1 Cities

Unit Objectives
Grammar: to be; there is, there are (+ any)
Vocabulary: cities; adjectives (1); places in a city
Scenario: saying where places are; using a map
Study skills: using your dictionary (1)
Writing skills: a city description

1.1 BIG CITIES: VOCABULARY: cities,

adjectives (1)
CITY FACTS 1 Using existing knowledge. This activity asks
IN THIS LESSON students to apply what they already know to a
new situation – a useful skill when presented
Lesson topic and staging with unfamiliar information.
The lesson looks at famous cities around the world. • Ask students to look at Exercise 1 and match the
Students do vocabulary work on adjectives to photos on pages 6–7 with the cities in the box.
describe a city. This language is then contextualised
in a reading and a true/false activity about Jakarta. A Jakarta B Mexico City C Lagos
The lesson then looks at the verb to be. Students use D Istanbul
the reading text to complete a grammar table and
then do some controlled practice. After that, they 2 Elicit the meaning of opposite from the class, then
listen to two conversations about Mexico City and do the first item as an example.
Istanbul. A role-play based on the listening in • When you check students’ answers, correct any
which students talk about their city/town completes pronunciation problems they have, e.g.
the lesson. wet /vet/  /wet/ 
cheap /tʃep/  /tʃiːp/ 
Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students will have: 1g 2d 3h 4a 5b 6c 7f 8e
• expanded their range of adjectives for
• Ask students to give you adjectives to describe
describing places
Istanbul in photo D and write their answers on
• revised the meaning and form of the present
the board (e.g. Istanbul is big, beautiful and noisy.).
simple of the verb to be
• Get students to discuss the other three photos
• learnt (more) about a number of major cities:
and then ask for a few answers from the class. In
Jakarta, Mexico City and Istanbul
each case, they should justify their answers.
• learnt how to describe their city/town
If you have a strong class, encourage them to use
Timings linking words (e.g. London is big and beautiful, but
If short of time, do Exercises 6 and 7 at the start of it is also noisy and expensive.).
the next lesson as a quick revision activity.
Possible lesson break: after Exercise 3b. READING
3a Ask students to look at the photo of Jakarta on
WARM-UP page 6 and to predict the answer. They then read
Put students in groups of three and give them one the text and confirm if they were right.
minute to name as many capital cities as they can Jakarta is a megacity of around ten million. It has
(with their associated countries). Take class bad traffic, caused by the large number of
feedback. Prompt if necessary (e.g. Rome – Italy; vehicles and an insufficient road system.
Washington DC – the USA; Beijing – China).
1 big and noisy.

New Language Leader Elementary Cities 1

3bGive students just a couple of minutes to answer
2 Are the buses expensive in your city?
the true/false questions. They then check answers
(Yes, they are./No, they aren’t.)
in pairs before you take class feedback.
3 Is New York in Europe? (No, it isn’t.)
4 Is Tokyo a big city? (Yes, it is.)
2 T (fact 1) 3 F (fact 6) 4 F (fact 5) 5 Are you happy in your city? (Yes, I
5 F (fact 8) 6 F (fact 9) am./No, I’m not.)
6 Are you famous in your city? (Yes, I
GRAMMAR: to be am./No, I’m not.)

4 Check that students understand the way the

table is organised and the technical language LISTENING
used to describe different forms, such as 8a Understanding context. This activity examines
affirmative and negative. the context in which conversations happen. Point
• Tell students to study the table and use the text out that the relationship between the speakers
to complete gaps 2–4. and the location of a conversation can affect both
• Check their answers and point out the use of content and choice of language.
contractions. There is extra practice on page 103. • Before you play the recording, students should
read the sentences. Afterwards, they should
2 isn’t 3 they’re 4 aren’t check in pairs before you take class feedback.
You might want to point out the difference in
usage between the contracted forms (I’m, he’s, 1c 2b
etc.) and the uncontracted forms (I am, he is, etc.): 8bStudents should complete as many of the gaps as
this is covered on page 102 of the Language they can before you play the recording again. In
reference. feedback, ask students which city they would
5a Individually, students decide which answer is prefer to visit.
correct in each case. They then check in pairs
before you take class feedback.
2 capital 3 cheap 4 beautiful 5 famous
6 wet
1 is, It’s 2 isn’t 3 are 4 aren’t

