At the vet's

Objective & content

This is a short everyday conversation, about a minute and a half long, to listen to and then answer: Mia, 12, and her dad take their pet Pepper to the vet, who asks questions, looks closely and gives advice. The script is not shown in the app: pupils only listen, and a picture of a vet's room with a metal table, a lamp and shelves of bottles shows during the opening sound, then fades under the word "Listen". The language is the language of looking after a pet: the present perfect with just and since and questions with has (Has she drunk any water?), should for advice, going to, which for a thing and when for a time, with the words vet, rescue centre, sore, tin, reception and take out. 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 (who is there, what they want and what the problem is) and the next ones are for the details (the age, the cause, the advice and the price). 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 (40 minutes) 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: who is there, what they want and what the problem is.
2. Answer the first listening questions.
3. Listen again, and pause when you need to. On a piece of paper, write down the places, the times and the numbers you hear.
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 and underline the verbs in the present perfect.
3. Role-play: in threes, a visit to the vet with a new pet, a new problem and a new price.

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: numbers and prices in English, the days of the week, the past simple of common verbs, and the names of common pets.