Naming Places in a Country (Novice)

Practice on Your Own

• Think of the most common places and geographical features that exist in a country, such as cities, towns, villages, mountains (mountain chains), capital city, provinces/states/departments, rivers, lakes, forests, etc.
• Draw a map of a country where the language is spoken. Locate all the places that you have listed. Consult Google Maps or other political and physical maps of the country. Pay close attention to the location of the major cities, mountains, rivers, and other places.
  • Say the name of each place out loud as you write it.
  • Think of some adjectives that you may find helpful to describe some of the places you have named. Write those adjectives next to the places or geographical features and say them out loud.
• Write down questions using demonstratives: What is this? What is that? What are these? What are those? If you are not sure how to do this, take note of questions you have to ask your conversation partner.
• Draw a map of the United States. Name the most well‐known places and natural phenomena in the country. What are the differences between the two countries?
• Did you have any difficulty with spelling or pronunciation? Take notes to consult with your conversation partner.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Be prepared to answer your conversation partner’s questions (What is this? etc.) by naming the places and phenomena on the map of the country where the language is spoken. Then question your conversation partner about the places on the map.
• Do the same activity for the United States map that you have provided. Are there differences in the terms used for the U.S. map (state vs. province/department, etc.)?
• Pay close attention to how questions are formed and the way they are answered.
• Now name some world‐famous places, such as major rivers, cities, mountains, capital cities, etc.