Can I get a cup of tea? (at a café)

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Vocabulary - ordering at a café

phrases for ordering at a café

Exercise 4 & 5

Exercise 9

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • work on common café interactions;
  • learn and practise phrases for ordering at a café;
  • listen to an audio and watch a video featuring conversations between a customer and a server.

Students explore café situations with this lesson. They practise phrases for making and taking food orders (e.g. I’d like…, Here you go!, How much… ?, etc.), and ask and answer questions about what’s on the menu and the prices. Students read dialogues, listen to a recording and watch a video where a customer talks to a server. They also role-play a conversation at a café.

A1 / Elementary75 minStandard LessonPremium Plan

PHRASES FOR ORDERING AT A CAFE

As a warm-up, students discuss experiences going to cafés. After that, they receive and read the Cozy Corner Café menu. Students answer questions about what they find there. Next, they look at the menu again and ask and answer questions about prices (e.g. How much is orange juice? – It’s two euros ten.). Afterwards, students listen to a recording in which a customer talks to a server at the Cozy Corner Café. Students choose the things from the menu the customer gets. Following that, they put parts of a conversation in the right order. Students then listen to the recording again and check their answers. Later, they read dialogues and choose the correct phrases for ordering at a café (e.g. Can I get…?, That’ll be…, I’d like…, etc.). They identify the server and customer, read the dialogues, and revise them using the Cozy Corner Café menu.

VIDEO AND ROLE-PLAY

In this part of the lesson, students watch a video where a server talks to a customer. Before students watch it, they read sentences from the video (e.g. That’s fine., I can wait., Do you have a tip jar anywhere?, etc.) and say who they think says them: the customer or the server. There are pictures to show some words (e.g. wait, sugar, price, etc.). Next, students watch the video and choose a sentence that describes the customer. Finally, they role-play a conversation at a café. Students read the information on the cards they receive and use phrases for ordering at a café (e.g. Would you like…?, How much is…?, No, thanks., etc.).

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students complete gaps with words to create phrases for ordering at a café. Then, they add a response to them. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

Comments

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  1. [email protected]

    Nice material, I’d like to know why you chose the word server instead of waiter or waitress? The word server comes from the latin word servus (slave) and waiter comes from old northern French meaning to be watchful.

    1. Ewa

      Hi there! I used the word ‘server’ because the people in the video and in the recording are not really waiters. The person in the video serves coffee and cake at a bakery, and the recording is of a person ordering and paying for food and coffee at the counter. So I’d say they’re both counter servers.

      1. [email protected]

        clear, thanks for the explanation Ewa

  2. Владислав

    thanks a lot for a1 materials! I was wondering why this one is estimated at 75 min? It took me about the same time (or even less) as the 60-minute ones.

    1. Ewa

      Hi! Lesson time varies depending on many factors like the number of students in the group, how quickly they are progressing, how motivated they are on a particular day, etc. That’s why the time labels we use are only estimates.

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