Using Authentic Materials in the Classroom hand-out

7/31/2019 Using Authentic Materials in the Classroom hand-out

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Copyright Claire Hart - businessenglishlessonplans.wordpress.com Business English Lesson Plans

Using authentic materials in the training room: A sample lesson overview

This is a plan for a lesson I taught this week with a group of 6 design engineers working in a company

called PERI GmbH which produces scaffolding and formwork and designs scaffolding and formwork

solutions for construction projects including bridges, tunnels and high-rise buildings all around the

world. The lesson was designed specifically with the products from this company in mind, but it

could be used as a model and adapted to any other company or industry which produces and/or

sells several different products or whose products have several different components.

Level: A2 plus

Assumptions made: that learners already know the English names for some of their products and/or

their components, but there are gaps in their product vocabulary repertoire.

Time needed: 90- 120 minutes

Lesson Aims:

To re-familiarise learners with the English names for their companys products/ componentsof their products.

To introduce the English names for their companys products/components which learnersare not yet familiar with.

To help the learners remember and use these words by engaging them in activities and taskswhich require them to do just that.

To give learners the opportunity to take part in a communicative task in which they need touse the target vocabulary and functional language.

Stage 1 Warmer

Aims: To get the learners thinking about the names for parts of these systems in English again/ get

them to reactivate the vocabulary needed and to introduce the theme of the lesson: names for

products and system components using authentic materials.

Materials used: Pictures showing systems the learners company designs and builds taken from their

handbook. See below for an example.

Activity: In pairs, learners look at images from their handbook and identify as many different

features from it as they can in English. Give them a limited period of time to do this, e.g. 5 minutes.


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Copyright PERI GmbH

Stage 2 Matching words and pictures

Aims: The aim here is for the learners to find out which English words for formwork components

they already know, refresh their memory of this vocabulary and also to introduce them to some

vocabulary for components which may be new to them.

Materials used: Pictures of formwork components taken from the companys handbook. I copied

pages of the handbook which contained drawings of formwork components, cut the drawings out

and stuck them onto a sheet of paper. I made several copies of this sheet, cut out the different parts

again and put them in an envelope to keep them safe. I also made a crib sheet for myself, so I would

know exactly what each part was called (see below).


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Copyright PERI GmbH

Activity: Give each learner a copy of the sheet with all fifteen components on it and a list of the

components names. Ask the learners to match the names with the parts by writing their names on

the sheet with the drawings. Some learners may prefer to do this with partner and some may preferto do it alone. In any case, check the learners answers when theyve all finished.

Stage 3 - Games

Aims: The bingo games provides an opportunity for listening comprehension of the target

vocabulary and the matching pairs game allows them to use the vocabulary orally by connecting it

with the corresponding pictures.

Materials: Pictures of formwork components cut out and made into cards. A set of 15 componentscards should be given to each learnerthis means a lot of cutting, but its worth it!

Activities: 1) Bingo: Learners choose nine of the component cards and arrange them in a 3 x 3 grid

(see below). The teacher says the names of al l fifteen components and if the learner has that

component on their bingo grid, they turn it over. Keep playing until learners get lines or a full house

and give them prizes for a line or a full house, as you wish.


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Copyright PERI GmbH

Activities: 2) Matching pairs: Two learners work together, each takes their fifteen component cards

and turns them face down, then they mix all of their cards together. The learners take turns turning

over the cards until they find two matching cards and they then have to say the name of the

component in English. When you get a pair you can have another go and the first person to get eight

pairs is the winner.

Stage 4 Communicative activity on the telephone

Aims: The aim here is to give learners the opportunity to use the target vocabulary during a

communicative task which they regularly have to take part in during their working lives, specifically

telephoning. A sub-aim is to review telephoning language for requesting and exchanging

information.

Materials: Formwork components cards used in stage 4 and role-play cards.

Activities: I rounded off this lesson with a communicative activity based on requesting and

exchanging information on the phone, within which learners need to use the vocabulary for

formwork components. In the case of the learners in this company, I was aware of the fact that most

of the communication they take part in in English is on the phone and that was the reason why I

honed in on this function.

1. Elicit or teach useful phrases for requesting and exchanging information with the learners:

- Could you tell me how many scaffold brackets you need (please)?

- Do you need 50 scaffold brackets or 15?

- Can you email me the information about the scaffold brackets (please)?


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2. Ask the learners to work with a partner whose area of responsibility is similar to or the same as

theirs and/or a partner who works in the same department or team as them so that the scenarios

the two face at work are likely to be as similar as possible.

3. Give each pair two role-play cards (see below) and ask them to create a scenario in which they

would need to use language for requesting and exchanging information and the names of formwork

components on the phone.

4. Learners perform their telephoning simulation for the rest of the group who have to listen and

guess what the learners wrote on their role-play cards.

5. After the role-plays have been performed you can do peer and teacher feedback and possibly give

them a post-task based on this activity which you could either create yourself or take from a book,

e.g. Telephoning in English by B. Jean Naterop and Rod Revell (Cambridge University Press, 2004) has

an exercise on Requesting Information Writing Questions in Unit 1, so this could give learners the

opportunity to practise writing requests as well as making them orally.

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Using Authentic Materials in the Classroom hand-out