Secondary School Curricula Revision for the Educational System Pre-Reform Period

FIRST CYCLE
TEACHER’S GUIDE

Septembre 2022

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 FOREWORD

Dear teachers,

We are very pleased to put in your hands the teacher’s guide, hoping you find it helpful and inspiring, and that it can help you
develop effective lesson planning and teaching ideas. The document in question is organized as follows:

➢ Objectives and Competencies per level;

➢ Exemplars / lesson guidelines per level;
➢ Appendixes:
- Suggested themes for teachers to contextualize the target language;
- A lesson plan sheet;
- A sample test to guide the teachers and help them design suitable tests for their students; And
- A suggested list of class project themes.

We hope you look at it very closely, try it out and get back to us with any feedback you might have before we finalize it.
Thank you all for your collaboration and great support!

THE TEAM

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First Year

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 Objectives and Competencies

Cognitive Objectives (Knowledge to Master) Psychomotor and Behavior (Skills and Attitudes to
Master)
Universal Contextualized Universal Contextualized

• Acquire expressions of greeting • List and recognize ways • Appropriately greet • Appropriately greet and take
and leave-taking; and expressions of and take leave and leave; and respond to greetings
greeting and leave- respond to greetings and farewells from a friend, an
taking; and taking leave; old person, a superior…

• Gain a working knowledge on • Learn how to give basic • Talk about oneself • Share basic information about
how to talk about oneself and information about and other people; oneself, a family member, a
others; oneself and others; friend… both in speaking and
writing;

• Learn how to give and respond to • Display an understanding • Appropriately give • Appropriately give and
instructions; of how to give and and respond to respond to classroom and other
respond to instructions; instructions; instructions;

• Develop a knowledge on how to • Show an understanding • Talk about time and • Ask about and tell the time and
tell the time; of how to tell the time; dates of events; dates of familiar events;

• Learn how to identify, describe • Identify, describe and • Identify, describe and locate
• Gain a knowledge on
and locate; locate people and people and things, in a family,
how to identify, describe
and locate people and things in immediate at school or in the community
things; environment; (a picture/a photo, a chart…)

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• Develop an understanding of how • State things one can or • Talk about what one • Talk about what one, a friend,
to talk about ability and inability can’t do; can or can’t do; a family member… can or
can’t do;

• Acquire a knowledge on how to • Acquire knowledge on • Talk about daily • Talk about one’s, a friend’s or
talk about daily activities; how to talk about daily routines; a family member’s typical day;
activities and chores;

• Develop an understanding of how • State things one likes or • Talk about one’s, a friend’s or
• Talk about likes and
to talk about what one likes or dislikes. family member’s… likes or
dislikes.
dislikes. dislikes.

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 UNIT GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

UNIT 1. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Model greeting students (waving your hand), saying, ‘Good morning!’
✓ Draw a diagram and label it with the target language: (morning, afternoon,
evening, day, night, sun, moon, sunrise, sunset…),
✓ Teach/Explain words: sun, moon, day, night, sunrise, sunset…
✓ Guide learners to identify different greetings through the parts of the day: e.g.
Morning-Good morning, Afternoon-Good afternoon, Evening-Good evening;
Greetings and farewells ✓ Introduce ‘Hello!’, ‘Hi!’, ‘Goodbye’, ‘Bye’, ‘Goodnight’.
✓ Provide a dialogue (maybe from the textbook) to contextualize your teaching
objectives/target language.
✓ Have students practice different ways of greetings and leave taking.
✓ Get students to produce dialogues in which they greet a friend, the teacher, a
family member…

UNIT 2. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up (Make sure you do not start the lesson before students are calm
and alert).
✓ Model telling your name and asking students about theirs. E.g., Say: My name is
X. What is your name?
✓ Get students to take turns telling names and asking partners about theirs;
✓ Proceed in a similar way to teach (age, nationality, address, number of family
Talking about oneself members… e.g.
✓ Age: I’m 25. How old are you? / Nationality: I am from Mauritania. Where are
you from? ...);
✓ Provide a text (a dialogue) to contextualize the target language;
✓ Get students to practice talking about/introducing themselves and friends, telling
and asking about their personal information.

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UNIT 3. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ Collect/bring some students objects: a book, a copybook, a pen, a pencil case, a
ruler, … and arrange them on the teacher’s desk
✓ Take the book, show it and ask students: ‘What is this?’ to elicit it from them.
Identifying things Provide the answer ‘It’s a book.’ (if none of the students knows the word in
English) and write it on the blackboard.
✓ Do the same with all other objects.
✓ Have the students practice identifying their objects both orally and in writing.

