Introductions &

Meeting People

Freshman Oral English

Unit 1: Introductions
Class CEFR Level:
Week 1, Lesson 2
Fall Semester 2015
Instructor: Sulamith M. Hfer

Icebreaker: I am the one who (10 min.)

Materials

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Tell your students to take a slip of paper and write on it, Im the one who

Have them fill in the blank with something about themselves, i.e. Im the one
who loves to sing songs.
Fold up slips of paper, collect & redistribute them. Everyone picks a slip of
paper that is not their own and mingles around asking are you the one
who? (whatever is written on the slip of paper they chose). When they find
the owner of the slip of paper, link arms. Keep going until everyone has
linked arms.

Review & Check-Up (3 min.)

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Practice the students English names

Review classroom expectations
During break: Check the students ID cards (match up with student cards)

Pronunciation Definitions (PDs)

USB speaker
Craft project

Preparations
Before Class write on the board:

speak the same language

I am the one who
syllable, stressed & unstressed
syllables, rhythm
Homework

Goals
To teach students how to introduce
themselves and what to do when
they are meeting new people.

Self-Introduction Procedure (5 min.)

Students have 45 secs 1 min to introduce themselves, bring something that
represents them well and explain how it represents them.
Demonstrate by bringing a scrapbook page, and explaining how it relates to you.
Explain that starting next week, a couple of students will introduce themselves
each class.
Grading is based on effort 80% and skill 20%. Go over the rubric.
Tell them about the other assignments: group skits (which will be explained in
more detail next week).

Intended Learning
Outcomes
TSWBAT

Idiom: speak the same language (2 min.)

if two people speak the same language, they have similar beliefs and opinions,
and express themselves in similar ways.

There's no use setting up a meeting between Peter and Josh - they just don't speak the
same language.
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Introduce the idiom, have the students repeat it.

Ask students what they think it means. (Tell students to talk to their partners
about it.)
Give them the explanation and have volunteers come up with their own
suggestions of how to use it.
Have students stand up and find three other students to practice with.

Introductions & Meeting People

Identify and use the

pronunciation definitions
provided in class.
Understand the meaning of
syllables, stressed & unstressed,
and rhythm.
Introduce themselves, and talk
about their names, hometowns,
families, majors, hobbies, and
their new life at the university.
Initiate a conversation.
Have introductory
conversations with people of
various positions in society.

Vocabulary

Pronunciation: Pronunciation Definitions (PD) (15 min.)

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Pass out a copy of the PDs to partners and go over the pronunciation and
meaning of each of the terms.
Practice the proper pronunciation
Allow students to copy the pds into their notebooks (5 min.).
Explain that this information will be used throughout the year, so it is
important that they learn these terms.

Syllable: a piece of a word

Stressed and unstressed
syllables: some syllables are
longer and louder; some are
shorter and softer
Rhythm: like music ; sentences
in English have a rhythm

Break
Prepare Board:
o Hi, my name is . Its nice
to meet you.
Oh, Im . Im glad to
meet you.
o Hi, arent you ?
Yes, and you are . I have
seen you (place) before.

Vocabulary
After you define the vocabulary terms, give several examples of each. This will
help build a good foundation so that when you talk about these things later on in
the year they will know the English terms.
If time allows, tell students to work with a partner, and taking turns, one student
chooses a definition, the other one demonstrates, or gives an example (where
appropriate).
Break

Conversation

Partner Activity: Introductions (15 min.)

two people talking to each other

Connections p. 3
Question: What kind of things would you want to know about someone
(another student) if you met him/her for the first time? (Collect students
suggestions on the board.)
o Name, hometown, family, hobbies, major, where on campus they
live, who are his/her roommates etc.
(provide additional information, if students dont get all of these)
Read the dialogue (Talk Time 2) and check with the answers from the board.
Add more information where necessary.
How would they ask the right questions to get this information? (p. 3.1)
Assign each student a partner, and tell them to do the Pair Work (p. 3) first
practicing the written conversation, then substituting it with their own
information. Finally, students can add more questions (from textbook, then
from suggestions on the board)
After some minutes, call on a few pairs to have an introductory conversation,
choosing one further question theyd like to talk about (assessing their ability
to correctly reproduce the sample introductory conversation.
In the end ask a set of different volunteers to share what theyve learned
about their partner (assessing their listening ability).

Small Talk

Topics to Avoid

Tell students to complete the Pair Work (p. 2): Take turns to read each
dialogue and work together to find out which answer fits best.
Note: Most answers could be used, depending on the context.

Introductions & Meeting People

Weight, age, salary

Politics, religion

Review:

Talk Time 1 Introducing Yourself (5 min.)

Weather/climate
Food (favorite food)
Differences between here
and hometown
Which places around here
theyve been to (favorite
places at SIAS)

Practice the PDs, and be familiar

with them for the next class.
Initiate conversations

Preview

Talk Time 3 Making Small Talk (5 min.)

Ask students to identify safe topics for small talk (collect them on the board).
What topics should be avoided?
Have students work in pairs to complete TT3 (p. 4) by writing suitable
questions for each topic. Then have them discuss their questions. Those who
finish early may add their own questions (from the board examples).

Homework

Class Activity: Initiating a Conversation Musical Chairs

(18 min.)

Explain that we are having a New-Students-Welcome-Party, and that in

parties in Western countries people talk to many different people in one
night. So, there are many conversations that are being started.
You will be playing some music, and each time the music stops, students
have to find a new partner with whom they initiate a conversation, and then
discuss a small talk topic of their choice. (If necessary, you can provide the
topic, see Small Talk.)
Repeat several times.
Then have some volunteers introduce some more of their partners and what
they found out about them during the activity.
To make this activity more interesting, change relationships of who the
students talk to (write on the board). Ask students how this will change the
way they will talk to each person: close friends, student/teacher, classmates,
small child/grown up relative, business partners, employee/boss,
student/elderly neighbor, someone you dont know well, but see sometimes,
student/dean of the university, etc.
Repeat the activity, but make sure the students act according to the roles they
have been assigned.

Introductions & Meeting People

Unit 1B

Practice PDs; be familiar with

them for the next class
Find out a few things about
three students on campus (not
classmates). Talk about their
names, hometown, interests
(hobbies) and majors. Use
English. Next week share your
experience.