English for Speakers of Other Languages: Everyday Life (Higher)

Learning Support Materials
English for Speakers of Other Languages: Everyday Life (Higher)
Teacher’s Notes

Introduction

These materials are designed to support learning and teaching for the Higher Unit English for Speakers of Other Languages: Everyday Life. They form part of a series of materials for the three Higher Units.

The materials are not designed to be a stand alone teaching pack but to supplement the materials which lecturers, teachers and tutors already use to deliver courses and to support ESOL and EAL learners.

The teacher’s notes are arranged in 3 sections as follows:

  • Teacher’s Notes
  • Answer Key
  • Listening CD track index Tapescripts

There are no supplementary materials for this Unit.

Table of Contents

Page

Teacher’s Notes 4

Answer Key 34

Listening CD track index53

Tapescripts 54

01 / Personal identity
Image 1
Task: / Talking about yourself and others
Skill: / Reading
Materials: / None
Notes: / Activity 1 (warmer):
Get the students to discuss the questions either in pairs or small groups. As feedback, elicit ideas from the class on image and what people from different cultures think of as image. Show some photos or pictures to stimulate discussion.
Activities 2 + 3:
Set up the activity by asking students how they read texts in general. Ask them to look at the questions first and then adapt their reading. Elicit ideas on different ways of reading (skim, scan, intensive, extensive). Give examples of different kinds of reading from their daily life e.g. skim – browsing the newspapers to find something interesting before deciding what to read, scan – looking at a bus timetable to find the time of the next bus, intensive – reading a document to understand it better, extensive – reading a book for pleasure and entertainment. Encourage students to match the reading task to the type of reading skill they need to use.
Students look at the questions and then the text to find the answers. Check understanding of tasks and stress the importance of following instructions. Some of the questions have distracters (extra words/phrases that are not needed).
Activity 4:
Students complete the paragraph with the words given
Activity 5:
Students practise collocations from the text.
Activity 6:
Encourage the use of a dictionary. Help students learn how to locate phrasal verbs in the dictionary. Stress importance of considering the whole 2 or 3 parts of the phrasal verb rather than looking up each word. Check that students realise that they need to change the base forms of the words sometimes.
02 / Personal identity
Image 2
Task: / Talking about yourself and others
Skill: / Speaking, Listening
Materials: / Recording
Notes: / Activity 1:
These words will help students to understand the listening.
Activity 2:
Students read the questions first. Check that students have understood instructions and that only 3 answers are correct for questions 1 – 3. Check they understand that more than one word is needed to complete the blanks in questions 4-8. Encourage them to predict the missing words. Play the recording once and students check their answers with each other. Play the recording a second time and students check their answers in plenary. Go over answers and give feedback. If appropriate, play the recording again while students read the tape script.
Activity 3:
Set up the activity and demonstrate what the students need to do. Put students in pairs. The pairs then join another pair to extend the discussion. Monitor each group and encourage them to think about other factors not listed. Finally the groups of 4 summarise their discussion for the whole class. Use the board to extend vocabulary and to give feedback on accuracy and fluency.
Activity 4:
Introduce activity by eliciting what kind of writing they need to do in their L1 or L2 e.g. letters, completing forms, etc. Ask about recent emails they have sent and their reason/purpose for sending them. Write a model email on the board using one of the examples the students have given, if appropriate. Encourage students to contrast writing emails with other styles of writing in terms of style, layout and content.
03 / Personal identity
Biography 1
Task: / Learning about self and others
Skill: / Speaking, Listening
Materials: / Pictures – modern art/classical art. Postcards of work by Vettriano would be good.
Notes: / Activity 1:
This vocabulary with help with the exercises in this lesson. Students match.
Activity 2:
Show students the pictures/postcards and elicit comments on what they like/dislike to set the scene.
Activity 3
Pre-listening:
Explain that the students are going to listen to an interview about an artist and answer questions. Ensure students read the questions first and understand what kind of information is missing.
While listening:
Play the recording once. Students check their answers together. Play it again and check the answers in plenary. Play a third time with the tapescript if appropriate.
Post listening:
Students personalise by talking about their own lives and comparing it with Jack’s.
Activity 4:
This activity is revision of reported speech.
04 / Personal identity
Biography 2
Task: / Learning about self and others
Skill: / Speaking, Reading
Materials: / Pictures – modern art/classical art. Postcards of work by Vettriano would be good.
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students ensure that they understand the vocabulary.
Activity 2:
Reading.
Students read and answer the questions. Make sure they are clear about what DS type questions are expecting. Check students understand the concept of ‘maiden name’ as the mother’s name doesn’t change when she gets married in all cultures. Tell students they are often asked this as a security check at banks etc. in the UK.
Activity 3:
A brief discussion in pairs.
Activity 4:
Students write their own questions about the text and hand them to another student to answer.
Activity 5:
Students look at the words in bold and try to work out the meaning from the context.
Activity 8:
Students complete the table:
05 / Personal identity
Culture
Task: / Talking about different cultures
Skill: / Speaking, Writing, Reading
Materials: / Access to web.
Notes: / This lesson is based on students’ input. They should be encouraged to talk in pairs or small groups.
Activity 1:
Students discuss in small groups.
Activity 2:
Student read thought the comments and answer the questions by identifying the feelings of the people.
Activity 3:
Students read the text and answer the questions.
Activity 4:
Students try to work out the meanings in bold from the contexts.
Activity 5:
Students go through each section and discuss whether they agree or disagree.
Activity 6:
In pairs, students write another paragraph on one of the topics.
6 / Current affairs
Newspapers 1
Task: / Understanding Style and Register
Skill: / Speaking, Reading
Materials: / Pictures of famous people would be useful.
Useful language for this lesson:
tabloid
broadsheet
home news section
foreign news section
feature article
editorial
announcements
obituaries
sports article
law report
articles
famous
to collect
collection
relevant / news item
reader’s letters
business news
TV reviews
programme schedule
weather report
crosswords
reader’s competition
cartoons
to reflect
abstract
views
linking words (when, as soon as …)
PM = Prime Minister
Notes: / Activity 1:
To introduce the topic, students talk about the newspapers which they have read.
Activity 2:
Students write sentences to illustrate the meaning of the words.
Activity 3:
Put students in pairs. Distribute a tabloid and a broadsheet to pairs. Students compare and make notes.
Activity 4:
Students predict the content of the article from the headline. Focus especially on the word ‘dumps’
Activity 5:
Students see if they can answer the questions without going back to the text.
Activity 6:
Students discuss and make notes. It is from a tabloid newspaper.
Activity 7:
Students match the language with the meanings:
7 / Current affairs
Newspapers 2
Task: / Understanding Headlines, reading newspaper reports
Skill: / Reading
Materials: / None
Notes: / Activity 1:
