Listening+2

Lluís Miquel Bennàssar
At a restaurant
 * Activity: **

English II for Adults at CFA
 * Level: **

I ask students if they have ever been abroad and how they have ordered food in a bar or restaurant. What did they find more difficult? 1 Order the food 2 Understand the waiter 3 Understand the prices I write down the strategies and language they used in this situation. We discuss the strategies and language and decide on the most valid ones. We make a list of strategies and language. We draw up a list of things students find difficult. I ask sts to put them away because we’ll have a look at it later. We watch a video from Youtube education: a young man orders food in a restaurant. I ask sts to identify the strategies and language the young man uses in the video and we compare them with the list we drew up previously. Ara there any coincidences between the two lists? We point out the new strategies and language. I hand out a photocopy of the conversation from the Youtube video. It’s a transcription with several gaps. Sts listen to the conversation again and fill in the gaps. Since it’s an initial level I provide the words sts need to fill in the gaps. Before hearing the conversation again, I ask the meaning of the words they need to complete the conversation. Then sts match the words with their phonetic transcription. I pronounce the words and sts repeat after me. Finally they repeat the pronunciation of the words. Now they hear the conversation again and complete the gaps. I correct the activity. Now we produce a list of set phrases reading through the dialogue. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sts translate the set phrases and in pairs they test each other. St A says a sentence in L1 and st B tells the sentence in English. What mark would they give their partners?
 * Short description: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To understand, pronounce and produce set phrases for ordering food or drink in a bar or restaurant.
 * Objectives: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I consider that a competition and a self-evaluation would be suitable to assess the activity: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">St A says a sentence in L1 and st B tells the sentence in English. What mark would they give their partners? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Afterwards: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How many set phrases can you produce in a minute by heart? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When they finish sts compare que sentences they have written down with the list of set phrases we have drawn up earlier. Have they made many mistakes? What mark would they give themselves? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Finally, I ask two or three volunteers to say out loud the set phrases.
 * Assessment: **

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 * Link: **

= Add your comments: = Hi, Núria, this Lluís Miquel. Trying to answer your question I think it's better to assess tasks or final products after sts hava had a lot of chances to practise separate aspects, such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary. This is what springs to my mind after reading your comment. However, I'll give it more thought. Assessment is always a tricky question.

Hi, Lluís Miquel. This is Núria

What calls my attention in this case is your emphasis on the strategic behaviour students should adopt when facing a task. I think what you teach them is that our perceptions of what is difficult are not always correct. That students learn that is important.

Furthermore, I think you have prepared a set of different activities related to skills to serve communicative purposes (At a restaurant). I think that's really good.

When it comes to assessment, you can assess full tasks, using maybe a mean of the mark obtained for the different skills, or assess each of the skills separately. Then have different final marks for listening, another one for writing... I have a combined approach because, in this way, it is easier for me to control that I advance evenly in developing all the skills. Can you think of any other way?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hi, Núria. This is Lluís Miquel
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I hold the view that it’s good for students to know beforehand what they are going to be assessed about and how. For example, preparing a rubric with the items you’re going to focus on. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On the other hand, a fun way to assess children without making them aware they are being assessed is compiling a quiz dealing with several aspects of a lesson. You can even ask sts to think of questions about the lesson they’d like to ask other peers. You put the questions together and compile a quiz. Students may do the quiz in groups and get a score. The quiz can help students point out their strengths and weaknesses and help them reflect which areas need improvement. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">