Class Trip

Setup

Choose a place to go to on your trip. This should be a major city in a foreign, English-speaking country (e.g. London, New York, Sydney).

Depending on the activities you choose to do, you may need to prepare some materials. For example if you are doing the Plan A Tour activity, you could give students maps of the city showing popular tourist sights.

If you have a projector available, you may want to prepare a presentation with images to illustrate different parts of the trip (the airport, a restaurant etc.).

Activity

A Class Trip consists of a number of short activities, each relating to a task/situation experienced when travelling. The activities selected will depend on student level and grammar/vocabulary focus, and should be presented in chronological order. Some activities to include are:

1) Packing List – students make a list of clothes and personal items that they would need on the trip (click on link for more details).

2) Aeroplane Rules – students practise reading/listening to rules onboard an aircraft. You could ask students to write rules from images, or summarise rules from audio of a real safety announcement.

3) Border Control Interview – students role-play a conversation with a border agent who asks why they have come to the country, where they are staying etc.

4) Getting to the Hotel – students imagine their phone has run out of battery. Using a public transport map, they have to give step-by-step instructions on how to get to their hotel. Students work in pairs, and each pair has a different hotel (make it complicated to get to).

5) Plan A Tour – the students plan their itinerary using a map of the city and its tourist sights (click on link for more details).

6) Classroom Restaurant – students role-play ordering dinner at a restaurant (click on link for more details).

7) Going to the Market – students role-play visiting the market, asking questions and buying items. Set half the class up as traders and the rest as customers, then swap roles.

8) Lost Tourist – students get lost (their phone is out of battery again!) and have to politely ask a local for directions. Students role-play with a partner, then swap so they practise both parts (click on link for more details).

Target Language

The full Class Trip ESL activity is an extended activity that can take up an entire class. The grammar/vocabulary practised will depend on the activities selected, but it is generally suited to intermediate level students. The activity would work well with the topic of travel, or as a review session.