EXPERIMENTAL LESSON PLAN

Class Profile:
It is an Elementary class of adult learners aged between 16-27 years old. The actual
number of students taught in this class is 6; they have had classes for 6 months now- the
course started in September and is to terminate at the end of May. It comprises three 1 ½
hour teaching sessions per week and they are currently using the cb Language-to-Go by
Longman. It is a current teaching programme specialized in the area of General Tourism
English, which focuses on useful language that has to do with giving-ordering food /
drinks- particularly relevant to their professional field.

Most students are engaged in the catering industry, apart from one, who is involved in
dealing in fuels. The majority of students are Albanians with the exception of two Greek
young adults. The Albanians are interested in getting jobs in summer in the village of
Paros, one of the young Greek adults wants to become an electrician and the other one
runs his father’s petrol station.

More specifically, Costas, from Albania, the leading figure in class is a quite strong
student, since he’s had language classes in Albania before; he participates in all class
activities with a rather strong vocabulary, basic linguistic structures and pronunciation;
where he needs remedial work, though, is on tense formations and basic tense concepts.
What gives him strong class participation is the fact that during high summer seasons, he
practices his English a lot by working in a beach bar.

On the other hand, his wife Letta is a complete beginner in class, who started from
scratch and tries slowly, and gradually to pick up and process language in chunks, with
one thing at a time, structures, vocabulary and frequent repetition of all language items.
The pleasing fact is that she keeps notes of all language points covered in class, and
revises everything at home.

The rest four Jim, Luljim, Demeter and Lyprandos are absent from classes quite a lot of
times, and whenever they show up for class, they seem to focus on speaking and very
basic life guided activities, which don’t seem to tire them out. They don’t want to take
part in writing projects, keeping notes, keeping vocabulary notebooks, but, only to
communicate in English with guided dialogues, tightly controlled and semi-
authentic/authentic speaking activities stressing their pronunciation skills and working on
developing their functions and vocabulary targeted at their own work field.
Lesson Aims/ Objectives for students
Primary Aim(s)
1. To be able to communicate with
customers in a restaurant / café by learning
how to take orders and how to serve them.
2. To incorporate task-based learning as an
alternative teaching medium in the Survival
EFL classroom in contrast with the
conventional ones that will meet the
occupational needs of students.
3. To use it as the most authentic and
effective teaching method for speaking the
target language from scratch in co-
operation with fellow students.
Secondary Aim(s)
1. To express functions about their choices
of food with the required sum of money
they own (what can I eat with 8 dollars?).
2. To develop their speaking skills &
practice orally new vocabulary through a
“Liberty Café” menu and team work will
also teach them social skills (being in a
company).
3. And to experiment with the language
using the grammar they were taught
inductively.
Speaking:
To practice their accuracy, fluency and
social skills in the context of café’s/
restaurants giving/ordering food; to apply
these skills necessary for their work field.
Evidence
1. Ss will be provided with tasks relating to
cafés/restaurants, taking / giving orders,
and serving customers by means of role-
plays.
2. Ss work altogether in two groups from
the beginning of the teaching procedure by
means of asking them to take down any
vocabulary items related to food in their
own groups.
3. From the very beginning, Ss use
whatever linguistic means at their disposal
to convey functions in the TL in two
groups.
1. By using previously vocabulary
presented on the w/b, to fill in the menu
with food items of their choice to equate
with the sum of 8 dollars.
2. By assuming the roles of a customer and
a waiter in a self-service restaurant, to
practice functions of giving/taking orders
and socializing with classmates.
3. Ss will take on the same roles of a
customer and a waiter at different
cafés/restaurants and in teams they are to
vote for the best presentation.
By presenting Ss with a variety of semi-
authentic/authentic situations in different
cafés/ restaurants, to practice their accuracy
with functions and vocabulary and fluency
to promote authentic interaction.
 By means of listening to an extended
Listening:
dialogue between two customers ordering
To an extended dialogue between two
food to a waiter with intermediate pauses to
customers ordering food to a waiter in a
facilitate comprehension, whenever
café –to enhance their aural abilities as
possible, hopefully, they will be able to
waiters in summer, when they are supposed
recognize polite /impolite requests, to draw
to take orders from customers.
inferences, to recognize turn-taking and to
practice vocabulary previously taught.