UNIT 4. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Point to a student and instruct him/her to stand up, and then, sit down.
✓ Elicit as many commands and write them on the blackboard (Stand up, sit down,
open the book, close the book, write, read, draw, listen to the teacher, say ‘Hello!’
to a friend, go to your place, don’t’ cheat, Don’t spit on the wall, Don’t throw
Giving instructions sheets of paper on the floor….
✓ Read and act out each command and get students repeat after you, using gestures,
highlighting positive and negative commands.
✓ Provide activities for students to take turns to practice giving instructions to their
peers through dialogues and / or games, for example “Simon says” / “Teacher
says” - generally, children enjoy playing games, especially in oral activities).

UNIT 5. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Greet students and mime as if you want to know what time it is.
✓ Write a time on the board, e.g. 8:00 am.
✓ Ask students: “What time is it?’ (Provide the answer if students fail to give it: It’s
Talking about time 8: O’clock.)
✓ Make sure students are familiar with cardinal numbers.
✓ Give more examples starting with full hours (6:00, 7:00, 8:00…, and get students
repeat as a class and individually each time.
✓ Draw a watch showing/displaying the hours, half hours, quarter hours, minutes

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 past (+) or to (-), a.m., p.m.
✓ Provide opportunities for students to take turns practice asking and telling the
time.

UNIT 6. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Review with the class questions like: What’s your name? How old are you? Where
are you from? Where do you live? What do you do? How many brothers and
sisters do you have?... and get them take turns practicing asking and telling their
name, age, address, …
✓ Get four students (two boys and two girls, if it’s a mixed class) come in front of
the students; if the class is only boys or girls, let them answer questions about a
family member (father, mother…)
✓ Get one of them stand apart, and get him answer questions about himself and each
Talking about others of his friends. Help him/her eliciting the target language: My/I; His/He; Her/She.
✓ Monitor and help students when needed; and write the question and answer
sentences each time in different columns:
e.g.
What’s your name? What’s his name? What’s her name?
My name’s… His name is….. Her name is….
How old are you? How old is he? How old is she?
I am … He is……. She is……..
Etc; Etc; Etc;
✓ Get students read and copy in their notebooks.

UNIT 7. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Greet students, ask about the date and write it on the blackboard. (Make sure
students are calm and ready before you start the lesson).
Identifying people ✓ Elicit teaching ‘this’ and ‘that’ through getting two students (Ahmed and Fatou) at
the front of the class. Have one stand close to you and the other far away.
✓ Point to the one closer and ask the students ‘Who is this?’ Expect students to give
the name of their friend. Write both the question and the answer on the board. e.g.

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 Who is this? It’s Ahmed. Then, point to the other student to elicit ‘that’. e.g. Who
is that? – That is Fatou.
✓ Proceed in the same way to elicit teaching ‘These’ and ‘Those’. This time, have
four students come to the front, and get two of them stand closer to you and the
two others far away.
✓ Head to the class and ask them, pointing to the close ones, ‘Who are these?’
Students would give their friends’ names; then write both the question and the
answer on the blackboard. e.g. ‘Who are these?’ –These/they are Aicha and
Djeinaba.
✓ Do the same to elicit teaching ‘Those’ pointing to the far away students. e.g. ‘Who
are those?’ – Those are Samba and Ali.
✓ Get students take turns practicing identifying their friends using the target
language.
✓ Get students to read and copy in their notebooks.
✓ Get students draw a picture of their family/or another family and come present it
in front of the class (even stick figures will do).

UNIT 8. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

Locating things:
✓ As a lead-in, review classroom objects with students.
✓ Place some of the classroom objects in different places on the teacher’s desk: put
the book on the desk, the pen under the desk, the ruler next to the pen etc.;
✓ Ask students: Where is the book? Expect some of them to answer in their mother
tongue if none of them knows the English word for ‘On’.
Locating people and things
✓ Continue with the same procedure locating other objects, highlighting the location
words: in, on, next to, in front of, behind, opposite…etc., on the blackboard.
✓ Get students to take turns asking about and locating their objects.
✓ Proceed in a similar way to locate friends according to their seating in the
classroom.

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UNIT 9. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Introduce the following adjectives: big/small by drawing pictures on the
blackboard – simple lines and/or stick drawings will do.
✓ Draw two apples, a big one and a small one to elicit ‘apple’ and the adjectives
‘big’ and ‘small’. Write the adjectives big and small under the corresponding
apple.
✓ Point to the first apple and ask students ‘What’s this? They would answer in their
mother tongue if none of them knows the English word for it. Do the same with
the small one. Then elicit it saying, “This is an apple’’ and get students repeat after
you.
Describing things ✓ Ask students “What does the (first) apple look like? They would answer it is big in
their mother tongue.
✓ Write the adjective ‘big’ under the big apple and the adjective ‘small’ under the
small one.
✓ Proceed in the same way to elicit the adjectives: long / short; fat / thin; strong /
weak; fast / slow/ and color adjectives: red, green, blue, black…, drawing the
following: a fat cow and a thin one; a strong bull and a weak one; a fast car and a
slow one, a black cat, and white one...
✓ Get students take turns coming to the board in pairs to ask and describe the drawn
objects.
✓ Get students describe some of their/ friends’ objects using the target language.

