Asking the way

Objective & content

This is a short everyday conversation, about one minute long, to listen to and then answer: Tom and Aisha, both 14, ask a woman in the street for help, with a street name, directions, a day and a new plan to catch. The script is not shown in the app: pupils only listen, and a picture of an empty town street shows during the opening sound, then fades. The language is the language of asking the way: polite questions (Excuse me. Can you help us, please? How do we get there?), imperatives for directions (go straight on, take the second street on the right, turn left at the traffic lights), prepositions of place ("The museum is opposite the bank, next to a big bookshop."), and there is (Is there a park near here?), with the words straight on, opposite, behind, closed, lake, traffic lights, bank and bookshop. In the app, pupils answer 18 questions: listening (gist, then detail), words and useful phrases. The script is for the teacher, as a transcript for an optional follow-up in class.

Pedagogical guide

The episode is made for pupils to do on their own: in class on a tablet or in the computer room, or at home. Each pupil listens with headphones, as many times as they need, and answers the 18 questions in order. The listening questions come first, gist then detail, so the first listen is for the general idea (what Tom and Aisha are looking for, what the problem is and where they go now) and the next ones are for the details (the street, the directions, the day, what is in the park and the plan for tomorrow). Pupils pause and replay the audio themselves; the picture fades so they listen instead of looking. There is no script and no translation on screen: a pupil who doesn't know a word looks it up in a dictionary. The teacher's part is short: set the task, look at the results, and, if there is time, run the short follow-up in class below. The lesson plan gives a whole-class version for a teacher who prefers to play the episode to the class.

Suggested procedure

For the pupil (about 15 minutes):

1. Listen once, without stopping, for the general idea: what Tom and Aisha are looking for, what the problem is and where they go now.
2. Answer the first listening questions.
3. Listen again, and pause when you need to. On a piece of paper, write down the street, the directions, the day, what is in the park and the plan for tomorrow.
4. Answer the detail questions, then the words and the useful phrases.
5. For each wrong answer, listen to that part again and find what you missed.

Back in class (optional, about 10 minutes):

1. Look at the questions most pupils got wrong, and play those lines again together.
2. Hand out the script as a transcript: pupils find the line for each answer.
3. Role-play: in threes, ask the way to a new place and give new directions.

Materials & prerequisites

• The episode in the app (the audio, the scene picture and the 18 questions), on one device per pupil, with headphones.
• A piece of paper for notes.
• For the follow-up in class only: the script, printed as a transcript, one copy per group of three.
• Prerequisites: left and right, places in a town, and the days of the week.