Asking the way

Objective & content

A two-page pack for one everyday situation: asking the way in a town and understanding directions. Pupils learn the words (map, church, post office, supermarket, bridge, hospital) and the phrases to ask for help (Excuse me. Where's the post office? Is it far?) and understand the directions (Go straight on. Turn left. It's next to the supermarket. It's opposite the church.). Then they hear the same language in a real conversation, the Listen Up! episode "Asking the way", and use it themselves in a role-play. By the end, they can ask the way in a town and follow simple directions.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the language of the situation. Pupils talk about a picture of a girl with a map asking a woman the way in a town square, 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 (Ella, who is looking for the post office), then listen to the episode: Tom and Aisha are looking for the museum, but it's closed on Mondays, so they go on a boat in the park. 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 visitor asks a person in the street the way to the swimming pool. 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!, "Asking the way"). Pupils need places in a town, left and right, and next to and opposite.