UNIT 10. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Then, draw three stick figures one tall, one medium height (not tall not short) and
one short on the blackboard and write their names next to them (Amadou, Sidi and
Describing people Fatou).
✓ Point to Amadou and ask students: ‘What does Amadou look like?’ Expect
students to answer ‘he is tall’ in their mother tongue if none of them knows the
word ‘tall’ in English. Write ‘tall’ next to him., repeat it three times and get

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 students to repeat after you as a class and individually. Do the same with Sidi and
Fatou: (‘What does Sidi/Fatou look like?) and each time, write the corresponding
adjective (medium height and short) next to the person being described.
✓ Choose a student and ask him/her to come in front of the class and ask students to
tell what he/she looks like, using the target language. Guide and monitor the
activity.
✓ Proceed in a similar way to teach weight (fat, medium weight, thin/slim), age (old,
middle aged, young) and personality/character traits (smart, clever, intelligent,
funny...)
✓ Get students to describe a friend, a family member... in few sentences.
✓

UNIT 11. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Review instructions with students, giving them to do/not do actions (actions: hop,
jump, run, jog, play, dance, sing, watch, ride, fly, drive, speak ...etc.;
✓ Model miming the actions each time, making students repeat and mime actions
after you (‘Simon says’/ ‘The teacher says’ game would encourage students
practice in a funny way.
✓ Introduce can/can’t and model telling students what you can/can’t do: e.g. I can
Discussing ability/inability
swim. I can run. I can play football, I can speak French, but I can’t sing. I can’t
dance, I can’t speak Chinese… and write it on the blackboard.
✓ Get students to take turns telling what they can do/can’t do of the previous actions.
✓ Provide students with more opportunities for practice (e.g. Ask them to tell what
they/their friends/family members can/can’t do.), both orally and in writing.

UNIT 12. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Review time expressions: days, months… with students.
Talking about habitual actions ✓ Introduce time frequency expressions: once, twice, three times, four times, every
day, at 8, on Monday, in May…
✓ Introduce target vocabulary (habitual daily routines, household chores) …: wake

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 up, take a shower, get dressed, go to school, eat dinner, go shopping, go to the
stadium, each time modeling with example sentences e.g.
- I wake up at 6 O’clock in the morning.
- My mom cooks dinner every day.
- I always go shopping.
✓ Get students to practice in a controlled communicative activity to interiorize the
target language (a dialogue will help). e.g.

Dialogue: Sidi is asking his friend, Amadou, about his typical day.

Sidi: Good morning, Amadou.

Amadou: Hi, Sidi.
Sidi: Hey, tell me, what time do you usually wake up?
Amadou: I wake up at 6 O’clock in the morning.
Sidi: What do you do when you wake up?
Amadou: Well, I take a shower and pray. I get dressed, say hello to mom and dad,
and go to school. In the evening, I go shopping.
Sidi: How often do you go shopping?
Amadou: I go shopping twice a week…etc.;
✓ Model reading the dialogue and get students to read and act it out.
✓ Get students to practice talking about their everyday activities, both orally and in
writing.

UNIT 13. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up. (Make sure students are ready before you start lesson).
✓ Tell the class that you are going to play a game. The game will consist in telling a
student to come in front of the class and mime/perform an action; the other
Describing ongoing actions students would tell what their friend is doing.
✓ Once the volunteer in front of the class, have an aside with him, and tell him what
action he is going to mime.
✓ Ask students what is he/she (name) doing? Expect students to answer in mother

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 tongue if none of them knows it in English; write both question and answer on the
board for modeling the target language.
✓ Continue in the same way, but with different students and different actions.
✓ Elicit/teach the target grammar forms – Present continuous: am/are/is + verb + ing
all forms and different persons.
✓ Get students to practice asking and telling what their friends are doing now.
✓ Get students to describe what their family members are doing when they meet
them at home after school, as homework.

UNIT 14. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Greet students and set a context for teaching.
✓ Pre-teach a list of foods and drinks. (This will serve as a scaffolding, as students
will need to know the names of food and drinks in English, to express their likes /
dislikes.)
✓ Draw a food or a drink item at a time, elicit/give and write its name next to it. Get
students shout it out. e.g. banana, apple, orange, cheese, chocolate, pizza, bread,
butter, jam, peanut, milk, juice, rice and fish (Tieboudjene), rice and meat, roast
meat (Mechoui), pasta, chicken, chips/fries, maize, beans, salads, carrots,
tomatoes, ….
✓ Introduce ‘Do you like’, ‘I Iike’ and ‘I don’t like’ and divide the blackboard into
Expressing likes and dislikes two sections: "I like" column on the left and "I don’t like" column on the right
(indicated with a smiley and unhappy emoji face).
✓ Write a food/drink/item word from the list at a time in the column of’ likes’
✓ Say ‘Yummy in my tummy’; rub your tummy and smile-make it obvious that you
like it a lot) e.g. ‘banana’ ‘I like bananas’; and make students repeat and mime as
you did.
✓ Proceed the same way with ‘dislikes’; this time say ‘Yuk’ and grimace. Make it
obvious that you don’t like it. E.g. ‘egg’, ‘Yuk’, ‘I don’t like eggs.’, making
students do the same as in the former activity.
✓ Get students write foods/drinks they like/don’t like in two different columns and
make them report their task in front of the class.
✓ Proceed in a similar way to teach hobbies and preferences: (playing football,