Point out that understanding headlines can be very difficult as they use a particular kind of newspaper language. Students match the words with their definitions.
Activity 2:
Students try to guess what stories the headlines refer to.
Activity 3:
Students read the headline and answer the questions. They try to predict what the subject of the article will be.
Activity 4:
Students read the article and see if their predictions were right.
Activity 5:
Students read intensively and decide if the statements are true or false.
Activity 6:
Students try to work out the meanings of the words in bold format from the context.
Activity 7:
Points for discussion.
8 / Current affairs
Television
Task: / Describing TV programmes/genres
Skill: / All
Materials: / Recording
Useful language for this lesson:
genre
soap-opera
sitcom
fly on the wall (documentary)
docu-soap
reality (TV shows)
factual / thought-provoking
cutting edge
dumbed down
gripping
obsession
debatable
Dependable
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students discuss and fill in for their partner.
Activity 2:
Students match the questions and answers:
Activity 3
Students match the genres with the descriptions of particular programmes.
Activity 4:
Students think of genres for each comment.
Activity 5:
Students work on the vocabulary from text in the previous activity.
Activity 6:
Students work out the significance of the figures. They then discuss the reasons for the statistics.
What is the significance of the following figures?
Activity 7:
Listen as many times as is necessary.
O9 / Current affairs
Radio 1
Task: / Talking about radio programmes
Skill: / Speaking/Listening
Materials: / Recording
Notes: / Activity 1:
Student work through the questions. This will help them to learn the vocabulary and will serve as an introduction to the listening.
Activity 2
Students fill in the extracts from the script with the correct prepositions. This also serves as an introduction to the topic and will help with the listening.
Students listen as many times as necessary to answer the questions.
Activity 3:
See tape script below for answers.
Activity 4:
Students discuss in small groups.
10 / Current affairs
Radio 2
Task: / Understanding style and register
Skills: / Speaking, Listening
Materials: / Recording
Useful language for this lesson:
context
colloquial language
colloquialism
appropriate
genre
genre
sound quality
digital radio
dialogue
infer
recommend / continuum
bonus
babysit
radio frequency
idiom
hilarious
fascinating
dull
(total) escapism
thought-provoking
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students try to match in pairs. They then discuss which stations they would prefer to listen to.
Activity 2:
Pair or group work. Feedback on the board.
Students listen to and discuss the excerpts and what kind of programme they are.
Students answer listen again and answer the questions.
Activity 3:
Students listen and answer the questions.
Students listen again for the reasons for their answers.
Activity 4:
Students match the words and the meanings and then decide if they are positive or negative in connotation.
Activity 5:
Students listen and decide if the statements are true or false.
Students match the expressions with their meanings.
11 / Social environment
Health 1
Task: / Learning about health/health care
Skill: / All
Materials: / Leaflets from doctors surgeries etc
Useful language for this lesson:
general practitioner (GP)
specialist
consultant
(repeat) prescription
appointment
health insurance
operation
examination
patient
medicine
vaccination
sick note/ medical certificate
emergency
clinic
referral
ailment
illness
disease / symptoms
cure
treatment
viral
infectious
contagious
rash
spots
swollen
sore
alternative
complementary
therapy
practitioner
natural
healing
remedy
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students match the sentence halves.
Students discuss how health conscious they are.
Activity 2:
Students read the text and match the appropriate headings to the paragraphs. NB: there are more headings than paragraphs.
Activity 3:
Students complete the table.
The next part is practice for speaking on a set topic. They can work in pairs, or in front of the class if confident enough. Keep strictly to the time limit.
Activity 4:
You could do the example on the board. Students write similar maps for the other questions. Students present one of the above issues using their mind map.
12 / Social environment
Health 2
Task: / Learning about health/health care
Skill: / All
Materials: / Leaflets from doctors surgeries etc.
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students discuss the main health problems in the UK and their cases. For example: obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc.
Activity 2:
This vocabulary should help students with the reading. They answer the questions in pairs.
Activity 3:
Students read the whole text and try to answer the questions without referring back.
  1. Diabetes
  2. No
  3. fat
Activity 4:
Students read the text and work out the meaning of the words from the context matching the words below the text. They then complete the sentences.
Activity 5:
Students share their knowledge in pairs. This vocabulary will help with reading the second text.
Activity 6:
Students read the text and find out the symptoms for type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Activity 7:
Students fill the gaps in the text with the words given.
13 / Social environment
Health 3
Task: / Learning about health/health care
Skill: / All
Materials: / None
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students use dictionaries to work out the meanings of the ailments and doctor’s equipment.
Activity 2:
Students read the advertisements. They make sure they understand what the techniques are. They then match the practices with the descriptions. Finally they complete the table with the practitioners.
Activity 3:
Divide the students into pairs. They do the role play.
14 / Social environment
Education 1
Task: / Discussing issues about schools
Skill: / All
Materials: / None
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students discuss the questions in small groups.
Activity 2:
Students check if their reasons are mentioned in the text.
Activity 3:
This focuses on formality. Students decide if the statements are true or false.
Activity 4:
Students read the requests and think about the questions.
Activity 5:
Students find phrases in the first request which match.
Activity 6:
Students decide which features tend to be more formal and which features tend to be less formal.
Activity 7:
Students re-write the phrases so that they are less formal.
Activity 8
Students write their paragraphs in class.
15 / Social environment
Education 2
Task: / Finding out about FE and HE
Skill: / All
Materials: / None
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students read the text on progression from school and decide if the statements are true or false.
Answers:
Activity 2:
Students read the text and complete the sentences.
Activity 3:
Students complete the application form.
16 / Social Environment
Technology
Task: / Understanding technical talk and the Internet
Skill: / All
Materials: / Access to computer lab or laptops, recording
Useful language for this lesson:
technological advance
installation
communication
satellite
mobile phone package
network coverage
tailor-made
incentive
tariff
to forge a deal
computer-assisted language learning (CALL)
online interactive exercises
instant feedback
individualised study
personal interests / corporate discount
value for money
quarterly
incorporated
complement
to maximise
to analyse
one-stop-shop
business utilities
keyboard skills
computer literate
communicative
pronunciation
authentic
quality control
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students think of the technology which they use in their everyday lives and compete the sentences. They then compare with their partners.
Activity 2:
Students reply to the Email.
Activity 3:
A Students work through the exercises.
B Students listen the recording and fill in the table.
Activity 4:
Students read the text and answer the questions.
Activity 5:
Students work on the language of the text.

