have been studying together since they were 3 years old so they know each other pretty well. Moreover, many of them are not just classmates but friends. They are used to travelling abroad and they have already travelled on their own, so the topic is a kind of familiar for them.

Age of students: 17/ 18 years old.

Subject: English Extension (literacy). It is an optional subject so they are very motivated and engaged in the subject. They participate actively in the lessons and have fun.

Topic of the unit: Travel and tourism

Objectives:

• To produce a well organized discourse with the appropriate grammar structures and lexicon.
• To enhance oral information exchange in a spontaneous, comprehensible and respectful way.
• To enhance fluency and accuracy in the spoken given situation.
• To use the linguistic and strategic resources suitable to the given situation.
• To automatize the knowledge about the English language itself and the rules of its linguistic system to speak in a correct, coherent and cohesive way.
• To develop learning strategies in order to use the English language in an autonomous way.

Contents:

Speaking:

• Fluent and spontaneous speaking to describe people and places and narrate possible personal experiences, plans, wishes and hypothesis in a coherent and cohesive way.
• Participation in informal conversations with their peers to express their personal opinions, make hypothesis and exchange information about travelling and tourism (different means of transport, where and what to eat, what to visit, what must be done and what must be avoided…).
• Participation of formal discussions about practical issues when travelling: reaching an agreement about a budget.
• Brief presentation of the given trip showing the pros and cons of their choice and answering all the proposed questions.

Linguistic knowledge

•  Use of the phonetic alphabet to improve pronunciation in an autonomous way.
•  Production and interpretation of different rhythms, intonation and pitches to understand and produce different attitudes and feelings.

Learning to learn

• Reflection and application of self-correction and self-assessment strategies to progress in the autonomous learning of the English language.
• Recognition of errors and mistakes as something necessary in their learning process.
• Interest to take profit of the learning chances inside and outside school using information and communication technologies.
• Value of trust, entrepreneurship and cooperation in the learning of the English language.

Socio-cultural aspects

• Social contact with peers showing respect towards other people’s opinions and attitudes.
• Knowledge and value of the most relevant cultural elements.
• Significant similarities and differences among costumes, behaviours, attitudes, values and beliefs among speakers of the English and Spanish language.
• Use of suitable registers according to the context, speakers and communicative purpose.
• Interest to establish communicative exchanges to know cultural information of English speaking countries.
• Value of the English language as a tool of communication and understanding among peoples which provides with the access to other cultures and that helps to enrich ourselves personally  

Procedure

Students are divided in groups of three. There are 12 students, so there are four groups of 3 people. Students are asked to speak about their desired prom trip. The teacher helps and guides students with their conversations. Later, students are presented the four cities the school has selected to travel with students during this academic year: London, Edinburgh, Dublin or New York. Each group must work on one of the cities and after working and analysing the cities and their corresponding countries in detail (these activities will be further developed in the coming sessions of listening and reading), students are asked to reach an agreement (bearing in mind the pros and cons of the final decision).

When all the necessary information is gathered and they have reached an agreement, they present their trip to the rest of the class, explaining the reasons and purpose of their choices. They must show its pros and cons and try to convince the rest of the students that their trip is the best option.

The rest of students must peer-assess the different presentations and must decide which trip they prefer to do. Through a poll (writing and reading activity further developed), students tell which their favourite trip is and the most selected trip will be their prom trip in Spring. 

Assessment:

• Oral exchanges: asking and answering, participation in dialogues, presentation.
• Answering the proposed questions cohesively and coherently when presenting the topic.

 

ACTIVITIES

SPEAKING SKILL

WARM UP: Students are told they are going to have a prom trip in Spring. The trip will last for five days approximately and they will be accompanied by their advicer and some other teachers. The trip will be organized by the school but since it is their prom trip their likes and opinions will be taken into account. Students are divided in four groups of three people each. They must talk about their desired and ideal prom trip. The teacher walks around the classroom  and listens to students' opinions and preferences. 

REACHING AN AGREEMENT: After watching some information about some specific cities, students are asked to reach an agreement. 

LONDON VIDEO:

 DUBLIN VIDEO:

 EDINBURGH VIDEO:

NEW YORK VIDEO:

They have to speak about the pros and cons of travelling to this city (London, Dublin, Edinburgh or New York) bearing in mind the currency of the country, weather, accommodation facilities, transport, places of interest, activities that can be done there, group discounts, meals etc.

GROUP PRESENTATION: Students are asked to present their city and defend it as the best option to the rest of the class. To do so, all the members of the group must present the pros that have been discussed in the previous speaking activity and use speech techniques (activity which will be further developed in the listening section). They must try to convince their mates their city is the best choice.