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watching TV, cooking, messaging, boxing, dancing, singing, playing the guitar,
swimming, jogging...; to do that, you can introduce the different expressions of
likes and dislikes to enrich students’ language repertoire: e.g. I like, I love, I
adore, I’m crazy about, I’m mad about…/ I don’t like, dislike, hate, can’t bear,
can’t stand

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Second Year

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 Objectives and Competencies

Cognitive Objectives (Knowledge to Master) Psychomotor and Behavior (Skills and Attitudes to Master)

Universal Contextualized Universal Contextualized

• Acquire expressions • List and recognize • Appropriately greet • Appropriately greet and take
of greeting and ways and expressions and take leave and leave; and respond to greetings
taking leave from of greeting and respond to greetings and farewells from a friend, an
people; taking leave from and leave taking; old person, a superior…
people;

• Acquire knowledge • Display an • Appropriately • Appropriately

on how to understanding of introduce/present introduce/present a friend, a
introduce/present how to others in specific colleague or an acquaintance;
others; introduce/present contexts;
others;

• Learn how to ask for • Show an • Ask for clarification • Appropriately ask for
clarification and understanding of and repetition; repetition and/or clarification;
repetition; how to ask for
clarification and
repetition;

• Learn how to identify • Gain a knowledge on • Identify, describe and • Identify and describe people
and describe; how to identify and locate people and and things in a picture, in a
describe people and things in immediate family, at school or in the
things; environment; community;

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• Learn how to locate; • Gain a knowledge on • Locate people and • Locate people and things in a
how to locate people things in immediate picture, in a family, at school
and things; environment; or in the community;

• Acquire a knowledge • Display an • Express obligation; • Appropriately express

on how to express understanding of personal, personal, social and
obligation; how to express religious obligations;
obligation;

• Learn how to make • Display an • Appropriately compare • Appropriately compare people

comparison; understanding of people and things in (friends, celebrities…),
how to compare given contexts; animals and things;
people and things;

• Show an • Appropriately make an • Appropriately order consumer

• Learn how to make
an order, express understanding of order, express quantity items (food, clothes…),
how to make an and bargain/negotiate express their quantity (some, a
quantity and talk
about prices; order, express prices in given lot…) and bargain/negotiate
quantity and talk contexts; their prices;
about prices;

• • Display an •
Learn how to make Appropriately make • Appropriately make
suggestions and give understanding of suggestions and give suggestions and give advice to
advice; how to make advice; a friend, a family member or
suggestions and give
classmate in given situations;
advice;

• Acquire a knowledge • • Appropriately make and

• Display an Appropriately make
on how to make and respond to requests respond to requests (a service,
understanding of
requests. in given contexts. favor, food, drink…)
how to make
requests.

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 UNIT GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

UNIT 1. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Start with a warm up, greeting the class. e.g. Good morning class!
✓ Review greetings and farewells. To do that draw a circle and state in it the parts of
the day: morning, afternoon and evening.
✓ Point out a part of the day and have the students provide the appropriate greeting.
✓ Introduce farewells e.g. Goodbye, Bye, see you later, see you soon, see you
tomorrow...
✓ Provide a dialogue to contextualize your teaching objectives and get students to
read and act it out.
Greetings and farewells e.g. Ahmed meets Amadou on his way to the market.
Ahmed: Good morning, Amadou. How are you?
Amadou: I’m fine. Thank you.
Ahmed: Where are you going?
Amadou: I’m going to the market.
Ahmed: OK, See you tomorrow at school.
Amadou: Ok. See you then.
✓ Have students write a short dialogue to greet and take leave from a friend, a
neighbor...

UNIT 2. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Suggest a scenario like the following:
Sidi and John are friends. They meet Ali at the shopping center. Ali is Sidi’s
Introducing others cousin. So, Sidi is going to introduce Ali to John.
e.g.
- Sidi: Ali, let me introduce you to John. John, this is Ali, he is my cousin. Ali, this
is John. He is my friend.
- Ali: Nice to meet you, John.

