ELL 1 - Lesson 1 - Communicating 1: Conversation

Warm Up

Write agenda on the board and explain the activities

1. Warm up
2. 5 Random Facts: Teacher models by writing 5 words on the board that relate to themselves (Ex: 5,
penguins, yellow, Japan, 0). Students must then ask the teacher questions to try and guess the
meaning of each word. After the students have tried to figure out each word, the teacher reveals
the true meaning (Ex: I’ve visited 5 countries; Pittsburgh Penguins are my favourite hockey team;
Yellow is my least favourite colour; I’ve always wanted to visit Japan; I have 0 brothers and sisters)

3. 5 Random Facts: Now students write down their five words and ask one another questions to try
and guess the meaning of one another’s list.

Core Competencies – Communicating

Today we are going to focus on the Core Competency of ‘Communicating’.

Communicating means: “the set of abilities that people use to impart and exchange information,
experiences, and ideas; to explore the world around them; and to understand and effectively use
communication forms, strategies, and technologies. Communicating provides a bridge between
peoples’ learning, their personal and social identity, and the world in which they interact.” (BC
Curriculum)

Discuss the meaning of this idea with the class.

Content – Modeling Conversation Structure

Teacher will try and illicit from the students first: “How does a conversation normally start in English?”

Write down the answers given my students. Then work together with their ideas to form a
conversation/dialogue structure. Write the structure on the board, talk them through it, then have
them engage with the structure and try using different answers to fill in the blank information.

Example:

A: Hi. How are you?

B: Good! How about you?

A: I’m doing well. What have you been up to?

B: I’ve been… And you?

A: Lately, I’ve… Any big plans this week/weekend?

B: I’m going to… What about you?

A: I’m planning to… Well, it was great to see you.

B: You too. Have a nice day.

A: See you later

Practice - Pronunciation of Conversation Words

Ask students which words they tend to find difficult to pronounce. Write those words down, clarify
pronunciation and chant as a group 5 times to solidify learning.

If students are struggling to think of words, use some of these resources to find them:

100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English

Commonly Mispronounced Words for English Language Learners

Content – Building Stronger Vocabulary

Ask students which words they used in their practice conversations they think are too simple or basic.

Give them the example of the most commonly used basic words: good, bad, happy, sad, beautiful.

Explore the idea of connotation vs. denotation:

When we say “skinny” vs. when we say “thin”: Which one has the more positive connotation? Thin is
more positive than skinny or skeletal or boney or a lot of other words. Slim has a more positive
connotation than thin. This is the kind of thing that is very difficult to understand in English because it
is more about instinct and our experience with the language.

Have the class look on thesaurus.com or use a book Thesaurus to find better synonyms for each word.
As you look through the synonyms listed pick 5-6 words for each and place them on a line from a
positive to a negative connotation.

Example:

Negative Positive

Skeletal Boney Skinny Thin Slim

Content – Grammar Lesson – Structuring Questions

Ask students to list the question words: Who, What, Where, When, Why, How, Do/Does, Are/Is,
Have/Has, etc.

Write those words up and work with the students to structure questions together.

Forming wh-questions

With an auxiliary verb

“We usually form wh-questions with wh- + an auxiliary verb (be, do or have) + subject + main verb or
with wh- + a modal verb + subject + main verb:”

Be: When are you leaving? Who’s been paying the bills?

Do: Where do they live? Why didn’t you call me?

Have: What has she done now? What have they decided?

Modal: Who would she stay with? Where should I park?

Now have students practicing writing their own questions. They should write questions that will allow
them to learn more about one another.

Once they have 5-8 questions, they will use those questions for practice in the next section.

Practice - Speed Dating

Students will now bring their own questions into this activity. Pair them up and have them converse
and work through the questions for as long as you feel appropriate (5-10 minutes). Ding a bell when
they need to move onto the next person. Continue until everyone has spoken with every other
student.

If they need help thinking of ideas for questions, you can use this website to find several lists of
questions and break them down grammatically to explain the structure.

Conversation Questions

Wrap Up

1. Have students create a Google Doc or a journal where they will fill in reflections.

2. Allow students some time to metacognitively reflect on their learning at the end of each class.
For today they should reflect on questions and conversations: What new things did you learn
today? What can you start to use in your English conversations going forward?

3. Have students submit a question to you about any topic that they want to be answered next
class.

Homework
a. Students must create 10 new conversation questions for next class

b. They also must have at least one English conversation outside of class