This is simple activity for learners to practise describing food. It’s also a great opportunity to explore intercultural differences around the topic of food.
The dishes mentioned below are based on what you might see on a British Pub menu – of course you use your own ideas.
- First of all, you create a simple menu and write to the board. I recommend you choose three starters, three main courses and three desserts. For example in class we had: Starters – Greek Salad, Prawn Cocktail, Bruschetta Main courses – Roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding, Bangers and Mash, Vegetable and Spinach lasagna; Desserts – Sticky Toffee Pudding, Banana Split, Tiramisu
- Next, ask learners if they know what any of the dishes are, if so they can try to describe them, if not you can describe them. Ask learners if they have ever tried any of the dishes before and whether they liked them or not.
- Then, learners write their own menus based on dishes they know of, perhaps from their own countries. They could write the names of the dishes in their own languages
- After that, learners work in pairs asking each other about their menus and describing the food to each other – then pairs feedback about some of the interesting dishes they found out about to class (perhaps each student choose one dish to talk about)
- Later – you could use the learner created menus for work on restaurant dialogues, then you could extend to work on recipes and cooking.
