Teaching Vocabulary: Describing Food

This lesson focuses on vocabulary and using adjective + noun collocations. There are language tasks and activities for your students, a focus on pronunciation, a main speaking task and extension activities.

Find the full lesson plan and all the worksheets you need in the downloads section on the right-hand side of this page.

Lesson Plan

Introduction

Ever get a little hungry watching a football match at the stadium?  What food do they have on their menu? Well, this lesson focuses on describing the food available at football stadiums on match day. The lesson gives learners a chance to create their own menu for a football club of their choice and decide what healthy options should be on the menu as well as food items from their own country and from around the world. This lesson links to any of the many food-related pages on the Premier Skills website. 

Level

A2 / B1 (elementary to intermediate)

Age

Teenagers and adults

Time

45 mins + 45 mins

This lesson is flexible and can be used over two different classes or one 90-minute class. You can also extend or shorten some of the steps depending on the level and needs of your students.

Preparation

Materials

• Worksheet 1: Menu
• Worksheet 2: Definitions
• Worksheet 3: Controlled Practice
• Task Worksheet

You can find all the materials in the download section on the right-hand side of this page.

Procedure

1. Lead-in

Setting the scene
Set the scene for the lesson: The halftime whistle goes. Halftime lasts for 15 minutes. Ask learners what they will do until the match restarts? (Ideas: take selfies, check other scores, go on social media, go to the toilet, chat with friends, buy some food, buy a drink) 
Explain that they have checked their phone and now they are hungry and thirsty.
Ask learners to work in pairs and write down as many food items and drink items that they think they can buy at halftime at a football match. 
Set a time-limit of 2 minutes.

Get feedback from the whole class. Any new vocabulary can be defined and put on the board.

2. Reading 1

Tell learners that they are going to be given a football half-time food menu (Worksheet 1: Menu).

Learners in pairs have to check their food and drink item predictions (from lead-in) with the menu and tick how many of their items are on the actual menu.

Check who predicted the most items on the menu. 

Ask learners to work together to decide if they like the menu or not and get them to discuss their reasons.

3. Reading 2 (for meaning)

Ask learners to identify words on the menu that match the definitions (Worksheet 2: Definitions).

Learners must read the menu and find the words to match to the definitions.

Hand out the answer worksheet.

4. Language Analysis

Form: Adjective + noun 
Ask learners: 
What do we call these describing words? (Adjectives) 
What do we call item words used for food? (Nouns)

Give an example: 
Roast chicken (adjective + noun) 

Ask the class for any more examples they can think of.

Pronunciation: Syllable stress / word stress
Drill the adjective + nouns on the menu and ask learners to underline the stressed word for each collocation (Worksheet 1: Menu).
Ask learners to identify the pattern (Adj + Noun)

Likes/dislikes
Tell learners an item you like and dislike on the menu. 
E.g. I really like the foot long dog, but I'm not so keen on the steak and kidney pie. 

Brainstorm different ways of saying ‘to like something’ and ‘to not like something’. Include:

I like …. 
I’m keen on …. 
…. sounds delicious/yummy/good!

I don’t like….
I’m not sure about …..
…. sounds disgusting/awful/bad!

Learners make notes in their notebooks.

5. Controlled Practice (part one)

Adjective + Noun Practice
Tell learners about a new more interesting menu you have created but there are some adjectives that you can't decide on. 
Learners select the best adjectives on the new menu (Worksheet 3: Controlled Practice).

Learners check in pairs. 

6. Controlled Practice (part two)

Like/Dislike Language Practice
Show learners a new menu. Why do you have a new menu? Your favourite football club wants a new food company to sell food at its stadium.

Give out the new menu and ask learners to read it.

Everyone in the class can like only 50% and dislike the other half. 

Roleplay with a learner. 

E.g. A: How about the steak and kidney pie?  B: Sounds tasty.

Learners work in pairs using the list of like/dislike language and ask each other about each of the menu items (Worksheet 3: Controlled Practice).

Monitor for use of like/dislike language and adj + noun pronunciation.

7. Main Task (free practice)

Create A Menu
Ask learners if they think your (worksheet 1) menu will be chosen by the club (elicit a ‘no’ from learners). 
Tell learners they have to invent their own food company and create their own menu. The best menu will be selected by the football club. 
They must try and make it the most delicious sounding menu (use adjectives to describe all food).
They can use any food/drink (pie ideas) from this lesson and/or any other interesting food/drink from their country or around the world.

Hand out blank menu template (Task Worksheet). 
Learners complete in pairs. 
Learners have 10 minutes.

Stick the finished menus on the walls around the room.

Ask learners to walk around with notebooks and make a note of items/menus that they like and dislike. 
Learners can vote for their favourite menu (not their own) by adding a star to the menu that they think sounds the most delicious. 
Learners have 5 minutes. (During this stage, monitor and highlight good use of language and errors on each menu)

Put learners into small group (3-4). 
Learners must tell each other about some of the menu items that they liked and some of the menu items they disliked.
Set a 5-minute time limit.

Monitor for use of language and pronunciation.

Count the stars on the menus and announce the favourite menu: Congratulations, your company and menu have been selected to provided the food for your favourite football club.

We hope you enjoy the lesson!