Speaking Cycle 10: Happy Birthday!

1. Activating  

· What different things do people typically do in your country to celebrate their birthday?  

· What different ways do people celebrate birthdays in other countries?  

2. Sharing  

· Think about some of your past birthdays.  

· Work in groups of three. Tell your group what you did to celebrate these birthdays.

As you listen to your partners, decide if you have ever celebrated your own birthday in similar ways.  

3. Preparing  

· Choose one experience of one member of your group. One of you is going to tell the rest of the class about this experience (it doesn't matter if the person who speaks is the person who had the experience or if they talk about the experience of someone else in their group).  

· Spend 15 minutes, as a group, preparing what the speaker is going to say. Think about a) information, such as how old the person was (or when the birthday was, if the person's age is a sensitive issue); where the person was at the time; who the person celebrated the birthday with; what the person did to celebrate it; and how the person felt during the celebration; and b) the organisation and structure of what the speaker will say.  

4. Performing  

· The speaker from each group talks to the rest of the class.  

· As you are listening to other speakers, try to answer the following questions.  

a) When and where did the birthday celebration take place?  

b) Who did the person celebrate their birthday with?  

c) What did the birthday celebration consist of?  

d) How did the person feel during the birthday celebration?  

e) To what extent would you like to celebrate your own birthday in a similar way? 

5. Reporting  

· When you have heard the speaker from each group, check your answers to the questions with the other members of your group.  

· As a group, decide which of the people you have heard about, in your opinion, enjoyed their birthday celebration the most.