ESL Lesson Plan: Food Vocabulary

This is the third in the series of Lesson Plans I promised to post. This one is to teach Food-related vocabulary to elementary level ESL students. I taught this class at St. Giles International, a very popular language school in San Francisco. We had a cocktail of students from different countries. In this elementary group alone, I had students from China, Korea, Italy, Russia, Thailand, Peru and France. The classes were even more varied at the upper-intermediate level – we had students from Czech, Germany, Siberia, Cyprus and many other countries.

I was pissed that I had to teach Food Vocabulary.. I mean, why not Clothing Vocabulary, or Road Vocabulary – those are pretty much the same everywhere! A pant is a pant is a pant, as is a skirt, a skirt, a skirt – in Russia or Thailand. But smoked fish.. gosh, what if a certain country does not have a smoked fish dish. Or worse, how does one explain the differences between grilling and barbecue – a concept much debated in the culinary world too.

I was even more aware of these issues because I’m Indian – and we don’t do smoked fish, not in the North at least (I think the South does have some smoked fish and meat dishes). But I was just fretting without a cause, coz in the end, all my students knew all the vocabulary! Easy sailing, it was

So here’s the lesson plan.. You can Download this lesson plan at the bottom of the page.

ESL Lesson Plan 3: Food Vocabulary

Lesson Aims

Main Aim: To make students familiar with some vocabulary words related to cooking

Sub Aim: To encourage students to use vocabulary related to cooking

Personal Aims:

To use illustrations, gestures, definitions to explain the meanings of vocabulary words (TL).

To use simple CCQs.

To stick to the time limit.

Aids and Materials:

Handouts/worksheets attached? YES/NO
Specify book material used: Longman English Dictionary,

Working with Words, by Ruth Gains and Stuart Redmen. Published by Cambridge University Press

ESL Lesson Plan 3: Food Vocabulary

Stage Name	Aim of Stage	Procedure
Setting a Context	To introduce the topic of the lesson's topic – cooking methods	Begin talking to students about what they ate for lunch. Does anyone get their own food? Is there a good cook in the class? Students talk in pairs about whether they enjoy cooking or not? What do they enjoy cooking?
Illustrate Meaning	Elicit marker sentence from students	Students try to guess word from clues that I give to them. e.g. Steamed – First, I will boil water. When there is a lot of vapor, I will keep fish on a tray on top of boiling water. The food cooks in the hot vapor. What am I doing? I am steaming fish. Does anyone like steamed fish? “I like steamed fish.” Show a picture of a steam cooker.
Check concept	To make sure students have understood the target language	Ask students very simple questions related to the new word. e.g. Steamed – Is the food inside the water? Does the food get wet?
Oral Highlighting	To make sure the students say the word correctly	I will say the marker sentence aloud and ask the students to repeat after me – first, in a chorus, then individually. I will look out for pronunciation errors and correct them.
Written Highlighting	To make sure students know how to spell the word and use it in a sentence	I will ask the students to write down the marker sentence. Make a grid and ask students which foods can be steamed. Write 2-3 foods against the word
Form	To sure students know how to use these words	Tell students how these words act as adjectives in the names of dishes Subject + verb + adjective (cooking method) + object.
		Steps 2-6 will be repeated for each of the ten words to be introduced
Controlled Practice	To give students practice in recognizing the words	Give students a word grid. Ask them to find the cooking words they have learnt. {if learner level is low}
Whole class feedback	To make sure students were able to recognize all the words	SS can check answers in pairs. Ask teacher for missing info
Semi-controlled Practice	To give students practice in matching words with their meanings	Give pairs of students mock-menus with missing names of dishes and their explanations. Each student has to find the missing words/meanings with the help of their partner. {if learner level is high, then we'll do both exercises.. time permitting}
Free Speech Practice	To make sure students can produce sentences using the new words	I will give each student a flashcard with the name of a dish written on them. Each student has to think of how s/he can use those words to make a yummy recipe for his partner. Flashcard words - Fried Spider Raw Darin Teacher Curry Steamed Chair Barbecue Kelly Roast Cat Pickle Phone Grilled Book Baked Elena Smoked Wilson

Click to DOWNLOAD Lesson Plan: Food Vocabulary–>

CELTA Lesson Plan: Food Vocabulary -

Click to DOWNLOAD ESL Food Vocabulary Word Game–>
ESL Food Vocabulary Word Game -

Click to DOWNLOAD ESL Food Vocabulary Menu Game–>
CELTA Lesson Plan: Food Vocabulary Menu Game -

If you’re a current CELTA student looking for help with your assignments, you might want to peek and see what I wrote in my CELTA assignments. They’re all available for free downloads. Drop me a line if these were useful. Cheers!