Week 2 Individual Session: Talking About Travel

Week 2 Individual Session: Talking About Travel

Session Goals

• Practice travel vocabulary
• Describe and discuss a new travel destination
• Share information about a familiar travel destination

Pre-Session Instructions for Learner

• Watch the video here. Take notes.
  • Choose two images from the video and describe them. What is in the image? What sounds do you hear? How does the image make you feel?
  • Optional: Choose 3 places in the video you want to visit and describe why you want to visit them.
• Research a location in your country that you are already familiar with. Create a 2-3 minute oral presentation about the location. (You do not have to make a powerpoint or any written presentation, but you can if you want to!) Use these questions to guide you:
  • *Why should someone visit this location? *
  • *What are some things to do in this location? *
  • *How much money do you need in this location? *
  • Why is this location better than other places?
  • *What are some possible dangers or problems about going to this location? *
• Challenge: Use at least 4 modal verbs (i.e. should, must, will, can, could, may, might) in your presentation to make suggestions, strong recommendations, predictions, or to soften a claim. To learn about/review modal verbs view this web page.

Pre-Session Instructions for Volunteer

• Make a copy of this document for the ABC game below
• Watch the video here and be prepared to talk about it with the learner.
• Think of a place you know well and prepare to tell the learner about it (2-3 minute oral presentation).

During the Session:

• [15 min] Start the session with a vocabulary warm-up. Share your screen with the above document open. Challenge the learner to think of a travel-related word that starts with each letter of the alphabet (Airplane, Boat, Cruise).
  • If your learner is struggling, you can give hints. For example, “Sometimes people take a vacation on a large ship traveling from port to port. All the food and entertainment is on the ship. In English, this is called a …”. Or, take turns coming up with words!
  • Optional: For advanced learners, you can do a 2nd or 3rd round with new sets of words.
• [10 min] Discuss the video linked above.
  • Play the video using screen share (don’t forget to share your computer sound, not just your screen). Have the learner stop you when you reach the scenes/images your learner chose to take notes on. Discuss the images based on the learner’s notes/ideas.
  • Finish watching the video. Ask the learner about their general interpretations of the video and the two places they want to visit.
• [10 min] Have the learner give their short presentation. Do not interrupt them for vocab/pronunciation errors, but take notes.
  • Ask a few follow up questions about their chosen location.
  • Discuss the presentation with the learner. What did you like about the presentation? What did they do well?
  • Mention a few of the most prominent errors and practice repeating them correctly.
• [10 min] Give the presentation you have drafted about a location you are familiar with. Direct the learner to ask 4-5 questions about the chosen location.
• [5 min] Compare the two locations (the volunteer’s location and the learner’s location). Example questions:
• How are these places similar?
• How are they different?
• Which one would you want to visit more? Why?

[10 min] Brainstorm together. If you were going to make a travel video about one (or both) of your chosen locations, what would you include? Use the New Zealand travel video as an example. How would you change it? What would you keep the same? If necessary, you can give the learner 2-3 minutes to take notes before discussion.