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GENERAL ENGLISH · VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

LEARNING
LANGUAGES

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1 Warm up
Name the official languages that are spoken in the countries below.

1. The Netherlands:

2. Switzerland (4 languages):

3. China (2 languages):

4. Tanzania (2 languages):

5. Iran:

6. Iceland:

7. Brazil:

8. Thailand:

Now discuss these questions about the languages above.

1. Do you know any of these languages? Which would you be most likely to learn?
2. Which language do you think would be the hardest to learn? Why? Which would be the easiest?
3. Which language do you think would be the most useful to learn? Why?

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2 Vocabulary

Look at the sentences below. What do you think the words and phrases in bold mean? Match them
to the definitions on the right.

1. Teenagers use a lot of slang that I don’t a. very informal words and expressions used
understand. by a group of people
2. It took me four years to master Spanish. b. strange and very different

3. It’s easy to pick up. c. the ability to speak a language easily and
well
4. It has a rich vocabulary. d. learn something very well

5. My fluency in English has improved a lot e. learn by listening and practising

this year.
6. Learning all the tenses can be challenging. f. a large number of different words and
expressions
7. It’s completely alien to me. g. difficult to understand

8. The grammar is very complicated. h. difficult but interesting

Now answer these questions:

1. What language do you think is very complicated? Why?

2. What part of learning English is most challenging for you?
3. Do you prefer to pick up new languages from music, TV and movies or do you prefer to study the
grammar and vocabulary in a textbook?
4. What can you do to improve your fluency in English?
5. What languages have you mastered already? How long do you think it will take you to master
English?

3 Listening - Part 1

Listen to the conversation and answer the questions below.

1. What language is Sarah learning?

2. How long has she been studying?

3. What two things in English are hard for Nico?

4. Why is Sarah lucky?

5. Why does Nico not want to say "fat"?

6. What does Sarah say is the opposite of "overweight"?

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4 Listening - Part 2 (vocabulary recycling)

Read through the first part of the script. Then fill gaps with the vocabulary words from exercise 2.

alien challenging complicated fluency

master rich vocabulary slang to pick up

1. Nico: Hey Sarah! How are you?

2. Sarah: Pretty good. I’m just on my way home from French class.

3. Nico: How are your classes going?

4. Sarah: Great! My teacher says that I’ve come a long way. In the beginning I could
1
hardly say a word, but now my is pretty good.
5. Nico: That’s great. You must be studying very hard.

6. Sarah: I am. I’ve been taking classes for almost a year, and I try to practise as much as
possible. I’ll be ordering cafe au lait in Paris in no time!
2
7. Nico: I wish English was easier . I understand a lot and can get by in
3
conversations. But the grammar is very and it is hard for me
4
to understand .
5
8. Sarah: Yeah, the grammar is definitely hard to . And English also has
6 7
a really , which can be for learners. Actually,
I’m lucky that a lot of English vocabulary comes from French, so the language
8
doesn’t sound completely to me.

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5 Phrases for language learning

Complete the dialogues below with the phrases in the box.

a long way a more polite way another way of do you call

do you say get by say a word the opposite

Dialogue 1

1
A: How hello in French?

B: Bonjour

Dialogue 2

2
A: I can hardly in Spanish.

B: Can you say hello, goodbye or thank you?

Dialogue 3

3
A: My English has come in the last year.

B: That’s great! What level are you at now?

Dialogue 4

4
A: My Italian is okay. I can in most everyday situations.

B: That’s cool. Can you teach me a few common phrases?

Dialogue 5

5
A: What’s of organised?

B: Disorganised

Dialogue 6

6
A: What’s saying hard?

B: Difficult or complicated.

Dialogue 7

7
A: How do you say move in ?

B: Pardon

Dialogue 8

8
A: What someone who is not polite?

B: Rude

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Additional practice task

Look at phrases for Speaker A on the previous page.

• Think of different ideas for each word in bold.
• Take turns saying your new sentences to your partner.
• Listen to your partner’s sentences and respond.

6 Talking point

Discuss the questions below with a partner.

1. What English slang do you know? Where did you learn it?
2. Does your language have a rich vocabulary? Do you know any words in your language that don’t
exist in English?
3. Are there any alphabets that seem completely alien to you? Would you ever want to learn one?
4. What is your motivation for learning English?
5. Do you think learning a foreign language should be mandatory at school? At what age should
foreign language learning start?
6. Have you ever had to get by with just a couple of phrases in a foreign country? How did you feel?
7. Have you ever felt embarrassed when speaking another language? Why?
8. What foreign words have you picked up when travelling abroad?
9. What is more important for you: speaking confidently or speaking accurately? Why?
10. At what level, will you be satisfied with your fluency?

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7 Optional extension/homework

When learning a language, it is important to understand grammatical terms for different types of
words. Complete the table below with the following parts of speech and then answer the questions.

adjective / adverb / conjunction / interjection / noun / preposition / pronoun / verb

Part of speech Function Example

1 action or state go, come, be, drive, can, do

2 person, place, thing or idea Matt, England, car, love

3 describes a noun English, small, some, exciting

4 describes a verb or adjective well, badly, very, often, really,

away

5 replaces a noun I, you, they, he, her, they, ours

6 links a word to a noun to, on, at, in, over

7 joins sentences or clauses and, but, or, however, if, when

8 short exclamation Oh!, well, hi!, stop!

