Six words, six sentences
Stand up. Your teacher calls out a modal; you say one true sentence about your workplace using it, within three seconds. Six modals, round the room, twice.
No sentence may be repeated. If somebody has already used yours, you find another.
Six sentences, six meanings. Match them one final time before the task.
Reading and speaking are not the same piece
The written sentence
You mustn’t leave the walk-in fridge open, ever — the head chef will find you, and he will find you quickly.
The same thing, said out loud
So the fridge — the big walk-in one — you never leave that open. Never. The head chef finds out, and he finds out fast. That is the one that gets people shouted at.
Three questions comparing the two versions.
1. The spoken version names the fridge first, then says what to do. Why does that help a listener?
2. The spoken version repeats never and finds out. Is that a mistake?
3. Which version should you use in the task today?
Turning the page back into speech
Three conversions
| On the page | Out loud | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You mustn’t prop the fire doors open. | The fire doors — you never prop those open. | Topic first, then the rule |
| You don’t have to eat with the team. | Nobody makes you eat with the team. But… | A spoken rule usually earns its but |
| I had to learn it by watching. | Nobody told me any of it. I watched. | Two short sentences beat one long one |
Put the four moves of your spoken turn into order. It is the same shape as your written piece, with one change.
The one change from the page. Finish with the rule you broke. A written piece can end on a general observation; a spoken one is better if it ends on something that happened to you.
The unit task, in three parts
Task card · Part one · Hand in · 4 minutes
Your clean rewrite of Rules of My Workplace goes into your portfolio today.
A final check against four things, then hand it over.
- At least five different modals, including one
had to. - Every job has its article; every day of the week has none.
- Every unwritten rule has a consequence attached.
- Four paragraphs, about 170 words. Write the count at the bottom.
Task card · Part two · Speaking · 3 minutes each
A new partner, who has not read your piece and will not. Your page stays face down on the table.
Three minutes on the rules of your workplace, in the four moves, without looking at anything.
- Topic first, then the rule. The fridge — you never leave that open.
- At least five different modals. Your listener is counting them.
- Finish with the rule you personally got wrong, and what happened.
- If you lose your place, use a floor-holding phrase and keep going. Do not pick the page up.
Listener’s job. One page, three columns: modals heard (the words, not ticks), articles that sounded wrong, and one question you would genuinely ask a new colleague there.
Ask your question at the end. The answer is part of their three minutes.
Task card · Part three · The comparison · 6 minutes
You now have a marked written piece and a tally page from a listener who never saw it.
Find the gap between what you can write and what you can say, and name it in one sentence.
- Count the modals in the writing. Count the modals on the tally. Which is higher?
- Count the article errors in each. Which is higher?
- Write one sentence: When I speak, I lose ___ .
- Say that sentence to your partner. Theirs will probably be different from yours.
Closing the unit
Six errors, one from every part of this unit. Fix each and name which lesson it belongs to.
1. You don’t have to touch the wires. — meant: it is dangerous
2. Last year I must work every weekend.
3. My sister is architect in Porto.
4. I go to the work at seven on the Mondays.
5. She have to sign the delivery sheet.
6. You should to arrive ten minutes early.
One final paragraph, both systems together. One to three words for modals; a, an, the, or - for articles.
Onur is warehouse supervisor. He open the building at six, because the drivers arrive at ten past. Nobody ride the forklift without the certificate — it is legal requirement, not a company one. New staff work the night shift in their first month, though some ask to. And on Saturdays the place is empty, so he come in if he wants the quiet.
What this unit was actually about
Four questions covering the whole unit.
1. A new colleague is about to do something dangerous. Which sentence stops them?
2. You are telling a friend about a rule your employer imposed. Which is natural?
3. Which is correct?
4. Why does English need had to?
The unit in one line. Six modals that look like a list are actually three decisions: who imposed the rule, whether the negative attaches to the action or the obligation, and whether you are giving advice or an order.
And the article system is three choices, not two. The third one is nothing, and it means something.
Next unit. You have described the place you work. Next you describe things that went wrong there, and what you would have done differently.
Keep the sentence you wrote in part three. It will be true for a while, and it is the most useful thing you produced this unit.