5bEncourage students to brainstorm brief notes Audio script 1.1

before they write their sentences. If they find this 1 Teacher, Edgar
difficult, get them to use the models given in the
T: Good morning. Come in. What’s your
examples in Exercise 5a and the vocabulary in
name?
Exercise 2.
E: Edgar.
T: OK, Edgar. Have a seat. Where are you
GRAMMAR TIP from?
6 This activity would probably work best with E: From Mexico City … in Mexico.
students in pairs. They should take it in turns to T: Oh … OK. Tell me something about Mexico
ask and answer the questions. City.
E: Well, it’s a very big city. It’s noisy. It’s quite
7 Individually, students reorder the words in the old. And, it’s the capital of Mexico.
questions. If they find this difficult, they should T: Is it a cheap city?
refer to the models in Exercise 6. They then check E: No, it isn’t. It’s quite expensive. But the
with a partner. Following this, they should ask buses are cheap.
and answer the questions in turn. T: Anything else?
E: Well, it’s famous for food, of course!
T: OK, good, Edgar. Now why … ?

Cities 2
 1.2 PLACES IN A
2 Teacher, Ayla CITY
T: Hello! Come in. Are you Ayla?
A: Yes, that’s right. IN THIS LESSON
T: OK. Where are you from, Ayla?
Lesson topic and staging
A: Istanbul, in Turkey.
T: OK … what’s Istanbul like? The lesson continues the focus on cities around the
A: Er … Sorry? world, with a specific focus on places within a city.
T: Tell me something about Istanbul. Students begin by expanding their vocabulary of
A: Oh … OK. It’s a big city, very beautiful, but, places in a city (e.g. bridge, canal, park). This
um, very noisy! The mosques are very language is contextualised in a reading about Rio
famous. de Janeiro, Mumbai and Venice. The lesson then
T: I see. What about the weather? turns to grammar with a focus on there is, there are.
A: It’s hot in summer and it’s wet in winter, Students work with this structure before applying it
but spring and autumn are nice. in an information-gap speaking activity about other
T: Are the restaurants good? famous cities. After that the lesson moves on to a
A: Yes, they are, very good! listening in which people talk about their home
city. There is then a pronunciation exercise on
contractions before the lesson finishes with a
SPEAKING writing task about the students’ own city/town.
9a Students read the audio script individually Meet the expert video
before they practise the conversations in pairs.
Watch the video to hear an expert’s experience of
9bStudents should try and reuse the language in
life in a megacity.
the recording when making their conversations.
It is better for weaker students to be the teacher Objectives
in the first round. Then students can swap roles. By the end of the lesson, students will have:
If you feel students will find this task hard, write
• expanded their range of vocabulary for places in
these prompts on the board. Take the role of the
a city
student yourself and choose a student to be the
• revised the meaning and form of there is, there are
‘teacher’. Model the conversation with him/her.
for use when describing a place
T: Good morning. What’s your name?
• learnt (more) about major global cities
S: …
• improved their awareness and pronunciation of
T: And where are you from?
contracted forms
S: …
T: That’s interesting. Tell me something about it. Timings
S: It’s …
If short of time, set Exercise 6 as homework.
T: Really? And what about the weather?
Possible lesson break: after Exercise 6.
S: …
T: Are the restaurants good? WARM-UP
S: …
T: That’s interesting. Thank you. • Ask students to open their books and look at the
photos on pages 8–9. Tell them to work in pairs
HOMEWORK OPTIONS and describe what they can see.
• When students are ready, get a few of them to
Students do the vocabulary and grammar exercises tell the rest of the group about the photos.
for this lesson in MyEnglishLab. Encourage other students to correct any wrong
Students do exercises G1−1, G2, 3–2 and G2, 3–3 on information or to complete any ‘missing’
page 103 of the .Language reference. information, for example:
STUDENT A: I think photo F is of China.
Students write a similar conversation to the ones STUDENT B: No, it isn’t. It’s Mumbai, a big city in
they made in Exercise 9b of the Coursebook. India.

