New Adventures with English

IntroductionThis ESL course book is designed to acclimatise students to a new cultural

and learning environment. It helps them fit into their new culture and make

new friends. This is what students want, and it’s what makes language

leaning real and valuable.

How it works

Learning is promoted by exposing students to culturally authentic and

intrinsically motivating every-day situations. The activities guide them to the

successful achievement of practical and social goals through:

Exploring cultural, social and practical aspects of situations commonly

encountered in daily life

Providing language skills and strategies to achieve identified goals

within these situations

Demonstrating how these skills and strategies can be applied, and

Providing students with practice in using these skills to achieve their

own objectives

How is this book different to current ESL course books?

Most ESL course books select contexts and situations based on the ease of

presenting a particular grammar point. Relevance of topic and interest are

secondary considerations. These books are irrelevant to the lives of learners

and as a result are not motivating. They are therefore difficult to teach from,

and often very large sections of these texts are completely discarded in the

classroom.

In this course book commonly encountered social and practical situations

and their related goals come first, and in this way the material becomes

relevant and therefore motivating.

Pedagogy

This book is written with four guiding principles:

1. Language cannot be separated from culture.

2. Motivation is the single most important factor in language learning

success.

3. Material has to be interesting and authentic.

4. Students need to make improvements in all aspects of communicative

competence – not just grammatical and lexical.1

To The Teacher – How to use this book

Please feel free to use the material in the way best suited to the level of your

students. It’s really aimed at lower intermediate and above. The higher level

students will appreciate more discussion on the social aspects, as well as

exploring more authentic language. You can slot in phrasal verbs, idioms,

slang, or any related situations to make it more interesting. As native

speakers the students are looking to us to provide them with ‘real’ language.

Note on the Listening section

The characters in the listening section will appear in each subsequent unit,

and the plot will focus on how these students cope with new situations in

their daily lives. Your students will be participants and observers as these

characters develop their social and language skills. For this section, I would

suggest using the better speakers in the class to firstly read out the

dialogue. After that I would suggest role-plays in groups, with the best group

presenting in front of the class. You will need to assist with pronunciation,

especially word and sentence stress and timing. If some of the vocabulary is

new, you could start with that before listening.

If you are interested in working with me to complete this text, please view the document on scribd titled

Expression of interest ESL coursebook

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New Adventures with English

An ESL guide book for

a new life

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Unit 1 – It’s great to meet you

Words & ExpressionsIn this unit you will explore the language and social skills needed to start and end

conversations, and ask personal questions in a polite way.

Starting a conversation

To start a conversation with someone that you don’t know, the first thing you need to do is

make eye contact. Catch their eye, nod, or smile in a friendly way, and then exchange a brief

greeting. For example:

Sally: Hi. How are you?

Ben: Fine thanks. How about you?

Sally: I’m great. My name’s Sally. What’s yours?

Ben: I’m Ben. Nice to meet you Sally.

Sally: Nice to meet you too.

1. Conversation practice: Stand up and greet the people around you.

Keeping the conversation going

The next step is to continue the conversation by asking a question about a topic that is both

safe and easy to talk about. The topic is usually about your surroundings.

2. Activity: With your partner, write down some safe questions that you could ask in these

locations:

In the classroom:

(e.g. Is this your first week?)

At a bus stop:

In the supermarket:

3. Conversation Practice: Now choose one of the locations above. Stand up and start a

conversation, then ask questions to keep it going. Talk for one minute then change

partners, select a different location, and keep going.

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So…..,Oh. Look at the time!

I should (must) be going

Closing a conversation

The final step is a polite ending to the conversation. In many situations, the reason for ending

appears naturally. For example, at a bus stop when the bus arrives:

Oh, here’s the bus. We’d better get on.

In other situations you may need to be more careful when you want to end the conversation. It ’s

considered rude to suddenly say “good-bye” and walk away. There are three steps to politely

end a conversation:

First: Signal that you are going to end the conversation

Second: Say that you are leaving.

Third: Say goodbye and walk away.

4. Activity

Imagine that you and your partner are meeting for the first time in the situations below. Have a

two to three minute conversation. Start with greeting, and then ask questions to keep the

conversation going. When your teacher gives a signal, close the conversation and change

partners. Keep going.

You’re standing in a line to buy take-out coffee. You’ve seen the person in front of

you a couple of times before.

You’re having lunch in a cafeteria and you notice someone at the next table who

looks familiar, but you don’t remember their name. He/she smiles at you.

You’re in a video shop, and you notice that one of the other customers looks like a

TV celebrity. Introduce yourself and start talking. Try to get their autograph.

You’re in the street and you notice a foreign tourist looking at a menu outside a

restaurant and looking confused. Go over and help them.

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Well…..

Bye …..

I have to (e.g. get back to

class).

Good-bye …

See you (later, tomorrow, soon.)

I’m afraid I have to leave now.

Reading & WritingBelow is a student enrollment form. First write the questions you would need to ask in order to

fill in the form in the space below the question. Next, ask your partner the questions and fill in

the form. Finally, present your partner to the class.

Personal Information

First name: Last name: Nationality:

Q. What’s your first name? Q. Q.

Type of visa: Date of Birth: Marital status: Sex:

Q. Q. Q. Q.

Address:

Q.

Mobile phone numbers: Home Phone number:

Q. Q.

Type of accommodation: (home-stay / private)

Q.

