At the station

Objective & content

This is a short everyday conversation, about a minute and a half long, to listen to and then answer: Zara, 14, and her grandma are at a railway station with a journey to make, and a station worker answers their questions. The script is not shown in the app: pupils only listen, and a picture of an empty railway platform under a glass roof shows during the opening sound, then fades under the word "Listen". The language is the language of travelling by train and bus: the present perfect with already (I've already paid), which for a thing (a bus which goes to ...), should for advice, will for the future, and imperatives for directions, with the words hurry, journey, exactly, ticket office, board and miss. 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 cause, the time, the tickets and the way to the stop). 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 and the words after which.
3. Role-play: in threes, ask a station worker for help, with a new town, a new time and a new place to go.

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: telling the time, numbers and prices in English, left and right, and the past simple of common verbs.