Reading:
To read functions of giving /taking orders
in a context of a café/restaurant; this will be
importantly useful to them as functions,
when interacting with potential customers
in their own work.
They will be given a dialogue from a café
context, full of giving/taking orders and
food, and they will be asked to recognize
and underline the polite/impolite requests,
related to their own work field.

Writing:
To practice taking / giving orders and
socializing with customers and waiters in
writing, an essential job-related skill.
Ss will write the prices of the edible items
on a menu, note down functions and circle
them; they will also write a menu assigned
as homework – necessary skills for the use
of taking orders from customers in summer
(job related skill).

Source Aids/Handouts
1. Re alia to pre-teach ham, lettuce, cheese, chicken at the Pre-Task (Vocabulary Section)
stage (see Appendix A’), the T` s desk to put them on, green/yellow markers to highlight
language functions, the tape and the radio for the listening stages of the lesson.
2. A “Coffee please” task sheet for the speaking task also at the Pre-Task Stage (see
Appendix B’).
3. a “Liberty Café” menu as basis for Ss to practice the task with whatever linguistic
means they have at their own disposal at the Planning stage (see Appendix C’)
3. Also listening handouts for the Report stage of the lesson are used (see Appendix D’)
as well as the radio and the cassette for Ss to perform the listening task.
4. Handouts for Ss to focus on pronunciation and language functions at the Analysis
stage (see Appendix E’)
5. And role cards are also provided for the Practice Stage to act out the role-plays (see
Appendices F+ G’).
Linguistic assumptions
Ss have covered basic lexical fields, like the ones of basic food items, fruit and drinks,
therefore, they will be able to read out menus and practice talking in the TL ordering
/serving food.
In addition, they have been taught how to count from 1-100, therefore, they will be in
the position of talking about food prices.
Finally, they were taught the modal verb “Can” in the function of asking for permission
in the past , i.e. “Can I sharpen my pencil, please?”, hence, they will be able to act out the
dialogues at the Liberty café’ , in pairs, at the Pre-Task stage; but, they are not familiar
with the modal verb “will” for spontaneous decision “I’ll have a Cola.”, which makes me
suspect that the context of the café’ will facilitate comprehension.

Anticipated Language Difficulties Solutions/Remedies

1. Ss might not know the definition of 1. They are to ask for assistance from their
words in visual prompts for the speaking group members before the speaking task
task. takes place.

2. Ss may find it difficult to understand the
gist of the listening tape script due to
complex language functions.
2. T plays the tape script with pauses to
facilitate Ss’ listening abilities and whilst
listening, Ss note down the complex
language functions and go them over in
their groups, afterwards.(T intervention
ensues for confirmation)

3. In the next listening grammar activity, Ss
might find it rather difficult to recognize
the polite / impolite tone of the speaking
requests on the radio as well as complex to
interpret it.
3. T plays it on the radio with pauses to
facilitate understanding; then, peer
feedback takes place to recognize the tones
and altogether they process the answers.

4. Ss exploit the dialogues and underline
the correct language functions of them, but,
they seem to be confusing and they are not
aware of what to choose.
4. Ss go over them in pairs, to see how the
context works best; next, they choose
options and, in groups, they check their
answers, and only if necessary, they resort
to T for help.
Timetable Fit
The current group of Elementary students has covered the modal verb “Can” in the
context of school, at previous units, i.e. “Can I go out, Miss?”, asking for permission,
therefore, I assume they might be able to act out the dialogue at the Liberty Café, making
requests “Can I take your order?, Can we have a large coffee?”, both at the Pre-Task and
at the Practice stages of the lesson.
Moreover, since the majority of them are involved in tourism, in the catering industry,
particularly, they are familiar with asking about prices; hence, they will be able to role
play functions in the context of cafés, asking for prices and giving change.
Finally, the fact that they have been taught how to give sizes at previous units in the
context of clothes will aid them, systematically, to predict sizes in drinks, i.e. “a small/
large cola” at the Planning Stage with the Listening activity.

