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ePals

A Warmer

Read about Stephen, Mario, Luisa and Carlotta.

Stephen Mario

Chicago, USA

22

Computer software expert

Favourite type of TV show: Documentaries, news, old movies.

Spare time: Internet, gaming.

Lisbon, Portugal

14

Student

Favourite type of TV show: Football, war movies.

Spare time: Japanese comics, drawing.

Luisa Carlotta

Buenos Aires, Argentina 27

Model

Favourite type of TV show: Fashion,

modelling. Spare time: Tennis, arts and crafts.

Milan, Italy 17

Student

Favourite type of TV show: Cooking,

rock/pop music. Spare time: Photography, pet dogs.

Which people are interesting? Do you want

to be friends with one of them?



B Wr it ing I

Now, think about the town where you

live. Is it nice? What is good about it?

Read what Karl says about his town in

Germany. Complete what he says

about his town using the words in the list. There is one word you do not

need.

wine

pretty summer

green students live

fishing

sunny old castle

in called university

I live in a town ______ Koblenz ______ Germany. There is a

______ river in Koblenz and sometimes I go ______ there.

100,000 people ______ in Koblenz. Many people in Koblenz work in

the beer and ______ industry. The weather is not very good in the

winter, but its warm and ______ in the ______. My favourite part

of the town is the ______. There are many ______ who live in

Koblenz because there is a ______.

C Wr it ing II

Now complete these sentences about your own town.

I live in a town called ______ ______ ______.

______ people live in ______.

Many people in ______ work in the ______ ______

______industry.

The weather is ____________ in the winter, but its ____________in the

summer.

My favourite part of the town is the __________________.



D Exerc ise

Two friends, Mehmet from Turkey and William from

Canada, write e-mails to each other. Match the questions in Mehmets e-mail with the answers in

Williams reply.

There is one example finished for you.

Are you a student or do you work? Not really, its just me and my parents.

Do you live in a house or a flat? Yes, its an interesting place. I go skiing in

the winter!

What part of the country do you live

in?

Everybody learns French at school, but my

French is terrible!

Do you come from a large family? I work in my fathers office. Its a publishing

company.

Are you married? We live in a large house in the suburbs. We

have a big garden.

Do you speak another language? I live in Vancouver, in the west of Canada.

Is there much to do in your hometown?

No, Im not, but I have a girlfriend. Her name is Jackie.

E Wr it ing III

Look at the four people in Section A again:

Stephen, Mario, Luisa and Carlotta.

Choose one person to write an e-mail to.

I choose ______________ because

he/she_______________________

____________________________



E Wr it ing III

Here is the beginning of your e-mail. Finish the e-mail.

Dear _______,

How are you? Your description is very interesting. I want to tell you about myself and my town.

My name is

I live in

Tell me more about you.

Best Wishes

_________________



Teacher Notes

Target Language: Guided writing, introducing yourself,

online pen pals.

Duration: 60 minutes

1 Structure and Timing (all times approximate)

A. Warmer (10 minutes)

B. Writing I (10 minutes)

C. Writing II (15 minutes)

D. Exercise (10 minutes) E. Writing III (15 minutes)

Total: 60 minutes.

2 Procedure

A. Warmer

The focus of todays lesson is written introductions, talking about your hometown and the idea of online penpals.

In the Warmer, we meet four young people. Ask students to read through their

biographical information. You can do some speaking practice here to check

understanding.

B. Writing I

Part of an introductory letter/e-mail from your students will include information about

their hometown and this is what we look at in this section. Put students into pairs or

small groups to complete this text, which will be quite challenging. There are some basic Present Simple sentences included, e.g. Many people work, many students who

live, sometimes I go.

Answer Key

1. called 2. in

3. pretty

4. fishing

5. live 6. wine

7. sunny 8. summer

9. old castle

10. students

11. university

C. Writing II

The sentences here are modelled on those in the Koblenz description and students

should use information about their own town/city. If all the students will be writing about the same location, they can work together again while you move around

monitoring and answering questions.



If you want to make this activity more creative, you can do some dictionary work and get students to be more creative with some of the gaps, for example talking about the weather and the main industries.

D. Exercise This section deals with the more personal side of the letter/e-mail the students are

going to write.

Ask all your students to cover the right hand column of this table so they can only see

the left side questions. Go round and elicit answers from students for these questions. Students answers will be different, but the focus here is on ensuring clear

understanding of the questions themselves. Be aware that there are questions here using both the verb to be and the Present Simple.

After you have got answers from your students for all the questions, ask them to work alone to match them with Williams answers on the right and then check their answers

with a partner.

Answer Key Are you a student or do you work? I work in my fathers office. Its a publishing company.

Do you live in a house or a flat? We live in a large house in the suburbs. We have a big

garden.

What part of the country do you live

in? I live in Vancouver, in the west of Canada.

Do you come from a large family? Not really, its just me and my parents.

Are you married? No, Im not, but I have a girlfriend. Her name is Jackie.

Do you speak another language? Everybody learns French at school, but my French is

terrible!

Is there much to do in your

hometown? Yes, its an interesting place. I go skiing in the winter!

E. Writing III

Depending on how much time you have, this can either set this as a homework assignment or complete it at the end of the lesson.

Ask each student to write their choice and reason in the space provided.

In the letter/e-mail, the student needs to do three things and there are prompts for

each one provided:

i. Talk about themselves

ii. Talk about their town

iii. Ask about the other person

The e-mails can then be cut out and stuck on a display board, together with local

photos, and this would make a great class exhibition of their work.

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