3 Websites

The best websites

Briefing
What students think makes a good website will
This unit looks at the purpose and features of
depend on their professional and personal use,
websites, as well as the stages in website
experience and circumstances. The purpose here is
development. It also focuses on giving opinions
to give students the opportunity to learn ways to
about websites and making proposals for a website.
describe the websites they find useful and
Website purpose interesting (for example, with adjectives such as
useful and easy-to-use). This vocabulary will in turn
Websites are designed to inform, entertain, promote be useful when they come to talk to clients about
or sell products or services and to share their requirements and to share opinions with
information, opinions and expertise. They may also colleagues. Students see screenshots from three
do a combination of these things. The following further websites: eBay, which is an online auction
websites are mentioned: Nationalgeographic.com, and shopping website, Nickelodeon, which
an educational website covering environmental, provides video and games for children and
scientific and other issues; CNN.com, a news Facebook, a social networking site.
service; Amazon.com, an online store originally just
for books but now selling a broad range of consumer Business matters
products; Thegreenshoppingguide.co.uk, a free
This section gives students the opportunity to apply
guide to living ethically; Math.com, a website that
the language they have learnt and practised on the
provides help to people studying mathematics;
previous pages, in the context of identifying the
eltforum.com, a place where teachers of English as a
website requirements of a small education business.
foreign language can exchange ideas; Wikipedia, an
Three important areas of website content are
online encyclopaedia.
mentioned: interactivity, meaning the degree to
Website analytics which the computer user can interact with a site to
make the experience more personal, audio, the
Website analytics is the study of website traffic to facility to provide content to listen to and download
establish how a website is being used. It is especially times, the speed at which information is transmitted
important to organisations that want to find out to the computer from the internet.
how visitors navigate their websites and which
parts of the website they are particularly interested Further reading
in. Also of interest is the number of hits, meaning Use the following keywords to search the internet
visits, a website receives. Reference is also made to for websites which give more in-depth information
meta tags, which are special tags – normally hidden about the topics covered in this unit: website
from a visitor to a site – that contain information design, website forums, website traffic, best
about the content of web pages and are used by websites.
search engines to provide search results. The focus is
on getting students to use the appropriate verbs to
describe website purpose and their own use of
websites for professional and personal reasons.

Website development
This section focuses on the stages you need to go
through to develop a website for a client, from
discussing requirements with a client through to
testing. It follows on from the section Website
purpose by giving students the opportunity to
discuss and ask and answer questions about
purpose, features, size, location and type of
customers.

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Teacher’s notes 1 read 2 offer 3 sell 4 promote
5 practise 6 share
Before you start the unit
Language
Review the content of Unit 2. To revise the use of the
comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, Make sure that students understand the
write the names of three laptop computers on the difference in meaning between the four question
board (for example, Dell, Compaq and Sony) and words and more specifically, between which and
invite students to come to the board to write what. Which is generally used to talk about a
whatever information they know about the three restricted choice (for example, Which do you like,
pieces of hardware (for example, price, weight, size, the blue one or the red one?) whereas what is used
speed and memory). Then ask students to compare to talk about an open choice (for example, What
the products in pairs using comparative and type of computer do you use?).
superlative adjectives.
Listening
Website purpose
4 ► 19 Play the recording and ask students to
listen to the questions first. Then play the
Speaking recording a second time and ask students to
1 Ask students to work in pairs to make a list of repeat them.
their ideas on the board. Deal with any
vocabulary queries. If you asked students to Speaking
come prepared with screenshots of websites they
5 While students are speaking, monitor their use
know and like, ask them to talk about them in
of the question forms. The purpose of the
groups now. Try to avoid discussing why
activity is to have students give more
students use these websites as this follows in
information about the websites they use and
Exercise 5. However, you could take the
why they use them, so encourage them to
opportunity to review the use of have (got) in the
give details.
present tense (for example, What has the website
got/does the website have? It’s got/It has news 6 Before students start the task, elicit the following
about sport.). questions: Which websites do you use to entertain
yourself/get news/study/shop? Students can work
Reading individually or collect the information in pairs. If
you have time at the end, find out if there are
2 As a way of introducing the text and teaching differences between the websites they use at
the word purpose, ask students what the purpose work and at home.
of social networking websites like Facebook is
(to help people exchange information about Students are likely to use social networking sites
themselves). Ask students to read the text on their like Facebook in their personal lives to keep in
own. Then, if you are comfortable with your touch with friends, entertainment websites like
own ability to do this, read it aloud to them. YouTube to watch shared videos and so on.
Finally, ask them to answer the four questions They may use sites like CNN or BBC for news,
and deal with any vocabulary queries. or other local sites. They may visit sites like
Wikipedia for information to help them with
Suggested answers research or studies. For shopping, they may go
1 to get information 2 to buy products or to a site like Amazon, although this website is
services 3 to have fun 4 to get information only available in certain countries.
7 Teach the meaning of the adjective popular. Ask
Vocabulary students to make short presentations in pairs or
3 Read through the six gapped sentences before small groups.
students complete them. As a follow-up, ask Students should give information such as: Three
students to make their own sentences using the people use YouTube for entertainment. CNN is the
verbs in the box. most popular site for news. All five people use
Wikipedia for research.