Board Plan(s)
Unknown Vocabulary &
Pronunciation

chicken
lettuce

cheese

ham
Language Functions (Stress): Will:
Can I have a Cola? (polite Yes, I’ll have some cake. (Decision = Yes,
request) I’ll eat it.)

Can I have a Cola? (impolite

request)

Commentary
This lesson aims at developing the speaking skills of learners with customers from all
over the world in the catering industry of an island in Cyclades.

Task-based learning as a novel teaching medium seems to involve the students in the
situations they need to practice in team work and develop also social skills using the TL
from scratch. It practices functions, such as ordering and serving food politely /
impolitely, since all four skills are integrated into producing authentic situations for
occupational reasons.

Students will be invited to role-play carefully-structured role plays between customers

and waiters taking orders/serving food with a particular sum of money at the beginning of
the teaching procedure “to use language to achieve a specific outcome” (McKinnon &
Rigby, 2004).
The listening activities with a strong focus on pronunciation and functions will
develop Ss` capacity to comprehend and understand their customers` orders. Moreover,
the presentation of vocabulary with re alia at T`s desk at the Pre-Task stage will aid them
in negotiating in groups about the outcome of the task (Willis 1988), which is to
communicate in the TL from scratch.
Furthermore, focus on language functions (taking orders/serving food) with a
strong emphasis placed on stress and their pronunciation will enable learners to
comprehend and respond to their customers requirements and, hence, to promote
authentic communication, to offer service to customers, to “activate the language they
have learnt so far” (Estaire & Zanon 1994) in role-plays related to cafés/ self-service
restaurants.
Finally, in the analysis stage, learners underline “will” as a modal verb and in
context, (…., I’ll have a coffee, please) should make out its meaning and function - with
the teacher to help them as a facilitator. This procedure, will, hopefully, enable them to
perceive that tasks relate closely to their needs and they will adopt an achievement
orientation (Breen 1987:26 cited in Murphy 2003).
 DELTA Lesson Plan Name: Paraskevi Date 03/08/08
Andreopoulou
PROCEDURE

Stage Teacher Activity Learner Activity Aims Materials Interaction Time

Ice- T puts up on the desk re Ss enter the class, see the re To activate schematic / Re alia and Plenary Mode 5’
Breaker: alia of chicken, cheese, alia at T`s desk, get into knowledge, to arouse their T`s desk
ham & lettuce before they groups of three and ask one curiosity, to give a reason &
enter the class; then, she another, if they have ever for communication and to
says: heard them in English before. promote collaboration in Group Work
1. Get into groups of groups
three.
Vocabulary 2) .Have a look at these
Presentatio things on my desk and
n: ask your friends, if they
have ever heard them in
English

