Naming Foods (Novice)

Practice on Your Own

• Study the food vocabulary in your textbook. Are there any foods that you don’t recognize, such as fruits or dishes that are not common in your home country? If so, look them up online.
• Use picture flashcards to help you memorize the vocabulary. You can either make paper flashcards or create digital ones using a program such as Anki.
• Practice naming foods in different contexts.
  • Can you name the foods that you have eaten today? What about yesterday?
  • Try browsing different restaurant menus online. If the menu is in English, see how many dishes or ingredients you can name in the language you are learning. If you can find menus in the language you are studying, look for words that you recognize.
  • In the dining hall or at the grocery store, look around and name as many foods as you can.
• Also practice making sentences about food. Can you say what foods you like or dislike? Can you describe foods with colors or other adjectives?
• Keep practicing throughout the week. Every time you eat or go shopping, try to name all the foods you can.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Warm‐up food naming practice. Be prepared for a warm‐up activity in which you practice naming foods in similar ways to how you have been practicing on your own. Your conversation partner might bring pictures of different foods and ask you to name
• Practice comprehending You have been practicing naming foods on your own. You may not have had much chance to practice comprehending food words when they are spoken to you, so this will be practiced in your conversation session. Be prepared for your conversation partner or others in your conversation group to names random foods and have you indicate what you hear, perhaps by pointing to pictures.
• Practice talking about Be prepared to practice talking about foods using complete sentences. Practice both statements (“Bananas are yellow”) and questions (“Do you like carrots?”).
  • Have you learned different ways to talk about foods (formal informal, etc.)? If so, make sure you practice each of them.
  • Practice as many different kinds of sentences as possible. Can you talk about foods you like or dislike? Can you describe foods using colors and other adjectives? Can you say that you want a certain food, or how often you eat it (every day, once a week, on certain holidays, never)?
• Taking it further. Depending on what else you have learned, you may do some activities that combine food vocabulary with other material. For example, you could talk about what time you eat meals as well as what foods you eat at each meal. If you have learned to talk about prices, you could role play making a simple food purchase.