TASK 2 - THEMATIC CONTENT 1

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 MY HOME, MY FOLKS
THEMATIC UNIT: FAMILY TIES
THEMATIC CONTENT: THIS IS MY FAMILY

Task: Answer an email with the information requested

in a previous email.

GOALS:
To interview a classmate about their family.
To create and apply a survey about relatives’ jobs and occupations.

Context: Read an email from the host family you are staying with, they are going to send
their son/daughter to stay with your family here in Colombia. The host/hostess sends you an
e-mail asking you about the people you live with and the place where you live.

LANGUAGE FOCUS
Greetings and Farewells: How are you? How do you do? Have a good night.
2 The alphabet: How do you spell your name? How do you spell your last name?
Numbers  (1-100):  What’s your phone number? What’s your address?
Months: When is your birthday? When is Colombia’s independence?
Days of the Week: Class is on Monday. I rest on Saturdays.
Countries: Where are you from? What country would you like to visit?
Expressions of Time (early, on time, o’clock, at night, in the afternoon,in a rush...): I arrive on time
to the English class. I have science class at night.
Frequency Adverbs: On Sunday, I usually go to the university at 8:00 o’clock, I visit my parents on
vacations.
Sequence Connectors: First, later, then, after, before, finally.
Basic Action Verbs: Study, Work, Eat, Go.
Verb to Be: I am a student, She is my professor.
Simple Present Tense (affirmative, interrogative and negative): I usually work on weekends. I do not
sleep at home on Fridays, What do you like to do on weekends? How often do you go to the library?
Family Members: How many brothers do you have? What is your father´s name?
Colors What is your favorite color? Do you prefer red or green?
Family Types: Do you have step-siblings? What does you father-in-law do?
Occupations and Jobs: What does a researcher do? What does a scientist do?
Physical Descriptions: How do you look like? What do you look like?
Body Parts: My hair is black. Your eyes are beautiful.

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 House Objects: My TV set is great. I have a bookcase for my magazines.
Rooms of the House: My kitchen is convenient. My room is very comfortable.
Types of Houses: I live in an apartment. My sister lives in a flat.
Adjectives She is intelligent. I am serious.
Word Order: (Adjetivos y sustantivos) I love that really old big green antique.
Possessive Adjectives (mi, tu, su: de él, de ella, de ellos, de ellas): My best friend is special. Her
brother is so smart?
Saxon Possessive (‘s): The principal´s director office is on the third floor. Students´ lives are
energy consuming.
Yes/no Questions: Do you have a part-time job? Does your advisor work at the university?
There Is/Are: There are several libraries at the university. There isn’t a physics lab on block 2.
Prepositions of Place (en - sobre - entre, y otras): There is a cafeteria behind the museum. There
are several rooms in block  5.
Sports and Leisure Time Activities: I practice soccer and baseball. I do karate.
Feelings And Personality Traits: She is so funny. I feel moody today.
Can / Can’t, Be Able To (Negative Form) I can graduate from a program. I can´t be mediocre, I
am able to do what I want, I am not able to fail.
Infinite: To have an interview. To read an article.

Pronunciation 3

ACTION ONE: Interview a classmate to learn about their families.

PRE: Read an e-mail about someone’s family.

A. Lucia is about to travel to Canada where a family is going to host her. She will be
staying there for a year improving her English. In her e-mail, she writes to Alice,
her hostess, about her own family and the place where she lives. Read and discuss:

From: Lucia Gomez (lucigomez@gmail.com)

To: Alice Sullivan (alice.72@gmail.com)
Subject: About my family
CC:

