English proficiency level: Intermediate
Theme: Making Dinner Reservations
Language category of the study:
Goals:
Language objectives:
Materials:
Prior knowledge:
Procedures:
- Warm up: (5 minutes – whole class interaction)
The teacher will ask the students who have been to the restaurant; who has booked a table for dinner in personal or over the phone. The students will discuss what information they have to provide when making a dinner reservation, for example client`s name, date and time of dinner, number of people who is going to come.
- Development:
During the class the teacher will discuss with the students their vocabulary regarding the topic “Making Dinner Reservations.” He will remind them some general phrases for reservations in the restaurant. For example:
- Do you have any free tables?
- A table for , please
- I'd like to make a reservation
- I'd like to book a table, please
- When for?
- For what time?
- For how many people?
- I've got a reservation.
- Do you have a reservation?
The teacher will provide the students with the examples of phone conversations that refer to making dinner reservation. The teacher will switch on a record of the conversation and students to listen carefully. After that he will ask them some question in order to make sure that they understood the main points of such conversations.
The teacher will give the students a text to read. As dinner reservation is usually a talk between the customer and the hostess, it will be a dialog.
After the teacher will give the students copies of the worksheets with the exercises they will have to complete during the lesson. They will have both individual and cooperative tasks.
Activity 1 (7 minutes – listening):
In this activity students will have to listen to three examples of making dinner reservation over the phone. The records of the conversations are found at this website: http://www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/restaurant/restaurant02.htm
After listening to the records, students will have to answer these questions:
- What is the restaurant`s name?
- What is the client`s name?
- What time the reservation is for?
- How many people will be present?
Activity 2 (13 minutes – reading and revising vocabulary):
In this activity students will have to revise the vocabulary. They will have to read the dialog between a customer and a hostess and discuss the highlighted words and phrases. These are commonly used phrases when making dinner reservation.
The text is retrieved from: http://kalin.digicom.bg/ESLPod/ESLPod_259_Guide.pdf
Active vocabulary:
- reservation – a request to leave a table at a restaurant for particular time
- How many will be in the party? – How many guests will be invited?
- the Friday after next – Friday, that will be next week, not this one
- table by the window – a table in the restaurant that is placed next to the window and has a better view
- non-smoking section – a place in a restaurant where it is not allowed to smoke
- preference – something that is more pleasant for someone
- parking situation – if there is a place to leave one`s car
- valet parking – a service provided at a restaurant where a special person parks and retrieves cars of the visitors
- special need – something that is different from usual because of a physical or mental disability
- high chair – a chair for babies and young children so that they can sit at the same level with adults, feeding chair
- booster seat – an extra seat that is put upon the usual chair to allow little children to sit higher
- lively – active, full of events and joy
After discussion of the vocabulary, the student will have to use it on practice.
- The students will have to fill in the gaps in the sentences. (The answers are in bold below each sentence)
Example: Usually when it is raining I take a table by the window in the café since I like watching how the rain drops run down the glass.
Activity 3 (15 minutes – working in pairs):
In this activity students will work in pairs and complete the dialogs.
One of the partners is a person who is going to book a table for a dinner (Speaker 2). He has a worksheet with a list of questions and he has to reply all of them accordingly.
Another person is a restaurant representative who will receive this reservation (Speaker 1). He has a worksheet with a list of replies and he has to think about questions.
When both partners are ready with their tasks, the will have to combine them and complete a dialog about a dinner reservation.
Closure (5 minutes):
At the end of the lesson the students will conclude everything that they have learnt during the class. The teacher will clarify if everything was clear for them. If the students have any questions, the teacher will answer all of them.
References
Tse, L. (2007, April 13). ESL Podcast 259 – Making a Restaurant Reservation. English as a Second Language Podcast. Retrieved from
http://kalin.digicom.bg/ESLPod/ESLPod_259_Guide.pdf
