1 The construction industry
plumbing) and site manager (who manages the
Briefing
This unit offers a general introduction to the
construction industry. It focuses on the different
types of jobs, construction and sectors in the
industry. It introduces the alphabet and practises
spelling out names. It also provides practice in
introducing oneself in a work setting, and
understanding and describing a house plan.
Introductions
In this section students will learn how to introduce
themselves and others. They will learn the names of
some jobs in the construction industry, which
include architect (someone who designs buildings),
building inspector (someone who checks the work
on a building is done in the correct way), plumber
(someone whose job is to install water pipes, baths,
toilets, etc.), roofer (someone who constructs or
repairs roofs of a building) and crane operator.
Students will also learn the terms we use to relate
people who work on a construction project to each
other. For example, the client pays the general
contractor (who is responsible for organising the
project). The building work takes place on the
construction site. This section also teaches the
names of some countries.
The Language section focuses on the present simple
of be, the present simple of regular verbs, as well as
adverbs of frequency and time expressions in the
context of introductions and talking about one’s job.
Finding out more
This section introduces students to the alphabet and
the difference in pronunciation between the letter z
in British and American English. Students practise
saying the alphabet by spelling names and using
abbreviations. Note that rpm is a unit for measuring
speed of rotation; it states the number of times a
shaft, wheel, etc. makes a 360° rotation per minute;
the term JCB is often used to identify the actual
earth-moving equipment, not just the company.
Students will learn how to ask and answer questions
about people’s jobs. They will also learn more terms
to describe people’s jobs in the construction industry
(for example, labourer (a worker who does hard
physical work), subcontractor (hired by a general
contractor to do specialist tasks such as roofing or
workforce and arranges for suppliers to supply
goods and services for the project)).
The Language section focuses on Wh- questions and
questions with be.
The construction industry
This section focuses on different types of
construction and sectors in the construction
industry. To prepare students for this lesson, see the
text in Exercise 4 on page 9 for examples of key
vocabulary relating to the four sectors (or parts) of
the construction industry: residential, industrial,
infrastructure and commercial.
Students are introduced to prepositional verbs to
help them describe the industry in their area (for
example, consist (of), deal with and pay for).
The Language section focuses on the noun plural
endings -s, -es and -ies.
Parts of a house
In this section students learn the names of parts of a
house. The section also aims to help students
understand a house plan and provides them with
practice in describing their own home from a house
plan they have drawn.
Further reading
Use the following keywords to search the internet
for websites which give more in-depth information
about the topics covered in this unit: construction
jobs, construction industry, Construction Industry
Council, house plans.
Preparing for this unit
Do the Entry test. For the Listening part of the test,
use track 14.
Prepare role cards with names, job titles and
different countries for Exercise 5 on page 5.
Bring in maps/photos of the local area for the extra
activity following Exercise 4 on page 9.
Prepare cards with names of different types of
construction for the extra activities for pages 8–9.
Research the construction industry in the area your
students come from, for Exercise 8 on page 9.
The construction industry 1 3
Teacher’s notes
Warm-up
With books closed, begin the lesson by introducing
yourself to the class: Hi. I’m [name]. I’m from
[country]. Encourage some confident students to
introduce themselves to the class, first by
introducing yourself again, then by asking: And you?
You could go on to respond by saying Pleased to meet
you. If appropriate, ask students to stand and walk
around the class introducing themselves to each
other. Monitor them as they do so.
The purpose of this warm-up activity is to help you
find out the level of your students’ English, check
some basic structures and identify stronger and
weaker students.
Introductions
Vocabulary
1 Ask students to look at photos A–E. Explain that
the people all have jobs in the construction
industry. Allow students time to look at the
photos and to ask you any questions about the
jobs. Point out that the b in plumber and the u in
building are not pronounced. There are many
silent letters in English which can cause
difficulties in pronunciation and spelling for
students. There is no need to go into any detail
here but it is good to make students aware of
these when they come up. You could drill these
words chorally first, then ask for individual
repetition.
Draw students’ attention to the five sentences.
Ask them to read the sentences and to match
them to the photos. Check answers with the
class, then check pronunciation of the different
jobs. Ask students to look back at the sentences
and find three different ways to say hello. Then
ask them to say I’m Karol Nowacki in another
way. Ask a couple of students What’s your name?
