Language Futures
This was the holiday homework set;
Language Futures - Homework challenge
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Find a simple recipe in your language and bring it to the first Language Futures lesson next
term. Print it out if possible.
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Your recipe should be approximately 8-10 lines long.
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Your recipe must include a picture.
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Your recipe must be from a country where you language is spoken.
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The aim of this challenge is to develop your reading skills. How much can you understand
before looking up words you don’t know?
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Once you have had a go at understanding your recipe check any words you don’t know.
Make some vocabulary notes on your recipe i.e. underline key words and translate some
words you may forget.
Cover work
Check that homework has been done. If not, students should do this work during the whole lesson
and I will discuss consequences with them next lesson.
Students should work in language groups with mentors for the majority of the lesson.
Reading (30 mins) – Give each student a worksheet (Reading recipes).

Students should first complete table for their own recipe.

Students should then swap their recipes around the group in order to complete the tables
for each person in their group. Tables should be completed in the target language. (this
should take about 20 minutes).

If Mandarin group finish, students should discuss strategies they used to understand
unfamiliar texts. Students could also look at CULP Chinese. There is a section on food here
with pronunciation of useful food vocabulary.
Whole class (5-10 mins) – allow some students (at least one from each language group) to
informally tell the class in English what their chosen recipe is, some key ingredients and any
interesting cultural insights discovered. They should also share any strategies they used to figure out
vocabulary they were unsure of.
Grammar – present tense (15-20 mins) In preparation for next lesson, students should use
computers to research rules for forming the present tense in their chosen language. Students
should, in particular, use their textbooks for this, but can also use the websites below.
Present tense – useful websites
Spanish group
www.languagesonline.org.uk/
Go to Español and click on “Grammar” in the menu at the top of the page

Read through “Present tense explanation” and make notes. Work through some of the
activities
Italian group
www.languagesonline.org.uk/
(The Italian section has less information that the Spanish but is still very good. Italian students may
need more help from mentor, as the website only gives brief explanations of how to form the
present tense. Students should also use textbooks.)
Go to Italiano and click on “Grammar units”  The present tense
Read through “Regular verbs explanation” and make notes. Work through some of the activities and
ask mentor for help.
Mandarin group
NB: Mandarin Chinese does not have tenses. One of the main difference between English grammar
and Chinese grammar is that Chinese verbs do not conjugate. The English verb “go,” for example,
conjugates as “going, gone, went,” whereas the Chinese qù (go) is always the same no matter
what the time frame is.
Some useful notes on verbs in Mandarin can be found in the following sections of the About
Mandarin website;
Google “About Mandarin ” to find http://mandarin.about.com
Go to;
 Grammar
 Mandarin activity verbs
 Time  Mandarin Time Frames
Mandarin students should, in particular, use their textbooks to find information on verbs.
Reading recipes
Complete the following tables with information about your own recipe and the recipes of
others in your language group. Use your foreign language to complete the tables.
Student name
Name of recipe
Country where recipe is from
Key ingredients (at least five)
Some cooking verbs used (at least three)
Opinion of recipe
Student name
Name of recipe
Country where recipe is from
Key ingredients (at least five)
Some cooking verbs used (at least three)
Opinion of recipe
Student name
Name of recipe
Country where recipe is from
Key ingredients (at least five)
Some cooking verbs used (at least three)
Opinion of recipe
Student name
Name of recipe
Country where recipe is from
Key ingredients (at least five)
Some cooking verbs used (at least three)
Opinion of recipe
Student name
Name of recipe
Country where recipe is from
Key ingredients (at least five)
Some cooking verbs used (at least three)
Opinion of recipe