Cities 3
VOCABULARY: places in a city 2b 3b 4b 5c 6a
1a Individually, students match the words with the
photos. If they do not know some of the words, GRAMMAR: there is, there are
encourage them to guess. They then check in
4a Students write there is or there are in the gaps.
pairs. Take class feedback, where you should
Check their understanding by asking why there is
also focus on accurate pronunciation.
is correct in the first sentence (i.e. because
carnival is singular).
A a cinema B a fountain, a park C an
Students can practise the form using objects in
airport D a bridge, a concert hall, a harbour
the classroom, e.g. There is a window in the
E a beach F a railway station G a bridge,
classroom. There are 12 chairs in the classroom.
a canal H a harbour, a mountain I a
Students may find the last sentence hard because
temple J a museum
they need to use any. This is covered in Exercise
Photo D shows the Harbour Bridge and the 4b below.
Opera House in Sydney.
– Photo E shows Copacabana Beach in Rio de 2 there are 3 there isn’t 4 there aren’t any
Janeiro.
4bStudents should read the information in the
– Photo F is a photo of the Chhatrapati Shivaji
rubric. Check they have understood the first part
Terminus, a historic railway station in Mumbai.
– Photo G shows the Rialto Bridge and the Grand before discussing the second question as a class.
Canal in Venice.
– Photo H shows the waterfront in Cape Town Any is used in negative sentences to talk
with Table Mountain in the background. about plural nouns (e.g. There aren’t any canals
– Photo I shows the west gate of the sixteenth- in my city.). Any can also be used in questions.
century Pure Water Temple in Kyoto.
5 Students complete the table with the words in
– Photo J shows the Field Museum of Natural
the box. Take feedback.
History in Chicago.
1bYou could do this either as a class or with
2 are 3 not 4 any 5 Is 6 are 7 isn’t
students in small groups. Make sure students
understand the meaning of all new vocabulary. Direct students to the Language reference on
pages 102–103 for further information and
READING practice activities.
2 Understanding main points. When reading a 6 Students select the correct form of to be. Get them
text, students need to be able to read quickly for to use the table in Exercise 5 to complete the
key information. To practise this skill, allow activity. Take feedback.
students only three or four minutes to read the
text and add in the words. They then check in 2 are 3 aren’t 4 isn’t a 5 Are 6 are
pairs before you take class feedback.
Give students a pre-reading task by writing up GRAMMAR TIP
the three cities in the text on the board and ask
students what they know about the places. This Draw students’ attention to the Grammar tip and
should provide some information about them. check that they understand it. Encourage them to
quickly practise the form using objects in the
2 beaches 3 films 4 water classroom.

Students discuss which city they would like to SPEAKING

visit/live in and why.
7 This is an information-gap activity where two
3 Give students one minute to choose the best
students have to exchange information to
answers. Emphasise that they should not check
complete a table about various cities. Explain the
back in the text. After they have finished, allow
activity and divide students into As and Bs.
them to check their answers in the text.

Cities 4
• Give students time to look at their table and • If the students say it was difficult to hear the
think about the questions they are going to ask. It difference, you could play the sentences again
would help to get a pair of students to before checking their answers.
demonstrate a question and answer.
• In pairs, students ask and answer the questions. Audio script 1.3 and answer key to Exercise 9a
Monitor the activity and help if necessary. 1 (a) I’m from Chicago.
Some students may use their own language 2 (b) They’re very quiet.
when working unobserved in pairs or small 3 (b) There’s a beautiful mountain.
groups. Encourage them to speak English as
much as possible in class. A lot of valuable 9bStop the recording after each sentence and drill
practice takes place in this kind of work, and it is with the whole class. Afterwards, students
worth explaining that to your students. should practise in pairs.
A helpful way to drill a sentence is to break it up
LISTENING and drill each part. Start at the end of the
sentence and put the sentence back together by
8a In pairs students predict what they think the
getting students to repeat after you. For example:
answers might be based on the names. They then
TEACHER: … Chicago.
listen to the recording to check their predictions.
STUDENTS: … Chicago.
TEACHER: … from Chicago.
2b 3d 4a STUDENTS: … from Chicago.
TEACHER: I’m from Chicago.
Audio script 1.2 STUDENTS: I’m from Chicago.
Yukako, Pablo, Stefan, Peter
1 Hello! I’m Yukako and I’m from Kyoto.
WRITING
Kyoto’s in the west of Japan. My city’s old 10 First, brainstorm information about a city/ town
and there are a lot of old buildings. There all the students will know. With them, write a
are a lot of temples. They’re very quiet. I short model text on the board.
love the old buildings. • Individually, students then write about their
2 Hi there! I’m Pablo. I’m from Lima, in Peru. own city/town, using the model as a guide.
In my city there are hundreds of cafés. • Monitor the activity and help if necessary.
They’re great. I love them. If all the students come from the same town, ask
3 Hi. I’m Stefan and I’m from Chicago, in the them to write about somewhere else they know
United States. In the city, there are a lot of well. They should not name the place in their
museums. I love the museums in Chicago. text. When most of the students are ready, ask
4 Hello. I’m Peter and I’m from Cape Town in two or three to read their descriptions to the
South Africa. In Cape Town there’s a group. Tell the other students not to call out the
beautiful mountain and there are a lot of names of the places, but to wait until the end.
beaches. The beaches are fantastic. I love
them. MEET THE EXPERT
8bStudents should complete as much of the activity 1 First, elicit the meaning of the prefix mega (= very
as they can before you play the recording again. large). With weaker groups, it may make sense to
check the answer to Question 1 before students
2a 3a 4b discuss Questions 2 and 3 in their pairs.
• In feedback, it may help to show students a map
of the world for this exercise (either on a wall or
PRONUNCIATION on a computer). You might also show them some
9a Explain that contractions are normal in spoken images from the video to get their interest – e.g.
and informal written English, and that full forms at 0:23; 1:07; 1:25; 1:36 and 1:44.
normally only occur in more formal writing.
• Give students time to read the six sentences
before you play the recording.

