Lesson plan

Main aims and learning outcomes:

By the end of the lesson the students will have developed better understanding of the established
conventions of an organisation of semi-formal emails of enquiry by analysing and comparing different
emails. They will have written a semi-formal email of enquiry following the conventions and using the
following sub skills:

 select appropriate content

 follow established conventions in the organisation of the text
 review and edit

Subsidiary aim and learning outcomes:

students will have practiced their scanning and skimming skills

Class profile:
This is a group of 13 adults ranging from 22 to 34 years old.

Most of the students are Omanis. Two students are from Iran and one student is from the Philippines
(Joseph). Joseph is the only one who doesn’t speak Arabic.

All of the students have been studying English for a long time (in school or university). A lot of them said
that they have been taught by non-native teachers from Egypt of India.

Most of the students are instrumentally motivated – they are learning to improve their employability.
Five of them are corporate students sponsored by their companies.

They are a very enthusiastic class. In the needs analysis questionnaire the majority of students wrote
that they prefer speaking activities but all admitted that they need to improve their writing (7 said they
needed it for work purposes).

It is a mixed ability class. Suzan, Joseph and Hussain have good vocabulary and are very fluent. They
tend to dominate during open class activities. There are also some very quiet, risk averse students who
need to take time to think about what they are going to say. Therefore, group activities and pair work
are preferred to ensure that every student has an opportunity to participate.

Language analysis:
 Semi-formal email of enquiry is used to ask for information.
 the layout of an email
 lexical features: addressing the reading, opening, closing, sign off.
Assumptions:
 Students have already worked with cohesive devices
 They have written informal emails in class
 they have enough vocabulary to complete the email
 they have written emails previously (at work or for personal reasons)

Anticipated problems and solutions:

1. Problem: students focus on spelling and grammar more than on the context
Solution: time limit. Speed writing.
2. Problem: students are struggling to understand the differences between formal and semi-
formal emails.
Solution: exemplify, compare emails. Discuss the reader – familiarity, status
3. Problem: some students have never written any emails in English and don’t see the need for it.
Solution: give examples of situations when it is needed (applications, travel agencies, work-
related)
4. Problem: are not sure how to revise the content and edit mistakes
Solution: give them the criteria (a checklist), explain how to use it.

Procedure:
1. Ask students how often they write emails. At work? At home? Elicit examples of enquiry and
situations we use them in. Tell them that we are going to focus on it today because it is probably the
most common both at work and in their everyday lives. Give a checklist for email writing. They fill in the
first row (purpose). 5 min

3. Give each group 3 cut-up emails (formal/informal/semi-formal. Ask them to put them in order. When
they’ve finished ask them to name the parts of the email (subject line, greeting/opening, body,
closing/sign off). Check the differences. Fill in the next row in the checklist (layout and standard
expressions). 10 min

3. Alternative (need to make sure I can get an Arabic email): give them an email in Arabic, written
following Arabic conventions. Have a word by word translation. Ask the students to compare it with
an English version of the same email. 10 min

4. Content: give another semi formal email. Ask the students what questions that the email
answers/poses (what the writer wants to know). Make questions (have one student write it up on the
board). Again – checklist (content) 10 min

5. Give a topic of an email. Discuss in what situation it would be relevant (context), who will be the
reader (audience), what information do they need to include (content). 5 min
6. Students write the email using their checklists and a template provided. Teacher monitors
interactively, helping individual students/pairs .10 min

8. When the students finish they read each other emails and review (content first) and edit (language).
Teacher monitors and helps. 10 min

9. Feedback 10min

Materials:
Checklist

Semi-formal email of enquiry

Purpose to ask for information;

Organisation 1. subject line:
/expressions 2. address: Dear..
3. body - state the purpose, ask/give details, state what you expect to
happen next
4. sign off - best regards
Think about:
What to context: situation
write? audience: who the reader will be
(content) content: what do you need to have answered? What does the reader need
to answer your questions.