Main Aim: To practise using topic vocabulary.
Subsidiary Aims: To give practice in reading for gist, to introduce and practise vocabulary on the topic of weather, to develop learners’ autonomy and consolidate lexis for weather, to provide controlled oral practice of new vocabulary, give oral fluency practice and raise awareness of English culture.
Timing: 80 minutes
Teaching Aids: whiteboard, worksheets, visual aids
Interaction patterns: individually, in pairs, in groups, as a whole class
Level: Intermediate-Upper Intermediate
Lead-in (10 minutes)
Hold a discussion with students about what season it is now, what typical weather for
this season is and what the weather is like today.
This kind of introductory activity can help a teacher elicit which vocabulary on the topic
of weather the students already know.
Ask students to look at the title of the lesson (slide 1) and predict
what it might refer to. Explain the meaning of the phrase come rain or shine.
(The phrase come rain or shine means that something will definitely happen no
matter what the weather may be, eg ‘Come rain or shine she always runs five
miles in the morning’.) [Appendix5]
Encourage students to look at the pictures on slide 2 and discuss the questions working in pairs. Go round the class monitoring and helping where necessary [Appendix5]
Reading (15 minutes)
[Macmillan Exam Skills for Russia Reading and Writing, Malcolm Mann, Steve Taylore-Knowes] [Appendix 1]
This section gives practice in a multiple matching task allocating headings to
paragraphs in the text. In order to do this effectively students must develop their
skimming and scanning skills.
Tell students that they are going to read a magazine article about weather forecasting.
Ask them to read the text as quickly as possible and underline all the words related to
the topic of the lesson. Ask students to compare their answers with their partners and
then check answers orally and / or by writing them on the board.
Tell students that they are going to read the article again in more detail. Remind
students that at this stage they need to underline all the words and phrases which helped
them to choose their answers since they will be asked to justify them in the feedback
session.
Check answers orally and / or by writing them on the board getting students to justify
their choices and give reasons why the other headings are unsuitable.
Answers: 1D 2H 3A 4C 5F 6B 7E
Post-reading activity This makes a connection between the text and life experience.
Ask students to tell you how accurate they think weather forecasts are and what the weather forecast for the next week is.
Word Perfect (15 minutes)
This section of the lesson is based on further developing topic vocabulary. [Appendix 2]
Exercise 1
This task helps students to develop learners’ autonomy. [Macmillan Exam Skills for
Russia Reading and Writing, Malcolm Mann, Steve Taylore-Knowes; Macmillan Exam Skills for
Russia Speaking and Listening, Malcolm Mann, Steve Taylore-Knowes]
Tell students that they are now going to extend their wordstock on the topic of weather by
doing the WordPerfect task. Ask students to do this exercise individually. The students
need to read the sentences and work out the definitions of the words in bold, then
complete the sentences below.
Check answers orally and / or by writing them on the board.
Answers: 1 blizzard 2 thunderstorm 3 pouring 4 hail 5 drizzling 6 spell 7 overcast
Exercise 2
This task further develops lexical knowledge on the topic of the lesson. Encourage students to work in pairs to match the definitions of some vocabulary items with their denotations. [Longman Exam Dictionary]
Check students understanding of these words by getting them to match pictures (visuals) on slides 3-6 with their answers. [Appendix5]
Answers: 1 puddle 2 rainbow 3 gale / hurricane force winds 4 a gust of wind 5 lightning 6 flooding 7 icicle 8 drought 9 raindrop 10 snowstorm 11 mist 12 snowflake
Exercise 3:
This task helps students to develop learners’ autonomy and understand the word
formation of some words. [English Vocabulary in Use Michael McCarthy, Felicity O’Dell]
Ask students to work in pairs and use a dictionary if necessary to do this exercise. Then
check answers orally. Tell students that the meaning of some vocabulary items is created
by adding prefixes or suffixes to base words (e.g. downpour), or by making
compound words (two or more words together that have meaning as a set, e.g.
thunderstorm, heatwave, hailstones) or by collocation (words that often occur
together, e.g. gale warning).Explain students the words which they cannot
understand by giving synonyms or examples. e.g. downpour
means a lot of rain that falls in a short time.
Answers: 1 thunderstorm 2 downpour 3 heatwave 4 hailstones 5 snowflake 6 gale warning 7 raindrop.
Exercise 4:
This task helps students to revise and consolidate topic vocabulary. [English
Vocabulary in Use Michael McCarthy, Felicity O’Dell]
Ask students to do this exercise individually. Explain them that they need to choose the
most suitable word or phrase underlined in each sentence.
Check answers orally.
Answers: 1 puddles 2 cloudy 3 lightning 4 frosts 5 shower 6 Hailstones 7 drought 8 breeze 9 hurricane 10 wind
Speaking (15 minutes)
Talking about the weather (slide 7)
This task provides controlled oral practice. Ask students to work as a whole class and answer what kinds of weather they think caused the situations in the photos, how they would feel if they experienced some of these situations and what’s the worst type of weather they have ever experienced. [Appendix5]
Talking about the weather (slide 8)
This exercise gives students oral fluency practice in using new vocabulary. Tell students to work in pair asking and answering the questions: 1.What is the weather like where you are from? 2. What is the hottest place you have ever been? 3. Have you ever been afraid of the weather? 4. What kind of weather do you prefer? 5. What kind of weather do you hate? Give them a time limit e.g.3 minutes. Then, hold a class discussion. [Appendix5]
Weather idioms (20 minutes)
This task makes students familiar with the use of English idioms and culture of English-speaking countries, it helps to develop students’ imagination and extend their lexis.
Let’s take a rain check on that [www.onestopenglish.com] [Appendix 3]
Read out the title of the worksheet and explain what it means (The phrase let’s
take a rain check on that means ‘let’s not do the activity we were going to
now, but do it another time.’ This term originates from American baseball. When it
rains and the game is cancelled American spectators are given a ‘check’ or ticket to
return another day.)
Ask students to do the exercise in pairs. Check answers orally. Ask if they have any
similar expressions connected to the weather in their own language and whether they are
similar to the ones in the exercise
Answers: 1h 2g 3a 4d 5e 6b 7c 8f
Draw students’ attention to slides 9-11 and ask students to match the pictures with the idioms. Tell students that they are now going to practise using these idioms in speech, and they need to make up the situations or dialogues in which these idioms can be used. Divide the class into three groups, give each group one of the idioms and tell the students that they need to imagine the situation in which this idiom is used and the rest of the class has to guess what idiom this group is demonstrating. Ask students to use new vocabulary on the topic of the lesson. [Appendix5]
e.g. 1 - under the weather
It was a terrible day in my life. I couldn’t sleep because of the weather. It was
pouring with rain. Every time I tried to make an effort to fall asleep, I saw a flash of
lightning and heard a horrible sound of thunder. It was a real nightmare. I knew that
tomorrow I was going to feel….
Home assignment (5 minutes)
1. Tell students that they have to use the idioms left and make situations like they
did on the lesson.
2. To recycle and consolidate the topic vocabulary they have to do exercise on worksheet
4. [English Vocabulary in Use Michael McCarthy, Felicity O’Dell] [Appendix 4]