Sequence 2 : Reading &

Writing
Aims: By the end of the sequence, students will be able to:
 Read, respond to and writing an e-mail.
 Use ‘frequency adverbs’ with the simple present tense.
 Use ‘degree adverbs’ to modify adjectives.
 Using ‘reflexive pronouns’ and ‘prepositions of place’.

Competencies:
 Interacting – Interpreting – Producing.

Skills:
 Reading and interpreting an e-mail message – Writing an e-mail message.

Functions:
 Describing people’s regular activities – Describing a place.

Language forms:
 Frequency adverbs – Degree adverbs – Reflexive pronouns.

Material needed:
 Textbook – Board.

Time required:
 5 hours.
 Sequence 2 : Reading &
Writing
 Procedures:
 Anticipate

Targeted competency:
 Interacting – Interpreting.
 Warm up:
TER interacts with PPS over the screenshot (an image showing a computer screen or part of
it) that is taken from a web browser’s page, and explains that each icon has a function, and asks
PPS what happens when clicking each of these icons.

 P20: Match icons 1-6 in the screenshot with their functions (A-F).
 Learning objective: Students will be able to relate icons to their right functions.
 Key:
1 2 3 4 5 6
B F A D E C

 P20: Look at the screenshot above and guess what kind of internauts are most likely
to visit the advertised website.
 Learning objective: Students will be able to categorise the users of the website.
 Suggested answer:

 The internauts who want to strike up friendships (make keypals and penfriends) on
the internet are most likely to visit the advertised website.

 P18: What is the screenshot below used for?

 Learning objective: Students will be able to determine the use of the screenshot.
 Key:

 The screenshot below is used for sending e-mail messages.

 Sequence 2 : Reading &
Writing
 Procedures:
 Read & Check

Targeted competency:
 Interacting – Interpreting.
 Warm up:
TER Asks PPS to skim through the first two paragraphs for general understanding with a
view to cheching their previous answers.

 P21: Read the first two paragraphs and check your answers to the previous tasks.
 Learning objective: Students will be able to verify the answers from the previous
rubric.
 Warm up:
TER Asks PPS to scan the rest of the e-mail for specific information with a view to
answering the following questions. PPS had better take a look at the questions first.

 Note: Question “C” is to be changed:

 Why does she always go to school by bus?

 P21: Read the rest of the email and answer these questions.
 Learning objective: Students will be able to detect information in the e-mail.
 Suggested key:

A. Kirsi is Finnish (from Finland).

B. She wants to correspond with Amel because she wants to know more about her
country.
C. She always goes to school by bus so as not to arrive late.
D. She lives in the countryside (We live in central Finland in a tiny village).
E. She rarely goes out at the weekend.
  Warm up:
TER explains that we sometimes don’t have to keep repeating the same words (especially
nouns) time and time again; we replace them by other words from different parts of speech like
pronouns to refer to nouns so as to avoid repetition and awkwardness.

 P21: What do the words in bold type in the e-mail above refer to?
 Learning objective: Students will be able to detect information in the e-mail.
 Key:

Your § 1 Country § 1 Myself § 3 It § 5 Country § 5 It § 6

Amel Algeria Kirsi Jyvaskyla Finland Finland

 Note:
 TER brings PPS’ attention to the layout of the e-mail and the content of the
paragraphs (why she is writing, she introduces herself, she describes her regular
activities, she describes her family, she describes her town, and then her country)?
After that, TER tries to heighten the language forms in the text (frequency
adverbs/degree adverbs/ordinary and extreme adjectives), which will be dealt
with in the following rubric by asking questions and eliciting information from PPS
as an introduction to the next lessons.
 Sequence 2 : Reading &
Writing
 Procedures:
 Discover The Language

Targeted competency:
 Interacting – Interpreting.
 Warm up:
TER sets this example to PPS orally and interacts with them over it.

Seven days a week. Always.

 I go to the cybercafé Three or four days a week. Sometimes.
Zero days a week Never.

TER gives the first example mentioning the days (Sunday, Monday…) to show PPS the full
rate of going to the cybercafé, and then he introduces “Always”. Then, TER does the same with
“Never” and after that “sometimes”. Afterwards, TER asks PPS about the ‘part of speech’ of
these words and their function “the number of times when an action or event happens within a
given time period” (TER points out to “-times” in “sometimes” to lead PPS to infer the function).

 Frequency Adverbs :
 Study the following examples:

 I always go there by bus.

 I generally get up very early.
 The dog is sometimes furious.
 I rarely go out at the weekend.

TER explains the rate at which these actions happen over a given period to indicate the
“frequency” of each of them. Meanwhile, he points out the difference between the adverbs of
“indefinite frequency”, and others of “definite frequency” like: once, twice, daily, weekly, every
month, on Mondays…They all describe a person’s habits and regular activities.
Finally, TER asks PPS about their position regarding the verbs to see where they occur.
  Reminder:
 “Adverbs of frequency” give the number of times of the happening of an action
within a given time period. They answer “how often?”.

