Beginning Learners:

When you walk around the neighborhood and notice things, take pictures of places, trees, objects, (if that isn’t considered rude or offensive). If possible, take pictures of people doing things, such as walking, talking, carrying things, buying or selling things. Take pictures of common signs, such as Exit, Entrance, No Parking, or the sign at places you know you’ll want to shop it, like the bakery, grocery store, clothing store, etc.

When you go home, work with a Language Helper (LH) to learn the names of these places and things and words to express the actions the people are doing. Use the Look and Listen and Do technique. Work on verbs of motions, such as coming, going, walking, driving, riding as well as the other actions planned. Start by just listening and pointing to the right pictures. Later on, after you’ve heard these words lots of times and are very familiar with them, you will start to repeat and say these words.

Possible Vocabulary [1]associated with this lesson:

or whatever you see in your neighborhood.

Sample activities: Here are some ideas for things to do with the LH

Activity 1: LH just names the people and things and you point to them
Activity 2: LH puts the word in a sentence, such as “Where is the man?” or “Point to the fence” and you point.

Intermediate Learners:

Visit places in your neighborhood and try to learn the “script” for what is going on there. What do people typically say and do? What are the common events that take place in each place? How and when do neighbors greet each other? What do neighbors talk about? Try to learn to participate in these conversations. Also, there is always more vocabulary to learn! Take pictures of anything you don’t know the name for in your neighborhood.

When you get home, you can use the Listen and Do and Speak technique to learn the names for the new vocabulary items.

You can do some Role Plays and Conversational Routines at home with your Language Helper (LH) to practice small-talk with your neighbors. You can also practice the script for common shopping transactions, such as buying food in a market or shop, buying stamps or clothes or other things sold in your neighborhood.

The language learning goal here is to learn the names of some landmarks in your town or city and to explore public transportation.

Beginning Learners:

Out and About: Visit the town square or a major intersection in your town or city. Take pictures of places and public transportation vehicles you see, (or try to find some pictures later on the internet)

Later at Home: Review vocabulary from LL1

Use Look and Listen and Do to become familiar with the vocabulary and pictures from your expedition. Learn the names of buildings and places such as parks, hotels, government buildings, such as town halls. Learn the names for people who drive taxis or buses, or other public transportation. Learn verbs for using public transportation, such as driving, riding, getting on (a bus) getting off (a bus) or whatever you say to get into and out of a taxi or other means of transportation. Learn verbs for coming and going.

Use the map you are drawing in your lessons. You can use the Look and Listen and Do technique to practice following directions for how to get to the post office, or bank, or school.

Possible vocabulary associated with this topic:

Intermediate Learners:

Review vocabulary related to the neighborhood and verbs of motion. Learn any new words you can think of that you are missing.

If possible, walk around the town with your Language Helper (LH), so you can use the Shared Experience technique when you get home. Learn the scripts for buying a train ticket, a bus ticket, buying stamps, doing a simple transaction at the bank, talking to people in the park. Practice these with Role Play techniques with your LH.

Beginning Learners:

Out and About: During the first lesson you took pictures of some of the major people and things in your neighborhood. This time, look more closely and take pictures of some of the things you didn’t see before. If necessary, go a little further from home to see new things.

Back home: Use Look and Listen and Do to learn new vocabulary. Combine the new words with some descriptive words (colors, size) and with expressions like “there is, or there are” to describe what is in the pictures.

Possible vocabulary:

Intermediate Learners:

Get your Language Helper (LH) to describe the neighborhood: what it looks like and what certain buildings or spaces are used for. You are aiming for a simple description you can understand. You may have to start with a walk around the neighborhood, with your LH describing in sentences what he or she sees. If you can get a recording of that while walking around town, great. Otherwise, take pictures and ask the LH to describe the pictures when you are at home. Take note of any new words you hear in the description.

While you are walking around, look at the outside of places where people live, as well as the public areas inside apartment buildings. What can you see?

Beginning Learners:

Do you know the names for all the parts of a house or an apartment building? Use the Look and Listen and Do technique to learn the names for different sorts of residences and things you can see from the outside or from public areas.

