Teaching Speaking: Showing Respect & Giving Advice

Cath McLellan is a teacher and English language materials developer in Barcelona, Spain. We are very happy that she decided to produce some material for Premier Skills English.

This lesson focuses on speaking skills and giving advice. 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

In this lesson, students will talk about what makes them angry, read a webcomic about respect and reflect on how not to lose your temper. There is a focus on language for giving advice and an opportunity for students to develop a dialogue using this language. By the end of the lesson, students will have practised their reading skills, discussed the importance of respect and fair play, be able to give advice using a range of structures and have practised writing skills by producing a dialogue. 

This lesson links to the two 'respect' webcomics we have on the Premier Skills English website. The first called Five United is set in Indonesia and the second called The Beautiful Game is set in Brazil.

Level

B1 / B2 (intermediate to upper intermediate)

Age

Teenagers and adults

Time

80 - 90 minutes

This lesson is flexible and can be used over two different classes of 45 minutes 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: Respect
• Webcomics: Online access to the 'respect' webcomic you have chosen

You can find all the materials and a copy of this lesson plan in the downloads section on the right-hand side of this page.

Procedure

1. Lead-in

Introduce the theme of the lesson to the learners:

2. Reading and predictions

Tell students they are going to read a comic about Felipe, a young footballer. 

Give them page 1 of the webcomic, or direct them to look at it online. If you want, give different roles to students so that they can read it aloud, or students can read it individually to themselves. 

Ask students to discuss the question in Activity 2 in pairs. Get feedback. 

Then, ask students to read up to page 4 of the comic and check their predictions.

3. Language focus and controlled practice

1. shouldn't
2. avoid swearing
3. must
4. it's a good idea

1. Followed by an infinitive (without 'to'): must, mustn't, should, shouldn't
2. Followed by an infinitive (with 'to'): it's a good idea, it's a bad idea
3. Followed by an object + verb (without to): make sure
4. Followed by a gerund: avoid

1. should / must
2. good idea
3. avoid
4. make sure 
5. shouldn't /mustn't

4. Pronunciation

Write these sentences on the board:

• You should train every day.
• You shouldn't shout at the referee.
• You must listen to the coach.
• You mustn't swear during the match.

Drill the pronunciation of the verbs should and shouldn't, /ʃʊd/ and /ʃʊdənt/ and must and mustn't /mʌst/ /mʌsənt/, and ask students to practise reading the whole sentences, drawing attention to how if we want to give more emphasis or if we are telling someone off, we might stress the modal verbs:

• You MUST listen to the coach
• You SHOULDN'T shout at the referee.

5. Focus on fluency

Put students in pairs and ask them to come up with five other pieces of advice about how to stay calm when you are angry (Activity 4). Remind students that these could relate to football as in the comic, or in life in general. Tell them to brainstorm ideas in pairs, and then write full sentences, using the verbs/phrases from the previous activity.

If they need some help with ideas, you could write these prompts on the board. Then ask students to formulate sentences, using the verbs and verb patterns from Activity 3.

1. deep / breath / take/ a
2. ten / count / to
3. raise / don't / voice / your
4. run / for / a / go
5. music / relaxing / to / some / listen
6. go / walk / a / for / long
7. yourself / put / in / place / the / person's/ other

Answers: 1. take a deep breath 2. count to ten, 3. don't raise your voice 4. go for a run 5. listening to some relaxing music 6. go for a long walk 7. put yourself in the other person's place.

Encourage students to use their imagination and their own experience here.

Once students have their list, ask them to change partners with someone from another pair and compare their answers. Encourage them to discuss how good their advice is and to choose the best three pieces of advice from the ten that they have.

Then ask for feedback from the whole class. Correct any errors with verb patterns. Depending on the size of the group, see if they can decide on a definitive list of advice.

6. Reading (comprehension)

Tell students to read pages 5 and 6 of the comic. Has Felipe followed any of the advice that the students came up with?

Then ask them to answer the discussion questions from Activity 5

Answers:

1. How does Felipe's dad feel about going to the match? He isn't very happy about it and thinks it might be a waste of time.
2. How do his feelings change during the match? He starts to enjoy it and feels proud of Felipe.
3. Why does Felipe get sent off? He swears at the referee.
4. How do Felipe's teammates react? They are annoyed at Felipe and blame him for losing the match.

7. Reading (discussion)

Tell students to skip to page 8 of the comic and read the ending.
Ask them to discuss the question in Activity 6 in pairs. 
Get feedback. Ask them to write a definition of what 'fair play' means. 

8. Task: Write a dialogue

Ask students to imagine that Felipe and his dad have a conversation in the changing rooms just after he gets sent off. How do they think he feels? Tell students that they are going to write a dialogue in which Felipe gives his dad some advice about how not to lose his temper. 

In pairs, students write the dialogue. Tell them they can include ideas from Activities 3 and 4. You can set a limit for the length of the dialogue.

9. Task: Write a dialogue

When students have finished their dialogue, they can read them either to the class (if your students are confident and your group is not too large), or put two groups together so that they perform for each other.  Remind them to focus on pronunciation and ask each group which dialogue they think gave the best advice and why. Finally, they can compare their dialogues to the one that appears on page 7 of the comic.

Task Extensions

Ask students to think of three examples of fair play outside the world of sport and share with the rest of the class.

We hope you enjoy the lesson!