1E 2C 3D 4B 5A
Extra activities
1 Ask students to look back at sentences 1–5
and find the names of five countries. Ask:
Where is Kamal Boukhaled from? (Morocco)
Then ask students to work in pairs and take
turns to ask each other where the people in
sentences 1–5 are from.
2 Ask students if they know the name of their
job in English. If not, ask them to look it up
in a dictionary. Then put students in pairs.
Ask them to introduce themselves to their
partner using any of the sentences in 1 as
a model.
Listening
2 ► 02 Tell students that they are going to hear
the five people from 1 introducing themselves to
each other. Draw their attention to Conversation
1 and explain that from the Ministry means that
Jun Takahashi is someone official or an
inspector.
Put students in pairs. Ask them to read through
the conversations and try to complete as many
of the gaps as they can. Tell them to refer back to
the sentences in 1 for help. Do the first item with
the class as an example.
Play the recording, pausing after each
conversation and asking students to check their
answers in their pairs. Play the recording again
before checking answers with the class. Go
through the texts, focusing on I’m ..., I’m from
[country] or I come from [country]. Explain that
I‘m is the contracted form of I am and that we
normally use this form when speaking. Ask
students to find two different questions in the
conversations (What do you do? and Where are you
from?) and drill these two questions around the
class. You could then ask a few students these
questions.
1 I’m 2 France 3 inspector 4 meet
5 operator 6 roofer 7 name’s 8 Where
9 Morocco 10 My 11 do 12 architect
The construction industry 1 4
 Reading
3 Ask students to look at the man in the photo and
ask: What does he do? Do not confirm answers.
Ask students to read the text to find out what
the man does. Then ask them if they were right.
Explain to students that they are now going to
look through the text and underline all the
verbs. If necessary, explain that a verb is a word
to describe an action. You could ask students to
look at photo C on page 4. Say: Isabelle designs
buildings. Ask students to find this sentence in
Conversation 4 and to say which word is the
verb. Then, as examples, ask them to find the
first two verbs in the text in Exercise 3. Students
work on their own to find and underline the rest
of the verbs.
During feedback, point out that most of the
verbs are in the third person singular. Explain
that most of the verbs are regular (for example,
live and work) and that they end in -s in the third
person singular, but that be is irregular. Tell
them that they will study this further in the
Language section to follow. If necessary, explain
that has is the third person singular of have. Go
through any unfamiliar verbs (for example, hire
and deal with) and jobs (for example, general
contractor, subcontractor and supplier) with the
class.
is, comes, lives, works, is, hires, work,
organises, has, works, has, visits, deals, is, is,
works, is
4 Draw students’ attention to sentences 1–5, which
are about Harun Rashid, and tell them that these
sentences are not correct. Ask them to find a
word in each sentence which is incorrect and
correct it. Students could do this in pairs if they
like. You could ask stronger students to try and
do the exercise without looking back at the text
in 3 first and then to check their answers in the
text.
1 Harun Rashid is a general contractor.
2 He hires subcontractors to work on building
projects.
3 He has a lot of experience in the
construction industry.
4 He sometimes visits construction sites.
5 He never works on Fridays.
Language
Draw students’ attention to the Language box.
Go through the explanation in the first table
(Present simple: be) with the class. Draw their
attention to the sentences using contractions in
the right-hand column and point out the
contracted forms ’m, ’s and ‘re. Ask students if
they know the full forms. Remind them that
when we speak English, and also in informal
writing, we normally use contracted forms. We
use full forms in formal writing. Encourage
students to use contracted forms when speaking
in class. Point out that the full form is used after
this as it is impossible to pronounce in the
contracted form.
Draw students’ attention to the question What’s
your name? and answer My name’s Karol. Drill the
question and answer by asking a confident
student the question. When they answer with
their name, get them to ask another student the
question. Then allow students to do this three or
four more times.
Go through the information in the second table
(Present simple: regular verbs) with the class.
Point out that the base form is used for all forms
apart from the third person singular. Draw their
attention to the position of adverbs of frequency
and time expressions with the present simple.
Speaking
5 Go through the model conversation with the
class and ask individual students how they
would complete each gap. Point out that hi
should not be used in more formal work
situations. Demonstrate the activity with a
confident student. Take the part of A in the
conversation, ask the student to take the part of
B and introduce yourselves to each other. Then
put students in pairs to practise the
conversation. Go round monitoring, making
sure students are using contractions correctly
and helping them with vocabulary and
pronunciation of their own jobs and countries. If
students come from the same place or vocational