Possible vocabulary

Intermediate Learners:

Ask a local friend to tell you about where most people live – do they live in apartment buildings or houses? Record your friend talking about this and ask about any words you don’t understand. Listen to your recordings and then go and ask another person about the same topic. You could say something like “This is what someone told me about this topic. Do you agree?” Sometimes you will get a very different point of view. Record that person as well.

You could also ask a LH to write a short paragraph on the same topic, and use this for reading practice.

You can also ask about how well people know their neighbors and perhaps practice a simple dialogue exchange you might hear between neighbors. Use Role Play techniques to practice the dialogue.

Language learning can begin at home!

Beginning Learners:

Today you can learn some of the parts of a house or apartment. You can start with your own house, or with those of a friend. Take pictures of rooms in the house and some basic furnishings.

Use Look and Listen and Do to learn the names of rooms in a house and the furnishings in them. You can also learn some basic verbs describing what people do in each room.

Possible Vocabulary associated with this lesson:

Intermediate Learners:

Ask your Language Helper (LH) to describe everything he or she sees in one room. It should be a connected description, such as, “In the living room there is a sofa along one wall, with a picture hanging over it. In front of the windows there is a table and a large chair. There is another chair on the other side of the room. In one corner there is a television. There are white curtains at the window.”

Record and listen to the descriptions of each room. Then try to describe the room yourself.

“A place for everything….” But what are those places called?

Beginning Learners:

As you explore where things are kept, learn the words for the things and the places and location words, such as “in” or “on” as well as some verbs for putting things in storage and taking them out.

Possible vocabulary:

Places where things are kept, such as:

or whatever the places are called.

Things stored in each place, such as:

Location words, such as:

Verbs:

The actual vocabulary will vary with the culture and language. Take pictures of things in each storage compartment, and also the compartment. Use the Look and Listen and Do technique to learn the names of everything. Put things in boxes, take them out again and so forth.

Sample Activities:

Activity 1: The Language Helper (LH) says the name of each item and you point to it.

Activity 2: The LH says “The dishes are in the cupboard” You point to the picture of dishes in the cupboard.

Activity 3: The LH says “Where are the dishes?” You either point to the cupboard or say “in the cupboard.”

Intermediate Learners:

You take a picture of a container with various things in it, and ask the Language Helper (LH) to describe the picture in a short paragraph. It might sound something like this: “This is a picture of a cupboard. Inside the cupboard there are dishes and glasses and cups and saucers.” or “This is a picture of a shed. Inside the shed are bags of seed and gardening tools. There is also a bicycle.” You record the LH describing the picture. Ask about any words you don’t know. Afterwards you can listen to the recording and then try to describe some of the pictures yourself.

It’s all in the family! But who is considered family? Families can be large or small, and languages differ in the number of terms they use to describe family members. For some families you need to learn terms for relationships like co-wife.

Beginning Learners:

Start by drawing a picture of a small nuclear family of a husband and wife with perhaps 3 or 4 children. Include at least one boy and one girl among the children. Start by assigning each person a name, so you know who you are referring to. Now ask what relation each person is to the others. See if there are different words for older or younger brother or sister. Then move on to grandparents. See if there are different names for mother’s mother and father’s mother, for example. Use Look and Listen and Do to learn the words for the different family relations.

Possible vocabulary:

It is a real help to draw a family tree for this lesson, or to have a family of dolls to illustrate the different people in the family.

Sample Activities:

Activity 1: Using a family of dolls or a family tree, ask your Language Helper (LH) to give each person a name. Then the LH says “This is Margarita. She is married to Pablo. Margarita is Pablo’s wife. Pablo is Margarita’s husband.” Now the LH says “Who is the wife?” You point or you say “Margarita.” LH asks, “Who is the husband? “ You point or say “Pablo” You can do similar activities to learn the names for son, daughter, brother, sister, etc.

Activity 2: Learn the grandparents names and then the LH asks “Who is Pablo’s father?” You say Roberto. “Who is Pablo’s son?” You say, “Francisco.” Now the LH asks “Who is Francisco’s grandfather?” You say “Roberto.” Note that this is mostly a comprehension activity, because you only have to say the names, but you have to understand the relational words.

Intermediate Learners:

Expand the family relationship names by moving into relationships like cousin, nephew, niece, mother-in law, father-in- law, sister-in law, aunt, uncle, etc. Again the best way to do this is to use a family of dolls or draw a family tree with names for all the people so you can be sure you understand the terms. Don’t be surprised if some of the terms show up in unexpected places.