T sets 3’ Ss follow the time limit To follow the time limit None Group Work

“We eat ham and cheese Ss listen to the words and drill To pre-teach vocabulary Plenary Mode
in a sandwich”. them and to teach pronunciation
“Ham & cheese”
Pre-Task T presents Ss with the Ss, in 2 teams, look at the To interact in the TL with H/O 2+3 Group Work 5’
Stage: photo of a café` called photo of Liberty café and the whatever linguistic means
Liberty and tells them menu and try to communicate they have at their disposal,
that they only have 8$ on the task
them; with this money, To communicate in
they must look at the English from scratch
menu and choose what to
eat
Planning After class feedback, T
(a): asks from them to look at
the menu, once more, and
try to guess , in teams, the
price of each food item
Planning T gets feedback, and
(b): based on the evidence,
advises Ss to listen to the
waitress taking the order
from the customer and fill
in the prices of the edible
items
Report: At this stage, after
listening, T asks from Ss
to check their findings, in
their teams, then, to
compare /contrast results
with the next team and
then, to report them back
to class.
Listening After class feedback, T
for specific informs Ss that they are
information going to listen to a
: dialogue between two
customers and a waiter
and need to find out what
they will order
Then, they must check, in
groups, their findings and
report back to class
Ss, in their tams, look at the
menu and try to guess the
prices of the food items, based
on the context they have
Ss listen to the dialogue
between the waitress and the
customer and fill in the prices
of the food items
Ss, check their findings in their
teams, first, then, they
compare / contrast results with
the other team, and then, they
report back to class, their
findings.
Ss, listen to the dialogue
between two customer and a
waiter ordering food items to
eat and drink
Next, they check their results,
in teams, and report back to
class
To plan the outcome of H/O3 Group Work 3-4’
the task , based on present
evidence at one`s disposal
To assign a reason for H/O 3 Individual work 3-4’
listening, to practice Ss`
aural abilities and to allow
a chance for further
collaboration in their
teams
To promote team co- H/O3 Group Work 3-4’
operation, to check own
work, and to promote
learning from other team
members
To activate bottom-up H/O4 Individual Work 5`
skills, to listen for specific
information and to
introduce slowly and
gradually language focus
Group Work
To check findings in
groups and to promote co-
operation and team work
Language After class feedback, T
Focus: hands out the tape script
and asks from the two
teams to look at and
highlight a) what they can
have – in green and
b)what they will have – in
yellow
Analysis After feedback, T asks Ss,
(a): in their teams, to find out
what a)can and b) will
mean here; if not, T
intervention, possible
Ss get the tape script in their To introduce Ss to Green and Group Work 2-3`
teams , they read it out and language functions and to yellow
proceed to highlight a)in give them the opportunity markers and
green- what they can eat and to work out in context and H/O5
b)in yellow- what they will in teams, their use in the
have dialogue
Ss try to work out, in teams, To enable Ss to induce H/O5 Group Work 2’
what a)can and b) will mean language functions in
here team work

Analysis After class feedback, T
(b): gives out listening
handouts asking for them
to repeat polite /impolite
requests , with proper
intonation
Ss get the listening handout
and repeat after T polite
/impolite requests , with proper
intonation
To assign a reason for H/O6, the Individual Work 5`
listening, to develop Ss` radio and the
speaking skills, to teach tape
proper intonation, to make
them understood and
comprehensible to others

Ss listen to the tape, repeat the To practice stress, rhythm

After feedback, T hands
Practice (a): out a task sheet to two
groups, asking from them
to read through and circle
the proper requests in
dialogue forms;
language functions and mark
their intonation
Ss get the task sheets, read
them through, and circle the
proper language functions in
the café` contexts
and intonation, to develop
speaking skills
To practice language H/O 7 Group work 5’
functions in situations and
to act them out afterwards,
to “see language in use”

Group Work
Next, T asks from them to They change groups and act To promote team work
change groups and act out out the dialogues and to interact
the café` contexts authentically
Practice (b): T divides Ss into pairs and
tells them that they are
going to take on the roles
of the waiter and customer
and give/take orders, in
different cafés
Ss get into pairs , take on the
roles of waiters and customers
and role-play the situations at
cafés
To interact in the TL semi- H/O 8+9 Pair Work 8-10`
authentically, to assume
roles to communicate
related to their job and to
practice real life skills

T asks from Ss to read out Ss will read out the dialogues To practice a real life skill H/O 8+9 None None
the dialogues at home and at home and practice them at home
Follow-Up: practice them with a with friends
friend

T thanks for the time Ss thank T, too None None None None

APPROX
55 mins
 APPENDICES

1. PRE – TASK MATERIAL:

COFFEE, PLEASE!

2. TASKS:

a. You only have eight dollars in your pocket. You go to a café because you are hungry, and you want to eat
and drink something with only this money. You have a look at its menu. How much does it cost? (Each
food &drink item).
b.

L I B E R T Y C A F É
SANDWICHES : HOT DRINKS : SIZE / PRICE

Chicken (with lettuce) $5.50 tea with lemon Small $...... Large $1.80
Ham (with lettuce) $5.95 coffee with cream Small $1.60 Large $......
Cheese (with lettuce) $....... hot chocolate Small $1.70 Large $2.00
Extra: tomato $0.50

COLD DRINKS: SIZE / PRICE

Cola/juice $.............