school, do the extra activity below. When they
have finished, you could allow a couple of
confident pairs to act out their conversations.
The construction industry 1 5
 Extra activity
This activity provides further practice in
carrying out simple conversations and also
revises the jobs and countries students have
met so far in this unit.
Prepare some cards and write a name, a job
and a country on each one. Give out the cards
and ask students to work in (different) pairs
and practise introducing themselves to their
partners.
Finding out more
To assess students’ ability to say the letters of the
alphabet, with books closed, write your name on the
board or on a piece of paper, then say your name
and spell it out to the class. You could then check
that students know the alphabet in English. Remind
them first that there are 26 letters. Accept either the
British or the American version of the letter z. Then
ask individual students to spell their names out to
the class.
Listening
1 ► 03 Ask students to open their books and look
at the letters of the alphabet in 1. Explain that the
letters are not in alphabetical order but in
groups according to how the letters sound. For
example, the letters in the first group (A, H, J
and K) all have an /eɪ/ sound.
Point out that the letter z has a different
pronunciation in British and American English.
Play the recording so that students can listen to
the letters in their groups. Then play the
recording again, pausing after each group for
students to repeat. You could go on to do some
individual repetition of each group of letters.
2 ► 04 Ask students to listen to the recording
and write the surnames they hear. Point out that
we use Pardon? when we want someone to
repeat something.
1 Trochowski 2 del Bosque 3 Burgess
Extra activity
Ask students to write the name of a famous
person on a piece of paper. Then put them in
pairs and ask them to take turns spelling the
name out to their partner. Their partner writes
the name down. When they finish, their partner
tells them who the famous person is.
Speaking
3 Ask students to close their books and put them
in pairs. Write cm on the board and tell students
that this is an abbreviation, i.e. the short form of
a word. Ask them what the word is (centimetre).
Tell them that they are going to take turns
reading out some abbreviations to their partner.
Their partner writes down the letters they hear.
They then check that they have written the
correct letters down and say what the letters
mean.
Ask A students to use the abbreviations on page
6 and B students to use the abbreviations on
page 68. Go round the class monitoring and
making sure that they are pronouncing the
letters correctly.
Extra activity
You could ask students if they know any other
abbreviations in English. Check that they are
pronouncing the abbreviations correctly and
ask them if they know what the letters stand
for. If they do not know the answers, ask them
to find out for homework and check their
answers in the next lesson.
4 Tell students that they are going to practise
spelling out their names to each other. Draw
their attention to the model conversation. Drill
the two questions first, then choose a confident
student to demonstrate the activity. Remind
students to say thank you after they have got
their information.
Ask students to stand up with their notebooks
and to go round the class to find out how their
classmates’ names are spelt. When they have
finished, ask a few pairs to act out the
conversation.
Extra activity
As a warm-up for the listening activity in 5, get
the class to brainstorm jobs in the construction
industry and write them on the board. These
could be jobs students have come across in the
unit or any others they know. If electrician,
labourer and site manager are not mentioned,
write these up too. Ask students to try and
explain what an electrician, a labourer and a
site manager do.
The construction industry 1 6
 Listening
5 ► 05 Draw students’ attention to the names in
5. Tell them that they are going to listen to three
conversations. In the conversations they will
hear what jobs these people do. Ask them to
listen and write the jobs they hear next to the
names. Play the recording. Allow students to
check their answers with a partner, then play the
recording again and check answers with the
class. You could point out that the spelling of
some words is different in British and American
English (for example, labourer (BrE) and laborer
(AmE)).
1 electrician 2 roofer 3 roofer 4 crane
operator 5 labourer 6 labourer 7 site
manager 8 building inspector
Language
Go through the Language box with the class,
drawing students’ attention to the meaning of
what, where and how, and the examples. Point out
that the word order changes in questions with
be. Explain that we use the auxiliary verb do to
form questions with most other verbs in the
present simple. Point out that in the third person
singular, we use does, not do (for example, What
does he do? Where does she work?).
6 Ask students to look at the audio script for track
5 on page 72. Explain that these are the
conversations they listened to in 5. Ask them to
read the conversations and underline the
questions. Allow students to discuss their
answers in pairs before checking with the class.
You could then ask students to look back at the
‘Questions with be’ section of the Language box
and to find two questions with the same word
order in the audio script. (Are you the new
electrician? Can I help you?)
Conversation 1
