Quick Guide
- Keywords: Travel, trip planning, presentation skills
- Learner English Level: All levels
- Learner Maturity: University or adult
- Preparation time: 20 minutes
- Activity time: 90 minutes or more
- Materials: Access to Internet for research, Presentation Information and Evaluation Sheet handouts (see Appendices), slides for model presentation (see Preparation)
This is a project that allows students to learn about other cultures and explore important vocabulary that will help them plan trips to foreign destinations using English. It is especially useful when teachers need to create lessons about sightseeing or business travel. It will also provide students opportunities to practice giving instructions and using conditional tenses. This activity is likely to take up to three class periods, depending on how long students need to prepare a presentation.
Preparation
Step 1: Adapt the Presentation Information and Evaluation Sheet according to your class’s needs and print enough copies for each student.
Step 2: Prepare a model presentation and slides about an example travel destination. This should cover all the key points outlined in the Presentation Information handout.
Step 3: Prepare some travel-planning resources, such as wikitravel.org or lonelyplanet.com for information about countries, or booking.com for hotel and flight information. Embassy websites often have information about visa applications or other essential paperwork.
Procedure
Step 1: Put the students into groups and have them brainstorm a list of their dream travel destinations. Have a brief discussion about why they want to go to these places, and what they would do there.
Step 2: Tell them that they will choose one country, plan a trip there, and give a presentation about it. They must include as many details as possible to ensure that there are no issues during the trip.
Step 3: Have them brainstorm as many aspects of planning a trip as they can. For example, plane tickets, hotels, transportation, etc. Make a list of the students’ ideas on the whiteboard and elicit or remind them of any missed points.
Step 4: Tell students you’re going to give a model presentation, and they should pay attention to the information regarding your trip.
Step 5: After you’ve given your model presentation, ask the students what points they remember from your presentation and review the planning list on the whiteboard.
Step 6: Now tell groups to each choose a country and distribute the Presentation Information (Appendix A).
Step 7: Explain some of the resources listed on the handout and demonstrate how to use them to search for information.
Step 8: Tell the students to delegate the workload and help where necessary. For example, one group member researches transportation, one member researches hotels, and one member researches sightseeing destinations.
Step 9: After they’ve finished their research, tell students they now need to plan their presentations. This might be a good time to review relevant language they can use, such as, “Make sure to ____,” “You can’t forget to ______,” or, “If you want to ____.”
Step 10: Provide an appropriate amount of presentation practice time (this will depend on your class) and help the students with any questions they have.
Step 11: Hand out Evaluation Sheets (Appendix B) and explain that students will be giving feedback on other groups’ presentations. Check understanding of the evaluation criteria and encourage the students to take notes as well. Give each group 10-15 minutes for their presentation.
Step 12: Once all the presentations are finished, mix the groups up and ask students to take turns to use their evaluation sheets to give feedback on each of the presentations.
Conclusion
This activity gives students an opportunity to study a wide array of English vocabulary and grammar and allows them to actively engage in planning to travel abroad, which is something that many students aspire to do someday.
Appendices
The full appendices are available below.
