Tractor Failure: Contact Between a Customer and the Dealership. Speaking, Listening, and Grammar (past simple and progressive).

Students learn useful expressions to deal with a customer when diagnosing a mechanical breakdown, practise their speaking and listening skills through a role play, and revise how to talk about the past.

Useful expressions

Students can also practise and learn the expressions by using the following website that contains the dedicated list I created for them:

https://wordeys.com/lists/first-contact-1af537577baf2851

Grammar: Talk about what happened (past simple and progressive)

Roleplay

Writing:

Think of three mechanical issues farmers can have on their tractor.

(This list allowed me to create the flashcards below)

Speaking:

Imagine a dialogue between a farmer and a mechanic.

The farmer explains to the mechanic what is wrong with his tractor.

The mechanic asks questions to understand the problem and explains what he is going to do.

Rubric (evaluation chart)

Cécile Sohier 

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About the Author

Cécile Sohier is an English teacher specialising in Technical English, ESP (English for Specific Purposes), Business English, and EFL/ESL teaching. She creates classroom-ready resources and shares practical ideas for teaching English in secondary schools, vocational education, and professional contexts.

Teaching Technical English focuses on:

• Technical English vocabulary and communication

• ESP lesson plans and teaching strategies

• Business English activities and resources

• EFL/ESL classroom materials for teachers

• Practical English for real-life and workplace situations

All articles are written to support English teachers, language educators, and learners looking for clear, usable, and authentic teaching materials.

© Cécile Sohier – Teaching Technical English

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First Lessons: ABC, Numbers and Past Simple (Speaking, Listening and Writing Activities)

Plenty of ideas on what to teach or revise with students during a first lesson: ranging from numbers, the ABC to past simple.

In this post, you will find activities and worksheets on:

1. Numbers

2. The ABC

3. Past Simple (Speaking Activity Holiday Liars)

1. Numbers

What students ought to know very well when they learn technical English are numbers. Therefore it is useful to revise them at the very beginning ... and also a few times along the way ;)

Numbers worksheet

Numbers powerpoint answers

Once you have been through numbers, you can get students to play a guessing game with numbers to practise saying and listening to numbers. Student A chooses a number and the rest of the group has to guess which number it is. Students A has to tell students if the number that he has in mind is higher or lower by saying 'more' or 'less'.

Example:
B. 500
A. more
C. 1000
A. less
D. 750
A. more
...

Finally, you can introduce them to the American pronunciation of numbers. Students are often taken aback by the American pronunciation of numbers, which leads them to miss crucial information during listening activities. Here is a listening activity for them to practice understanding numbers when they are said by North-American people within a flow of spoken information, namely a presentation.

Students listen and write down 4 numbers that are said by R. Saik during the first minute of his TedxTalk.

Pushing the Boundaries of Agriculture

There is a whole set of activities based on this talk in this article:

 TEDx Talk Listening, Grammar and Pronunciation Skills Lesson: How to Introduce Yourself, Present Perfect Progressive, Since and For  



2. ABC

The objective is to revise the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet and more specifically those that are confusing for students such as A, E, I, G, J, R.

ABC sounds

Then by spelling PARIS, you can check if students really got their heads around the pronunciation of A, I and R. Then they can practise in groups by choosing names of places, people and/or technical references of parts or vehicles



3. Grammar

Here is a speaking activity that will enable your students to practise speaking using the past tense, while also practising their listening skills.

Holiday Liars: Students talk about their summer break, whether they worked or just stayed home. But they must include a lie. The rest of the class has to listen and find the false element in their description.

It is a good idea to revise the pronunciation of -ed beforehand through a simple exercise like this one:

Pronunciation of -ed

You can also find an A3 printable poster of my making for the classroom in this article:

Poster: Pronunciation of Final -ED

Cécile Sohier 

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About the Author

Cécile Sohier is an English teacher specialising in Technical English, ESP (English for Specific Purposes), Business English, and EFL/ESL teaching. She creates classroom-ready resources and shares practical ideas for teaching English in secondary schools, vocational education, and professional contexts.

Teaching Technical English focuses on:

• Technical English vocabulary and communication

• ESP lesson plans and teaching strategies

• Business English activities and resources

• EFL/ESL classroom materials for teachers

• Practical English for real-life and workplace situations

All articles are written to support English teachers, language educators, and learners looking for clear, usable, and authentic teaching materials.

© Cécile Sohier – Teaching Technical English

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Talk about Vehicles and Tractors Using Comparative and Superlative: a Vocabulary and Grammar In Context Lesson

Students learn adjectives to talk about a vehicle, revise how to use the comparative and superlative, and practise their writing and speaking skills.

