Minor Ailments: Explanation

Minor Ailments

• Details

Name of Item	What's Wrong With You?
Activity Type	Vocabulary / Discussion
Student Level	Elementary / Lower Intermediate
Time Allowance	15 - 25 minutes
Preparation Required	Prepare to explain / point at the various body parts (nothing really embarrassing here, don't worry)
Other Items Needed	nothing special
Vocabulary	Finger / Leg / Stomach / Ear / Thumb / Gums / Head / Shoulder / Back / Chest / Eye / Throat / Arm / Tooth / Nerves / Gums / Area of skin / Hand / Digestion / Breath
Grammar	sentence patterns related to the words "sore", "ache", "a pain" and "a bad"

• Instructions

This worksheet aims (fairly simply) to introduce the correct collocations for describing pain or disorder in a variety of body parts.

Following the instructions on the worksheet; present, elicit or get students to look up the words in the first box. Once they are fully conversant with all the words (and can quickly point to their gums or elbow when asked), move on to the "pain" bit. You may want to mime a few and see what kinds of sentences you can elicit from the class.

Then draw attention to the four sentence patterns in the second grid. Instruct the class to work in groups and decide together which sentence patterns apply to all of the body parts they looked at before. When they've had sufficient time, stop them and check their answers. A possible set of answers follows but if you don't agree stick with your own ideas.

I've got (a) sore: Finger / thumb / gums / head / eye / throat / area of skin
I've got a __ache: Stomach / ear / head / back / tooth / hand
I've got a pain in my: Leg / stomach / hand / back / chest
I've got (a) bad : leg / gums / shoulder / breath / breath / digestion

In the second part, students should use these expressions to interview other class members using the question patterns listed at the bottom of the page. Insist strongly that they make further "follow-on" questions to keep the conversation going. To help them with this, you may want to write a list of useful wh-question words on the white-board / black-board where everybody can see.