Communicative Language Program Lesson Plan #26

Instructor: Rosalie Lin Level: Elementary One

Objectives:
Students Will Be Able To…

1. review what they have learned about “complaining” last class.

2. engage in authentic conversations in role plays.
3. learn new vocabularies and phrases.

Theme: The Art of Complaining 2

Aim/Skill/Microskill Activity/Procedure/Stage Interaction Time

T-S, T-SS
Review or Preview Review/Preview or Linking/Transitioning S-S, S-SS
SS-SS

Purpose/objective/focus:

The purpose of this activity is to engage

students in having conversations about
“complaining”.

Warm up: T-S 8’

Activity Name: Good morning everyone!

What would you say? Did you eat breakfast this morning?
I had a cream cheese bagel with black coffee
this morning!

What about you?

Please tell the person sitting next to you what

you had for breakfast this morning!

Pick students to share what their partner ate.

1.1 Pre-Stage: T-S 10’

Last class, we talked about how to express our

discomfort, sadness to people.
Can anyone tell me what the word is?

Students are expected to say out the word

“complain” or “complaining”.

Complaining happens almost everyday in our

lives. And it is important that we complain in a
polite way.
Call on students to answer questions that were
discussed last time.

xxx, what can we say to start the conversation

of our complaints?

xxx, how do we respond to complaints?

xxx, did you complain about anything today?

xxx, who do you usually complain to?

1.2. During Stage: S-S 25’

I am going to put you in pairs.

You and your partner will get different

handouts, don’t look at your partner’s handout!

Put students in pairs.

Give students in each pair different handouts*

(student A handout/ student B handout)

Talk about several vocabularies that students

might not know.

salesperson/ baggage claim office/ reception/

clients

Show students pictures to provide visual aids.

Now, We are going to do number one together.

Guide students through the first role play on the

handout to anchor students.
Everyone please silently read number one.

If you are student A, you are going to be a

customer here and you will start the
conversation by saying “I bought this clock
here 2 days ago…”

Student B, you will be a salesperson and

respond to student A’s complaints.

You may begin!

Walk around the classroom to monitor students

and assist if needed.

Take notes of students’ errors.

If you finish the first one, you may continue to

finish the next three!

1.3 Post-Stage: T-S 12’

I heard some very interesting conversations! I

hope you had fun doing this!

Go over some errors that students made in the

process.

Write down new vocabulary that came up on

the whiteboard.

Wrap-up: T-S 5’

You might have heard people say it is not good

to complain, but I think there are times we need
to stand up for ourselves.

I believe after these two classes of practicing

how to complain, you now know how to do it in
a polite way.

Assign homework and remind students’ to

prepare for the upcoming unit test.
This section is mandatory
1. Materials:

Handout*, whiteboard markers.

2. Anticipated Problems & Suggested Solutions:

It might take a while to explain how to conduct the information-gap role play activity.
-My solution would be to provide more instruction and guide students through the first
scenario step-by-step.

3. Contingency Plans (what you will do if you finish early? need to cut LP? etc.):

If everything goes smoothly and we finish early, I would ask students to share what are
their solutions to their role play scenarios.

If we ran out of time, I would spend less time on error correction and provide students’
with feedback through emails after class.

4. Post-Lesson Reflections:

This class was full of laughter seeing that my students were very creative when they
were doing the role play activity. I heard some very funny and smart solutions to the
problems I presented to them. For example, one student offered to upgrade the room of a
customer because of her complaints. Their engagement and performance inspired me to
create and design more pedagogical tasks like this with a view to providing them with
more opportunities to use English authentically and creatively. That being said, I found it
a bit hard to take notes as I monitor their pair work. There were five pairs of students and
I was only able to listen to a tiny part of each of their conversations. I wish to come up
with better ways in regards to providing error correction.
*appendix - handouts

Handout for student A

Student A

1. You bought a clock in a shop. The clock doesn't work. Explain the problem to
the salesperson.

YOU START "I bought this clock here 2 days ago..."

2. You are staying at a hotel. The bed is very uncomfortable, so you go to

reception.

YOU START "Excuse me, but my bed...”

3. You work at an airport in the baggage claim office.

YOUR PARTNER WILL START.

4. You work at a cafe. A customer said you got his/her order wrong.

YOUR PARTNER WILL START.

Handout for student B

Student B

1. The clock the customer shows you is not a brand that you sell in your shop.

YOUR PARTNER WILL START.

2. You work in an expensive hotel. The hotel is clean, the beds are comfortable,
the food in the restaurant is excellent, and the clients rarely complain about
anything.

YOUR PARTNER WILL START.

3. You arrive at the airport and wait for your suitcases to arrive. And wait. And
wait. Finally you go to the baggage claim office.

YOU START. “I wonder if …

4. You are in a cafe. You ordered a latte but they gave you milk tea. You went to
the counter.

YOU START. “Excuse me, but…