At the café

Objective & content

This functional language sheet teaches pupils to order food and drinks in a café (I'd like a cheese sandwich, please. Can I have an orange juice, please?), answer the waiter's questions (Anything else? Small or large? Eat in or take away?), ask the price (How much is it?) and pay (Here you are.). Pupils read a dialogue in which Rania orders for herself and her mum, find the missing words and read the useful phrases, given in a box. By the end, they can order, ask the price and pay in a café, politely.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the dialogue, with a picture of the waiter and of Rania: she asks for the menu, orders a cheese sandwich, a large orange juice and a cup of tea for her mum, asks the price (seven pounds ten), pays and chooses to eat in. Pupils find eight missing words in lines from the dialogue. Page 2 has the useful phrases in a box, with the key words in bold, five situations to match to a phrase (asking for the menu, asking the price, paying, saying that's all, choosing to eat in) and six lines of the waiter or the customer with three replies each, where pupils tick the best one. Page 3 has a dialogue in which a boy orders a hot chocolate and a muffin, to number from 1 to 8, and Jude's order to complete with seven words in a box. It also has a menu with prices in pounds. The last task is a role-play: pupils cut out cards A and B, act out a role-play in pairs with the menu (A is a customer with five pounds, B is the waiter), then swap. Pupils read the prices on the menu and say them; they never have to add them up. Every exercise opens with a worked example.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Show a few food and drink words and ask the class "What would you like?"; pupils answer "I'd like ..., please."
2. (10 min) Read the dialogue aloud; pupils find the missing words.
3. (5 min) Read the useful phrases in the box with the class; pupils find them in the dialogue.
4. (10 min) Page 2: pupils match the situations to the phrases, then tick the best replies.
5. (10 min) Page 3: pupils number the lines of the boy's order, then complete Jude's dialogue.
6. (10 min) Role-play: pupils read the menu, act out the role-play in pairs with cards A and B, then swap.
7. (5 min) Check with the answer key on page 4.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the dialogue aloud in pairs, one as the waiter and one as Rania, before the tasks.

[A] Pupils write the menu of their own café with five things and their prices.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 to 3 per pupil, and scissors for the role-play cards. Page 4 is the answer key and teacher notes: keep it. The role-play is free speaking, so any answer that uses the phrases and fits the card is right. Pupils need the numbers to twenty, the words for food and drinks, and a and an. To take it further, set up a class café with the menus, and pupils take turns as waiters and customers.