Driving | Teaching English | British Council

Theme: Driving and cars. Focus is on attitudes towards cars in city centres.
Lexical area: Driving vocabulary (license, test etc) and street vocab (traffic lights, roundabout etc)
Cross curricular links: Social science, environmental studies.

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
This lesson introduces the topic of driving and ties in with the problem of traffic congestion in city centres. There are opportunities for students to talk about driving and compare the differences between the UK and their country in the process of learning to drive.

A reading text provides information about the congestion charge scheme in place in central London and students have an opportunity to partake in a role play debate considering the option of banning cars from the centre of London.

1. Pictionary
This is a fun way to introduce a new group of words. You will need to assist the students to varying degrees depending on the level of your group. You may want to encourage the use of bilingual dictionaries. If you speak the students’ mother tongue you could speed up the whole process by writing the words in their language in a jumble on the board so they have to just match the translation. Alternatively you could draw the words yourself on cards and ask the students to match the words to your pictures.

You can add a competitive element to the game by dividing the class into two teams and cutting up the words on the table. Draw a line down the middle of the board and invite one member from each team to come up and draw the word on the board. Show them both the same word on the cut up slip. The ‘artists’ must not speak or mime! The team members guess the words and the first team to guess correctly wins a point. Change the ‘artist’ for each new round. If you do this as a competition, demonstrate first by drawing an object on the board and inviting your students to guess the word. Emphasise that they must not speak or write any words.

At the end, ask students what they think the lesson is going to look at. (Answer: driving!)

Task 1 Pictionary
Are you a good artist? Don’t worry if you’re not! Work with a partner or in small groups and see how many of the words in the table you can draw for your partner or team to guess.

Car	Driver	Seat belt
Steering wheel	Traffic lights	Driving license
Roundabout	Car park	Wheels
Driving test	Car crash	Traffic jam
Motorway	Traffic warden	Public transport

2. Think about driving
These questions are to get the group thinking about the lesson topic. If you have a reasonably small group you can ask the questions. Students may well be interested in the differences between driving in the UK and in their country and you could encourage discussion on the differences. The fact that we drive on the left often causes bemusement. Offer your (or your friends and family’s) experiences of learning to drive.

(17 is the legal UK driving age, there is a theory and a practical test and an hours driving tuition now costs around ₤25 – 29)

Task 2 Think about driving
Ask and answer these questions.

Do you drive?
Would you like to drive in the future?
What sort of car would you like to have?
What qualities do you think make a good driver?
How old do you have to be to learn to drive in your country? Do you think it’s the right age?
Do you have to do a theory test and a practical test?
How much does it cost to have driving lessons?

3. Driving survey
This activity is to find out about your students; whether or not they drive, and their attitudes to cars. Depending on the age of your students and whether you are in a big city or a rural area some questions will vary a lot. Therefore encourage yours students to write questions that will work for your group. Brainstorm ideas together and offer examples. Higher level groups should be encouraged to write questions which will be more challenging. When you are confident that your students have five suitable questions each they can begin to do the survey with classmates and mark the responses in the table.

When you have given the students a set time to finish the survey they can give feedback on their results to the whole group.

Task 3 Driving survey
Think of some questions to ask your classmates about driving. Here are a few examples to help you start:

“Do you have a driving license?”
“Would you like to learn how to drive?”
“Did you pass your test first time?”
“Do you think you will be a good driver?”
“Do you think there is too much traffic here in …….?”

Write five questions for the survey and then ask your classmates. You can make notes of extra information to help you remember. At the end you will share the information with the class.

Questions	Positive responses	Negative responses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

4. Too many cars?
This activity will bring out the students’ views on traffic problems, congestion and public transport. You could use the questions as a whole group discussion or put the students into small groups or pairs to discuss the issues.

Task 4 Too many cars?
Discuss these questions;

Do you think there are too many cars where you live?
Is there good public transport in your town or city?
Does everyone have the right to own a car?
Do you think that cars should be banned in the centre of large cities?
When was the last time you were in a traffic jam?

5. London congestion charges
In 2003 the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, introduced Congestion Charges for drivers to bring their cars into the centre (Zone One on an underground map) of London. If you have any pictures of London you could bring them in to introduce the topic.

Students look at the questions first and you can discuss them as a group or in pairs, then they read the text and complete the gaps with the missing numbers. You may find that some of the class have problems saying the numbers correctly, so you may decide to spend some time on this before they read the text and complete the activity.

Answers: (a) 5 (b) 8½ (c) 7 (d) 6.30 (e) 1,250 (f) 15 (g) 130 (h) 60

Task 5 London congestion charges
Did you know that drivers now have to pay to bring their cars into central London? The traffic congestion in the city centre was so bad that the mayor has introduced a new scheme.

Read the text below about the situation in London. There are some numbers missing from the text. When you read the text for the second time, try to put the numbers into the correct places.