Cities 5
 different jobs available, better choices in
1 True 2 Brazil – São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro;
education, whether that’s schools or
China – Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing,
universities. Um … and also on the home life
Shenzhen; India – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata;
side, more opportunities for sport, er … cinema
Indonesia – Jakarta; Japan – Tokyo, Osaka;
and different ways of relaxing and enjoying
Mexico – Mexico City; Nigeria – Lagos;
yourself.
Thailand – Bangkok; Turkey – Istanbul; USA
– Los Angeles, New York When I was living in Mexico City last year the
good things, for me, were the cultural events,
2 Give students a few seconds to read the words. the museums, concerts, plays and films, nice
Check they understand the instructions. parks to go for a walk in and the cultural
• Play the video. Students check with a partner richness of the city, where you’ve got everything
which words they think they heard. Then take from an Aztec temple in the middle of the city to
class feedback. The words/phrase used are very modern, striking sculptures nearby.
underlined in the video script.
Some of the problems that megacities have are
Meet the expert video and answer key that transport is not always as good as it needs
to Exercise 2 to be to keep pace with the growing city, so
Adam Gadsby, Publisher whether you’re driving to work in queues of
traffic or trying to get on a crowded train, um …
My name’s Adam Gadsby, I’m an international
and it can be much more expensive to live in a
publisher and I travel around the world a lot in
big city, so for people moving into the town who
my job and I’ve lived in a number of different
don’t have a high income, or don’t have a job,
countries.
they may not be able to afford to live in a good
Last year I lived in Mexico City for four months apartment, and end up living in a ghetto on the
and it’s a huge city of over twenty million edge of town.
people, the capital of Mexico in the middle of
the country and it’s a very exciting place to live. 3 Individually, students answer as many of the
Er … lively, lots going on, but er … also long questions as they can remember.
journeys to get to work and all the problems that • Play the video again. Students check their
you get with a big city. answers. Take class feedback.

A megacity is a city with a population of over 1 20 2 13 3 opportunities 4 temple

ten million people. So it’s a very large city, not 5 Transport
always the capital city of a country. And there
are a growing number of megacities around the 4 Students should work in pairs to put the
world. information in order. Take class feedback.
I’ve visited a number of megacities, including
Tokyo in Japan, New York in the USA and São 1c 2b 3d 4a
Paulo in Brazil. Um … but there are also other 5 Students discuss the questions with a partner.
megacities which are less well known outside Allow four or five minutes for this. Take
their own country, like Tianjin in China, which feedback from a few pairs and try and establish a
has a population of over thirteen million people. class consensus on the questions.
Megacities are often quite different from each
other. Some, like Mexico City, have an old centre HOMEWORK OPTIONS
and have grown up over centuries, whereas
Students do the vocabulary, listening, grammar and
others are much more modern and have grown
reading exercises for this lesson in MyEnglishLab.
up more recently, er … with dramatic skylines
They can also do the video activities in
like New York.
MyEnglishLab at this point.
Some of the main attractions of a megacity and
the reasons why they grow are that there are Students do exercises G4–4 and G1–4–5 on page 103
more opportunities for people to get jobs, more of the Language reference.