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 - John: Nice to meet you, too, Ali.
- Ali: Are you from America, John?
- John: Yes, I am American.
-Ali: What’s your Job?
-John: I am an engineer. And you, what do you do?
-Ali: I am a student.
- Sidi: Ok. See you Ali. Bye!
- Ali: See you. Goodbye!
✓ Model reading it, and have students to read and act it out.
✓ Elicit/teach the target language: (This is…, let me introduce you to…, have you
met…? etc.)
✓ Have students write a dialogue in which they introduce a family member to a new
friend, as homework.

UNIT 3. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up
✓ Greet a student and ask him/her their name?
✓ Pretend you didn’t hear well, and ask him/her: ‘Sorry, I can’t hear you. Can you
repeatthat, please?
✓ Do the same with other students using different expressions to ask for
repetition/clarification.
✓ Provide a short dialogue to contextualize your teaching objectives (Expressions
Asking for clarification and repetition like: - Sorry, I can’t hear you. /- I beg your pardon. /- Can your repeat that, again?
(interrupting) /- Can you repeat that, please? /- Could you repeat that? /- Can you speak up,
please? /- Excuse me? -What does that mean? /- How to say/do you say that in
English? ...)

Example: Ahmed’s asking a new classmate.

- Ahmed: Excuse me! What’s your name?
- Ndikkiri: My name is Ndikkiri.
- Ahmed: Sorry! Can you repeat that, please?

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 - Ndikkiri: Ndikkiri.
- Ahmed: Pardon?
- Ndikkiri: Ndikkiri.
- Ahmed: How do you spell that, Please?
- Ndikkiri: N. D. I. K. K. I. R. I.
- Ahmed: What does that mean?
- Kdikkiri: It’s a Pulaar name. It means the eldest.

✓ Model reading it and get students to read and act it out.

✓ Teach/elicit the target language.
✓ Get students to take turns role-play asking their friends for repetition and
clarification
✓ Have students to practice asking for repetition and clarification, in meaningful
situations.

UNIT 4. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Bring a picture/photograph/ use students/ a dialogue (in the textbook) as a support
to contextualize your teaching objectives.
E.g. Aicha and Fatou are at Fatou’s friend’s party.
- Aicha: Excuse me, Fatou! Who is that girl in the green veil?
- Fatou: Which one? There are two girls in green veils.
- Aicha: I mean the tall, slim girl with the big eyes and black scarf, standing by
Describing/identifying people and things the door.
- Fatou: Oh, that’s my sister’s friend, Mouna.
✓ Model reading the dialogue and explain/teach the target language: (adj. tall, slim,
black... in + clothing; with + body parts/accessories…etc.;
✓ Get students to read and act out the dialogue.
✓ Get students to practice through meaningful activities (exercises/homework) to
describe/identify people and things in given situations.

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UNIT 5. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Bring a picture/photograph/ use students/ a dialogue (in the textbook) as a support
to contextualize your teaching objectives.
E.g. Amy and Binta are at a friend’s wedding ceremony.
- Amy: Excuse me, Binta! I can’t see your friend, Oummou. Is she here?
- Fatou: Yes, she is. She’s there, sitting next to the bride. She is one of her best
locating people and things friends.
✓ Model reading the dialogue and explain/teach the target language: (next to,
between, beside/by, behind, in front of…; e.g. Oummou is sitting next to the
bride...
✓ Get students to read and act out the dialogue.
✓ Get students to work in pairs and practice asking about and locating people and
objects in the classroom.

UNIT 6. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ As a warm up, greet the students and ask them the following questions: What
must/mustn’t a good student do?
✓ Give students time to do the task and report their feedback (orally).
✓ Introduce a dialogue as a support to contextualize your target language.
e.g: Ahmed is asking Fatou for help.
- Ahmed: Hi, Fatou. How are you?
- Aicha: I am fine. Thank you.
Expressing obligation
- Ahmed: Fatou, can you help me with my homework?
- Fatou: Sure. How can I help you?
- Ahmed: The teacher asked me to tell three things a good student must do and
3 things he mustn’t do. But, I don’t think I have to do it. It’s hard for
me!
- Fatou: You do not only have to do it, but you must. Listen! A good student
must revise his lessons, he must respect his teacher and he must come

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 on time. Now, he mustn’t be late, he mustn’t fight at school and he
mustn’t play in the class.
- Ahmed: Got it! Thank you.
- Fatou: You’re welcome.
✓ Model reading it and get students to read and act it out.
✓ Explain/teach the use of must/mustn’t; have to/ don’t have to...
✓ Have students take turns telling what they must/mustn’t do in the classroom.
✓ Assign a homework asking students to cite 3 things they must do and 3 things they
mustn’t do in the street/at home…

