Lesson Plan: Chinese Teacher Training Part 1

This lesson is designed as session one of a series of four given to introduce Chinese teachers with a low level of English to both the English Language and British Culture.

The four sessions together form a one day seminar.

Lesson Level: Training For Chinese Teachers    Lesson Duration: 45 minutes

Lesson Title: Introduction

Grammar/Vocabulary

Question words.

Asking and answering questions.

No new vocabulary will be introduced.

Lesson Objectives

Practicing question words.

Introduction to class.

Introduction to UK culture.

Preparation 

Before the lesson prepare a list of questions and answers relating to yourself. Answers should be in the form of single words or short phrases. Try to include a variety of question words. There should be between fifteen and twenty question and answers.

The question set that I use is.

       Where are you from?

       What is your home city?

       How old are you?

       How many countries have you visited?

       When is your birthday?

       What is your favourite food?

       Which country do you like best?

       Who is your favourite composer?

       Why did you come to China?

       What is your favourite book?

       How many brothers and sisters do you have?

       What is your favourite sport?

       What is your favourite colour?

       Who is your favourite singer.?

       How many times have you been to China?

Before beginning the lesson write your name on the board and introduce yourself to the class. 

Procedure 

1 

At the start of the lesson put the students into groups of six or eight depending on the class size. There should be no more than ten groups.   (1 Minute)

2 

Write the following question words on the board. Check understanding of each. Explain that although “whom” is a valid question word almost nobody uses it now – IT IS STILL TAUGHT IN CHINESE TEXT BOOKS. (5 Minutes)

Who, What,Why,When,Where,Which, How, Whom

 

3 

Tell students you will write some words on board that are all about you.

They are the answers to questions about you and the students must ask the right questions using the question words that you have written.

Tell students there is one point for each correct question.

At one side of the board write the group numbers for keeping score.

At the other side of the board write the answer to an easy question.

Elicit the question from the whole class.

(e.g. England/Where are you from?)

Tell class to raise their hands and NOT shout out answers. (2 Minutes)

 

4 

Students raise hands when they think they can ask a question that matches one of the answers.

Choose students to answer.

Try to spread choices between the groups evenly.

Direct questions specifically to any non-participating groups.

Give groups one point if they ask the correct question for any answer.

If questions match the answers but are not the questions you wanted you can reject them (with an explanation) or accept them. (5 Minutes)

 

5 

Write answers to all remaining questions.

Go through the vocabulary.

Explain any new words.

(e.g. “Birmingham is a big city in England”) (4 Minutes)

 

6 

When all questions have been found tell class that they can now ask more questions about you. Give groups 2 minutes to think of questions. They can discuss them in Chinese but must ask in English. (2 Minutes)

7 

While students write more questions monitor activity of all groups. Help them as necessary. (2 Minutes)

 

8 

Go round groups one at a time and get one new question

Answer the questions.

Give group one mark for a well-formed, new question.

If the grammar is incorrect help group to correct it.

Give one mark for each new question.

When all groups have askjed one question ask class to raise hands with more questions.

Choose students to answer and give one mark to group for new questions.(5 Minutes)

9

Tell groups that England and China are similar in some ways but different in others. Tell group that the differences are sometimes small and surprising but even small differences can be a problem.

Tell the shower story or a similar story of a difference between China and the UK. (5 Minutes)

10

Tell groups to spend 5 Minutes thinking of things they know about the UK and questions they would like to ask.

11

Question and answer session about UK to end of lesson.

Notes 

1. The shower story is a true story about me.
   Chinese apartments usually have the fuse box OUTSIDE the apartment door not inside the apartment. One day I was about to take a shower. I turned the shower on and there was an electrical fault and the fuse blew. I pulled on my boxer shorts and my flip-flops and went out to reset it. The apartment door closed behind me. My phone, keys etc were all inside. My spare keys were at my friends apartment two miles away. I had to walk through the streets in boxers and flip-flops to get to her apartment. Luckily she was in, she gave me the keys and a bright pink womans T-shirt and the money for a cab back. It was very hard to get a cab driver to stop.