FAMILY LIFE

A. AIMS  

1. Knowledge 

- Vocabulary: personality

- Grammar: future forms

- Pronunciation: sentence stress

2. Skills 

- Speaking: family 

B. MATERIALS, FACILITIES AND METHODS 

- Materials: English File intermediate 3rd edition (SB and WB) 

- Facilities: chalk, board, draft paper 

- Methods: pair and group work, game, role play, presentation 

C. PROCEDURE 

1. Class stabilization:

- Check class attendance: ………………………… 

+ Absent students: ………………………………………………………………………

- Ask some questions:  

What day is it today? 

What is the weather like? 

How are you today? 

2. New lesson

WARM-UP 

Optional lead-in (books closed)

• Revise family words by drawing a quick family tree of your direct family and tell Sts
a little about them.

• Put Sts in pairs and get them to do the same.

1. VOCABULARY&SPEAKING

1.a. Books open. Focus on the photos and the questions. Put Sts in pairs and get them
to describe the photos.

- Check answers.

Possible answers

The photo on the left shows an extended family celebration.

The middle photo shows a couple and their young family about to start a journey.

The couple appear to be arguing.

The photo on the top right shows a woman with her (great) grandson.

1.b. In pairs, Sts discuss the difference between the words in 1 –7.

- Check answers.

! You may also want to teach stepbrother/stepsister (= the children of your

stepmother/stepfather, but who don’t have the same mother or father as you and are
not blood relatives).
1.c. Focus on the instructions and make sure Sts understand survey and statistics. Read
the introduction together, making sure Sts understand it.

- Now give Sts time to read the results of the survey and guess what the missing
percentages are.

1.d. Play the audio for Sts to listen and check.

- Check answers.

- Get feedback on what Sts found surprising.

- Remind Sts that this survey was done in the UK. Put Sts in pairs and get them to discuss
which results they think would be very different for their country.

- Get some feedback from various pairs.

1.e. Focus on the Useful language: Giving your opi n ion (2) box and go through it
with the class.

- Put Sts in small groups of four if possible. Tell Sts to discuss the questions in their
groups.

- Monitor and help, encouraging Sts to use expressions from the box.

- Get some feedback from the class.

2. GRAMMAR

2.a. Focus on the instructions. Play the audio once the whole way through. You could
pause after each dialogue. Play again if necessary.
- Check answers.

Extra idea

• Alternatively, you could pause the audio after each dialogue, play it again if
necessary, and check the answer.

2.b. Go through sentences A–F and make it clear that Sts don’t have to number the
sentences in order, but simply match two with each dialogue.

Extra challenge

• Get Sts in pairs to decide before they listen again which sentences are from which
dialogue.

- Play the audio again, pausing after each dialogue. Check answers.

2.c. Focus on the instructions and make sure Sts understand the difference between, for
example, a plan or intention, and an arrangement.

- Get Sts to compare with a partner and then check answers.

- From this, elicit from Sts that generally speaking we use be going to for plans and
predictions, will / shallfor predictions, offers and promises, and the present continuous
for arrangements.

2.d. Tell Sts to go to Grammar Bank 1B on p.133. Focus on the example sentences and
play the audio for Sts to listen to the sentence rhythm. You could also get Sts to repeat the
sentences to practise getting the rhythm right. Then go through the rules with the class.
Additional grammar notes

• Sts often have problems using future forms correctly in English, mainly because the
future form you use depends on what the speaker wants to say, e.g. whether he / she
wants to express a plan or pre-arranged event, or make an ‘instant’ decision at that
moment. This means that Sts often can’t use the same form that they would use in their
L1.

• The important thing to emphasize is that we use be going to (or present continuous)
for things we have already decided to do, i.e. our plans, intentions, or arrangements,
whereas will/ won’t + infinitive is used for decisions made at the time of speaking, and
also for promises, offers, and future facts.

• A typical mistake here is to use the present simple for offers: I carry your bag for
you.

• Remind Sts that shall is only used with I and we for offers and suggestions when they
are questions. Apart from these two uses, shall / shan’t is only used in very formal
written English.
! You may want to point out that in song lyrics going to is usually transcribed as
gonna (because that is how it sounds when sung quickly).

- Focus on the exercises and get Sts to do them individually or in pairs.

- Check answers, getting Sts to read the full sentences.

Extra idea
• Get Sts to read the dialogues in b aloud to practice the rhythm.

Tell Sts to go back to the main lesson 1B.

Extra support
• If you think Sts need more practice, you may want to give them the Grammar
photocopiable activity at this point or leave it for later as consolidation or revision.

3. PRONUNCIATION

Pronunciation notes
• As Sts should already know, in English, words which are stressed more strongly are
the ones which carry information, e.g. I WENT to the CINEMA on FRIDAY NIGHT.
These are typically verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. The other ‘non-information’
words (e.g. personal pronouns, articles and little words like to, of, on, as, etc.) are
pronounced less strongly and these words often get shortened when we speak, e.g. to
becomes /tə/. It is this mixture of stressed and unstressed words which gives English
its rhythm and Sts need plenty of practice until correct stress and rhythm becomes
instinctive.
3.a. Focus on the Sentence stress box and go through it with the class.

- Now focus on the dialogues. Point out to Sts that the words that are stressed are in
bigger font.

- Play the audio once the whole way through for Sts just to listen.

- Then play it again, pausing after each line for Sts to listen and repeat, copying the
rhythm.

3.b. Put Sts in pairs and get them to practice saying the dialogues.

- Get some feedback from various pairs.

3.c. Focus on the questions and make sure Sts understand them.

- Put Sts in pairs and get them to ask and answer the questions, giving as much
information as possible.

- Monitor and make sure they are using the right future forms and getting the sentence
stress correct.

- Get some feedback.

3. Homework

HOMEWORK: (WB) Ex.1 p.7; Ex.2 p.8; Ex.3 p.8; Ex.4 p.8.