2. 2 TEACHING PACK-DEPARTAMENT OF ENGLISHGUIA DIDÀCTICATEACHING PACK
Sara and Santi are at the airport waiting for
their English friends. Sara and Jane are pen-
friends and Santi has met Paul through the
Internet – they’re going to have ‘real contact’.
Jane and Paul are carrying the same type of
suitcases and there is an unpleasant moment
at baggage reclaim. They leave the airport with
the wrong bags. This confusion leads Sara and
Jane to the campsite in Sort where Santi and
Paul have gone for a few days to do adventure
sports. Paul doesn’t like Jane at first but Santi
and Sara are attracted to each other at first
sight. Doing sports together helps to improve
the relationship between Paul and Jane, but
Paul read Jane’s diary while he had her bag
and this makes a big difference to how she
feels about him.
SYNOPSI
Open Theatre
MY ENGLISH
FRIENDS
THEATRE
TEACHING PACK Julian Wright
Departament of English.
3. 3
MY ENGLISH FRIENDS
SARA – A Spanish girl, happy and self-confident. She is Jane’s penfriend. She’s full of life
and likes boys a lot.
JANE – An English girl, the same age as Sara. She’s from Manchester. She’s intellectual
and romantic, but a bit shy.
SANTI – A Spanish boy who has met Paul through the Internet. He likes risky sports. He
can’t speak English very well.
PAUL – An English boy from Leeds. He likes sport too. He loves England and the English
people.
ACTIVITY 1
Read the Synopsis and Main Characters and decide if these sentences are True or False:
Sara and Jane are penfriends.
Jane and Paul exchange bags by mistake.
Paul and Santi go to a campsite in Blanes.
Santi doesn’t like sports which are dangerous.
Jane and Paul become good friends at the airport.
Sara likes boys.
Santi speaks excellent English.
Jane and Sara are the same age.
Sara and Santi are attracted to each other instantly.
Paul reads Jane’s diary.
THE MAIN
CHARACTERS
COMPREHENSION CHECK
PRE-SHOW
4. 4 TEACHING PACK-DEPARTAMENT OF ENGLISH
COMPREHENSION CHECK
POST-SHOW
ACTIVITY 2
Say if these sentences are True or False:
At first, Paul has a much more realistic view of Spain than Jane has.
Santi likes Sara but he isn’t sure, at first, if he wants a girlfriend.
The boy Jane is trying to forget is called Ernie.
The policeman at the airport can speak English.
Pauls feet stink.
Paul didn’t read Jane’s diary really – Santi read out bits of it to him.
Jane wants to be a writer.
Jane and Sara are going to see each other again at Christmas.
The girls don’t do any sports with the boys at Sort.
Jane and Paul don’t start going out together.
5. 5
MY ENGLISH FRIENDS
A. - READING
Read this extract from Jane’s diary and put the adjectives in the correct spaces.
You can find the adjectives below.
Tuesday:
Here I am at last! What a (1)............................ country Spain is! It’s so different
from England. The weather is really (2)............................. , but in the evenings
there is a (3)................................ breeze from the mountains. There are lots of
(4)..........................beaches and all the people are really (5).............................. .
My room in Sara’s flat is very (6).................................., but she lives in a very
(7) ................................ area of the city and it’s difficult to sleep. The food is
absolutely (8)............................... and the night-life is (9) .....................................!
Yesterday we went to a restaurant and the waiter was so (10)...........................
...........!
friendly - delicious - cool - fantastic - handsome - noisy - hot - comfortable -
wild - sandy
INITIAL LEVEL
PRE-SHOW OR POST-SHOW
6. 6 TEACHING PACK-DEPARTAMENT OF ENGLISH
B. - VOCABULARY
There are three verbs for sports in English – PLAY, GO and DO.
Note: We don’t ask, for example: ‘What sports do you practise?’
We ask: ‘What sports do you do?’ or ‘What ballgames do you play?’
In reply, we can say: ‘I play football’ or ‘I go cycling’ or ‘I do Taekwon-do’
We use PLAY for sports which use a ball – football, tennis, golf etc.
