M1

Casual introductions and small talk 1

(Related to Ellis senior mastery 3.0 Unit One Lesson 1 and Lesson 2)

Lesson1. Melanee, I’d like you to meet Tyke and Carl.

2. How do you and Kisha know each other?

 

Objectives:

The students should be able to

1. Understand the dialog and do the role-play,
2. Be familiar with
   • Casual greetings and Farewells
   • Movie genres
   • Greek and Latin roots
3. Culture Learning
   • Discuss roomates
   • Living in apartments
   • Rate movies
4. Be able to express:
   • Introducing yourself and others: Informal
   • Making small talk (apart- ment living, roommates, movies, common interests)
   • Giving and receiving compliments

 

1. Warm up: (10 mins)

Let the students make an informal introduction of them first and ask them what they usually talk about with their friends.

 

2. Review: (10mins)

 

Objectives:

Enable the students make informal introduction and make casual talk with friend.

Explain prefixes, suffixes and roots.

1. Dialogue Practice: Practice the dialogue with the students or let the students practice the dialogue.

 

Lesson 1–Melanee, I’d like you to meet Tyke and Carl.

Characters: Kisha; Melanee and Tyke

Branch 1: Hi, Kisha. Who’s your friend?

Kisha:	Hey, Tyke! Carl! How’s it going?
Tyke:	Hi, Kisha. Who’s your friend?
Kisha:	This is Melanee. Melanee, I’d like you to meet Tyke and Carl.
Melanee:	Tyke, Carl . . . nice to meet you.

Branch 2: Well, Kisha! Hello. I don’t believe I’ve met your friend.

Kisha:	Hey, Tyke! Carl! How’s it going?
Tyke:	Well, Kisha! Hello. I don’t believe I’ve met your friend.
Kisha:	This is Melanee. Melanee, I’d like you to meet Tyke and Carl.
Melane:	Tyke, Carl . . . nice to meet you.

 

Branch 3: Hello. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you.

Kisha:	Hey, Tyke! Carl! How’s it going?
Tyke:	Kisha! How are you? Hello. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you.
Kisha:	This is Melanee. Melanee, I’d like you to meet Tyke and Carl.
Melanee:	Tyke, Carl . . . nice to meet you.

 

Lesson 2–How do you and Kisha know each other?

Characters: Carl; Kisha; Melanee and Tyke

 

Branch 1: I’m delighted to meet you, Melanee.

Melanee:	Tyke, Carl . . . nice to meet you.
Carl:	I’m delighted to meet you, Melanee. Kisha tells me you really like reggae music.
Melanee:	Yes, I do.
Carl:	So do I.

 

Branch 2: Glad to make your acquaintance, Melanee.

Melanee:	Tyke, Carl . . . nice to meet you.
Tyke:	Glad to make your acquaintance, Melanee. How did you and Melanee meet?
Kisha:	We bumped into each other in the laundry room of our apartment building.
Melanee:	Yeah, I live in the apartment two floors above Kisha’s place.
Kisha:	Our roommates can’t stand each other, but we have a lot in common.
Melanee:	Yes, we both love playing tennis. Kisha’s really good at it.

 

Branch 3: Melanee, it’s a pleasure to meet you.

Melanee:	Tyke, Carl . . . nice to meet you.
Tyke:	Melanee, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Carl, where did you meet Kisha? I had no idea you were acquainted with each other.
Carl:	Don’t you remember when I told you about my friend, the “straight-A” student?
Tyke:	Not really.
Carl:	Well, it was Kisha whom I was talking about.
Tyke:	Of course, now I remember.

 

 

Branch 4: Nice knowing you.

Melanee:	Tyke, Carl . . . nice to meet you.
Tyke:	Nice knowing you. Kisha, I didn’t know you knew Carl. Where do you know him from?
Kisha:	From school, I think. Do you remember where we met, Carl? Didn’t we have a class together?
Carl:	That’s right. We met in a psychology class, and we both have the same major.

 

1. Grammar: refer to the grammar part in the courseware

Grammar:

1. Word roots
   bio—life; dict—speak; photo—light; graph—writing
2. Suffixes
   promote—promotion; organize—organization

 

Communication:

1. Greetings

Hi./ Hey.
How are you?
How’s it going?

2. Introductions
   I’d like you to meet…
   I’m delighted to meet you.
   Nice to meet you.

 

Grammar:

1. Prefixes
   mid—middle; auto—self; mis—not or bad; be—make
2. Suffixes
   -ing; -tion; -al; -ed; -ly; -er; -able

 

Communication:

1. Agree with somebody
   That’s right.

   So do I.

2. Responses to introductions
   Glad to make you acquaintance.
   It’s a pleasure to meet you.
   Nice knowing you.
3. Phrases

bump into
have a lot in common

4. Extension: （choose activities according to students &time）

 

Activity 1 (10mins)

Ask the class the following questions about small talk:

• What is small talk?
• Why do you use small talk?
• What are some appropriate and inappropriate topics for small talk?

 

Activity 2

1. Divide students into pairs and given them this role-play scenario: You want to invite a friend to go see a movie with you. Prepare a short dialogue that includes the following elements:

• Greetings
• Small talk
• Invitation to see a movie
• Questions about and answers to details about the invitation (“What time?” or
• “What movie are we going to see?”)
• Acceptance or rejection of the invitation
• Pre-closings
• Farewells

 

Activity 3 (10–15mins)

This activity not only helps students learn how to give and receive compliments, but can also be humorous. It works best if students are seated in a circle.

1. Have your students think of a gender-neutral compliment. Tell them to write the compliment on a small piece of paper. On another piece of paper, tell them to write down a response to the compliment.
2. Collect the pieces of paper, keeping them in separate piles. Shuffle the piles and randomly pass one of each paper out to the students.
3. Have each student read their compliment and then their response.

 

Activity4 (10–15mins)

Role-play

1. Ask the class to share their opinions about popular movies they have seen recently. After a student shares, ask the rest of the class to respond politely to the opinions of the student.