Scottish Qualifications Authority1

English for Speakers of Other Languages: Everyday Life (Higher)

17 / Social environment
Safety 1
Task: / Reading about safety
Skill: / Speaking, Reading
Materials:
Notes: / Activities 1 + 2:
This is an activity to set the scene and can be done as a whole class or in groups. It may raise some uncomfortable memories if a student has had a personal tragedy. If the subject is dealt with in an impersonal way initially, this may help.
Activity 3:
The first item is an extract from the government website giving advice to the general public; the second explains the legal requirements to provide fire exits and so has to be precise but not necessarily easy to read. Check students can distinguish the different genres. The questions are designed to highlight this. There may be a variety of answers.
Activity 4:
Students work on the language of the test.
18 / Social environment
Safety 2
Task: / Listening to an account of a fire
Skill: / Speaking, Listening
Materials: / Tape script
Notes: / Activity 1:
Students should only label parts of the firefighter’s equipment they hear being mentioned on the tape script. The first step is to identify the different items; then some descriptive words could be added if they choose.
Activity 2:
A. Students listen and make notes in the table. Make sure that they write as much detail as they can.
B. Students make notes about the right things they did and the mistakes they made. They may have to listen again. See tape script for answers.
Activity 3:
Students consider the building where the lesson is being held and consider the points.
19 / Social environment
Safety 3
Task: / Reading about working animals
Skill: / Speaking, Reading
Materials: