Title: Wishes and prefrences

Svetlana Shamanaeva, Arabaev Kyrgyz State Pedagogical University, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Language level of students: intermediate
Age group: Teens, Adults
Time: 80 min
Skills / aspects focus: speaking, listening, grammar
Grammar: would rather
Resources and materials: picture of a girl (or boy), paper strips with hint phrases

Procedure:

Warm-up: Back to the Board (divide students into 2 groups, one student from each group stands his back to the board, a teacher writes a phrase on the board, other students explain the phrase and the student standing his back to the board should guess it, the first team gets a point, continue the same with the rest phrases)

1.to drink orange juice
2.to read adventure stories
3.to watch thrillers
4.to wear bright colors
5.to go out with friends
6.to listen to pop music
7.to dance tango
8.to take a cold shower

Pre-activity :

1.Personal discussion.
-Do you like to do these (about phrases on the board)?
-What can you say about a person who likes doing this? (sociable, active, energetic, easy-going, friendly)

2.Present a picture.
-Show students a picture of a girl and ask them some questions about her. Give her a name, for example Christina. She likes doing all these things. Tell students something about her or elicit the info from them. Discuss what other preferences she has.
-Yesterday Christina was returning home and suddenly it began raining cats and dogs. Christina didn’t have her umbrella and got wet through. Today she’s felling bad. So she caught a cold. Today she doesn’t want to take a cold shower. She wants to have a hot bath. She would rather have a hot bath. Today she doesn’t want to drink orange juice. She would rather drink hot milk.

Activity :

1.Drilling

A.Explain new expression with fingers and drill it with students in chorus. Then to clarify the meaning of the phrase, ask them some questions.
-Does she always like to drink hot milk and have a hot bath?
-Does she do it constantly?
-Does she do it in a particular situation?

We use would rather to express our wishes in a particular situation. It doesn’t mean we like doing it constantly.

2.Questions:

Elicit a question from students. Will she drink orange juice today? She would rather drink hot milk. Drill the question in chorus and in pairs. Practice question with the phrases on the board.

3.Negatives:

Elicit a negative sentence from students. She would rather not have a cold shower. Drill it again with students.

2.Circle Practice:

Prepare strips of paper with the ideas (to have fruit or ice-cream for dessert, to go to the Caucasus or the Crimea in summer, to watch a sports program or a musical comedy, to read a novel or a detective story, to travel by train or by car, to write a letter or make a call, to walk or drive in the rush hour). Distribute strips by one from both sides of the panel. The teacher asks a student a question and the student answers it, then he asks another student, he answers, etc.

Post-Activity :

Divide students into groups of 3. And tell them that they won a lottery and have an opportunity to travel all three together to one country which they would choose. So they should agree on one country all together using in their conversation a new phrase. For example: - I would rather go to France. – But I would rather not. I’d rather see Thailand.

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