Cities 6
 2 Play the recording for students to listen and
1.3 SCENARIO: ON answer individually. Then check in pairs.
THE STREET 2 zoo 3 car park 4 swimming pool
5 building site 6 bus station
IN THIS LESSON
Lesson topic and staging 3 First, get students to look at the photos of
Cambridge and ask them to tell you anything
Students do preparatory work on places, such as
they know about the city.
bookshop, post office and swimming pool. They then
• Quickly elicit the meaning of the words in the
practise this vocabulary before moving on to a
box. Then give students a couple of minutes to
reading about the English city of Cambridge. This
fill in the gaps.
leads into a listening about places of interest in
• Ask students if they would like to visit
Cambridge. In the next stage of the lesson, students
Cambridge. They should justify their answer.
focus on language which says where places are,
including between, next to and opposite. After some
pronunciation work on the schwa, students do the 2 population 3 gardens 4 famous
final pairwork task, which involves using their 5 students 6 language
language resources to locate places on a map.
KEY LANGUAGE: saying where
Objectives
places are
By the end of the lesson students will have:
• expanded their range of language for naming 4a Allow students a little time to study the map on
places in a city/town page 10. Tell them that they are going to listen to
• learnt language used to locate places: between X a talk about Cambridge. Play the recording once.
and Y, next to X, opposite Y, in Z Discuss the answer in class.
• learnt (more) about Cambridge
• understood more about the schwa 2 at an English language school

Timings 4bStudents complete as many of the sentences as

If short of time, set Exercise 5 as homework. they can before you play the recording again.
Possible lesson break: after Exercise 5. Students can then use the map to check their
Ensure you leave enough time at the end of the answers. In feedback, elicit definitions of each of
lesson to prepare for, do and discuss Exercise 7. the terms to ensure they understand.

PREPARATION 1b 2c 3a 4b

1 In pairs, students match the places to the

symbols. When they have finished, they should Audio script 1.5
check with another pair. In feedback, ensure School administrator, 2 students
their pronunciation is also correct. SA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to
In Romance languages library is a false friend and Cambridge and to the Cam English School.
may be confused in English with bookshop. Right, now, please look at your maps. There
are a lot of interesting places in the city
2 post office 3 bus station 4 college centre. First of all, please find Trinity Street
5 public toilets 6 market 7 tourist and King’s Parade – they’re on the left of
information centre 8 car park 9 shopping your map. There are a lot of beautiful
centre 10 zoo 11 swimming pool colleges on these streets. Opposite Trinity
12 gardens 13 railway station 14 library College, there’s a good bookshop and a
15 building site small post office.
In the middle of the map, between Trinity
College and the main post office, there’s the
main shopping area, with the market and

Cities 7
 the shopping centre. The market is nice, 6bIndividually, students should identify the schwa
with food and clothes and a lot of other (or schwas) in each word. This could be done as
things. And it’s cheap! The shopping centre a class activity, with you writing the words on
is … well … to tell you the truth, it’s ugly, the board and students taking turns to underline
but there are a lot of shops. the schwa.
On the right of the map, there’s the bus
station, next to the park. It’s quite busy in canal, fountain, library, cinema, quiet, million
the mornings and evenings. Take the bus
from there to the railway station or to
TASK: using a map
London. Any questions so far?
S1: Yes. Is there a library? 7 Explain the task to students. Tell them they
SA: Yes, there is. It’s in the shopping centre. On should not look at the other map and should
your map, there’s a person with a book. only communicate in English.
S1: Oh yes. Thank you. • Look together at the Useful phrases box. Its
S2: Excuse me, is there a zoo? purpose is to provide language to help students
SA: No, I’m afraid there isn’t – not in the city. successfully complete the task.
OK then, that’s all for now. Don’t forget: • Use the map of Cambridge city centre on page 10
tomorrow at three o’clock, there’s a guided to explain and practise the phrases.
tour of the city. Have a good time and learn • To model the conversation, get a Student A to
a lot of English! ask the first question and a Student B to reply.
• Monitor students while they do the task and
5 Students should write the sentences individually
write down examples of correct and incorrect
before checking with a partner.
English use. Do not intervene unless individual
pairs have a breakdown in communication.
The post office is opposite the shopping • Once students have finished, ask how many
centre. pairs completed all their places correctly. What
The theatre is between King’s College and the was easy? Did they have any problems? What
tourist information centre. kind of problems did they have?
The Zoology Museum is next to the Whipple • Finally, use your notes to give feedback on the
Museum. language areas needed to complete the map.