Websites 3 19
 Website analytics You might like to point out the way Sarah uses
Could you …? to ask for help and the way
George responds with sure, which means the
Speaking same as of course. Note that Could you …? is
1 Ask students to study the screenshots. Ask them presented formally in Unit 4.
to look at the different menu items and suggest
1 need 2 know 3 traffic 4 Could
what kind of information about website traffic
5 When 6 afraid 7 exactly 8 number
they might give. 9 can 10 much
Suggested answers
Today: reports by date Vocabulary
Dashboard: graphical view of the website
traffic 4 Read through the five website analysis tools and
Visitors Overview: information about visitors’ the descriptions to check understanding before
IP addresses, geography, country, time zone, asking students to do the matching activity. You
language, city, visitor maps may want to focus on the syllable stress of these
Traffic Overview: total page views (total words: traffic, meta tag, visitor map, user
number of page views in a period of time), time profile, page optimisation.
spent per page, a list of most requested pages,
how visitors enter and exit the site, error pages 2b 3a 4c 5d
(page not found or broken link), path analysis
(the way a visitor travels through a website, the
time spent per site or a specific page on the Language
site)
Focus students’ attention on how many, how long
Content Overview: keywords, tags, phrases,
and where. You may also want to introduce how
titles, meta tags relevant to the website
content, effectiveness of the keywords much (for example, How much traffic do we get?),
Event Tracking Overview: actions on a web although the difference between much and many
page, such as interacting with a video player, is taught formally in Unit 5.
a widget or an audio player Note that when the question word refers to the
Goals Overview: number of successful visits
subject, we do not use the auxiliary with the
or visits which fulfil the site’s aim/goal (number
present simple (for example, How many people
of sales, searches, downloads, etc.)
visit our website every day?) At this level, you
may not want to point this out to students unless
Reading they ask about it specifically.
2 Pre-teach the question phrase how long (for If you feel students need extra practice, ask them
example, How long is the lesson?) and ask to make other example sentences using the
students to answer the four questions about the question words in the present simple.
content of the three screenshots.
Listening
1 Absolute Unique Visitors 2 Bounce rate
3 Time on Site 4 Keyword (Visits) 5 ► 21 Play the recording once and ask students
to just listen. Then play it again and ask them to
repeat the questions.
Listening
3 ► 20 Pre-teach the verb need, which appears in Language
the dialogue, by giving examples of its use (for
example, I’m hungry – I need a sandwich. I’m With books closed, write the four numbers from
thirsty – I need a glass of water.). Ask students to the Language box on the board and see if
first listen to the dialogue with their books students are able to say them correctly.
closed and to tell you what Sarah is asking You may wish to extend the activity by looking
George, her colleague, to do (to provide some at more precise numbers. For example, 21,550 is
information on website traffic). Then ask students pronounced twenty-one thousand, five hundred
to read the dialogue and try to remember or (and) fifty.
guess the ten missing words from the context
before listening again to check their answers.

Websites 3 20
6 After students have completed the activity, you
can extend it by writing more numbers on the
board yourself or by asking students to dictate
numbers to each other in pairs.

1 thirty thousand
2 seven hundred thousand
3 ten million
4 one/a hundred thousand
5 eighty thousand

7 ► 22 Play the recording so students can check

their answers.

Speaking
8 Ask students to read the role cards on pages 68
and 78 and prepare questions in pairs of Student
As and Student Bs. You might want to elicit or
remind students of these questions:
• What’s the name of your company?
• How many visitors do you get?/
How many people visit your website?
• Where are your visitors from?/
Where do your visitors come from?
• How long do they spend on the site?
Put students in A/B pairs to exchange their
information. Go round the class and monitor
conversations. Review any language the
students had problems with as a class.

