S2E16 - The Guest List

Objective & content

Rosie is writing the guest list for her birthday party, and her brother George helps her decide who to invite: Priya, Maya, Lucas, and then George himself, while Ollie has to wait. The episode teaches the relative pronoun who to describe a person in the present simple (The boy who always waves at Buster over the fence?), with party and invitation vocabulary (party, guest, invite, invitation, card, envelope) and adjectives for people (kind, funny). Learners listen for the who clauses and count the guests, then check their understanding with the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

Every description in the script is of a friend or neighbour, so who is the only relative pronoun learners meet and they see it identify a person on its own. Watch for who and which: English splits people from things, while Italian che covers both, and German learners can link who to der/die/das in relative clauses.

Suggested procedure

1. (8 min) Pre-listening: ask who learners would invite to a party, meet the Walker family, and preview party, guest, invite and kind.
2. (4 min) First listen: where are Rosie and George and what are they doing?
3. (8 min) Second listen with pauses at three who clauses: what does who introduce, and who does each clause describe?
4. (9 min) Comprehension check and vocabulary practice: how many guests are on the final list, who is Lucas?
5. (7 min) Grammar: sort the who clauses from the script into describing a person and identifying a person.
6. (6 min) Speaking: each learner makes a short guest list and describes each guest with a who clause.

Materials & prerequisites

The episode in the PLAY app (audio, slideshow, text and quiz), a student sheet and a teacher sheet with the answer key. Learners need the present simple and basic adjectives for people.

Curriculum alignment

Cycle 3 (6e), axis "The child and their close environment": describing friends and neighbours.