Value For Money Explanation

Value For Money

• Details

Name of Item	Good Value For Money
Activity Type	Vocabulary / Discussion
Student Level	Intermediate - Upper Intermediate
Time Allowance	15 - 25 minutes
Preparation Required	Finding out the exchange rate for Euros to your local currency (if it isn't euros)
Other Items Needed	nothing special
Vocabulary	Sell-by-date / Reduced / Save / Genuine / Bargain / Special Offer / Free / Imitation
Grammar	Sentence patterns associated with the above words

• Instructions

This is a work-sheet that was especially popular with those of my students who liked shopping, which in Japan was nearly all of them. I have changed the prices from Yen to Euros because I felt that it covered a greater range of countries and is also quite topical for the two hundred or so countries (like Britain) that aren't in "Euro-zone" yet.

In the first part, students match eight shopping-oriented words with approximate meanings. You could pre-teach / elicit these words if you want, but it may be better to let students use dictionaries for only those words that they really don't know.

Once everybody in the class has the same answers for the first part, you can move on to the gap-fill sentences. Here, students use the same words to complete a number of sentences expressing positive or negaitive attitudes to prices of certain items. Probable correct answers are as follows (if you don't agree stick to what you think):

bargain
save
reduced
special offer
sell-by date
genuine
free
imitation

The final discussion part works best if the prices are a little contentious. If you look at them and think that they are not contentious, you might want to change them a bit (use white-out and a pen if necessary). Before students discuss the "bargains" it's a good idea to get them individually to mark their opinions on the sheet alongside each sentence, thus getting them to commit themselves to a certain viewpoint and making it harder to simply acquiesce when the rest of the group thinks something else.