PRONUNCIATION HOMEWORK OPTIONS

6a The /ə/ or schwa is the most common sound in Students do the vocabulary, Key language and
the English language. It’s also the only phoneme Extra vocabulary exercises for this lesson in
or sound that has its own name. It only occurs in MyEnglishLab.
unstressed syllables. It helps if students can
locate the main stress in a word because DICTIONARY REMINDER
the schwa is often found in one or more of the Ask students to make a note to bring their
other syllables. dictionaries to class for the next lesson.
• Explain to students that they are going to
practise the most common sound in English, but
first they need to understand word stress.
• Write the words garden, student and teacher on the
board. Ask students how many syllables they
have (each has two syllables) and where the
stress is (on the first syllable in all three cases).
Together, underline the schwa in each word
(garden, student, teacher).
• Ask students to listen to the recording carefully
and see if they can hear the schwa.
• Now model the words yourself or play the
recording and get students to repeat the words.

Cities 8
 This exercise may be particularly difficult if
1.4 STUDY AND students use a different script (Arabic, Cyrillic,
WRITING SKILLS Greek, etc.). Even if they have used Roman
script, the English alphabet may still be hard.
You may want to write the alphabet on the board
IN THIS LESSON in upper and lower case (A, a), to help students.
Lesson topic and staging
In the first part of the lesson, students look at the Audio script 1.8 and answer key to Exercise 1
pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet and ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW
then the different uses of a monolingual English XYZ
dictionary before practising these uses themselves.
In the second part, students analyse a basic text Give students a ball. The first student says a
about a city (Toronto, Canada). They look at how letter of the alphabet, then throws it to another,
information is organised by topic and paragraph who says the next letter and so on. If a mistake is
before examining the type of language used and the made, start again from the beginning.
use of the conjunction and. Students then write a 2 This exercise uses phonemes (sounds) to help
simple fact file for a city they know. students with the pronunciation of the alphabet.
Start by writing an example word for each
Objectives phoneme (1–7) in the Coursebook on the board
By the end of the lesson students will have: (e.g. /eɪ/ make, /i:/ see, /e/ bed, /аɪ/ sky, /u:/ blue,
• learnt some of the main uses of a monolingual /əʊ/ boat, /ɑː/ car).
dictionary and practised the skills needed for • Get students to repeat the words after you, then
such dictionaries repeat them one by one followed by the sound:
• learnt (more) about the city of Toronto, Canada TEACHER: make STUDENTS: make

• analysed the structure of a fact file TEACHER: /eɪ/ STUDENTS: /eɪ/

• planned and written a short, simple fact file • Test students by pointing at random at different
about a city they know sounds and getting them to say them.
• Tell students to complete groups 1–7 with the
Timings letters in the box.
If short of time, set Exercise 13 as homework. • Check students’ answers and write them on the
Possible lesson break: after Exercise 9. board next to the seven sounds.

WARM-UP Audio script 1.9 and answer key to Exercise 2

• Pre-teach monolingual dictionary (a dictionary in 1 /eɪ/ AHJK

only one language) and bilingual dictionary (a 2 /i:/ BCDEGPTV
dictionary with translations into another 3 /e/ FLMNSXZ
language). Then write up these questions for 4 /аɪ/ IY
students to discuss in pairs or small groups. 5 /u:/ QUW
1 Do you have a dictionary? 6 /əʊ/ O
2 Is it a monolingual or a bilingual dictionary? 7 /ɑː/ R
3 Is it paper or electronic?
3 Students may find using the phonetic chart
4 When do you use the dictionary?
difficult and so should do this activity in pairs.
You may need to spend some time explaining the
STUDY SKILLS: using your chart in class feedback.
dictionary (1)
1 Make the distinction clear between sounds and 2G 3H 4J 5Q 6U 7Y 8Z
letters: there are 26 letters in the alphabet, but
4a Spell the words/phrases below slowly to
there are many more sounds. Also clarify that it
students. You might write this useful phrase on
isn’t always possible to predict the pronunciation
the board: Can you say that again, please?
of a word in English from its spelling. Students
listen to and then repeat the alphabet.

