A return to Bayport, please.

Objective & content

This functional language sheet teaches pupils to buy a train ticket (A single to Bayport, please. A return to Bayport, please. One adult and one child.), to ask the price (How much is it?), the time (When's the next train to Bayport? It leaves at quarter past ten.) and the platform (Which platform?), and to ask if they have to change trains (Do I have to change?). Pupils read a dialogue in which Evie buys tickets for herself and her big brother at the ticket office, find the missing words and read the useful phrases, given in a box. By the end, they can buy a ticket and ask for the price, the time and the platform at a station.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the dialogue, with a picture of Evie and of the ticket seller. It's ten o'clock on Saturday morning at Hillford station: Evie, who is twelve, buys two returns to Bayport, one adult for her big brother and one child for her (eighteen pounds). The next train leaves at quarter past ten from platform two, goes straight to Bayport and arrives at five to eleven. Pupils find eight missing words in lines from the dialogue. Page 2 has the useful phrases in a box, with the key words in bold (a single: you go; a return: you go and come back), five situations to match to a phrase (a single, the price, the time, where to wait, one train or two) and six lines with three replies each, where pupils tick the best one. Page 3 has Hal's dialogue, a child single to Castleton with a change at Bayport, to number from 1 to 8, and Suki's dialogue at twenty past ten to complete with six words in a box. It also has the timetable of three trains from Hillford on Saturday morning, with the times, the platforms, the changes and the prices of singles and returns for adults and children. The last task is a role-play at the ticket office with the timetable: pupils cut out cards A and B and work in pairs. A is twelve and wants to go to Castleton and come back in the evening; B is the ticket seller and reads the price, the time and the platform on the timetable. Then they swap: B buys tickets to Bayport for B and B's dad, who come back by car. Bayport, Castleton and Hillford are made-up towns. Every exercise opens with a worked example.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Write single and return on the board and ask the class "You go to the sea and come back. Single or return?"
2. (10 min) Read the dialogue aloud; pupils find the missing words.
3. (5 min) Read the useful phrases in the box with the class; pupils find them in the dialogue.
4. (10 min) Page 2: pupils match the situations to the phrases, then tick the best replies.
5. (10 min) Page 3: pupils number the lines of Hal's dialogue, then complete Suki's dialogue.
6. (10 min) Role-play: pupils read the timetable, act out the role-play in pairs with cards A and B, then swap.
7. (5 min) Check with the answer key on page 4.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the dialogue aloud in pairs, one as Evie and one as the ticket seller, before the tasks.

[A] Pupils write the dialogue for a trip of their own with the timetable.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 to 3 per pupil, and scissors for the role-play cards. Page 4 is the answer key and teacher notes: keep it. The role-play is free speaking, so any answer that uses the phrases and fits the card and the timetable is right. Pupils need the numbers to twenty, prices in pounds and the time (quarter past, half past, quarter to, five to). To take it further, pupils find a real train timetable on the internet and ask a partner for a time, a platform and a price.