Chestertons, the subcontractors?
What does he do?
Conversation 3
Pardon?
Are you the new electrician?
Can I help you?
Kim, the site manager?
7 Ask students to complete sentences 1–8. Tell
them to look back at the Language box if they
need help. Then get them to compare answers in
pairs before checking with the class.
1 Where 2 What 3 Where/How 4 What
5 What 6 How 7 Where 8 Where
8 This exercise is in two parts. Ask students to put
the words in 1–6 in the correct order to make
questions first, and then to match the questions
to answers a–f. When checking answers, choose
one student to ask a question and another
student to answer.
1 What does he do? a
2 Can I help you? e
3 How do you spell that? d
4 Where do you work? c
5 What do you do? b
6 Are you the site manager? f
Speaking
9 Draw students’ attention to the model
conversation. Tell them that they are going to
work in pairs and take turns asking and
answering questions about the people in 5. Ask
them to try and answer the questions without
looking back at their answers in 5 if they can.
Demonstrate the activity with a confident
student, asking them to say what Tariq does.
Students then do the activity. Go round
monitoring and giving help as needed.
Extra activity
If appropriate, put students in pairs and ask
them to take turns asking and answering
questions about their classmates, following the
model in 9.
The construction industry
Listening
1 ► 06 To prepare students for this activity, write
p l _ m b _ r on the board. Explain to students
that this is the name of a job. Ask them what the
missing letters are. Then write the missing letters
in the gaps.
Ask students to look at the photos. Explain that
they are all different types of construction and
ask students if they can identify them. Tell them
that they are going to hear the spelling of each
type of construction and that they should write
in the missing letters. Play the recording.
The construction industry 1 7
 Alternatively, students could try and complete
any of the missing letters first and then listen to
the recording to check their answers.
Check answers by asking one student to choose
one of the photos and spell out the name of the
construction. Make sure that they pronounce
bridge /brɪʤ/ correctly.
1 tunnel 2 road 3 bridge 4 house
5 school 6 hospital 7 apartment
8 office block
2 ► 07 Tell students that they will now listen to
six conversations and they must choose which
type of construction from 1 the people are
talking about. Play the recording, pausing after
each conversation to allow students time to
write in their answers. Then play the recording
again for students to check their answers. Allow
students to compare answers in pairs before
checking with the class.
1 school 2 bridge 3 apartment(s)
4 office block(s) 5 tunnel 6 hospital
Extra activity
Put students in pairs. Hand out a set of cards to
each pair (see Preparing for this unit in the
Briefing section). Ask students to put the cards
face down. Explain that Student A starts by
picking up a card and showing it to Student B.
Student B says what type of construction it
shows (for example, bridge). Student A then
asks Student B: How do you spell ‘bridge’? and
Student B has to spell out the word. Student B
then picks up a card to show Student A. Ask
students to check with you if there are any
disputes.
Speaking
3 Draw students’ attention to the role cards. Tell
them that they are going to practise introducing
themselves to other students using the
information in the cards. Go through the role
cards with the students and explain any words
they might not know or need reminding of (for
example, factories (buildings where workers
make a large number of things to be sold) and
flyover (a bridge that carries one road over
another); you could draw a picture of a flyover if
necessary.).
Draw students’ attention to the model
conversation and demonstrate the activity with a
confident student using two of the cards. Then
put students in pairs to practise the
conversation. Go round monitoring and giving
help as needed.
Reading
4 Draw students’ attention to the two charts and
allow them a few moments to take in the
information. Point out that some information is
missing. Remind students that a client is
someone who pays a person or organisation for
a service (for example, to build a bridge). Ask
them to read the text and complete both charts.
After checking answers, go through any
language problems with the class and check that
students understand the meaning of consists of,
deals with, pays for and hires.
1 construction 2 residential 3 infrastructure
4 commercial 5 general contractor
Extra activity
If you have brought in maps/photos of the
local area (see Briefing section), show them to
the class and ask students to pick out different
construction types.
Vocabulary
5 Ask students to work alone and draw three or
four different types of construction. Then put
them in pairs and ask them to take turns
showing their drawings to their partner for
him/her to say what they are.
Extra activity
Play a game of Pictionary using cards with
names of different types of construction.
Demonstrate the activity first. Ask a confident
student to come to the front of the class and
give them a card (for example, with the word
school). The student must not say what is on
his/her card. Instead they have to draw the
building for the rest of the class to guess what
it is. Set a time limit of one minute for the class
to guess. The student that guesses the building
correctly then has a turn.
