Helping a neighbour

Objective & content

A two-page pack for one everyday situation: asking for and doing a favour for a neighbour who is going away. Pupils learn the words (key, watering can, fish tank, plant pot, letterbox, bin) and the phrases to ask for a favour (Could I ask you a favour? Could you feed my cat?), accept or refuse (Of course. Sorry, I can't.) and ask what to do (What do I need to do? Where's the key? When will you be back?). Then they hear the same language in a real conversation, the Listen Up! episode "A favour for a neighbour", and use it themselves in a role-play. By the end, they can ask a neighbour for help, agree to help, and find out what they need to do.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the language of the situation. Pupils talk about a picture of an older neighbour showing a girl her plants and dog before she goes away, write six words under new drawings (the first is done), read a box of useful phrases (what you say or ask, and what you hear), and match five questions to their answers. Page 2 puts the language to work. Pupils complete a short dialogue with words from a box (Maya, whose neighbour Mrs Okafor asks her to walk the dog while she is away), then listen to the episode: Ben and his dad agree to feed their neighbour's fish and water her plants while she visits her sister. A QR code on the sheet plays the recording on a phone or a tablet, with no app and no login. Pupils tick true or false, listen again for four short answers, then do a role-play with A and B cards: a neighbour who is going away asks a young neighbour to feed the cat. Card B holds the information card A needs, so pupils have to ask. Every task opens with an example. Page 1 and the dialogue use other names, places and prices, so they never give away a listening answer. Page 3 is the answer key with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Pupils look at the picture on page 1 and say where the people are and what they are doing.
2. (5 min) Pupils write the words under the pictures; check together.
3. (5 min) Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs, one asking and one answering.
4. (5 min) Pupils match the questions to the answers.
5. (5 min) Page 2: pupils complete the dialogue with the words in the box.
6. (10 min) Play the episode once for true or false, then again for the short answers.
7. (10 min) Role-play in pairs with card A and card B, then pupils swap cards.
8. (5 min) Check the answers with page 3.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs before the role-play, and keep page 1 in front of them while they play it. [A] Pupils invent their own problem in the same place and act it out without the cards.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 and 2 per pupil; cut out the role cards on page 2. Page 3 is the answer key: keep it. To play the episode, pupils scan the QR code with a phone or a tablet, or you play it to the class from the app (Listen Up!, "A favour for a neighbour"). Pupils need could for requests, days of the week, and will for the future.