We use GO for sports which end in ‘-ing’ – cycling, running etc.
We use DO for sports which are very physical or dangerous – Taekwon-do, karate etc.
BUT! – We can say ‘I do rafting’ , not ‘I go rafting’ if we think it is a very physical and dangerous sport.
Put some more examples of sports in the columns:
PLAY GO DO
tennis cycling Taekwon-do
football running karate
............. ............ ..................
............. ............ ..................
............. ............ ..................
............. ............ ..................
............. ............ ..................
Now work in pairs or threes.
Ask your partner ‘Do you play tennis?’, ‘Do you go cycling?’, ‘Do you do Taekwon-do?’ etc.
Your partner must reply: ‘Yes, I do’ or ‘No, I don’t’. NOT ‘Yes, I play’ or ’Yes, I go’.
Then your partner can ask you some similar questions.
7. 7
MY ENGLISH FRIENDS
C. - WRITING
Look at this newspaper advertisement for holidays in Manchester.
Manchester - A great place to improve your English!
The beautiful City of Manchester has everything you need for a fantastic holi-
day. Great shopping centres, concert halls, discos and cinemas. The night-life
is wild! There is a sports ground next to the university and the sea is only half
an hour away by train or bus. And it's the home of Take That!
Then write a similar one for a place in your country which you like.
D. - COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES
Work in pairs or threes.
1. STUDENT A- You are on holiday in Manchester. Student B is English. He/she will ask you questions
about the town or city where you live. Answer his/her questions.
STUDENT B - You are from Manchester in England. You want to go to Spain on holiday for the first
time. You meet Student B who is from Spain. Ask him/her questions about his/her town or city.
Then reverse roles and repeat.
2. STUDENT A – You are at Manchester airport. Someone has stolen your bag.
You saw them running away with it and so you have a description of the thief.
You go to the police. Describe the thief and say what is in your bag.
STUDENT B - You are a policeman/policewoman at Manchester airport. Someone has stolen Student
A’s bag. Ask about the thief – colour of eyes, hair etc, clothes,
age etc. Also ask what is in the bag. Make a note of Student A’s name and address.
Then reverse roles and repeat.
3. STUDENT A – You are an adventure sports fanatic. Try to convince Student B
that these sports are not dangerous if you are careful and have a good supervisor.
STUDENT B - You would like to try some adventure sports but you are a bit timid and think they are
too dangerous. Can Student A convince you that they are OK?
Then reverse roles and repeat.
8. 8 TEACHING PACK-DEPARTAMENT OF ENGLISH
J D R B F J Y S G R M A W J U D O
J S T W R E H M G S D J W U F I O
L D S T K T P O T H O L I N G H W
A Q U C C P J U Y R U L F K J L U
D X O I S E F N S W R H F P M N B
W H I T E W A T E R R A F T I N G
H A G K C D S A B S A I L I N G F
E N U F D R V I F A N S R Y U Q O
K G B U N U I N D W S Q U A S H O
P G Y O O G X C O P A E H S Q U T
H L D J T B K L K D R E B I A O B
D I H D N Y P I X E D L T A P C A
O D H L I E T M D Q T F J K L F L
L I A C M O F B A S K E T B A L L
X N U R D I W I K Y S T Q Z W O B
Y G H A A T P N R E S D T K P T W
L I H T B U N G Y J U M P I N G I
G R E Z T W Q R P S O M P T H U S
Find these words:
BUNGY JUMPING WHITEWATER RAFTING ABSAILING
JUDO HANG GLIDING BADMINTON
HOCKEY RUGBY MOUNTAIN CLIMBING
FOOTBALL POTHOLING BASKETBALL
SQUASH BASEBALL CRICKET
WORD SOUP
INITIAL AND INTERMEDIATE LEVELS
9. 9
MY ENGLISH FRIENDS
Match the words and descriptions.
Part One:
(1) a carousel (A) dirty water and toilet waste from houses etc.
(2) a campsite (B) to exchange things without using money
(3) an electric shaver (C) the machine at an airport where you collect your bags
(4) to swop (D) a place where you can camp
(5) a village (E) a machine for shaving beards, moustaches etc.
