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Speaking (A2 Pre-Intermediate) : English For Life

This document provides guidance for implementing speaking activities from the English for Life textbook. It discusses the structure of the speaking units and offers suggestions for classroom exercises. The units aim to improve students' practical English speaking abilities. Suggestions include having students rehearse and perform dialogues, create their own conversations, and challenge each other on language skills. The goal is to help students build confidence in using English in real-life situations.

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Suresh Dass
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167 views

Speaking (A2 Pre-Intermediate) : English For Life

This document provides guidance for implementing speaking activities from the English for Life textbook. It discusses the structure of the speaking units and offers suggestions for classroom exercises. The units aim to improve students' practical English speaking abilities. Suggestions include having students rehearse and perform dialogues, create their own conversations, and challenge each other on language skills. The goal is to help students build confidence in using English in real-life situations.

Uploaded by

Suresh Dass
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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English Readers

English for Life Speaking (A2 Pre-intermediate)

Classroom implementation

Speaking aims to help students improve how they read in in this section check the students’ understanding of the
practical real-life situations and to widen students’ range of conversation, and of the meaning and usage of the key
vocabulary in line with A2 expectations. words and phrases.
The book contains twenty units, each of which can provide
the basis of a lesson. They are divided across five sections:
Suggested implementation:
1. After completing the Conversations section you can
1. What’s your news? Meeting and describing people,
ask the students to rehearse and perform one of the
talking about things and places.
dialogues.
2. What do you fancy? Making arrangements and requests,
2. They can do this either in a pair or for the whole class,
being a customer and speaking on the phone.
but it is often a good idea to get them to come to the
3. What do you mean? Developing conversations and front to perform rather than letting them talk from their
checking understanding. chairs.
4. What’s wrong? Complaints, problems, apologies and 3. You can ask students to work towards improvising a new
thank-yous. scene by asking them to think of what language they
5. What do you think? Agreeing, disagreeing, and giving would use if the situation were slightly altered
opinions and feedback. (e.g. talk about moving schools instead of moving house).
All the units in Speaking have the same structure and once
you get to know the sections you will quickly be able to
create your own lesson plan. Each time you see this symbol  SAYING IT ACCURATELY
 in the explanations below, it indicates a new section of
the unit. What is it?
The exercises in this section focus on sentence structure and
meaning, and allow the students to do tightly controlled
 GETTING STARTED practice of the model dialogue presented in Conversations.
Once you feel that students have a good understanding
What is it? of the new vocabulary, allow them to build their own
Each unit begins with two or three simple Getting Started conversations, or to use the new language in a more
questions directed at the student. The aim of the questions improvised scenario.
is to introduce the topic and prepare for the material which
will follow. Suggested implementation:
1 Make role cards for students along the lines of the
Suggested implementation: characters in the Conversations. You can adapt the
1. Direct the questions at the class, personalizing the theme vocabulary used, the intent of the speaker, or the
for the students and getting them thinking about the situation itself.
topic – which you can then discuss or brainstorm for 2. Try to think of scenarios that suit the profile of your
vocabulary. students: age, culture, reason for studying.
2. Get students to ask the questions of each other. 3. Instead of role cards you can use pictures or just prompt
3. Get students to think of additional questions on the same words to trigger a change in the scene.
topic. They can then ask these questions of their partners 4. Remember to pitch the improvisational requirements at
or the group and use these as the basis of a survey. the right level for your students. Such exercises can be
4. Create a mingle activity by distributing students’ secret frustrating for students if they are either too easy or too
written answers to other students and getting them to difficult to complete.
find the student whose answers they have.
5. Highlight/clarify key basic vocabulary for the unit.

 SAYING IT CLEARLY
 CONVERSATIONS
What is it?
What is it? Saying it clearly deals with issues such as pronunciation,
Students can listen to a conversation and read the transcript letter sounds, linking, assimilation, silent letters and
where key words and phrases are highlighted. Exercises contractions.
English Readers
English for Life Speaking (A2 Pre-intermediate)

Suggested implementation:  MY REVIEW


1. Find ways to bring the exercises off the page by making
your own classroom materials from the content in the What is it?
book. See the sample lesson plans for units 1, 2 and 3 for My review gives a list of can-do statements for the unit. Use
some ideas. it first and foremost as a way of checking that the students
2. Get students to challenge each other by recreating feel comfortable that they have made progress in the class
questions in the same format as the book. Monitor and can make these statements with some confidence.
closely. There are some additional ideas for its use below.
3. Use reading aloud strategies to focus students on the
particular pronunciation issues highlighted in the section.
Suggested implementation:
1. Get pairs, small groups, or even the whole class to
challenge each other on the various can-do statements:
 SAYING IT APPROPRIATELY Mikael, can you describe a person’s appearance?
Yes, I can. I can talk about their height, or weight,
What is it? the colour of their hair.
Saying it appropriately deals with issues of tone and Can you give me an example?
intonation. The focus in Speaking A2 is on issues that are Well, I can say someone is fat or overweight. Or, if I
important to the lower-level student like politeness, and don’t want to be rude I may say they are a bit plump.
formality and informality.
2. If students have performed a conversation of their own
making in the class and have a written record of it, get
Suggested implementation: them to identify the use of the can-do statements within
1. Use roles cards to switch situations between different their record.
registers or tenors (formal/informal, certain/uncertain,
3. Always encourage students to keep an active record of
assertive/guarded).
their can-do achievements and follow up with you if they
2. Find fast-moving games and activities like throwing a are unsure.
bean bag to indicate it’s someone’s turn to speak.
3. As above, you can use reading aloud strategies to
focus students on the particular pronunciation issues  FEATURES
highlighted in the section.
What are they?
All the units contain feature boxes providing extra
 GET SPEAKING information and support for the content of the unit as a
whole. These serve well as fillers if you have a few spare
What is it? minutes during the lesson or for providing independent
The exercises in Get speaking allow self-study students homework ideas.
to make notes in preparation for a roleplay in which they
interact with CD. The structure of most of the exercises Suggested implementation:
allows them to be easily translated to the classroom 1. Useful tips: These blues boxes appear at varying points in
environment where their scope can be extended. the units and contain ideas for improving the students’
speaking skills. Discuss the tip and decide whether it
Suggested implementation: could be useful in your students’ everyday lives.
1. Where the Get speaking activity assigns role to the 2. Language notes: These green boxes appear at varying
speakers, make roles cards for students (A and B). points through the units and contain additional
2. Get students to use the transcripts and suggested information about language from the Conversations.
answers, in the back of the book, to either rehearse their They can be used as a starting point for discussion,
own ideas, or to check their improvisations. or to elicit further examples of the language identified.

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