Talk about a tractor

1. Comparative/Superlative

	Big (adjectifs d’une syllabe et ceux de deux syllabes qui finissent par -e, -y, -ow)	Expensive (adjectif de plus de deux syllabes et ceux de deux syllabes qui ne terminent pas par -e, -y, -ow)
Comparative plus …que moins … que aussi … que	bigger than … less big than … as big as …	more expensive than less expensive than as expensive as
Superlative le plus … le moins …	the biggest the least big	the most expensive the least expensive

Exceptions: good ⇒ better than / the best, bad⇒ worse than / the worst

2. Match each adjective below with either the Little Grey Fergie or the John Deere 9RX series:

reliable / robust / durable efficient state-of-the-art / innovative ≠ obsolete / outdated in good condition ≠ in bad condition heavy ≠ light manoeuvrable / easy to manoeuvre / easy to drive easy to use / easy to repair safe ≠  dangerous useful ≠ useless customized user-friendly

powerful, big ≠ small expensive / costly ≠ cheap / affordable / economical fast ≠ slow beautiful / nice to look at ≠ ugly polluting ≠ environmentally friendly, green large ≠ narrow recent ≠ old comfortable ≠ uncomfortable versatile, intuitive enhanced, improved optimal

Ferguson TE 20 (Little Grey Fergie)

John Deere 9RX Series tractor

3. ‘Easy to use / Easy to repair’. What do these expressions have in common? Can you make new ones?

4. Translate the following sentences

a. Le TE 20 est plus sympa à regarder que le JD 9RX.

b. Le JD 9RX est plus à la pointe de la technologie que le TE 20.

c. Le TE 20 est en pire état que le JD 9RX.

d. Le TE 20 est plus écologique (vert) que le JD 9RX.

e. Le JD 9RX est le moins abordable du marché.

f. Le TE 20 est aussi facile à utiliser que le JD 9RX.   

5. Write sentences using comparative and superlative about the Ferguson TE 20 and the John Deere 9RX

	Ferguson TE 20	John Deere 9RX
Comparative Il est plus …que
Il est moins … que
Il est aussi … que
Superlative Il est le plus …
Il est le moins …

Downloadable versions of the worksheets:

More grammar in context lessons:


Talk About the News Using Past Simple: A Grammar in Context Lesson

TEDx Talk Listening, Grammar and Pronunciation Skills Lesson: How to Introduce Yourself, Present Perfect Progressive, Since and For 

Cécile Sohier 

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About the Author

Cécile Sohier is an English teacher specialising in Technical English, ESP (English for Specific Purposes), Business English, and EFL/ESL teaching. She creates classroom-ready resources and shares practical ideas for teaching English in secondary schools, vocational education, and professional contexts.

Teaching Technical English focuses on:

• Technical English vocabulary and communication

• ESP lesson plans and teaching strategies

• Business English activities and resources

• EFL/ESL classroom materials for teachers

• Practical English for real-life and workplace situations

All articles are written to support English teachers, language educators, and learners looking for clear, usable, and authentic teaching materials.

© Cécile Sohier – Teaching Technical English

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Talk About the News Using Past Simple: A Grammar in Context Lesson

Students revise/learn how to form and use past simple, and put this grammar point into practice by writing about the news. 

This lesson is a continuation of 2017 News and Words of the News: Speaking, Listening and Writing Activities.

You will find a downloadable jpeg document at the end of this post.

TALK ABOUT THE NEWS

using past simple

1. Complete the following chart:

She announced	They didn’t go	Did he decide?
Le passé simple ou prétérit se forme de cette façon: Affirmatif: …………………………+..........................+........................(sauf pour…………………………....) Négatif:  …………………………+..........................+............................+....................... Interrogatif: …………………………+..........................+............................
Il s’utilise pour: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. Translate the following expressions of time:

Il y a trois jours Il y a une semaine Il y a 20 ans Hier / avant-hier

En juin dernier Mardi dernier / Jeudi dernier L’année dernière La semaine dernière

En 2009 / en mars Le 20 janvier 2017 pendant les élections Mercredi à 8.00 du matin

3. Practice exercise. Translate the following sentences:

1. Le président a fait un discours.

2. L’ouragan n’a pas frappé le nord des Etats-Unis.

3. Volkswagen a menti sur les émissions de gaz de ses voitures diesel.

4. Brad Pitt n’est pas mort en 2016.

5. Trump s’est retiré des accords de Paris sur le changement climatique.

6. Il y a eu plusieurs attentats.

7. Les attentats ont tué beaucoup de gens.

4. Transform the sentences from exercise 3 into questions.

See also more grammar lessons:

TEDx Talk Listening, Grammar and Pronunciation Skills Lesson: How to Introduce Yourself, Present Perfect Progressive, Since and For

Cécile Sohier 

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About the Author

Cécile Sohier is an English teacher specialising in Technical English, ESP (English for Specific Purposes), Business English, and EFL/ESL teaching. She creates classroom-ready resources and shares practical ideas for teaching English in secondary schools, vocational education, and professional contexts.

Teaching Technical English focuses on:

• Technical English vocabulary and communication

• ESP lesson plans and teaching strategies

• Business English activities and resources

• EFL/ESL classroom materials for teachers

• Practical English for real-life and workplace situations

All articles are written to support English teachers, language educators, and learners looking for clear, usable, and authentic teaching materials.

© Cécile Sohier – Teaching Technical English

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