3 Functional Language Practice: Expressing opinions
1 Complete the dialogue with the words below.
believe honest my personally view
Julia Do you think it’s true that you can tell a lot about someone by the clothes they wear?
Matt To be 1 , I don’t think so. Some days I wear smart clothes and other days I wear casual clothes, but I’m still
the same person.
Julia Yes, you’re someone who can’t decide about anything! I really 2 that you can tell a lot about someone by
their clothes. In my 3
, people wear expensive clothes so other people can see that they have lots of money.
Matt 4
, I don’t think what people wear is very important. Lots of celebrities wear tracksuits and casual clothes.
Julia Yes, they do. But they wear very expensive tracksuits and designer labels. In 5 opinion, everyone is under
pressure to look good and it is a serious problem.
Matt I agree with you there!
2 Work in pairs. Practise the dialogue.
3 SPEAKING Work in groups of three. Student A: Choose a square. The student on your left has to speak about that topic
for 20 seconds. They should give their opinion and say why. Then they choose the topic for the next person. Continue
until every topic is finished. Score a point each time you speak for 20 seconds.
Read the sentence. What do you think? Speak for 20 seconds.
Young people should Families shouldn’t Old people should live
do more housework have more than with their children
to help their parents. four children. and grandchildren.
It is important The school day
Schools have to
to have dinner should start at
have lots of rules to
with your family 10 a.m. and finish
work well.
every day. at 4 p.m.
Companies shouldn’t Fashion magazines
Girls spend more
use factories in make young people
money than boys
poor countries to feel bad about
on clothes.
make clothes. themselves.
Solutions Third Edition Elementary photocopiable © Oxford University Press
3 Functional Language
Practice: Expressing opinions
Aims: To review and practise language for expressing
opinions. This draws on the language in lesson 3F.
Time: 15–20 minutes
Materials: 1 handout for each student
Exercise 1
• Give each student a handout and ask them to read
through the dialogue quickly. Ask: What do Matt and
Julia agree about? (People are under pressure to look
good.)
• Students then work individually and complete the gaps
with the words in the box.
• Check answers with the class.
KEY
1 honest 2 believe 3 view 4 Personally 5 my
Exercise 2
• Students practise the dialogue in pairs.
• If you have a screen in your classroom, you could
display the dialogue and ask students to read from it.
Repeat a few times, and each time remove some of
the key phrases while they read. This will help them to
remember the important language.
• Ask a few pairs of students to perform their dialogues in
front of the class.
Exercise 3
• Students work in groups of three. Explain that they are
going to play a game in which they have to try and speak
for 20 seconds about a topic. Check that one of them
has a watch or a mobile phone (if these are allowed in
class) to time 20 seconds, otherwise time it yourself and
let the class know when each 20 seconds is up.
• Each student chooses the topic for the student on their
left to talk about. The other students should listen and
time them.
• At the end of the 20 seconds, encourage the other
students to say whether they agree or disagree.
• Students get a point if they can speak for 20 seconds.
Keep going until all the topics have been used. The
winner is the student with the most points.
Solutions Third Edition Elementary photocopiable © Oxford University Press