(6) a real-contact (F) a place which is much smaller than a town
(7) sewage (G) a face-to-face meeting with an Internet friend
Part Two:
(8) a thief (H) a man/ a young man
(9) a diary (I) insects which make a noise at night
(10) to stink (J) a person who steals
(11) to waste time (K) a record of your private thoughts and plans
(12) a guy (L) to use your time stupidly
(13) crickets (M) to say things which are not true
(14) to lie (N) to smell really bad
VOCABULARY
10. 10 TEACHING PACK-DEPARTAMENT OF ENGLISH
A. - READING
Read this email from Paul to a friend in England and then do the matching exercise below.
Hi, Dave. Just a quick email to let you know that I have arrived in Spain.
I’m staying with another email pal, Santi. He’s a good bloke and he’s nuts about sport, espe-
cially the death-defying variety. The flight was very interesting because I was sitting next
to an English girl called Jane. She kept recording her thoughts on this little dictaphone.
I wanted to chat her up but I don’t think she liked my sense of humour. We started off on
the wrong foot and , to make things worse I nicked her bag by mistake. Now she’s mad with
me for listening to her diary which was in her bag. I’d like to ask her out but she’d probably
tell me to get lost. Ah well...
Keep in touch,
Paul
1. a pal (A) to be very enthusiastic about something
2. a bloke (B) a good friend
3. to be nuts about something (C) to do something repeatedly
4. death-defying (D) a man / a young man
5. to keep doing something (E) to start a relationship badly
6. to chat someone up (F) extremely dangerous and risky
7. to get off on the wrong foot (G) to talk to someone with amorous intentions
8. to make things worse (H) to steal
9. to nick (I) in error
10. by mistake J) to make a bad situation worse
11. to be mad with someone (K) to tell someone you don’t want their company
12. to ask someone out (L) to contact someone from time to time
13. to tell someone to get lost (M) to be angry with someone
14. to keep in touch (N) to invite someone to the cinema etc with
amorous intentions
INTERMEDIATE
LEVEL
PRE-SHOW OR POST-SHOW
11. 11
MY ENGLISH FRIENDS
B. - GRAMMAR
Lost opportunities – Expressing regrets.
Paul and Jane begin their relationship badly:
On the plane he criticises her opinion of Spain.
At Baggage Reclaim he argues with her over the bags.
She discovers that he has read her diary.
These things offend Jane. Paul is definitely the last boy she would want to go out with!
Paul is sorry about this because he is very attracted to Jane and would like to ask her out.
He imagines the situations to be different:
He imagines being friendly to her on the plane: ‘Yes, Spain is a romantic country, but...’
He imagines being polite to her at Baggage Reclaim: ‘Oh! Perhaps this is your bag. Let’s see... Yes!
Sorry. My mistake.’
He imagines not reading her diary: ‘Don’t worry, Jane. I haven’t read your diary. Diaries are confidential.’
He imagines these things differently so that he can imagine being friends and falling in love.
But the reality is different and he is sorry for what he has done. He says to Santi:
‘If only I had been friendly to her on the plane.’
‘If only I had been polite to her at Baggage Reclaim.’
‘If only I hadn’t read her diary.’
These are the imagined situations. Not he talks about the imagined results. He says:
(If only I had been friendly to her on the plane) we would have been friends.
(If only I had been polite to her at Baggage Reclaim) she wouldn’t have been angry with me.
(If only I hadn’t read her diary) she wouldn’t despise me.
The imagined situation uses the Past Perfect: I had been/ they hadn’t read.
The imagined result uses the Perfect Conditional: we would have been/ she wouldn’t have said OR
the Conditional (would + infinitive): she would be my girlfriend/ she wouldn’t despise me.
‘If only...’ sentences are examples of the Second and Third Conditionals.
12. 12 TEACHING PACK-DEPARTAMENT OF ENGLISH
Write sentences expressing regret in the following situations:
1. You buy an expensive CD player, but you lose the receipt. Now it doesn’t work. The
shop refuses to refund your money because you can’t show them the receipt.
