Saturday, February 11, 2012


A good speaking and listening activity for  VALENTINE'S DAY


Valentine Day 2012 - Valentine Day Beautiful Pictures & Greeting Cards
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Activity Source : Listen Now!                    
Can men get it right on Valentine’s Day?

Teacher’s Notes
This is a listening activity suitable for adults of upper-intermediate and above.
1. Warm-up. Write this sentence on the board:
This day is a celebration of love held on February 14th
This should produce the word St. Valentine’s Day. If not, help the students by giving further definitions,
or providing the first letters S.V.D.
Tip: providing letters hangman style can help students to guess a word.
Now, concept check by exploring the word St. Valentine’s Day:
 Do you celebrate this day in your country? If not, do you have something similar?
2. Explain to the students that they are going to hear a conversation between three people who are
discussing St. Valentine’s Day gifts. Write the following gist question on the board:
Which gift do they like the best?
3. Now, place the students into small groups, Explain that, when they have finished listening, you want
them to discuss the gist question. Now play the recording. Encourage the students to relax and listen
only, i.e. not make notes. After they have listened, the students discuss the answer.
 Do feedback on the gist question by selecting a student (one of the quieter ones?) and ask
them what his/her group’s answer is. Then ask the other groups if they agree or disagree. Note
that the favourite gifts were a weekend in Paris and a theatre show with overnight hotel stay.
4. Provide the first worksheet (W1 Listening). Ask the ss to read the list of gifts very carefully and ask you if
there is anything they don’t understand. Now go through the instructions provided on the worksheet.
Explain that they don’t need to be able to understand specific utterances in order to get the answers,
they only need to go on their intuition. Then explain that after the recording has finished you want them
to compare their answers. Important: many of the answers aren’t obvious, but in this activity
getting correct answers isn’t important; it’s the discussion of each student’s subjective
viewpoint that’s important.
5. Play the recording a second time. Afterwards, give them a few minutes to write their answers and have
their discussions. Walk around the classroom monitoring the students (particularly the quieter, weaker
ones).
6. Do feedback on the answers. Arguably, nothing is achieved by simply writing the correct answers on the
board. Encourage the ss to discuss the answers openly, while you make notes.
7. Divide the class into female & male groups. Provide the second worksheet (W2 Speaking) Cut the
sheets in half and give the left side to each of the girls and the right side to each of the boys. Explain that
they are now going to discuss the gifts and put their best six in order of preference. The girls base their
preference on how much they would like to receive the gift and the boys on how likely they would be to
buy the gift. When they have finished, rearrange the groups so that they are mixed (boys & girls) and ask
them to compare their answers.
8. Extension activities:
 Grammar Focus. There are no worksheets provided for this, as Listen Now! Is primarily a
listening skills site. There are suggested focus items below, however it is recommended that
you use your own preferred grammar activities, or a coursebook or grammar website.
Suggestions are:
Would + infinitive for hypothetical preferences e.g: “I would love/hate to receive that” “I would buy


Look at the whole activity here

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