After you learn some of the terms, ask the Language Helper (LH) to tell you about his or her family – perhaps drawing a family tree to illustrate it. Record and Listen. You can also draw your own family tree and tell your LH about it. You could also use a family album and show pictures of real people!

Each person has his or her own daily routine, but often the person routine fits within a norm for the culture. In some cultures, for example, people go to work at 7 a.m. and have a 2-hour break for lunch. Other cultures have a quick lunch break and flexi-time. Learn how to talk about people’s daily routines.

Beginning Learners:

When you are observing daily routines, learn the words for a lot of common daily activities. This is a great lesson to learn more verbs for things people do every day. You can take pictures or use drawings to help you learn.

Possible vocabulary:

Possible Activities:

Activity 1: Take pictures or find pictures online of people doing these daily activities. Use Look and Listen and Do to learn the names of the actions.

Activity 2: When you feel ready, you can try to say the names of the activities. The Language Helper (LH) points to a picture and asks “What is he/she doing?” and you say: “Eating dinner.”

Intermediate Learners:

Learn more about some daily routines at home. Ask your Language Helper (LH) to describe what he or she does at home in the morning. For example: “I get up around 6 a.m. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth, then I get dressed and make breakfast. After I eat breakfast, I wash the dishes, then I gather things I need for work and leave for work.” You can ask for a similar description of what your LH typically does in the evenings at home. Record and listen, then tell about your own daily routine.

Likewise you can build a Series on any of the household chores, such as washing dishes, cooking a meal, doing laundry, making a bed, cleaning, yardwork. Choose one to start, but this could keep you busy for a long time!

Clothing really is a cultural artifact. Even though people in a lot of countries now wear Western style clothing in business settings, there may be very different standards to what people wear for different occasions.

Beginning Learners:

Start by learning the words for outer clothing for men and women and children. Take pictures, or use real clothing objects to do Look and Listen and Do. It might help to have a couple of dolls or action figures you could dress and undress.

Note: Don’t ask about underwear until you really know someone well and then only ask someone of your same gender about that. It could be really offensive and embarrassing to your LH.

Possible Vocabulary for this unit:

Women’s clothing:

Men’s clothing:

Children’s clothing:

…or whatever clothing you see people wearing every day. These might include items like sarongs, shalwar kameez, tunic, robe, etc.

Also learn verbs associated with clothing, such as:

Suggested Activities:

Take pictures or find pictures on the internet and use the Look and Listen and Do technique to learn the names of different clothes. You can also have the Language Helper (LH) say sentences like “One woman is wearing a red skirt and the other woman is wearing a blue skirt.” You have to point to the correct picture.

Intermediate Learners:

Learn the words associated with clothing that you haven’t already learned, such as sleeve, leg (of a pair of pants), button, zipper, pocket, and other, less-commonly used clothing, such as raincoat, formal attire. If you feel comfortable doing it at this stage, you could ask about underwear, or go shopping with someone of the same gender and ask the names of items you see for sale.

Get someone to describe pictures of two people and ask what you think they are going to do, based on their clothing. Record, and ask questions about any words you don’t know. You might take pictures of people at a wedding or funeral and ask about their attire.

Everyone likes to look good, but what makes a person look more attractive? Is it a tattoo? Is it red dye in the hair? Is it true blonds have more fun? Find out how to talk about personal care and jewelry and other adornment.

Beginning Learners:

Learn words for different ways to describe skin color and hair and products to make them look good: Of course, depending on where you are, the variety of hair and skin colors are different.

Possible vocabulary:

Possible Activities:

The learning activities are similar to those in recent lessons: Use pictures of people, with different hair and skin colors and different kinds of adornment. The LH can describe a picture, such as “A woman is wearing a necklace and earrings.” And you have to point at the right picture. You can also learn the names for different beauty projects with Look and Listen and Do techniques.

Intermediate Learners:

Ask a Language Helper (LH) to give longer descriptions of pictures of different people. Ask them to choose a picture of a girl or woman they consider attractive and describe her and then tell why she seems attractive.

Do the same thing with pictures of men—ask a woman to pick out a picture of the man she thinks is most attractive and then describe the picture and then tell you why she considers him attractive.