LISTENING COMPREHENSION ACTIVITY Describing People

A listening-comprehension exercise for beginners contributed by Anibal Fernando Machado

Aim: To provide students with input (have/have got)(be wearing)and to reveiw vocabulary (physical descriptions and clothes).

Students should have been exposed to vocabulary concerning physical description (height, build, colour of hair, colour of eyes)
and clothes (colour and pattern).

Procedure:

Have students draw a grid in their notebooks on a separate sheet, so that you can collect them.The grid should include the
name of the student being described and these details about the students:

     Height:
     Build:
     Hair Length:
     Hair Style:
     Hair Colour:
     Colour of eyes:

Also have the students create space to describe three items of clothing being worn. Including the names of the items worn, the
colors, and the patterns.

     Tell them that in order to fill out the grid they should choose one of the members of the class to describe, but they mustn't
     say who they have chosen.
     Give them some time to fill the grid out. Once they have finished, collect their papers.
     Tell the students that you are going to read the descriptions out and that they must write down the name of the person
     they think has been described. Make sure that they don't say the names out loud.
     Next, read out each form. Your reading should be something like this: "This is a boy/girl. He/she is a tall thin boy/girl with
     long straight fair hair and blue eyes. He/she is wearing a white and blue striped shirt, jeans, white socks and brown
     shoes."

Obviously, the physical characteristics will vary according to each individual and so will the clothes. Although there might be
several students with the same physical characteristics, they should have no problems to identify the person described when you
get to what they are wearing.

If the class is too large, you might choose to read out half their papers, and leave the rest for the following period. If so, before
leaving, ask them to have a look at what everybody is wearing and to try to remember for the following day.

The next day, you can read the rest of their papers, but this time, when you get to the description of their clothes you will have
to use "he/she was wearing", an opportunity to expose them to the past of the verbe "BE" if they have never been exposed to it.
Once you have finished with all the papers, write a similar description to the ones you read (or two if you used the past) on the
chalkboard.

Next, write this on the board:

..........(name of person) is a .......(height and build)boy/girl with ......(length).....(style).....(colour)hair and .........(colour)eyes.
He/she is wearing .........(colour),.........(pattern),........(item).

The words in parenthesis should not be written on the chalkboard.