New Adventures with English

Introduction
This ESL course book is designed to acclimatise students to a new cultural
and learning environment. It helps them fit into their new culture and make
new friends. This is what students want, and it’s what makes language
leaning real and valuable.

How it works
Learning is promoted by exposing students to culturally authentic and
intrinsically motivating every-day situations. The activities guide them to the
successful achievement of practical and social goals through:
• Exploring cultural, social and practical aspects of situations commonly
encountered in daily life
• Providing language skills and strategies to achieve identified goals
within these situations
• Demonstrating how these skills and strategies can be applied, and
• Providing students with practice in using these skills to achieve their
own objectives

How is this book different to current ESL course books?

Most ESL course books select contexts and situations based on the ease of
presenting a particular grammar point. Relevance of topic and interest are
secondary considerations. These books are irrelevant to the lives of learners
and as a result are not motivating. They are therefore difficult to teach from,
and often very large sections of these texts are completely discarded in the
classroom.
In this course book commonly encountered social and practical situations
and their related goals come first, and in this way the material becomes
relevant and therefore motivating.

Pedagogy
This book is written with four guiding principles:
1. Language cannot be separated from culture.
2. Motivation is the single most important factor in language learning
success.
3. Material has to be interesting and authentic.
4. Students need to make improvements in all aspects of communicative
competence – not just grammatical and lexical.
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 To The Teacher – How to use this book
Please feel free to use the material in the way best suited to the level of your
students. It’s really aimed at lower intermediate and above. The higher level
students will appreciate more discussion on the social aspects, as well as
exploring more authentic language. You can slot in phrasal verbs, idioms,
slang, or any related situations to make it more interesting. As native
speakers the students are looking to us to provide them with ‘real’ language.

Note on the Listening section

The characters in the listening section will appear in each subsequent unit,
and the plot will focus on how these students cope with new situations in
their daily lives. Your students will be participants and observers as these
characters develop their social and language skills. For this section, I would
suggest using the better speakers in the class to firstly read out the
dialogue. After that I would suggest role-plays in groups, with the best
group presenting in front of the class. You will need to assist with
pronunciation, especially word and sentence stress and timing. If some of
the vocabulary is new, you could start with that before listening.

If you are interested in working with me to complete this

text, please view the document on scribd titled

Expression of interest ESL coursebook

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 New
Adventures
with English

An ESL guide book for

a new life

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Unit 1 – It’s great to meet you
Words & Expressions
In this unit you will explore the language and social skills needed to start and end
conversations, and ask personal questions in a polite way.
Starting a conversation

To start a conversation with someone that you don’t know, the first thing you need to do is
make eye contact. Catch their eye, nod, or smile in a friendly way, and then exchange a brief
greeting. For example:

Sally: Hi. How are you?

Ben: Fine thanks. How about you?
Sally: I’m great. My name’s Sally. What’s yours?
Ben: I’m Ben. Nice to meet you Sally.
Sally: Nice to meet you too.

1. Conversation practice: Stand up and greet the people around you.

Keeping the conversation going

The next step is to continue the conversation by asking a question about a topic that is both
safe and easy to talk about. The topic is usually about your surroundings.

2. Activity: With your partner, write down some safe questions that you could ask in these
locations:
3.
In the classroom:
(e.g. Is this your first week?)

At a bus stop:

In the supermarket:

Conversation Practice: Now choose one of the locations above. Stand up and start a
conversation, then ask questions to keep it going. Talk for one minute then change
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 partners, select a different location, and keep going.

Closing a conversation
The final step is a polite ending to the conversation. In many situations, the reason for ending
appears naturally. For example, at a bus stop when the bus arrives:

Oh, here’s the bus. We’d better get on.

In other situations you may need to be more careful when you want to end the conversation. It’s
considered rude to suddenly say “good-bye” and walk away. There are three steps to politely
end a conversation:
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First: Signal that you are going to end the conversation

Oh. Look at
Well�. the time! So�.,

Second: Say that you are leaving.

I should (must) I have to (e.g.

be going I뭢 afraid I have get back to
to leave now. class).

Third: Say goodbye and walk away.

See you (later,
Good-bye tomorrow, soon.) Bye �.
�

4. Activity
Imagine that you and your partner are meeting for the first time in the situations below. Have a
two to three minute conversation. Start with greeting, and then ask questions to keep the
conversation going. When your teacher gives a signal, close the conversation and change
partners. Keep going.
 You’re standing in a line to buy take-out coffee. You’ve seen the person in front of
you a couple of times before.
 You’re having lunch in a cafeteria and you notice someone at the next table who
looks familiar, but you don’t remember their name. He/she smiles at you.
 You’re in a video shop, and you notice that one of the other customers looks like a
TV celebrity. Introduce yourself and start talking. Try to get their autograph.
 You’re in the street and you notice a foreign tourist looking at a menu outside a
restaurant and looking confused. Go over and help them.

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Reading & Writing
Below is a student enrollment form. First write the questions you would need to ask in order to
fill in the form in the space below the question. Next, ask your partner the questions and fill in
the form. Finally, present your partner to the class.

Personal Information
First name: Last name: Nationality:
Q. What’s your first name? Q. Q.
Type of visa: Date of Birth: Marital status: Sex:
Q. Q. Q. Q.
Address:

Q.
Mobile phone numbers: Home Phone number:
Q. Q.
Type of accommodation: (home-stay / private)
Q.
Course Information
Name of Course Enrolled in: Level of English:
Q. Q.
Start date: Finish date: Number of weeks:
Q. Q. Q.
Other Information
Previous English study:

Q.
Reasons for study:

Q.
Hobbies/interests:

Q.