Websites 3 21
 Website development Speaking
4 Before students start the activity, give them a
Speaking minute or two to think about what they are
going to say. Ask them to cover the text in
1 The purpose of this exercise is to introduce the
Exercise 2 so that they only use the Language
linking words and phrases in the Language box,
box and the completed flowchart to carry out the
so first of all, check that students understand the
activity. Give both students in each pair the
meaning of the words in the table below. Point
chance to describe the process either by asking
out that some words and phrases mean the same
one student to describe the first four steps and
thing (i.e. first = to start; after that = next = then;
the other student the last three steps or by
finally = to finish).
asking both to do the activity.
Students may suggest sentences like the
following: First, I turn on the computer. Then Extra activity
I make a cup of coffee. After that, I read my emails. With a stronger class, ask students to apply the
Finally, I start work! language presented here to another context and
procedure (for example, choosing and buying
Language software or hardware for a company or college
or following a health and safety procedure).
Students will have had a chance to use this
With a weaker or pre-work class, you could
language in Exercise 1 but to give them more
apply the language presented to an everyday
practice, ask them to talk about the end of their
non-technical situation such as making a cup of
working day, focusing on stressing the linking
coffee or tea.
words in sentences (for example, First, I back up
my files, then I shut down my computer and finally,
I go home. Reading
5 Ask students to look at the websites and ask
Reading
them if they have ever seen them before.
2 Ask students if they know any of the steps in Students can answer the questions individually
website development. Then ask them to read or in pairs.
through the text, dealing with any vocabulary
queries. Point out that all the verbs are 1 the Financial Times and the Pearson
imperatives as this is an instructional text. Also Longman homepages
2 Students’ own answers
point out that there may be more than one
3 Financial Times: inform; Pearson Longman:
correct answer for some items.
inform, educate and sell
4 Financial Times: news stories, video, market
1 First 2 Secondly 3 Thirdly 4 After
data, search facility, breaking news;
that/Next/Then 5 After that/Next/Then
Pearson Longman: teaching ideas and
6 After that/Next/Then 7 Finally
resources, catalogue, online dictionary,
sections for teachers in different situations
3 Encourage students to make notes from the
(e.g. primary, secondary, tertiary), links to
reading text rather than copy sentences word for
course-specific websites, technical support,
word. Draw their attention to the example: the word of the day
flowchart says, Talk to customer not First, discuss 5 Students’ own answers
with the customer their requirements … as in the
text.
Writing
Suggested answers
6 Go round the class and check that students have
2 Analyse information 3 Create specification
4 Design and develop website 5 Specialist thought of enough information for the second
writes content 6 Programmers code HTML and third bullet points. The activity brings
7 Test the website together much of the language presented on the
first five pages of the unit, so you could
encourage students to look back for help.

Websites 3 22
 Speaking
7 Put students in pairs or small groups. You may
want to review all the relevant question forms
before students carry out the activity (for
example, What is the name of your company? What
is the website for? What features do you need? Where
are the website users from? How many pages does the
website have?).

Websites 3 23
 The best websites Speaking
3 To help the discussion, write these ideas on the
Vocabulary board: video, animation, 3D effects, security
features, design: text, fonts, photos, logos, boxes. The
1 As an introduction, ask students to comment on
content of the students’ discussions will depend
the purpose and then on the appearance and
on their knowledge and interests.
design of the websites. Ask students if they use
any of them or any similar sites. Suggested answers
Go through the adjectives in the box and check There are more security features on websites
that students understand their meaning. now.
Websites use more 3D effects.
Stronger classes may be able to add further
There isn’t a lot of information to read.
adjectives to the list (for example, colourful). You There are more pictures and links to pages.
may also want to focus on word stress: There are more fonts. There are many different
beautiful, well-designed, easy-to-use/navigate, styles.
clear, reliable, useful, informative, fun (meaning
enjoyable), funny (meaning amusing), exciting.

Extra activity
With a stronger class, you could also elicit the
opposites of the adjectives presented:
beautiful – ugly , well-designed – badly-
designed, easy-to-use/navigate – difficult-to-
use/navigate, clear – unclear, reliable –
unreliable, useful – useless, informative –
uninformative, fun – boring, funny – serious,
exciting – unexciting/boring.

Put students into small discussion groups to

carry out this activity and ask a spokesperson
from each group to report back to the whole
class.

Language
Present the use of There’s/There are and has/have
to describe things. You may wish to expand on
your presentation by presenting the question
form (Is there/Are there?). The full form of the
present tense of have was presented in Unit 2.

Writing
2 Ask students to write four or five sentences
about the websites they use and then go round
the class to check what they have written.
You may want to spend a bit of time on the use
of like and dislike with words like really and quite
(for example, I really like the CNN site.).

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 Business matters

Reading
1 Ask students to read the short text about
Learning Now Ltd (Ltd = Limited) or read it
aloud yourself. Students can answer the
questions individually or in pairs.

business type: education

website purpose: to promote its courses,
materials and learning resources and provide
online language-learning services
users: young adults all around the world
features: good interactivity, audio and fast
download times

Writing
2 As students write their website proposals, go
round the class helping them with the activity.

Speaking
3 Give students some preparation time. If you
have a large class, students can present their
proposals in groups. Make notes of errors that
would be useful to discuss with the class whole.

Preparing for the next unit

Unit 4 is about databases, so ask students to
research the names of different types of databases so
they are well prepared for the next class meeting.

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