Look out for tourist traps!

In this Intermediate lesson, students will learn vocabulary related to vacations, as well as common vocabulary for traveling. They will practice expressing preferences on types of holidays and holiday activities, learn to give warnings, and roleplay a short exchange in a restaurant.  They will also watch a short video about tourist traps in London, and what to avoid when traveling there!

Warm-up discussion

The lesson starts with a few general questions about holidays. Next, the student matches the types of holidays with pictures (ski trip, beach getaway, cruise, etc.).

Speaking about preferences

The student learns different ways to talk about preferences using prefer, would rather, be more interested in, etc. They practice using ways to express preferences by correcting mistakes where needed and comparing different types of holidays.

Holiday collocations

The student learns common holiday collocations by matching words with one of the four verbs – take, go, have, and book. Next, they practice using these collocations by adding the missing verbs in sentences.

Dialogue: customer VS waiter

The student sorts out sentences based on who says them – a customer or a waiter. Then, they match responses to questions. 

The student arranges the dialogue between a waiter and a customer in the correct order. They act out the roleplay with the teacher playing the part of the customer. They try to remember the missing words as they go.

Video: London’s worst tourist traps

Prior to watching a video, the student learns new vocabulary by matching it with correct meanings (heads-up, pointless, tourist trap, etc.) and then using it to fill in the gaps. Then, they watch a video presenting London’s worst tourist traps and answer questions related to the video.

Some sentences are extracted from the video in order to introduce another grammar point.

Giving recommendations and warnings

The student learns different ways to give warnings using avoid, make sure, unless you want to, etc., and then puts their knowledge into practice. They try to think of five warnings they would give to tourists visiting their city or country.

Verbs: Traveling

The student identifies phrasal verbs related to traveling in each sentence (set off, take off, check in, etc.). They match them with appropriate prepositions and then with their meanings. Then, they use these phrasals to fill in the gaps and, finally, to talk about their experience with going on holidays and getting into tourist traps.