Unit 1 Good Friends

Teaching objectives and demands:

1. The activity is designed to encourage students to think about friends and friendship and to activate relevant vocabulary.

2. Ask the students to describe a good friend and give examples of situations where friends have helped them. Use the activity as a brainstorming session done either in groups or with the whole class.

3. Language use: Manipulate listening, speaking practice

Key points:

1. Everyday English for communication.

2. Words and useful expressions

Teaching procedures:

Step 1. Warming up

Students are asked to describe themselves and a friend. You can use these questions in at least two different ways. One alternative is to ask the students to think about three words to describe themselves and then let each student tell the class the three characteristics they have chosen. A second alternative would be to ask the students to write down the three characteristics and let other students guess who is being described. As with the first part, the objective is to elicit student language and get the students to think about friends and friendship.

Which words can be used to describe the characteristic?

Brave: courage fearless heroic

Scared : astonish fearful frightened horrified shocked terrified timid

Loyal: devoted faithful

Wise: bright clever cute gifted intelligent smart well-learned witty

Foolish: silly stupid

Beautiful: attractive breath-taking charming cool cute elegant eye-catching good-looking

graceful inviting lovely neat pretty splendid stunning

Rich: wealthy plentiful

Funning: amusing humorous

Happy: carefree cheerful contented delighted glad high merry pleased

Unhappy: bitter blue discouraged displeased heavy miserable sad upset

Step 2. Listening

The students will hear friends discuss common problems that may occur in a friendship. The students are asked to identify the problems and suggest solutions. Tell the students that friends sometimes have problems and that it is important to know how to solve the problems. The students will hear three arguments between friends and are asked to write down the problems and suggest possible solutions. It may be necessary to divide the task into two parts; first the students write down the problems as they listen to the tape, and then they discuss possible solutions. The students can also listen to one situation at a time and discuss solutions with the whole class.

Key

1. Peter is often late for football practice. I think that he should try to be on time in the future.

2. Mary usually borrows things without asking and she doesn’t return things on time. She should ask the owner is she wants to borrow something and try to return it on time in the future.

3. Adam borrowed John’s CD player yesterday and now it is broken. Adam can ask his uncle to fix it.

Extension the students are asked to think of other situations/problems involving friends and role-play or discuss the issues. You may also ask the students to list or discuss what methods are most effective when you want to solve problems in a friendship.

Workbook P85

Listening

a) Students will hear about problems friends may have and what can be done to solve such problems. The students are asked to write down the solutions mentioned on the tape and to think of other solutions. Ask the students to listen to the tape and write down the solutions suggested by the speaker. You can help the students prepare by first asking them to think about problems they may have had with their friends. The solutions mentioned on the tape are simple and general. Encourage the students to think of better, more specific solutions. What would they do if they had a quarrel with a friend? How do they talk to their friends about difficult things? How do they keep secrets from becoming rumours?

b) Listening text Everybody needs friends. But being a good friend can sometimes be hard work. Learning how to solve problems in a friendship can make you a better friend and a happier person. A common problem between friends is that they don’t know how to talk to each other about difficult things. When they do talk, they often get mad with each other. What can they do? Well, it takes time to learn how to communicate well, and it is important to understand why a friend gets angry with you when you say something. If you know what it is that makes your friend angry, then you can try to talk about the problem in a different way.

c) Another problem that many friends have to deal with is what to do after one of them gets angry or upset. If friends get angry with each other and say something bad because they are angry, they often find it difficult to apologize after the quarrel. The best way to apologize after a quarrel is simply to start by telling each other that you are sorry and then go from there. A simple apology is often enough and is a good starting point. What about friends who can’t keep a secret? Sometimes it seems impossible to keep a secret from becoming a rumour that everyone knows. Shouldn’t a good friend be able to keep a secret? Perhaps, but it is not always that easy to keep a secret, and telling a secret to someone will often put them in a difficult situation - they may have to lie to other friends to keep the secret. The best way to make sure that a secret doesn’t become a rumour is simply to keep it to yourself - don’t tell anyone.

d) Answers to Exercise 1

e) Problem: Friends get angry with each other when they try to talk about something difficult.

f) Solution: Try to understand your friend/Try to talk about the problem in a different way.

g) Problem: Friends don’t know how to apologize.

h) Solution: Start by telling each other that you are sorry and take it from there. A simple apology is often enough.

i) Problem: Some friends don’t know how to keep secrets.

Solution: Keep your secrets to yourself.

Step 3 Speaking

The students will use the information about the people on SB page 2 to talk about likes and dislikes and to practice giving reasons for their opinions. Tell the students to work in pairs. Ask the students to complete the chart on page SB page 3 and then use the answers to talk about who could be friends and what they like or dislike. Ask each pair to decide who could be friends and give reasons for their decisions. When they have made their decision, ask them to compare and debate their ideas with other pairs. Encourage different answers, including strange ones.

P3 work in pairs

Name John Steve Peter Ann Sarah Joe

Age 15 14 15 16 14

Gender boy boy boy girl girl boy

Likes football skiing singing dancing reading novels surfing the

reading singing rock music computers football Internet

reading computer rock music singing rock music

skiing

Dis- singing hiking football hiking rock music football

ikes computers football classical music dancing dancing hiking

rock music rock music dancing classical music computer

Extension The students are asked to make a list of famous people or people they know. The students then use the list to identify likes and dislikes and characteristics and try to determine who could be friends.

Step 4. Talking Workbook P85

The students are given role cards based on three situations where friends are having problems. They are asked to act out the situations with the “useful expressions”. They are also asked to think of a fourth situation, prepare role cards for it, and act it out. Let the students role-play in pairs. Remind them that they should not write down a dialogue and then simply read the dialogue. Instead, they should try to act out the situation without rehearsing it. If they find it difficult to get started, you can let them prepare by practising part of a situation. You can also help by modeling part of a situation.

Extension Friends often help each other. Ask the students to work in pairs and list examples of situations where friends can help each other. The students can then write role cards for the situations and act out in pairs.

Step 5. Homework

(1) Finish off the exercises of Unit1 in the workbook.

(2) Revise the key points of this unit.

(3)List the friend they get to know in class and write down some thing they want to know.

Evaluation of teaching: