Lesson Plan: Chinese and English/American Food

Lesson Level:Junior 1                     Duration:  45

Lesson Title:     Chinese And English Food

Grammar and Vocabulary

Names of Chinese and English dishes

Course, dinner, supper, breakfast, lunch, dishes (as in crockery), dishes (as in meals), taste (as in flavour), taste (as in eat just a little)

Lesson Objectives

Students will learn names for typical Chinese and English foods. Students will learn differences between Chinese and English dining styles. Students will be able to read/hear a dialogue and answer questions about it.

Materials Required

This lesson is based on material fro Practical Oral English:Junior1 (Spring Term) Unit 5. It is NOT necessary to have the book.

Dialogue from book. See Note 1.

Ball for throwing to students.

Preparation

Prepare enough copies of the dialogue for students to share.

Procedure

1 Put title on Board: “Chinese and English/American Food”.

Use ball toss to elicit a few examples of students  favourite Chinese and English dishes.

2 Put class into groups. No more groups than comfortably be accommodated at the board to write answers. Tell half the groups to list foods that are typically Chinese and half to list foods that are typically English (or American).

Allow two minutes.

Get a student from each group to write answers on the board.

Score as follows

Correct word, correct spelling 2 points

Correct word, wrong spelling 1 point

Food word but wrong country 1/2 point

Have a round of applause for the winners.

3 Put the vocabulary words (see above) on the board and add the meanings. (Elicit from class if known).

4 Put students in groups of four. Hand out the dialogue.

Choose two students to read it aloud.

5. Tell groups to make a list of all the things that are different in China and England/America.

6 Use ball toss to ask some questions about the dialogue.

7  Use ball toss to ask students which they prefer - the English/American foods or the Chinese foods. Ask them which sounds more delicious and why.

Notes

1.

Andy Do you like Chinese food better than English food?

Anita I like them both but they are very different.

Andy How are they different?

Anita Well, in England, when we eat meat it usually comes as one big piece so we need to use a knife and fork.

Julie What about in China?

Anita In China it's usually cooked in smaller pieces and with lots of other things so that we can eat it with chopsticks.

Julie I'm not sure I understand.

Anita It would be very hard to eat a big steak with chopsticks!

Andy Hah! You're right there. Is there any other difference.

Anita Well in China a meal often has lots of dishes that come all at once and you eat what you want from each one.

Julie How is it in England.

Anita Well it's different for breakfast or lunch but when we eat supper or dinner we have three or more courses.

Andy What's a course?

Anita Well the first course might be soup and we eat that before any more food comes.

Andy I see.

Anita Then the second course might be meat, potatoes and carrots. They all come on one plate. We eat that and the dishes are taken away before we go to the last course.

Julie What's that?

Anita Always something sweet – maybe chocolate cake or ice cream.

Julie Wow! That is very different.

Andy I think I like the Chinese way better.

Julie Well I think the English meal sounds delicious.