Discussing Means of Transportation (Novice-Intermediate)

Practice on Your Own

• Practice pronouncing words for means of transportation in the language you are learning. Listen to audio recordings and repeat after the speakers to make sure your pronunciation is correct. Read the materials that are available to you on the topic of transportation.
• When traveling to school, going shopping or visiting friends, look at the different ways people are traveling and practice saying the words in the language you are learning.
• Practice on your own (and with friends if possible) to say the kinds of transportation you use when traveling to various places such as to school, home, to stores and markets and to visit friends who live close to you and those who live far away from you.
• Imagine you are a visitor in a country where the language is spoken. You are at the airport and you want a taxi to take you to a hotel where you will be staying. Practice your conversation with the taxi driver.
• Review words for money and the currency of the host country. Also practice some bargaining phrases if appropriate.
• Prepare to tell your conversation partner how you, your schoolmates and people in your country travel.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Be prepared to tell your conversation partner the ways you, your schoolmates and people in your country travel. Your conversation partner may follow up with questions about which mean of transportation you like best, how most students at your school travel and what is the main way that people in your country use to travel.
• Be prepared to role play situations in which you are a visitor in a country where the language is spoken and your conversation partner is a taxi driver. Greet the person in a culturally appropriate manner, and tell the person what you need using polite expressions. As you interact, tell the driver the name of the hotel you want to be taken to, and if appropriate, try to bargain down the price you are given. Also let the driver ask you where you are from, how long you will stay in the country and what you will be doing. After role playing the whole conversation, switch roles with your conversation partner and repeat the role play.
• Discuss the various means of transportation that you have used to travel to different places. Say which ones you liked most and which you didn’t like, giving your reasons. In the language you are learning, how well can you talk about means of transportation, road accidents and conditions of roads? Can you in turn ask your conversation partner and fellow students to talk about their preferred ways of traveling, how they have traveled to some places and if they have experienced any problems?