Have students view place mats and menus from a Chinese restaurant to learn the names of dishes and utensils. Students could use this information to role-play ordering meals in restaurants. Record simple phone messages and play them for the class. Ask students to determine who called, who they called for, and what time they called.
Students take turns conveying the messages to one another verbally.
Show the class weather charts from a Chinese newspaper and play videos of the day's weather forecast. Ask students to identify and list weather-related words such as sunny and rainy. Form groups of four and ask them to prepare weather reports and weather charts. Each group then presents a TV weather report using its weather chart, providing drawings or symbols as visual aids. Presentations could be recorded on video.