6 Ask students to complete the sentences with the
words in the box. Check answers with the class.
1 hires 2 deal with 3 consists of 4 are
5 pays for
The construction industry 1 8
 Language
Go through the Language box with the class.
Draw students’ attention to the different plural
endings. Point out that we add -s to form the
plural of most nouns but when a noun ends in
-ch, -sh, -ss, -s or –x, we form the plural by
adding -es. For nouns ending in -y, we change
the -y to -i and then add -es.
7 Ask students to read through the text in 4 again
and underline all the plural nouns.
The construction industry in the UK consists of
four different sectors. The residential sector
deals with houses and apartments. The
industrial sector deals with big projects like
factories and power plants. The infrastructure
sector is for projects like roads, bridges and
tunnels. The commercial sector is for things like
schools, hospitals and office blocks. The client
pays for the project, and hires general
contractors to deal with subcontractors,
equipment and materials.
Speaking
8 Put students in small groups. Draw their
attention to items 1–7 and tell them that they are
going to discuss the construction industry in
their area and list examples of each of the items.
Tell them to look back at the text and charts in 4
to help them. Go round monitoring and giving
help as needed. Use the list from your research
to jog students’ memory.
Extra activity
For homework, students could write up a short
paragraph about the industry they talked about
in 8, using the text in 4 for guidance.
Parts of a house
Listening
1 ► 08 Draw students’ attention to the two
diagrams and explain that they are house plans.
Check that they understand ground floor and first
floor. Explain that ground floor is British English
and that in American English first floor is used
instead. Make sure students understand the
meaning of the different parts of the house and
check any tricky pronunciation (for example,
/ˈkɪʧən/ and /pɔ:ʧ/). Then tell students that they
are going to hear someone describing the house
and that they must listen carefully and say
whether the speaker describes it correctly. Before
listening, allow students one or two minutes to
take in the information in the house plans. Play
the recording, then check answers with the class.
No, the speaker does not describe the house
correctly: there are four bedrooms.
Speaking
2 Tell students that they are now going to draw a
simple house plan and label it. Explain that they
will show their plan to a partner and ask and
answer questions about it. Go through the
example questions with the class before putting
students in pairs to talk about their house plans.
When they have finished, ask students to find a
new partner and repeat the activity.
Review
Writing
1 This exercise reviews ways of introducing
oneself. Ask students to complete the sentences
on their own. They can then compare their
answers in small groups.
Students’ own answers
Extra activity
You could ask students to describe one person
in their group to the rest of the class. The rest of
the students then have to guess who is being
described.
2 This exercise reviews Wh- questions used to
introduce oneself. Students match questions a–d
to their answers in 1. They can then practise
asking and answering the questions with a
partner.
a4 b2 c1 d3
3 Ask students to write four things a general
contractor does using the correct form of the
verbs in the box.
Suggested answer
A general contractor hires subcontractors,
deals with clients, organises equipment and
materials and visits construction sites.
The construction industry 1 9
4 Ask students to write four sentences to describe
what they do in their job. Pre-work students can
write about a job from the unit.
Students’ own answers
Vocabulary
5 Ask students to complete the sentences with
nouns used to describe the different sectors of
the construction industry.
Preparing for the next unit
Unit 2 introduces students to more names of trades,
as well as materials used in the construction
industry. Bring in pictures of buildings from
magazines for students to name the materials used
in them for the extra activity following Exercise 4 on
page 14. Also prepare role cards with different
names, surnames, addresses, telephone numbers
and ages for Exercise 5 on page 18.

Suggested answers
1 construction 2 residential 3 infrastructure
4 commercial 5 industrial

6 This activity reviews vocabulary from the unit.

Ask students to write five examples of each of
the items listed.

Suggested answers
1 plumber, electrician, general contractor,
crane operator, site manager, building
inspector, roofer, architect
2 house, hospital, factory, school, office block,
apartment, road, tunnel, bridge
3 hall, window, door, kitchen, bathroom,
bedroom, stairs, dining area, family area, loft
area

7 Ask students to complete the text with the

words and phrases in the box. You could get
them to compare answers in pairs before
checking with the class.

1 about a project 2 architect 3 residential

area 4 subcontractor 5 a new office block
6 supplier

8 In this activity students revise abbreviations

used in the unit. Ask them to write what the
letters mean, then check answers with the class.

1 heating, ventilation and air conditioning

2 alternating current 3 personal protection
equipment 4 high voltage 5 kilogram
6 petrol, oil and lubricants 7 centimetre
8 revolutions per minute

Now do Unit test 1.

The construction industry 1 10