UNIT 7. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Ask 2 volunteer students to come in front of the class. Make sure they are different
in height, weight and features. Tell the class to look at them for 30 seconds. Now,
ask the students to compare them.
✓ Write down on the backboard the students’ answers which will likely be:” Sidi is
tall, Amadou is short” or “Amadou is taller than Sidi” ….
✓ Make corrections.
✓ Teach the use of short adjectives and long adjectives in the three forms of
comparatives: Superiority, inferiority, equality.
Making comparison ✓ Use more examples by extending the comparison to famous people, countries,
cities, climates….
✓ Highlight the irregular adjectives in the comparative of superiority (good/better –
bad/worse– far/farther/further). E.g. Money is good, but health is better.
✓ Contextualize with a text/ a dialogue and have students read and act it out to
model comparing people/things using the comparatives of superiority, inferiority
and equality.
✓ Assign an oral exercise or a written homework where students would compare
friends, celebrities, animals or things.
Evaluation Tools • Fill-in, dialogue/paragraph writing, Multiple Choice Questions, Wh questions,
Yes/No questions…

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UNIT 8. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Introduce the following scenario, or imagine another one.
It’s 7:30 in the morning. Ahmed is at the shop.
- Ahmed: Good morning, sir.
- Shopkeeper: Good morning. Can I help you?
- Ahmed: Yes, please. I’d like some sugar and some eggs.
- Shopkeeper: How much sugar and how many eggs do you want?
- Ahmed: Well I want half a kilo of sugar and 3 eggs.
- Shopkeeper: Here you are.
- Ahmed: How much for all?
Ordering, expressing quantity and - Shopkeeper: 27 New Ouguiya.
bargaining - Ahmed: Here you are. Thank you.
- Shopkeeper: You’re welcome.
✓ Model reading the dialogue and get students to read and act it out.
✓ Elicit/teach target vocabulary (food/drinks…. /
Countable/uncountable…identifiers: some, few, little…/different ways of making
orders (Can I have... / Do you have…/ I would like… / I want…) and quantifiers
(much, many, few, little, a few, a little with count/non count nouns).
✓ Guide the students to practice the language in gap fill in activities, or similar ones
to practice the target language.
✓ Have students to write a dialogue between them and a salesperson/a grocer… to
order fruits...

UNIT 9. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Show the students a picture of a doctor and a patient, and ask them questions
about it such as:
- What can you see in this picture?
Making suggestions and giving advice - What is the doctor doing? …
✓ Relevant vocabulary could be taught. E.g. sick, examining, stethoscope, cough, …
✓ Introduce a dialogue you may have prepared, such as this:

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 Aicha isn’t feeling very well. But she doesn’t want to go to the hospital. She’s
having a conversation with her friend, Amy.

- Amy: Aicha, are you okay?

- Aicha: Not really. I’m not feeling very well.
- Amy: Let’s go see a doctor!
- Aicha: I just don’t want to go. They might say it’s Coronavirus.
- Amy: No, I’m sure it’s not Coronavirus. Why don’t you give up smoking?
- Aicha: I just can’t.
- Amy: I think you should. Also, you should see a doctor right away.
- Aicha: Maybe later. Now, I think I need some sleep.
- Amy: Ok. I’ll come back later to check on you.
- Aicha: Ok. Thank you.
✓ Model reading the dialogue and get students to read and act it out.
✓ Elicit/teach target vocabulary. Get the class to provide more examples.
✓ Guide the students to practice the language: (you give a situation, and students
react to it, giving advice or making suggestions).
E.g. Teacher: I have a headache.
Student: You should take a paracetamol and see a doctor.
Teacher: I am hungry.
Student: How about a sandwich? …
✓ Get the class to continue with the same activity, but in pairs.

UNIT 10. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Warm the class up.
✓ Go to a student and tell him/her “May I borrow your pen?
✓ Go towards another one and ask him/her: “Do you mind if I use your pencil?”
Making requests
✓ Then, introduce a dialogue such as the following to contextualize your teaching
objectives:

24
 Aicha and Sidi are having a task to do in the classroom. Aicha asks Sidi to lend
her some objects:

- Aicha: Excuse me. Can you lend me a pencil, please?

- Sidi: Sure. Here you are.
- Aicha: Thank you.
- Sidi: You’re welcome.
- Aicha: Oh! Sorry, I have another problem. Would you mind if I use your
colors?
- Sidi: No, problem. Do you like anything else?
- Aicha: No, thank you.
✓ Model reading it and Get students to read and act it out.
✓ Elicit/teach different ways to make requests.
✓ Get students to write a few sentences making requests in meaningful situations.

