Eating Out Roleplay!

Level: False Beginner.
Previous knowledge: 
GRAMMAR: basic simple present, questions
VOCABULARY: food, meals, numbers and prices

STRUCTURES TAUGHT:
polite requests and offers
WOULD you LIKE...?
I would like...We 'd like.... etc.

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Warm up:
BOOM! using dollars and multiples of $3 as the boom number.


As students toss a ball from one to the other, they count
$1 - $2- BOOM! - $4 - $5 - BOOM! - $7 - $8 - BOOM!..... etc.

I chose DOLLARS so students can practice pronouncing the 's' sound at the end which they tend to leave off. 

If students make a miscount or drop the ball they take slip of paper and must answer one of the following review questions:

• What is your favourite restaurant?
• Do you like to cook?
• How often do you eat fruit?
• What do you usually eat for breaksfast?
• What do you usually eat for lunch?
• What do you usually eat for dinner?
• What is your favourite food?
• What is your favourite meal of the day? Breakfast, lunch or dinner? Why?
• How often do you eat in a restaurant?
• What food DON'T you eat?

After this we work with the following powerpoint.


Eating Out
PAGE 1- notice the pictures! ask students which restaurant they like the most!
PAGE 2- Students stand and speak to several different people about each question.
PAGE 3- In small groups compete to come up with the longest lists of delicious restaurant food and drinks
PAGE 4 and 5- As a whole class discuss and drill useful language for a waiter and for clients in a restaurant

PAGE 6- In small groups students develop a menu with prices. They then practice being and serving customers.

and FINALLY students become clients in each others' restaurants for some unscripted language exchange.


As I mentioned in the previous post, it provides very valuable self-reflective feedback if you can tape their roleplays and have students watch themselves.

An alternative is to have other groups of students provide feedback in different areas, such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary,  funniness.... Of course, you may need to suplement this with your own observations and feedback.

I have found my students really enjoy this very functional language task. I hope it is useful to you too!