Dear Alice,
How are you? Thanks for your last e-mail. Let me tell you about my family and the place where we
live.
I have a traditional family. It is small, and we are very close. My mother’s name is Ana and she is a
teacher. My father’s name is Roberto and he is a lawyer. My mother has only one sister. My aunt’s
name is Silvia. Her husband is a nice man. His name is Antonio, but we call him, “Toño”. They have
 two lovely twin girls. My cousins’ names are Kelly and Viviana. They are very young, but they’re
smart girls. My father has one brother. My uncle’s name is José. He is married to Cecilia, and they
have a son named, Tomás. He is very outgoing and friendly. Tomás wants to be a doctor in the future.
I also have a sister and a brother. My sister Lina is married. My brother-in-law’s name is Michael. He
is from Canada and they both live there, so I really miss them. They’re cooks and they work in their
own Italian restaurant. Their baby boy’s name is Jay. My brother Nicolas is single and he travels a lot.
He is a photographer. My grandparents are Teresa and Manuel, and they are sweet. We all love and
support each other a lot.
We live in the outskirts of the city in an apartment close to different convenience stores. It is not too
big, but it is just perfect for dad, mom, my brother and me. It is a comfortable place and our neighbors
are kind people. My favorite room in the house is my bedroom. It has a small balcony with a great
view.
Well, that is all for now. I would love to hear from you soon again. I am looking forward to meeting
you.

Best wishes,
Lucia.

Adapted from: www.carmenlu.com

Read the e-mail again and complete Lucia’s family tree.

LUCIA’S FAMILY TREE

Adapted from: Uceda English Series (2006)

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 Aa Vocabulary Activity: Possessive ‘S

BbCc USE YOUR DICTIONARY

Family Relationships Vocabulary
Look up the meaning of words you don’t know in the dictionary and match words
in column A with definitions in column B. Write the letter of the definition on the
lines.

Activity directions: Match the columns. Write the letters from column B on the lines in column A.
A B
1. ______ mother a. your brother’s wife
2. ______ children b. your father and mother
3. ______ uncle c. your father’s sister
4. ______ father d. your father’s wife (not your mom)
5. ______ grandparents e. a child with no siblings
6. ______ father-in-law f. a female parent
7. ______ only child g. your father’s mother
8. ______ parents h. your grandfather and grandmother
9. ______ cousin i. your husband’s father
10. _____ nephew j. your mother’s father
11. _____ grandmother k. a male parent
12. _____ grandfather l. a married man
13. _____ niece m. a married woman
14. _____ aunt n. the plural of child
15. _____ brother-in-law o. your mother and stepfather’s daughter 5

16. _____ sister-in-law p. your sister’s daughter

17. _____ wife q. your sister’s husband
18. _____ husband r. your sister’s son
19. _____ stepmother s. your father’s brother
20. _____ half sister t. your mom’s nephew

A way to say that something belongs to you is by using the

saxon genitive´s
My mother’s father is...
(the owner)

WHILE: Complete a classmate’s family tree.

1. Unscramble the following questions about family relationships and write them on the
spaces provided.
name / your / What’s / mother’s

___________________________________________________________________________?
siblings / have / do / you / any

___________________________________________________________________________?
who / grandparents / your / are
___________________________________________________________________________?
 2. With the questions above and others of your own, interview a classmate to know more about
their relatives, then, draw his/her family tree using the template below. You don’t have to fill in all
the squares. Discuss about their professions and lives.

_____________________ ‘S FAMILY TREE

(Your classmat e’s name )

Gr an dm other Gr andf at he r Gr an dm other Gr andf at he r

(on mother’s side ) (on mother’s side ) (on fa ther’s side ) (on fa ther’s side )

Aunt/Uncle Mother Father Aunt/Uncle

Cousin Cousin Cousin Cousin

Siblin g ME Siblin g

Sibling

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 POST: Complete a paragraph
Who are the family members in your family? Complete the paragraph below
with your information.
(for the blank spaces use your own words. Circle or underline a suitable option
from the words in bold).

I have a ________________________ family. My mother’s name is ___________________ and my

father’s name is _______________________. I have / don’t have siblings. My brother’s name(s) is /
are ____________________________________________. My sister’s name(s) is / are _____________
My favorite uncle is __________________________ and my favorite aunt is _________________.
I have / don’t have __________ cousins. My grandparents on my father’s side are_______________
(number)
and __________________________. I have / don’t have a niece(s) or / and a nephew(s). My family

is / isn’t traditional because________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________.
The best thing about my family is ____________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________.