25
Third Year

26
 Objectives and Competencies

Cognitive Objectives (Knowledge to Master) Psychomotor and Behavior (Skills and Attitudes to Master)
Universal Contextualized Universal Contextualized

• Learn how to offer • Gain a knowledge on how • Make and respond to offers • Appropriately make, accept or
and invite, and to offer, invite and and invitations in given decline offers and invitations from a
respond to offers respond to offers and contexts; friend, a neighbor, a family
and invitations; invitations; member…

• Learn how to • Develop an understanding • Appropriately describe • Appropriately describe a friend, a

describe; of how to describe people in immediate neighbor, a family member in a
people; environment; picture, at school, in the community;

• Develop a • Gain an understanding of • Express sequence of actions • Appropriately describe a process

knowledge on how how to express sequence and processes; (making Mauritanian tea, performing
to express sequence of actions; ablutions…)
of actions;

• Learn how to make • Appropriately compare people

• Display an understanding • Appropriately compare
comparison; (friends, celebrities…), animals and
of how to compare people people and things in given
and things; contexts; things;

• Learn how to talk • Develop an understanding • Talk about one’s and others’ • Appropriately talk about one’s, a
about future life of how to talk about future lives and intentions friend’s, a neighbor’s…future life
future life and intentions

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 Content/Resources and Exemplars

UNIT 1. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Write on the blackboard a dialogue (from the textbook,) for example) in which
someone receiving a friend/a relative at home is offering some food, drink etc.
This dialogue will include the following:

- Do you want to drink some milk? - Yes, please.

- Would you like some biscuits? - No, thanks. I’ve just had a snack.
Offering, accepting and declining an - Would you like something to drink/eat? - I’d like to…but…
offer/service - Shall I prepare some tea for you? - Sorry, I don’t drink tea
✓ Model reading it, and get students to read and act it out.
✓ Teach/elicit the target language, and write it on the blackboard.
✓ Then, provide more examples.
✓ Provide meaningful controlled tasks to get students to practice the target language.
✓ Get students to produce dialogues in which they offer, accept or decline offers in
meaningful situations.

UNIT 2. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Provide a dialogue in which someone is inviting a friend, a relative at home, to a
party etc. That dialogue will include something like:
- Can you come to our party tonight? - Of course, I can.
- Would you like to come over for dinner tonight? - Thank you, I’d love to!
Inviting, accepting and declining an ✓ Model reading it, and get students to act it out.
invitation ✓ Teach/ elicit the target language and model it with examples.
✓ Get students to practice through guided activities/tasks.
✓ Have students write an invitation card, a letter of invitation..., or imagine/write a
conversation to invite a friend, other people…

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UNIT 3. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ Show some pictures to the students or have volunteer students come to the front of
the class. Elicit the target language asking them questions. Help them with
answers as follows:
- What does she/Djeinaba look like? - She’s tall/short (Physical description)
- What is he/Sidi like? - He’s very kind and friendly. (Personality/Character
traits)
Describing/identifying people
- Who is that nice girl in the blue veil? - That’s the neighbor’s daughter.
✓ Get students to practice describing/identifying people in controlled activities (e. g.
use a picture of a family).
✓ Have students write a short paragraph describing oneself, a friend, a relative…
(physical and/or personality traits)

UNIT 4. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Bring in materials and tools needed for making tea / or elicit them from the
students.
✓ Elicit/Pre-teach the target language: (Sequencers: First, second, then, next, after
that, then…; Imperative: positive/negative; Simple present tense…; needed
vocabulary (e.g. teapot, sugar, green tea, stove, put, pour, boil….).
✓ Elicit from the students the different steps of making tea.
✓ To prepare Mauritanian tea, first, boil some water. Then, add some green tea. Let
Describing sequence of actions it boil for few minutes. After that, add some sugar and mint. Pour in between
glasses to make foam. Finally, taste and serve the first cup.
✓ Get students to practice describing a process (in controlled activities). E.g. give
them an exercise in which to describe how to make coffee/zrig, etc.
✓ Get students describe to a newly arrived (from the countryside) relative, a family
member... how to make a call….

29
UNIT 5. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ As a warm up, ask questions and help students to provide answers like the
following:
- Where did you spend the weekend?
- I didn’t go anywhere, but my parents went to the countryside.
- Were you sleeping last night at10?
- No, I wasn’t. I was watching T.V.
✓ Write a short text/conversation about last summer vacation, weekend, etc.
Talking about past actions ✓ Model reading, ask some of the students to read and act it out (if it is a
conversation.)
✓ Elicit/Teach the target language (simple past, past continuous, regular, irregular
verbs…)
✓ Get students to practice the target language in controlled activities (e.g. gap filling,
MCQ, etc.)
✓ Get students to talk to a friend, a family member… about their last summer
vacation, an outing/excursion/sightseeing trip...

UNIT 6. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ After a warm up, ask students to tell you what they/their family members were
doing last night at 9.
✓ Get students to work individually, and share with a deskmate.
✓ Get three students to go the board and write what they came up with in the space
provided. Together, the teacher and students identify and highlight the different
activities (to show that some different events happened at the same time.)
Expressing simultaneity ✓ Write a short dialogue to contextualize your teaching objective(s). e.g.
- Teacher: Sidi, what were you doing yesterday night, at 9?
- Sidi: I was revising my lessons.
- Teacher: Fatou what were you and your sister doing?
- Fatou: Fatou I was watching TV while my sister was preparing tea for dad.
- Teacher: Ali, what was your mother doing when you came home back from
school yesterday?