Answer these questions:

1. What adjectives would you use to describe yourself?

2. What’s another way of saying a boy? What part of speech is that word?
3. What’s the opposite of below? What part of speech are these words?
4. What conjunction do you use when there is a choice between two things?
5. What do you call the two types of nouns, for example cats and knowledge?
6. What’s another way of saying that someone does something often? What part of speech are these
words?

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LEARNING LANGUAGES

Transcripts

3. Listening - Part 1

Nico: Hey Sarah! How are you?

Sarah: Pretty good. I’m just on my way home from French class.

Nico: How are your classes going?

Sarah: Great! My teacher says that I’ve come a long way. In the beginning, I could hardly say a
word, but now my fluency is pretty good.

Nico: That’s great. You must be studying very hard.

Sarah: I am. I’ve been taking classes for almost a year, and I try to practise as much as possible.
I’ll be ordering cafe au lait in Paris in no time!

Nico: I wish English was easier to pick up. I understand a lot and can get by in conversations.
But the grammar is very complicated and it is hard for me to understand slang.

Sarah: Yeah, the grammar is definitely hard to master. And English also has a really rich
vocabulary, which can be challenging for learners. Actually, I’m lucky that a lot of English
vocabulary comes from French, so the language doesn’t sound completely alien to me.

Nico: Really? Can you give me an example?

Sarah: Yeah, there are lots. Beef in French is beouf and a table is une table.

Nico: Wow, the pronunciation is not that different.

Sarah: Nope, so don’t feel badly that you still have more to learn. And you can always ask me for
help!

Nico: Thanks. I did need some help with a few words. How do you say that someone is fat but
in a more polite way?

Sarah: Ahh, you would say overweight.

Nico: Okay, and what’s the opposite of overweight. What do you call someone who is skinny?

Sarah: You can say slim. That’s another way of saying skinny, but it’s nicer.

Nico: Thanks! I better write those down.

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Key

1. Warm up

5 mins.
The purpose of this activity is to arouse interest in the topic of languages. Students work in pairs or small groups
to name the languages spoken in the countries.

Allow them to use the Internet if they struggle.

Elicit answers to check. Then have students discuss the three questions, encouraging them to justify their answers.

ANSWERS:

1. Dutch 2. Italian, French, German, Romansh

3. Mandarin, Cantonese 4. Swahili, English
5. Farsi/Persian 6. Icelandic
7. Portuguese 8. Thai

2. Vocabulary

10 mins.
Students practise with some key vocabulary for understanding the listening and for talking about language learning.
They can work alone or in pairs to complete the two sets of vocabulary but should check answers with a partner
before you check answers as a whole class. Monitor and help as needed and be sure that students can correctly
pronounce all the words. Stressed syllables are marked. Then have students discuss the questions in pairs or small
groups.

1. → a. 2. → d. 3. → e. 4. → f. 5. → c. 6. → h. 7. → b. 8. → g.

3. Listening - Part 1

5-8 mins.
Have students read through the questions before listening for the answers. Students can listen to the audio twice
if needed.

1. French 2. Almost a year

3. Grammar and slang 4. "A lot of English vocabulary comes from French"
5. It is not polite. 6. slim

4. Listening - Part 2 (vocabulary recycling)

5 mins.
Students read through the first part of the script and fill in the blanks with the vocabulary from exercise 2 before
listening to check. Only the first part of the script is shown, but allow students to listen to the entire recording.

1. fluency 2. to pick up
3. complicated 4. slang
5. master 6. rich vocabulary

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7. challenging 8. alien

5. Phrases for language learning

15 mins.
This offers additional support with language from the listening for describing language ability as well as some
useful questions for asking about words. After completing the dialogues, students personalise the sentences and
are given productive practice with them. If your classroom set-up allows, you could do this as a mingle activity
where students complete one dialogue with a partner before moving to a new partner.

1. do you say 2. say a word 3. a long way 4. get by

5. the opposite 6. another way of 7. a more polite way 8. do you call

6. Talking point

15 mins.
This allows students to discuss their own language learning experiences and use vocabulary from the lesson.
Monitor and provide help as needed. Wrap up the exercise by asking students to share interesting answers from
their partners and by offering error correction.

7. Optional extension/homework

10 mins.
This gives students practise with some key terms for discussing parts of speech, which is very useful for language
learning. Students can complete this in class with a partner or for homework. If doing this for homework, be sure
to check answers in class or you can provide students with the answers for them to self-correct.
Table:
1) verb, 2) noun, 3) adjective, 4) adverb, 5) pronoun, 6) preposition, 7) conjunction, 8) interjection
Questions:
1. student’s own answers. 2. he = pronoun. 3. above = preposition. 4. or. 5. countable (cats) and uncountable
(knowledge). 6. normally/usually/regularly = adverb

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