Lesson 14 – Menu, please

Warm Up

1. Ask if any students or their friends are vegetarian, or if they know any vegetarians. Do they eat any kinds of meat? Do they eat fish?
2. Ask if they or their friends are allergic to any food. If any students do not know the meaning, ask another student to explain, or explain it yourself.
3. Ask if they or their friends can not eat or drink anything because of their religion. You could mention that Jews and Muslims, for example, do not eat pork, or that Hindus do not eat beef.

Main activity

Listening

1. Tell the students to read the menu without dictionaries and write any words they do not know. When they have finished, tell them to talk with their neighbours and explain other’s underlined words if they can.
2. Ask if there are any words they still do not know, and invite other students to explain before you give the mearings yourself.
3. Tell students they are going to hear six different people choosing from the menu, and that they must match the speakers with characters listed in question 2. Ask students to read the descriptions of the people and check that they understand.
4. Play the recording twice, and then ask if students want to hear it again.

Answer key

Iman d woman b 2 man e 3 man f woman c 4 woman a

Speaking

1. Put students in groups of four.
2. Tell them they are customers in the restaurant, but they must pretend that they are one of the characters from the list in question 2. Tell them they must not tell their partner which character they are. They must talk together about the menu and decide what to order. They should suggest dishes to each other and offer to share dishes. They must guess their partner’s character after they decide what to order.
3. As they talk, you can go around pretending to be a waiter/waitress, making recommendations about the dishes on the menu.
4. After the first game, ask how many students guessed their partner’s character. Remind them they should try to find out by suggesting dishes to each other and offering to share. Play the game again with students pretending to be different characters from the list. Students could change partners for each new game.

Follow up

In pairs, students write down three new meals, each with a starter, main course, side dish, dessert, and drink, using the menu or their own ideas for dishes. Each meal must be impossible for one of the characters to eat. Pairs then exchange notes with another pair and decide which characters can not eat which meal.