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Listening & Pronunciation
You’re going to listen to two conversations between students on their first day at a language
school.
1. Listen to Part 1 of the conversations and write answers to the following questions:
 What are the student’s names?
 Where are they from?
 Where are they staying?

2. Listen again and answer true, false or not given next to each of these statements:
 Mariko is not married.  Deborah is married.
 Mariko wants to be a flight attendant.  Deborah wants to be a journalist.

3. Listen to the conversation again. As you listen underline the words that are stressed in each
sentence (sentence stress).

4. Why are these words stressed? Discuss with your partner and present your answer to the
class.

5. Practice the conversation with a partner, focusing on copying the sentence stress.

6. Practice one more time, however this time use information about yourself.

Part 2
1. Listen to Part 2 of the conversation and answer the following questions:
 What countries do Moritz and Jimmy come from?
 Who does Moritz live with?

2. Listen again and complete the sentences:

 Moritz is _________ ________ old.
 Lausanne is _________ and _________.

3. Listen to the conversation again and, as before, underline the stressed words.

4. Practice the conversation in a group of 4 or 5 students focusing on the stressed words.

5. Stay in your group, and begin the discussion activity on the next page.

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Small group discussion activity:
Decide who goes first (use rock, scissors, paper). The person to go first can choose any square.
They must talk for at least 1 minute. Each person in the group must then ask them one question
based on their response. The person to their right then goes next and chooses any square.
Keep going until all squares have been selected. (Based on “forfeits” in Classroom Dynamics by
Jill Hadfield).

1. Tell everyone
16. Tell everyone what three things about 2. Tell everyone about
you would do if you your hometown. what you did last
were rich. night.

15. Tell everyone three 3. Tell everyone about

things about your the best film you ever
family. How … saw.

When …

14. Tell everyone Where … 4. Tell everyone about

where you would like your hobbies.
to live the most.
Why …

Who …
13. Tell everyone 5. Tell everyone three
about something What … things you really like.
that’s important to
you. Do you …

Did you …
12. Tell everyone what 6. Tell everyone three
makes you sad. Is it … things you really don’t
like.

Are you …

11. Tell everyone what 7. Tell everyone what

makes you happy. you like doing on the
weekend.

10. Tell everyone 9. Tell everyone 8. Tell everyone about

about an ambition that something you something you can do
you have. would like to be well.
able to do well.

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Dialogue – Unit 1

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 Part 1
A conversation between Mariko and Deborah
on the first day of school.
Mariko: I hate filling in forms.
Deborah: Me too.
Mariko: What does it mean “Marital Status”?
Deborah: I think it means are you married.
Mariko: Well, I’m not married so do I write “no”?
Deborah: No. You need to write “single”
Mariko: Oh, ok, thanks. By the way, my name’s
Mariko. What’s yours?
Deborah: Hi, Mariko. I’m Deborah. Where are
you from?
Mariko: Japan, and you?
Deborah: I’m from Brazil.
Mariko: Oh, that’s interesting.
(Pause as they keep filling in the form)
Mariko: Oh. I’ve forgotten my home-stay family’s
address. It’s only my first day here.
Deborah: Really? I’m staying in a backpackers
near the train station.
Mariko: What’s it like?
Deborah: Noisy, but fun. So many interesting
people but I can’t sleep at night. It’s too noisy.
Mariko: Oh, that’s too bad. (pause). “Reasons for
study”. I think I’ll write “to improve my English”.
What about you?
Deborah: Well, I really want to be a Journalist,
and in my country a journalist must speak
English, but my English is not good. My level is
just intermediate.
Mariko: Oh, me too!
Deborah: That’s great. Maybe we’ll be in the
same class.
Mariko: I hope so.
To be continued …..
Part 2
A classroom conversation between students
in a group.
Teacher: Group three is Deborah, Moritz, Mariko,
and Jimmy. Into your groups please.
Deborah: Oh great. We’re in the same group.
Teacher: Ok class. This is a conversation activity
using cards. Before we start I’d like you to
introduce yourself to the others in your group.
Moritz: Ok. Hello. My name’s Moritz and I’m from
Switzerland.
Jimmy: Hi. I’m Jimmy and I come from Seoul, in
South Korea.
Mariko: Hi. I’m Mariko from Japan, um, this is my
friend Deborah from Brazil.
Deborah: Hello.
Moritz: Ok, I’ll go first. Hmm. Three things about
my home town. Well …., I come from Lausanne.
It’s a small city near lake Geneva. It’s very clean,
and, ah I like it very much. Ok ask me a question
Deborah.
Deborah: Um. How long did you live there?
Moritz: I lived there all my life, so 22 years.
Jimmy: Is it cold there?
Moritz: Only in the winter time. It’s very nice in
the summer. Sometimes I go for walks in the
forests there with my friends.
Mariko: Ah. Who. Who do you live with?
Moritz: Well, I live with my sister. She’s older than
me and she has a job. We get on really well
together
Deborah: Wow. Do you ever fight?
Moritz: Oh sure, but we always forget about it.
She’s great. Ok Deborah. It’s your turn. Choose a
question.
Deborah: Ok. Something I did last night. Well last
night I ……
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