Lesson Plans: Functional Language

Great practice of negotiating and English for the insurance industry and financial English more generally, with students using and trying to remember typical insurance vocabulary used in negotiating roleplays.

Choosing between suitable, unsuitable and comically bad negotiating responses, trying to remember the good ones, then analysing them for the best language and tactics.

Starting and ending polite and friendly emails and letters review

Giving, agreeing with and disagreeing with opinions on end of year and New Year festivities speaking, including seeing if those opinions match your political outlook

Students explain and then roleplay typical realistic situations for them to use English for business and ESP communication, including face to face, on the phone and by email - great for first classes and as a lead-in to needs analysis.

English for logistics students describe typical realistic English situations for them then roleplay communicating face to face, on the phone or by email, and reflect on how the interaction went - good for first classes as a kind of needs analysis.

Explaining festivals and celebrations that the other person doesn't know practice, with useful phrases for explaining meanings, origins, customs, etc.

Phrases for giving examples speaking game

Deciding and stating the purpose of your presentation review, including bad examples to improve

How to start formal and informal presentations review, including a jigsaw task.

Good and bad ways to do personal introductions in presentations.

Discussing and arranging steps to get a presentation ready.

Lying game to practise phrases for quoting sources, especially useful for EAP classes

Working out which opinions phrases are stronger, including strong and weak agreeing and disagreeing.

Places for foreign visitors to go to speaking.

Realistic requests in the classroom setting speaking

Positive and negative answers to requests practice, including more polite responses

Phrases for sharing your personal experiences speaking

Advice on using English in social situations, with advice practice and useful social English phrases

Judging if opinions, agreeing and disagreeing phrases are strong or weak quick reactions game.

Words that go together in strong opinions phrases and weak opinions phrases.

Stronger generalising phrases and weaker generalising phrases review.

Completing telephoning phrases through brainstorming and roleplays. Students practice different phrases for telephoning situations. They test each other in pairs and roleplay conversations.

Different kinds of phrases for interrupting classification and card games.

Staff and travellers phrases listening and speaking practice.

Comparing and contrasting review on the topic of Valentine's Day, with linkers, comparatives, etc.