Guides by Topic: Social & Family Life
What You Did Yesterday (Intermediate)
Practice on You Own
- Practice words for recent past, yesterday, today, tomorrow, day after tomorrow, last week/month/year, this week/month/year and next week/month/year.
- Practice telling time.
- Review words for hobbies and recreation activities.
- Practice how to talk about the recent past (verb tense and/or other appropriate structures).
- Listen to audio examples on related topics, such as dates and times. Repeat after the speakers to improve your pronunciation. Also read the materials available to you on these topics.
- Imagine that you are having a conversation with your friend. Your friend wants to know what you did yesterday since it was a Sunday and you did not have class. Practice your conversation with your friend.
- Write down the questions your friend might ask you in regards to the activities you did, the time you did them, if you did them with others or alone, the time you woke up and the time you went to sleep. Also write down your responses to the questions.
- Practice this conversation on your own out loud.
Practice in Conversation Session
- Warm‐up practice telling what you did yesterday. Be prepared for a warm‐up activity in which you tell your conversation partner and fellow students what you did yesterday in similar ways to how you have been practicing on your own. Your conversation partner and fellow students might ask you further questions related to your story, such as whether that is what you do on that day every week.
- Role play talking to a friend. Now role play the situation you have been practicing with your conversation partner or a fellow student. After greetings, your role play partner will ask you what you did yesterday (which was Sunday). As you interact in your conversation, say the time you woke up and the various activities that you did until the time you went to bed. Then switch roles with your role play partner and repeat the conversation.
- After the role plays, discuss with your conversation partner and fellow students what each of you did on the past three Sundays. See how well you can converse in the language you are learning as you tell your story and ask questions.