> Go to Script | Idioms Quiz | Gap-fill Exercise
1. Warm Up
Study abroad programs give people opportunities to make new friends, and beginning, maintaining, and ending a conversation are keys to good, positive communication. Also, knowing what to say when you meet someone again helps improve friendships. In this conversation, two people run into each other again after participating in the same study abroad program. Before you listen, think about what expressions you would use to smoothly start and end a conversation.
2. Conversation
Pronunciation Tip: YOU changes to YA.
Listen to the conversation and answer the questions. Alex and Ryan are currently enrolled in a distance education and are meeting for lunch to catch up on recent events in their lives.
3. Retelling the Story
Instructions: Retell the story above using the vocabulary you have learned. Then think of a time when you bumped into a friend whom you hadn’t seen in ages. Discuss the situation with a partner and what you said or did when you met.
4. Expanding Your Learning
Instructions: Select one or more of the activities below to expand your understanding and use of the slang studied in this unit.
- Discussion: Discuss possible reasons why friends lose contact with each other and what people can do to stay in touch more.
- Improvisation: Give your partner(s) a new word from this unit and ask the partner to think up a sentence or more with the slang used in context. Sharing something from personal experience will make the activity more real and interesting to the listeners.
Example: be in touch >>>> I haven’t been in touch with my parents for the past week because I’ve been so busy.
- Writing: Send an email to a friend or family member with whom you haven’t been in touch for some time. Tell the person about any new happenings in your life and ask the person what he or she has been up to recently. Use a narrative style with different past tenses to describe events in your life.
- Real Speak: Where possible, visit or call an old friend or former English teacher and find out how he or she is doing and what is new in the person’s life.