Cities 9
 • Tell students to put the labels in the correct
Suggested words for spelling: 1 ugly
places. Tell them not to try to understand every
2 cheap 3 fountain 4 harbour
word. The object is to understand the different
5 swimming pool 6 tourist information
parts of a dictionary entry.
centre 7 college 8 beautiful

4bDivide students into As and Bs. They should take 1 pronunciation 2 definition 3 different
turns to spell out their words while their partner meanings of the word 4 (part of speech)
writes them down. When they have done all the 5 opposite meaning 6 example
words, they should check each other’s work.
5 This activity practises alphabetical ordering, an 9 Explain that parts of speech refers to whether a
important skill when looking words up in a word is a noun, verb, adjective, etc. Students
dictionary. Explain what to do and then elicit the then decide which of the words are nouns or
purpose of the activity. Give students thirty adjectives.
seconds to do the task.
If your students are not very strong, particularly 2 n 3 adj 4 adj 5 adj 6n 7 adj 8n
if their L1 uses a different script from English, 9 adj 10 n 11 n 12 n
they may need longer to complete the task.
WRITING SKILLS: a city
2 chair 3 city 4 cold 5 famous description
6 harbour 7 is 8 market 9 mountain
10 museum 11 music 12 no 13 park 10 Explain to students that the aim of this part of
14 yes the lesson is to study a fact file for a famous city
and then to write a similar one themselves.
6a If students do not have a dictionary, skip this • Pre-teach location (a place), tourist attractions
activity or tell them to do it for homework. (things that tourists like to see or do) and north/
Otherwise, they should find the words as quickly south/east/west (and other compass points).
as possible. Explain clearly that students first • Read the rubric with students and check they
find the word and then copy down the one know what headings means. Students then look at
immediately after it. Do an example if needed. the text and complete it with the headings.
To make it exciting and develop teamwork, put
students into groups and they do it as a team. 1 Location 2 Climate 3 Size 4 (General
description) 5 Tourist attractions
Answers will depend on the dictionary the
students use. In WordWise, the answers are: 11a Students identify which words are nouns and
underage, grasshopper, marathon, headache, which are adjectives.
seabed, food chain, radioactive, think, engrave. This activity repeats the work of Exercise 9, but it
is important that students work at making their
6bIn pairs, students compare answers. They may texts more attractive by using adjectives.
not be the same if their dictionaries are different.
7 Read aloud the words and phrases below. When 2 adj 3 adj (nationality) or n (language)
you have finished, allow students time to check 4 adj 5 n 6 n 7 n 8 adj 9 adj
their spelling if they have dictionaries. If you
have brought a class set of dictionaries, students 11b First, students should try and complete this
can check their spellings in small groups. activity by themselves and without a dictionary.
When they have tried, they check their ideas in
Suggested words for dictation: 1 expensive pairs and can then consult a dictionary.
2 cities 3 canals 4 theatre 5 railway
station 6 next to 7 alphabet 8 dictionary 2 modern 3 busy 4 beautiful 5 wonderful

8 To prepare students for this activity, ask them 12 With their books closed, ask students what they
what information a dictionary can give (e.g. It know about the word and. Then ask the class to
can tell you about grammar and pronunciation.). produce a sample sentence.

Cities 10
• Ask students to open their books and read the
description and examples. Clarify as necessary.
• Individually, students use and to combine the
sentences before checking in pairs.

1 London is (a) big and expensive (city).

2 There are museums and theatres in the
city.
3 Venice is (a) small and beautiful (city).
4 There are canals and a lot of churches in
the city.
5 Sydney is (a) large and noisy (city).
6 There is an opera house and a beautiful
harbour.

13 This task brings together all the work students

have done in this lesson. Put students in pairs to
decide on a city they know well. It is important
that they know enough about the city to cover
the headings listed in Exercise 10.
• Tell students the aim for this part of the lesson,
i.e. to write a fact file for the city they choose.
• Students make notes on their city. Tell them to
look at the text on Toronto for ideas.
• Get students to divide the notes into general
description, location, tourist attractions, etc.
• Write the following on the board and get
students to fill in the gaps:
… is in the … of …
It’s on/near …
• Suggest students use the text on Toronto to help
them write the five sections of their fact file.
• Tell students to ask you if they need help, or be
available to help any students who need it.
• If there is time, get a couple of students to read
their fact file to the class. Can other students add
any information about the city?
If you feel students need more support, you
could first write another fact file with the whole
class on the board following the steps suggested.

HOMEWORK OPTIONS
Students do the study skills and writing skills
exercises for this lesson in MyEnglishLab. This is
also a good time to do the MyEnglishLab video
activities.

Students complete Exercise 13. If already finished,

they could write about another city they know well.

Cities 11