1.6

Activity 6

Goal: Make a planner about how your last week was.

(1) Listen to the following conversation and then practise in pairs.

(2)

A: How was your weekend?

B: Great. On Saturday morning, I worked out in the gym. On Saturday

afternoon, I played tennis with my girlfriend. Saturday night we went to

a dance club.

A: What did you do on Sunday?

B: I stayed in bed all day.

(3) Use information that is true and exchange information in pairs.

(4) Look at three persons’ calendars for last week. Ask and answer questions in pairs as follows:

(5)

A: What did Maria do on Wednesday?

B: She had lunch with her mom, and she went to the movies with Tina.

(6)

(7) Discuss in groups: Who is the most interesting person? Why?

Example: “I think Keiko is interesting. She likes music and art”.

(8) Listen to the three persons (Keiko, Maria and John) talking about what they did last week. Some of the things are different from the items on their calendars because they changed their plans. Listen and find out the differences in groups.

(9) Fill in the planner about what you did last week.

Talk about what you did last week in groups.

(Nunan, D. (1995). Atlas: Learning-Centered Communication: Book 1 (pp. 89-90). Boston , MA : Heinle & Heinle Publishers.)

This activity is presented in the form of tasks. The task is goal-oriented and contains a number of small tasks. In order to achieve the goal, students have to exchange opinions in pairs or groups and a wide range of linguistic forms should be used, not just simple past tense.

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1.7

Activity 7

Take turns talking about vacations. Ask these questions and others of your own.

Where did you spend your last vacation?

How long were you away?

Were you with your family?

What did you do there?

How was the weather? The food?

Did you buy anything?

Do you want to go there again?

(Richards, J. C. (2000). New Interchange: English for International Communication: Students’ Book 1 (p. 44). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)

Students are required to ask and answer the questions in turns. The answers are based on students’ experience and are not known to the other person. There is no right or wrong answer.

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1.8

Activity 8

Step 1

Work in pairs and listen as your instructor reads a short narration about what Richard did last Saturday.

Step 2

In pairs, give as many details as you can remember by completing the following sentences. The group with the most details wins. You have three minutes.

1) Richard jumped out _______________________________.

2) Richard needed ___________________to wake up fully.

3) He wanted to go back to sleep but remembered ______________.

(Benati, A. G., & Lee, J. F. (2008). Grammar Acquisition and Processing Instruction: Secondary and Cumulative Effects (p. 182). Bristol/Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.)

In this activity, students in pairs listen to a short narration about what Richard did last Saturday. Next, they have to give as many details as they can remember by filling in the blanks. As there are no adverbial phrases (e.g. “yesterday”, “last night”) functioning as hints, students should pay attention to the past tense marker -ed.

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