1,250	60	130	15
7	5	6.30	8½

After you have put the numbers into the text, think about the following questions:

Do you think it sounds like a good idea?
Do you think the Mayor of London will be more or less popular for introducing the scheme?
Can you think of any other ways to try to reduce the traffic in busy city centres?
Do you think many other cities around the world will follow London’s example?

Last year the Mayor of London decided to try and improve the traffic situation in the city centre. He introduced ‘Congestion Charging’ which means that drivers who want to go into the centre of London have to pay a charge of (a) ₤____ every time they bring their car into the zone or drive through it. The congestion charging zone is (b) ____ square miles and the charge is only applicable between (c) ___ am and (d) ____ pm Monday to Friday.

Drivers who need to enter the congestion charge zone regularly can buy weekly, monthly or annual passes. An annual pass costs (e) ₤____ so if you live outside the zone but work inside it and want to take your car to work, it can be very expensive.

The Mayor wanted to reduce traffic in centre of London by (f) ____ % and raise at least (g) ₤___ million a year which would be used to improve the public transport system in London. Although the scheme has not managed to raise as much as expected it is generally considered to have improved the congestion in the centre.

Environmental groups and many London residents are in favour of the scheme, but there are many people opposed to it too. Some people feel that the alternatives the driving in the city, such as using buses, underground or taxis are not adequate. Many people think that before penalising motorists for using their own transport, the public transport options should be upgraded.

Other cities in the UK and around the world have been watching London carefully to see if the scheme is working. In London about (h) ____% of the population use public transport whilst in other cities the figure is much lower.

The overall feeling seems to be that the scheme is a success. It will be interesting to see which other cities in the UK and in the world follow London’s example and introduce congestion charging schemes.

6. London traffic role play
This is a debate style role play which could be used for high levels and would follow on from task 4. Students will need the background knowledge of the congestion charging in place in central London. Give each student a role card and make sure you give them some time to prepare their character. You may need to offer a lot of support to help them ‘get into’ their roles before the debate begins. If you feel it is necessary, explain a little about Friends of the Earth and ask students if they know of any similar organisations in their country. Be sensitive to shy students but you may find they speak more behind the guise of a fictional character!

You could create different character cards and apply the situation of a car ban to the city you are working in to make it more personal for your students.

Task 6 London traffic role play
Imagine you are one of these people. Take a few minutes to think about your new character and the type of things he / she may say. Then discuss the issues with the other people.

You are the new Mayor of London. You want to improve the traffic situation in the capital and believe that the only way to do this is to introduce a complete ban of cars in the city centre!

You live in the centre of London and have a passion for expensive cars. You love your cars and use them all the time. You hate walking and would never consider using public transport. You hate the idea of banning cars in the city centre and would have to move if the plan goes ahead.

You are a member of the environmental group, Friends of the Earth and believe that cars should be banned world wide! You believe that people who own cars are very selfish and that car fumes and pollution caused by vehicles on the road is the main threat to the world’s environmental health.

You are a train driver on the London Underground. You think that the underground service is the major alternative to private cars but you are not happy with the system and believe it needs major improvements. You do not believe the underground is safe enough to carry more passengers and you want more pay for your work.

7. Lost in the city
Students need a map or town plan and a counter (a coin or paper clip will do). If you have a map of the place you are working in you could photo copy it for your class. Alternatively use the weblinks below to print off maps of their town or city. Put students in to pairs or small groups and give them each a copy of the map. Tell them you are going to give some directions and they are going to follow them. Give a starting point and ask them to place their counters on it. Give the directions according to the level. With very low levels use your hands to point left or right and make sure the new language is written on the board and practised before students have a go at giving the directions. For higher levels you can use much more complex language and give the directions faster. If you did task 1 with the group, try to incorporate some of the voacabulary, such as traffic lights and roundabout, into the text so that students are exposed to it again in a natural way.

When you have finished giving the directions, ask students where they are on the map. Check understanding by monitoring where they have ended up on the map.

Put students in pairs facing each other with their maps on the table and get them to put a barrier (a folder or a book) between the two maps. Number the students in each pair 1 and 2. Give student 1 the instructions . E.g. “Give directions from the Hotel Royale to the cathedral” This way you could add in an element of competition by giving the first pair to achieve the task a point. Then change and give the Bs two points on the map to direct their partners to.

Task 7 Lost in the city
Do you often get lost?
Are you good at following directions?

Use a map of your town and listen to your teacher giving you directions. Then practise giving directions to your partner.

Internet links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/congestion/intro.shtml BBC article explaining the rules and regulations of congestion charging. Some useful links to up to date news on the charge.
www.learners.co.uk Information for learner drivers in the UK
www.rac.co.uk/learntodrive British School of Motoring and the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) with lots of information for learner drivers.
www.maps.ethz.ch/map_catalogue-city_maps.html A map catalogue by city.
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/transport/ Friends of the Earth environmental group. This link is about their transport campaign for 'greener' transport systems in the UK.

By Jo Budden

Attachment	Size
driving.pdf	73.36 KB