CAKE: FRUIT:
Apple/banana $.............
Chocolate $.......
 b. LISTENING:

Listen to two customers order lunch from the menu. Circle what they order:

Example: a) coffee b) tea

1. a) an apple b) a banana

2.a) a cheese and tomato sandwich

b) a chicken and tomato sandwich

3. a) tea with lemon b) cola

4. a) a cheese sandwich
b) a ham sandwich
TAPE SCRIPT

C=Customer W=Waitress

C1: Excuse me, can we have a large coffee, a banana and a chicken and…..

C2: Urr…………..

C1:…….yes, a chicken and tomato sandwich.

C2: But, um…………

C1: And I`ll have a small tea with lemon and a ham sandwich. No tomato. How much is that, please?

C2: Sorry, I don`t work here. There`s the waitress.

W: Are you ready to order?

C1: Yes, I`ll have a coffee, please.

W: Small or large?

C1: Large, please.

W: Anything else?

C1: Yes. A chicken and tomato sandwich and a banana.

W: O.K. And………….
LANGUAGE FOCUS (PRONUNCIATION)

Listening:
a. Listen and circle the polite / impolite requests.

Example:
Can I have a chicken sandwich? A) B)

1. I`ll have a cola. A) B)

2. We`ll have a coffee. A) B)

Tape script

Example:
a. Can I have a chicken sandwich? (polite)
b. Can I have a chicken sandwich? (rude)

1 . a. I`ll have a cola. (polite)

b. I`ll have a cola. (rude)
 2. a. We`ll have a coffee. (rude)
b. We`ll have a coffee. (polite)

b. Listen and repeat the polite requests.

1. Can I have a chicken sandwich? (polite)

2. I`ll have a cola. (rude)
3. We`ll have a coffee. (polite)
Practice

a. Look at the dialogues and underline the correct forms of them:

Example: Can I / I can help you?

1. A: Are you ready to order?

B: Yes, I`ll have a chicken, lettuce and tomato sandwich.
A: Anything else?
B: Yes, can I have / to have a cola, please?

2. A: Can I / you take your order?

B: Yes, can I have / have I tea?
A: Small or large?
B: Large, please.
A: Is that all?
B: No, I`ll have / I want a piece of banana cake, please.
3. A: Good morning.
B: Good morning. Can I / I can have a coffee with cream?
A: Yes, here you are.
B: And I / I`ll have an apple, please. How much is that?
b. In pairs, practise the dialogues from the exercise above.

Get talking:

Role play a situation in a café.

Student A:
You are a waiter / waitress in a café. The food and drinks where you work are expensive.

The Vegetarian Café

Sandwiches: cheese (with lettuce) $3.00

Extra: tomato $0.60
Cake: chocolate $3.25
Cold Drinks: cola $1.50
Fruit: apple $1.75
 Costa Lot Café

Sandwiches: ham (with lettuce) $5.85

Extra: tomato $1.20
Cake: chocolate $4.50
Hot Drinks: tea $2.50
Cold Drinks: apple juice $3.50

Jo`s Snackbar
Sandwiches: chicken (with lettuce) $2.00

Hot drinks: coffee $0.65

Cold drinks: cola, juice $1.00

Fruit: apple / banana $1.00

Student B:
You are a customer. You go to the different cafés because you are hungry and you want to eat and drink
something; you only have 20$ with you.

1. Food: cheese and lettuce sandwich

Drink: orange juice

2. Food: chicken and lettuce sandwich

Dessert: chocolate cake

3. Food: ham and lettuce sandwich

Drinks: coffee with cream

4. Food: cheese , lettuce and tomato

Sandwich

Fruit: a banana
5. Food: ham, lettuce and tomato sandwich

Drinks: Cola

6. Food: chicken, lettuce and tomato sandwich

Drinks: tea with lemon