Richard Frost, British Council, Turkey

Writing can be much more motivating if you give the writer a chance to play a role. In this activity the students will have the chance to write to an imaginary romantic partner.

Preparation
Photocopy the role cards for the students

Role cards >> 58 k

Procedure

• Draw three pictures on the board of three people (two women and one man) Sue, Jane and Paul at a party.
• Read the situation from the role play to your students to explain how they all met.
• Divide the class into four groups and tell them that it is now two weeks after the party and that the people have started to write letters to each other.
• Give out role cards to each group for them to read, or ask each group to leave the classroom one by one and show them a role card. Explain to them that they have to write a letter (they can do this alone, in pairs or in groups). Make sure that the different groups don't talk to each other.
• Give the students time to write the letter but be sure to give them a firm time limit. Remind them that they must finish the letter with the last line provided.
• When they have finished the letters you can either ask them to read the letters aloud or you can re-group them (if they have written letters alone) into groups of four. The important thing is that they must read the letters in the correct order to tell the story.
• When the letters have been read you can take them in to mark or you can follow this up by getting a different partner to respond to the letter so that the students keep exchanging the letters.

Variations

• You can change the role to suit your learners by perhaps having two men and one woman at the party or if you follow the same format, you can set the role-play in a variety of situations (e.g. two people applying for a job).

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