Pronunciation Activity: /æ / - /^/ and /a/ sounds

1. Practice the pronunciation of the words in the three groups. How 7

do these sounds differ?

2. Practice reading in the following paragraph.

Listen to your teacher and repeat

the words: “I have a non-traditional family. mum and dad
below: divorced a long time ago, and years later they both
remarried. My father and his second wife had a girl,
/æ/ /a/ so I have a half sister. Her name is Ana. My mother
doesn’t have any kids with her second husband, Mike.
Dad Father
Grandparents Aunt He is a good man. My parents live in another town
Man Half sister and I live with my aunt, Cecilia, my uncle Joseph,
Famliy
and their son Matt, who is my favorite cousin. My
brother Nick lives in another country. He wants to
/ / be an actor in the future.”

Uncle Husband
Mother Brother
Cousin Son
cousi
 ACTION TWO: Create and carry out a survey about jobs and professions
PRE: Surveys and interviews video

1. Watch the video Survey Research Methods about the characteristics of surveys and
interviews and discuss the following questions with your classmates and teacher:
• Why do people create surveys and interviews?
• What are some differences between these two information collection methods?
• What things do you need to consider to design an efficient questionnaire?
• What can you learn from surveys or interviews after you aply them?
Taken from used for educational purposes : https://goo.gl/kKxCcZ

Grammar Activity: Creating questions for a survey.

Surveys contain both, closed and open questions.

Closed questions are usually easier to answer because they use single words such as, “yes” or
“no” and they give you the facts. Here are some examples of closed questions. Can you answer
them about yourself?

a. Are you interested in astrology? _______________________________.

b. Do you have a job? ________________________.
c. Does your mother / father work? ________________________.
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d. Can you use a computer? _______________________.
e. Is your English class interesting? __________________________.

Open questions require more information and this is why they are usually longer. They
generally begin with a WH question word (what, when, why, where, who, how often, what time)
and contrary to the questions above, their answers do not begin with the words “yes” or “no”,
but they directly respond the specific information asked. Answer the following questions with
your own information:

a. What is your career? ____________________________________________________________.

b. Who is your favorite teacher? ______________________________________________________.
c. When do you practice your English? _________________________________________________.
d. Why are you a student at this university? ____________________________________________.
e. How do you get to school? _________________________________________________________.

What is in a survey?

Look at the following model of a survey that a student created to

get to know his / her classmates better.
Can you identify open and closed questions in it? If this were your
survey, what other questions woud you add?

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 Survey Your Classmates
Apply this survey to three classmates. Write their answers on the dotted lines.

Adapted from: https://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables/worksheets_doc_docx/lets_talk_-_a_class_survey/questions-let-lets/4571

WHILE:
Create and carry out your own survey.
Create a survey to learn about your classmates’ relatives’ jobs and occupations. Then, apply
your survey to three classmates. Follow these parameters:

a. First, think of the objective of your survey. What is it that you want to learn from it? For
example, one of your interests can be to know how many of your classmates have working
mothers. This is important because this can guide a question in your survey: Does your mother
work?
 b. Include both open and closed questions.
c. Ask questions about family members and what they do for a living.
d. Questions in the survey do not necessarily have to follow the same pattern. You can combine
and give options like in the model above and you can give the person alternatives. Look at the
example below:

Question: Does your mother work?

YES _______________ NO ______________

Question: What time does your mother / father work? (check the box that applies)
a. in the mornings

b. in the afternoons
c. all day

e. Your survey needs to include a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 questions.

f. You are expected to apply your survey to 8 classmates and after this, compare the answers to
see what information you can generalize from it.

POST: Talk about your survey experience.

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Get together in teams of three people. Read the statements and discuss your
ideas. Then write your conclusions on the lines below.

1. The most difficult part of the survey activity was ____________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

2. The most interesting part of the survey activity was __________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

3. Something that each one of us learned from the information collected with the survey was

a. _______________________________________________________________________________

b. _______________________________________________________________________________

c. _______________________________________________________________________________

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