Never Hardly ever Rarely Sometimes Often Generally

Always
I I I I I I
I
Not ever Seldom Occasionally Frequently Usually

 Warm up:
TER explains the next task to PPS. They should use the questionnaire and rely on their
partners’ objective answers by using both of the questions and the answers to form sentences
including the frequency adverbs, and then assemble them into a report (following the example of
the third paragraph of the e-mail).

 P22: Report your findings about your partner’s regular activities using the
questionnaire above.
 Learning objective: Students will be able to integrate the frequency adverbs into
sentences and organise them into a report.
 Suggested report:

‘Hamid’ generally gets early in the morning. He always goes to school on foot. He
never eats in the school canteen. He hardly ever revises his lessons. He often studies
from 8 to 12 in the morning. He is staying in secondary school until the Baccalaureate
exam.

 Warm up:
TER writes examples from the e-mail on the board without colour or underlining, and has an
interaction with PPS over it.

 Degree Adverbs :
 Study the following examples:

 School is a little bit far from my home.

 First, TER asks PPS to spot the adjective in the sentences. Then, he asks them to what
extent or degree ‘school is far’, ‘the town is nice’, and ‘summer is cool’ (to a small/medium/large
degree), and how they can tell; to bring the role of “degree adverbs” into focus, and asks them
whether a change in the meaning occurs when replacing “fairly” by “very” for example.

 Reminder:
 “Degree adverbs” show the extent or degree of an adjective (or another adverb).
 Some of the intensify the meaning of adjectives:
 Large degree adverbs: very, extremely.
 Some of them reduce the meaning of adjectives:
 Medium degree adverbs: rather, quite, fairly.
 Small degree adverbs: slightly, a little (bit).

 Warm up:
TER refers PPS again to the expressions in the e-mail: “tiny village”, “winter is terrible” and
asks them about the meaning of the adjectives and whether we can grade them with “degree
adverbs”. TER explains to PPS but there are categories of adjectives that are “non-gradable”
such as “extreme adjectives” and “absolute adjectives”: “alive, dead, full, empty, right, wrong,
awake, asleep…” (Their meaning is strictly definite and explicit and can be graded only by
“really” + “full degree adverbs”: “absolutely, entirely, completely, totally…), E.G.: Can we say
very dead? slightly empty? rather right?

 Note:
 Not all the adjectives can be graded.
 “Ordinary adjectives”: we can modify them by “degree adverbs”.
E.G.: bad – small – cold – angry – nice –fat- surprised – hungry.
 “Extreme adjectives”: we cannot modify them by “degree adverbs” because
their meaning is strong.
E.G.: terrible – tiny – freezing – furious – wonderful – obese – astonished - starving.
 After explaining the note, TER defines “starving” as “very hungry”, and “astonished” as
“very surprised”, and thus leads PPS to infer the relationship between the “extreme adjectives”
and the “ordinary adjectives”.

 Tip:
 “Extreme adjective” = very + “ordinary adjective”.
E.G.: Wonderful = very nice.

 P22: Match ordinary adjectives 1-8 with extreme adjectives A-H. Then use 4
ordinary adjectives with degree adverbs in sentences of your own.
 Learning objective: Students will be able to relate extreme adjectives to their
corresponding ordinary adjectives.
 Key:

1.good 2.hot 3.tired 4.interesting

excellent boiling exhausted fascinating

5.large 6.sad 7.funny 8.clever

huge tragic hilarious brilliant
 Sequence 2 : Reading &
Writing
 Procedures:
 Write It Right

Targeted competency:
 Interpreting – Producing.
 Warm up:
TER directs PPS’s attention to the e-mail on page 21 again, and asks them what each
paragraph is about (Why she is writing, she introduces herself, she describes her regular
activities, she describes her family, she describes her town, and then her country). PPS will
realise the layout of the e-mail, and will know which plan to follow when writing a reply to the
same e-mail. PPS first try to answer some of the table’s questions to write a paragraph describing
their country, and inspire themselves from the questionnaire to write another one describing their
regular activities.

 P23: Read Kirsi’s e-mail and write a short reply following the plan below.
 Learning objective: Students will be able to write an e-mail following a plan.
 Suggested e-mail:
I’ve received your e-mail and I thank you for your interest. I would like to know about
you and your country too. But I have to introduce myself first.
My name is “Hamid”. It is rather a common name in Algeria. I am eighteen years old.
I am a first year student in high school. My dream is to become a translator, and to
achieve it I still have six more years to study.
I usually get up early in the morning to go to school. I always go there on foot because
it is close to our house. I often have classes from 8 to 12 in the morning. I never eat in the
school canteen because we don’t have one. I always revise my lessons in the night before
I go to sleep.
My family is a typical Algerian family. I have two brothers besides Mum and Dad. My
brothers are older than me and they study at University. My mother is a housewife and
my father is a painter. My house is rather small, but I like it.
I live in Oran, one of the most beautiful cities in Algeria. My country is located in the
north of Africa. It is bordered to the east by Tunisia and to the west by Morocco. It has a
population of about 35 million people. The average temperature is 30° in summer and
15° in winter. It is famous for its wonderful beaches, marvelous southern areas and
places of history. That’s all for the moment! Keep in touch.
“Hamid”