The weather

Aims:

• To practise reading for specific information in an online article about the weather

• To practise pronunciation, word stress and collocations connected with the weather

Age group: teens/ adults

Level: C1

Time: 1 hour

The aim of this lesson is to give students practice in reading for specific information in an online article about the weather. Students will also have an opportunity to practise pronunciation, word stress and collocations connected with the weather. The plan is based around a text from the British Council LearnEnglish Central website at: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/weather

The aim of this lesson is to give students practice in reading for specific information in an online article about the weather. Students will also have an opportunity to practise pronunciation, word stress and collocations connected with the weather. The plan is based around a text from the British Council LearnEnglish Central website at: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/weather

Process 1

Students should discuss in pairs or groups the difference between the different weather phenomena. TIP: Photos or drawings of the various weather phenomena will make comprehension checking much easier as well as making the vocabulary more memorable for your students.

Process 2 

Ask students what adjectives we often use with ‘rain’ and why, for example, we say ‘heavy rain’ and not ‘strong rain’. (Answer: because the words form common collocations or word partnerships).  Ask students in pairs or groups to match the adjectives in column A to the nouns in column B to form strong collocations. (Note: in some cases there is more than one possibility).

Column A: torrential, flash, severe, dense,sunny, freak, violent, high

Column B: gales, humidity,spells, whether conditions, rain, stormes, floods, fog

TIP: if available, provide students with good monolingual dictionaries as these will often give common collocations, sometimes with example sentences so that your students can see how the words are used in context. Using a bilingual dictionary is not as helpful and if often confusing as collocations tend to differ between languages.

Process 3

Pre-reading discussion Discuss the following questions with a partner.

1. In what ways can we predict the weather?

2. There are many sayings in English about the weather. For example: Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning. What do you think this saying means? Are there any similar sayings in your own language? Can you translate them into English and say what they mean?

3. Do you think the weather can influence our moods? If so, in what way?

4. Do you think the weather can influence the personalities of people living in different countries or regions? If so, in what way?

Process 4

Read the article and answer the following questions.

1. According to scientific studies, what effects can the weather have on people?

2. What causes changes in the weather in the British Isles?

3. According to some researchers, what effect has human activity in Europe and North America had on Africa?

4. How can pine cones and seaweed help us predict the weather?

5. How reliable is technology in predicting the weather?

6. What did a recent study by an Australian psychologist suggest?

7. What’s the connection between weather and disease?

8. What are stormchasers?

The only countable evaluation can be found in the second process - matching:

 0 mistakes - 5

1-3 mistakes - 4

4-6 mistakes - 3

6-8 mistakes - 2

This lesson will give a deep specific knowledge in this field, wider their topical vocabulary, improve their reading skills.

This webquest was created in the website https://www.createwebquest.com/node/add/webquest.