Topic: Social skills: Compliments, apologies, requests, and invitations
Mode: Interpersonal
Level: Intermediate
Skill: Speaking
Competency: I can in a live conversation, invite someone to do something with me (go for lunch, go to a movie, etc.) and accept/turn down an invitation in a culturally appropriate way
Students will practice inviting others to an event or date and then accepting or declining others’ invitations.
Additional Materials Needed:
- Notecards with invitation prompts written on them
Instructions to the teacher
Before class, write 10-15 (enough so each pair of students has one prompt) invitation prompts on notecards in the target language. You can repeat prompts, but be sure to have enough so that every pair can do at least 2 different ones.
Examples:
Invite your friend to attend a play with you.
Invite someone to go out to eat on a date.
Invite a foreign exchange student over to your house for dinner.
Invite a new classmate to your study group.
- Before starting the activity, ask students to think about how they make invitations in their own culture, and what the cultural norms are regarding accepting and declining invitations. For example, if someone invites you to their home for dinner, what would be an appropriate way to accept or decline that invitation? Then discuss with your students culturally appropriate ways to make invitations and to accept or decline them in the target language and culture. What are the norms and expectations regarding invitations? Teach any phrases which might be helpful.
- After this discussion, explain to students that they will be role-playing invitations. Place your stack of notecards face-down at the front of the room. Ask students to get into pairs. One student (student A) from each pair should come to the front to get a notecard. That student (A) will read the prompt on their card and then role-play the invitation with their partner (student B). Their partner (B) may choose to accept or reject the invitation using culturally appropriate responses. You may choose to hand out the student instructions below for reference or simply read them aloud.
- Once they have completed their role-play, the partners will switch roles. The second time through, they will role-play the opposite response. So, if the first time the invitation was accepted (by B), now the student who originally made the invitation (A) will reject their partner’s (B) invitation. Tell students they will have about 3 minutes to complete this practice. When they have finished, have them trade scenario cards with another pair of students and practice again with a new prompt, this time having student B make the first invitation.
Instructions to students
Working in pairs, you will practice giving, accepting, and declining invitations. You will have approximately 3 minutes to complete your role-play for each prompt. Using the prompt provided to you on a notecard, one of you (student A) will invite the other (student B). Be sure to use culturally appropriate language when making your invitations. Student B will decide to either accept or reject student A’s invitation using culturally appropriate manners. Once you have completed this first role-play, swap roles, this time with student B making the invitation and student A giving the opposite response to whatever was said in the first role-play. Then trade your notecard with another pair of students and practice one more time, this time with Student B giving the initial invitation.