Course Information

Name of Course Enrolled in: Level of English:

Q. Q.

Start date: Finish date: Number of weeks:

Q. Q. Q.

Other Information

Previous English study:

Q.

Reasons for study:

Q.

Hobbies/interests:

Q.

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Listening & PronunciationYou’re going to listen to two conversations between students on their first day at a language

school.

1. Listen to Part 1 of the conversations and write answers to the following questions:

What are the student’s names?

Where are they from?

Where are they staying?

2. Listen again and answer true, false or not given next to each of these statements:

Mariko is not married. Deborah is married.

Mariko wants to be a flight attendant. Deborah wants to be a journalist.

3. Listen to the conversation again. As you listen underline the words that are stressed in each

sentence (sentence stress).

4. Why are these words stressed? Discuss with your partner and present your answer to the

class.

5. Practice the conversation with a partner, focusing on copying the sentence stress.

6. Practice one more time, however this time use information about yourself.

Part 2

1. Listen to Part 2 of the conversation and answer the following questions:

What countries do Moritz and Jimmy come from?

Who does Moritz live with?

2. Listen again and complete the sentences:

Moritz is _________ ________ old.

Lausanne is _________ and _________.

3. Listen to the conversation again and, as before, underline the stressed words.

4. Practice the conversation in a group of 4 or 5 students focusing on the stressed words.

5. Stay in your group, and begin the discussion activity on the next page.

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Small group discussion activity: Decide who goes first (use rock, scissors, paper). The person to go first can choose any square.

They must talk for at least 1 minute. Each person in the group must then ask them one question

based on their response. The person to their right then goes next and chooses any square.

Keep going until all squares have been selected. (Based on “forfeits” in Classroom Dynamics by

Jill Hadfield).

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15. Tell everyone three things about your family.

1. Tell everyone three things about your hometown.

3. Tell everyone about the best film you ever saw.

4. Tell everyone about your hobbies.

5. Tell everyone three things you really like.

7. Tell everyone what you like doing on the weekend.

6. Tell everyone three things you really don’t like.

8. Tell everyone about something you can do well.

11. Tell everyone what makes you happy.

10. Tell everyone about an ambition that you have.

12. Tell everyone what makes you sad.

9. Tell everyone something you would like to be able to do well.

13. Tell everyone about something that’s important to you.

14. Tell everyone where you would like to live the most.

How …

When …

Where …

Why …

Who …

What …

Do you …

Did you …

Is it …

Are you …

16. Tell everyone what you would do if you were rich.

2. Tell everyone about what you did last night.

Dialogue – Unit 1Part 1

A conversation between Mariko and Deborah

on the first day of school.

Mariko: I hate filling in forms.

Deborah: Me too.

Mariko: What does it mean “Marital Status”?

Deborah: I think it means are you married.

Mariko: Well, I’m not married so do I write “no”?

Deborah: No. You need to write “single”

Mariko: Oh, ok, thanks. By the way, my name’s

Mariko. What’s yours?

Deborah: Hi, Mariko. I’m Deborah. Where are

you from?

Mariko: Japan, and you?

Deborah: I’m from Brazil.

Mariko: Oh, that’s interesting.

(Pause as they keep filling in the form)

Mariko: Oh. I’ve forgotten my home-stay family’s

address. It’s only my first day here.

Deborah: Really? I’m staying in a backpackers

near the train station.

Mariko: What’s it like?

Deborah: Noisy, but fun. So many interesting

people but I can’t sleep at night. It’s too noisy.

Mariko: Oh, that’s too bad. (pause). “Reasons for

study”. I think I’ll write “to improve my English”.

What about you?

Deborah: Well, I really want to be a Journalist,

and in my country a journalist must speak

English, but my English is not good. My level is

just intermediate.

Mariko: Oh, me too!

Deborah: That’s great. Maybe we’ll be in the

same class.

Mariko: I hope so.

Part 2

A classroom conversation between students

in a group.

Teacher: Group three is Deborah, Moritz, Mariko,

and Jimmy. Into your groups please.

Deborah: Oh great. We’re in the same group.

Teacher: Ok class. This is a conversation activity

using cards. Before we start I’d like you to

introduce yourself to the others in your group.

Moritz: Ok. Hello. My name’s Moritz and I’m from

Switzerland.

Jimmy: Hi. I’m Jimmy and I come from Seoul, in

South Korea.

Mariko: Hi. I’m Mariko from Japan, um, this is my

friend Deborah from Brazil.

Deborah: Hello.

Moritz: Ok, I’ll go first. Hmm. Three things about

my home town. Well …., I come from Lausanne.

It’s a small city near lake Geneva. It’s very clean,

and, ah I like it very much. Ok ask me a question

Deborah.

Deborah: Um. How long did you live there?

Moritz: I lived there all my life, so 22 years.

Jimmy: Is it cold there?

Moritz: Only in the winter time. It’s very nice in

the summer. Sometimes I go for walks in the

forests there with my friends.

Mariko: Ah. Who. Who do you live with?

Moritz: Well, I live with my sister. She’s older

than me and she has a job. We get on really well

together

Deborah: Wow. Do you ever fight?

Moritz: Oh sure, but we always forget about it.

She’s great. Ok Deborah. It’s your turn. Choose a

question.

Deborah: Ok. Something I did last night. Well last

night I ……

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To be continued …..

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