Conversation Partner Guide

Turkish Study Guide 24

Online at http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/turkish
Essential Preparation:
1. Go through the student study guide carefully, all materials assigned, and the instructions
on this sheet. You need to limit yourself to using the vocabulary and structures the
students are learning.
2. Go through this conversation guide carefully and prepare yourself for each exercise.
Prepare necessary materials as needed.
3. Remember to give instructions and responses to students in simple Turkish. You need to
think about this and practice ahead of time. You can gradually add more complicated
instructions and responses as the semester progresses.
4. Bring in any supplementary materials such as multimedia activities that you think may
add to this weeks discussion.
5. Bring in a set of images of celebrities, places, objects etc. for use with the comparative.
This will be used in Part A.
6. Remember to have students sitting in a circle around a table or with their chairs.
Encourage them during dialogue practice to get up and move around.
Lesson plan:
Remind students at the beginning of the session that there will be 10 minutes at the end of the
session in which they can ask you questions in English.
Part A: Whole group together (10-15 minutes) move from student to student, but give students
plenty of time to think and respond before helping them along. The group should be in a circle of
chairs or around a table.
Greetings
Greet students as a group as well as individually. Initiate casual conversation asking them about
their weekend plans, what occurred during the week, what their future plans for the summer are,
etc. Use only structures students are familiar with and know how to use.
Comparative
Show the students two images at a time from the set you created. Ask the students, based on the
images, who/what is more beautiful/handsome, who/what is more interesting, who is more
talented, what tastes better, who is taller etc. You can show them images of food, celebrities,
places, art, musicianswhatever you find appropriate.

Describing members of the family

Have each student describe the members of his/her family or his/her group of friends and
compare him/herself to different members. For example:
My mother, Karen, is from Italy. She is short, thin, and has brown hair. My mother likes to
laugh. Her laugh is louder than my laugh. She is shorter than me and likes to play the piano
more than I do.
Part B: Students work in pairs for dialogue practice (15-20 minutes)
Scenario I: Two friends meet for coffee after a semester abroad. They are telling each other
stories about their experiences in the countries they traveled to and lived in. One room mate tells
the story of how s/he got lost trying to find a restaurant recommended by his/her host family.
Have the students reenact this dialogue paying attention to talking about directions in the past.
For example:
My host family told me about a very good restaurant. One day I decided to go and find it. I
walked to Main Street and I took a right. I walked down the road and saw a new street sign for
Sunderland Rd. I made a left. My host family told me that the restaurant was near a very large
park, but I did not see a park. I decided to walk straight along the road but a few minutes after I
arrived at Main Street again!
Have students switch roles.
Scenario II: A high school student and a college student compare and contrast school life, work
load, classes, and clubs in high school and college.
Scenario III: Students will role play a situation in which a student approaches a ticket vendor to
purchase a round trip bus ticket from Istanbul to Ankara.
Part C: Whole group together (15-20 minutes)
Activity 1: Class superlatives! As a group decide who is the tallest member of the group, who is
the shortest? Who is the loudest? Who is the most quiet? Who is the most studious? Who is the
most funny? Who is the most serious? Who plays the most sports? You can also use the images
from Part A and ask questions such as: Who is the most handsome actor? or Which city is the
most beautiful?
Activity 2: Have students talk about the 3 cities they mentioned in their paragraphs and compare
the two.
Activity 3: Complete, as a group, the Group Work: Discussion activity on page 16 of ET.
Activity 4: Complete the activity you prepared for this weeks session.
Give the students a chance to ask questions in English during the last 5-10 minutes. This is
a good time to discuss cultural issues that came up during the session. End the session on a
positive note. Practice appropriate good bye/see you again phrases.