2. Your favourite singer gives a concert in your town/city. All your friends go to it, but
you don’t. The next day they tell you that they met him/her in person after the concert
and chatted for hours.
3. You park your motorbike on a yellow line where parking is prohibited. A policeman
gives you a parking ticket. You have to ask you parents for the money. They are angry
with you.
4. You go to a disco in the next town and miss the last bus home. There is no train and
you haven’t got the money for a taxi. You have to walk home.
5. It’s summer. You go to the beach for the day. You discover that you have left your sun
protection cream at home. You don’t go home to get it, but stay on the beach all day,
in the hot sun. In the evening your skin is red and painful – you’re badly sunburned.
C.- WRITING
1. You know that your younger brother/sister often reads your private diary. This is te-
rrible! You want to teach him/her a lesson! Write something in your diary which will
give him/her a good shock! If you want, you can begin with, ’I’m really worried about
my younger brother/sister because...’.
2. Write a brochure advertising an Adventure Sports Holiday. Include descriptions of the
sports, location, duration, accommodation, supervision, prices, etc. Say why it’s good
value for money and why people will enjoy this type of holiday.
3. Your penfriend from Britain is coming to stay with you for the first time. You know that
he/she has unrealistic impressions of your country which are too romantic and out-
of-date. After all, you don’t think that everyone in Britain wears those typical London
businessman’s hats, or that people there never speak to each other! Your penfriend
doesn’t realise that Spain is a modern country with excellent services, transport,
communications, education etc.. Write a letter describing what everyday life is like
for you in modern Spain.
13. 13
MY ENGLISH FRIENDS
D.– COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES
STUDENT A – You are a policeman/policewoman. You speak reasonable English. Someone
has called the police because there is a problem concerning the bags on the airport
carousel. You suspect an English tourist of stealing bags. Speak to him/her about it.
STUDENT B - You are an English tourist. You don’t speak any Spanish. Someone has
called the police and then disappeared. A policeman/policewoman arrives and wants
to speak to you.
Then reverse roles and repeat.
STUDENT A - You have recently finished a relationship with your girlfriend / boyfriend
but you can’t forget her/him. You feel miserable. Discuss it with your friend, Student B.
STUDENT B - You are Student B’s friend. She/ he has just finished a serious relationship
and is feeling miserable. Give some advice and support and let Student A express
her/his feelings.
Then reverse roles and repeat.
(3) Dicuss your perfect girlfriend/boyfriend. Talk about physical appearance, temperament,
character, etc..
(4) Santi isn’t sure he wants a girfriend. Do you think that young people in your
country start having romantic relationships too young? Are young people always
ready for serious relationships? What do you think is right for you?
(5) You have won a fantastic prize in a sports competition. You can go anywhere in the
world to do any type of sport for two weeks. You have to go together – to the same
place, to do the same sport. Talk, and try to agree on where to go and which sport to
do.
(6) You each have a penfriend from Britain coming to stay for a month. Your penfriends
will be here at the same time so you will all be able to meet and do things together.
Discuss what you will do. Also discuss what you want from them: Do you want them
to correct your English? To learn some Spanish? To have a romantic relationship with
you? Invent your perfect penfriend and discuss them.
14. 14 TEACHING PACK-DEPARTAMENT OF ENGLISH
COMPREHENSION CHECK (1) - Pre-Show/ Pre Script-Reading:
1T 2T 3F 4F 5F 6T 7F 8T 9T 10T
COMPREHENSION CHECK (2) - Post-Show/Post Script-Reading:
1T 2T 3F 4F 5T 6T 7T 8T 9F 10F
A . – READING – Initial Level:
1 fantastic 2 hot 3 cool 4 sandy 5 friendly 6 comfortable 7 noisy 8 delicious
9 wild 10 handsome
VOCABULARY:
Part One: 1 C 2 D 3 E 4 B 5 F 6 G 7 A
Part Two: 8 J 9 K 10 N 11 L 12 H 13 I 14 M
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL – READING:
1 B 2 D 3 A 4 F 5 C 6 G 7 E 8 J 9 H 10 I 11 M 12 N 13 K 14 L
ANSWERS SECTION
