I’ve used a couple of the above, with good results. So it is payback time. Here’s mine…
LOST IN THE DESERT
It is lunchtime, on a hot July day. You are driving across the desert with two friends. Suddenly your truck breaks down. You are lost. What can you do? Which six things do you take with you and why? How can you use them?
6 bottles of water
Two bars of chocolate
A gun and ammunition
A radio
3 blankets
3 cans of coffee
A mirror
A kitchen knife
Some bread, cheese and apples
A flashlight
A map
A box of matches
A can of gasoline
A small first aid kit
Have you ever been lost?
Do you know anyone who has been lost?
Which is the worst environment to be lost in?
Can you imagine being lost in this kind of place? How would you feel?
Talk about the physiological and physiological problems you could encounter. How would you deal with injury or sickness?
How do people cope with being lost?
Do you think you could survive in the desert?
Where can you find food and water in the desert?
What is the first thing you do after finding your way home?
There are numerous ways to run this, but basically you gloss vocab, then have them read over each situation and try to figure out what difference in customs, attitudes, etc. between local and Western cultures might cause a misunderstanding in this situation. They can also discuss how they would resolve each in similar circumstances.
Then put them in two lines. One line is the local line, one line is the foreigner line. You read out a slip and they all role-play it for about one minute. Keep rotating the lines and doing different situations…
[b]CULTURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS
Your foreign roommate got angry with you because your bathroom floor is always covered with water after you take a shower. Find out why she is mad.
Your foreign friend just stuck his/her chopsticks into his/her rice bowl at dinner. Explain why he shouldn
Great site with lessons about important issues, politics, economics, business, current events, the environment, some fun stuff, you name it, regularly updated.
Role-play scenarios are greet. My only caution is if the boss has thrown beginners in with intermediate or advanced students, it won’t go over quite so well, as the teacher must constantly get bogged down in instruction and vocabulary. If the students are all more or less equal intermediate level, then its great.
If you teach an intermediate/advanced class of adults, and you like to work with a text, the e-lessons over at the Global website might be just what you’re looking for. These are all based on current news articles, and include handouts as well as teacher’s notes. There are 39 lessons to date, all of which are quite professionally made. Click below for the archive of e-lessons: