CLASS: Temple WELL ESL (Zoom) TOPIC: Complaining DATE: 11/17/22

Lesson Objectives:
 SWBAT recognize expressions that people use for complaining in English.
 SWBAT know how to do complaining in a polite way.

Strand Activity Stages Key Language forms/ Resources/Materials Time

(Nation, functions
2007)

Fluency OPENING SEQUENCE  feelings vocabulary; Slides, pictures on 5:00-

development Pre-Stage  google 5:15
OR meaning-  Welcome students for coming to the class  Small talk (15 min)
focused  Tell students to mute themselves when they are not addressing the vocabulary/sentence
output class structure;
Check-in: How are feeling today?
 Review question (“How are you feeling today?”) and offer potential
answers to students by showing an emoji chat
 Explain the meaning of some certain words on the emoji chat,
such as “goofy”; tell students the meaning of it by sample
sentences or pictures
 T models by making a sentence with a feeling word herself;
 T Asks students to put their answers in the chat box
 T calls on one student to read all the sentences in the chat
Small talk: what’s new with you?
 T asks Ss to make small talk using a few prompt questions, such
as
(1) Did you hear (about)______?
(2) What do you think about ______?
(3) What’s new with you?
(4) What are your plans for the weekend?
(5) What’s happening in your country these days?
Introduction of class topic and today’s learning objectives
 T introduces today’s topic: complaining
 T call on students to read today’s learning objectives
CLASS: Temple WELL ESL (Zoom) TOPIC: Complaining DATE: 11/17/22
Language- VOCAB LEARNING: COMPLAINING Words and phrases Slides, Longman online 5:15-
focused  T presents a few words (upstairs, complain) and expressions (e.g., related to complaining, dictionary 5:30
learning / down the road, be worth doing something, keep in touch, let me “upstairs” “complain” (15 min)
Meaning- know) related to today’s topic on the left side of the slide “keep in touch” “let me
focused  T presents three pictures and three definitions on the right side of know” “be worth doing
input the slide something”;
 T asks students to match the words and phrases on the left with
the pictures and definitions on the right
Introduce Vocab
 T check the answer for each picture
 T asks Ss what’s the meaning for each word/phrase
 T explains the meaning for each target word by either showing the
definition on an online dictionary or showing some other google
images about that word
 T offers a sample sentences to explain how to use the target word
in context
 T asks Ss to make a sentence with the target word themselves
 T offers corrective feedback to Ss
 T drills the pronunciation of each word

LISTENING PRACTICE
Pre-Stage
 T asks Ss whether they remember the content of their last listening
practice, which is about the details of renting a house
Key phrases for making a
During complaint, such as “I’m
Meaning-  T introduces the background for the upcoming listening practice afraid that..”, “I have a Slides 5:30-
focused by telling students that the dialogue they are listening to today problem with..”, and “I 5:55
input happens between the same landlord and the tenant need to talk to you (25 min)
 T tells students that they are going to listen to the conversation about...”
three times, and for the first time the only thing they need to do is
to figure out the main idea of the conversation;
 T plays the video clip for the first time
 T asks students how they feel about the video, what’s the main
idea of the conversation, as well as what other information they get
after their first listening
 T plays the video clip again
 T asks more specific questions about the content of the dialogue,
such as what the landlord was complaining about, why she was
complaining about that, and what caused the main problem
 T presents the transcript for the dialogue while students were
answering those questions
CLASS: Temple WELL ESL (Zoom) TOPIC: Complaining DATE: 11/17/22
 T asks students to follow along the transcript and find out the
places where the landlord was doing the complaining before
playing the video for the third time
 T plays the video clip again
Post-stage
 T calls on a few students to answer the question about where the
landlord was doing the complaining
 T presents the transcript and marks the places where the landlord
was doing the complaining
 T explains to students that in real life, people usually do
complaining in an indirect way, to be politer and avoid threatening
other people’s face
 T explains the meaning for a few new words which appear in the
transcript, such as yapping

INTRODUCATON OF THE KEY PHRASES ABOUT COMPLAINING

Complaining

 T presents a few sentences people usually use to do complaining,

such as:
Language-  Getting your attention Key phrases for making a
focused (1) Excuse me, I’m afraid there’s something wrong complaint Slides 5:55-
learning with my______. 6:00
(2) I’m sorry, but I have a problem with______. ___(5
(3) Could I have a moment please? min)
(4) I’m sorry to bother you but______.
 Stating the problem
(1) I’m afraid that______.
(2) I have a problem with______.
(3) I need to talk to you about______.
(4) There’s something wrong with______.
(5) I don’t know if you noticed that______.
(6) I don’t mind______but______.
(7) Do you think you could help me with______?
(8) I wonder if you could help me with______.
 Solving the problem
(1) What can be done to solve this problem?
(2) Do you think you can help me by doing______?
(3) Is there a way you could______?
CLASS: Temple WELL ESL (Zoom) TOPIC: Complaining DATE: 11/17/22
(4) Will you be able to fix this?
(5) May I have______instead?
(6) Will I get a refund?
(7) May I ask you to______?
(8) If you don’t mind, I would rather have______.

 T calls on a few students to use one of these phrase to practice

complaining

Meaning- SPEAKING ACTIVITY: Complaining Complaining- related Slides 6:00-

focused Pre-Stage Vocabulary 6:15
output  T presents three questions about complaining (15 min)
(1) Are there any noise in your home or neighborhood
that keep you awake at night?
(2) When was the last time you complained to
someone? Why? What happened next?
(3) Do you think complaining is a good thing or a bad
thing? why?

 T tells Ss they are going to have a conversation based on these

three questions and share these thoughts with their classmates
 T asks one student to read these three questions for the whole
class
 Before putting students in breakout rooms, T asks one student to
read breakout room guidelines for the whole class
 T puts Ss in breakout rooms;
 T quickly goes to each room and make sure all students are on
task; if Ss in some rooms do not know what they are supposed to
do, T offers the instruction for the activities again;
 T stays in each breakout room for a few minutes and put down
some quotes of what students said on a separate slide;
 T brings students back to the main room and asks a few students
to share what they talked about;
 Ts shares the quotes with the whole class and comment on those
quotes;

Anticipated Problems & Suggested Solutions:

 If students don’t volunteer to answer questions, T needs to call on students to read or answer questions;