30
 - Ali: When I came back home yesterday, my mother was sleeping in the
livingroom.
✓ Model reading and get students to read and act it out.
✓ Elicit/Teach the target language from the dialogue. (Make sure you highlight the
use of When + simple past; While/As + past continuous).
✓ Get students to practice the target language in controlled activities (e.g. gap filling,
MCQ, etc.)
✓ Get students to talk about what each of their family members were doing when
they returned home yesterday.
✓ After a warm up, ask students to tell you what they/their family members were
doing last night at 9.
✓ Get students to work individually, and share with a deskmate.
✓ Get three students to go the board and write what they came up with in the space
provided. Together, the teacher and students identify and highlight the different
activities (to show that some different events happened at the same time.)
✓ Write a short dialogue to contextualize your teaching objective(s). e.g.
- Teacher: Sidi, what were you doing yesterday night, at 9?
- Sidi: I was revising my lessons.
- Teacher: Fatou what were you and your sister doing?
Expressing simultaneity - Fatou: Fatou I was watching TV while my sister was preparing tea for dad.
- Teacher: Ali, what was your mother doing when you came home back from
school yesterday?
- Ali: When I came back home yesterday, my mother was sleeping in the
livingroom.
✓ Model reading and get students to read and act it out.
✓ Elicit/Teach the target language from the dialogue. (Make sure you highlight the
use of When + simple past; While/As + past continuous).
✓ Get students to practice the target language in controlled activities (e.g. gap filling,
MCQ, etc.)
✓ Get students to talk about what each of their family members were doing when
they returned home yesterday.

31
UNIT 7. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ For a warm up, ask students what they will/won’t do after class.
✓ Get students to work individually then share with a deskmate.
✓ Elicit /teach the target language, model it with examples. (Make sure you model
the uses of the simple future.)
e.g.
It is used to talk about something that will/won’t happen in the future.
Example: From today on, I’ll never let people decide in my place.
Talking about future
It is used to express willingness/decision made at the moment of speaking. e.g.
- Sidi: Mouna, someone is knocking at the door!
- Mouna : OK. I’ll open for him.
✓ Get students to practice the target language in controlled activities (e.g. gap filling,
MCQ, etc.)
✓ Have students talk about what they will/won’t do next time when they receive a
guest at home.

UNIT 8. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ For a warm up, ask students where they will go when they have/get their summer
vacation.
✓ Give students time to answer.
✓ Provide a short dialogue to contextualize your teaching objectives.
e.g.
Sidi, Ali, and Amadou are friends. Today, they are talking about what they will do
if they have a lot of money.
Expressing real conditions
- Sidi: Ali, what will you do, if you get a lot of money?
- Amadou: If I get a lot of money, I’ll buy a nice smart phone.
- Sidi: And you Ali, what will you do?
- Ali: Err,… Let me think… If I have a lot of money, I’ll buy fancy clothes.
- Amadou: And you Sidi, what will you do?
- Sidi: I’ll buy nice clothes nice clothes, too.
✓ Model reading it and have students read and act it out.

32
 ✓ Elicit/Teach the target language (make sure you display the form of conditional
form type 1, explaining that these sentences consist of two parts/clauses: If clause
+ Main clause.
If clause = If + Subject + Simple present
Main clause = Subject + will + verb
✓ (Remind students that there is a comma when we start with the main clause.)
✓ Provide more model examples as:
- If I have enough money, I’ll buy a car.
- You will succeed, if you work hard
✓ Get students to practice the target language in controlled activities (e.g. gap filling,
MCQ, etc.)
✓ Get students to talk about what they will do if they graduate/get their
baccalaureate.

UNIT 9. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ As a warm-up, have students name three cars they know.
✓ Next, ask them what adjectives we usually use to describe cars.
✓ Write the names of the cars and the adjectives that describe them on the board (the
proposed adjectives are likely to be: big, small, large, fast, light, heavy, beautiful,
expensive, comfortable, economical (uses less fuel) ...
✓ Choose three names for three types of cars: Mercedes Benz 190, Toyota Avensis
and V8. Have students compare them based on size, speed, beauty, price, comfort,
spaciousness, etc;
Making comparison ✓ Model for the students: e.g.
Avensis is faster than Mercedes Benz 190, but V8 is the fastest.
✓ Give students time to do the activity first individually then share with a deskmate.
✓ Have the students report what they come up with, write it on the board and correct
it.
✓ Elicit/ teach/ the target language. Make sure you highlight the rules of the
formation of the comparatives (as a review) and the superlatives with short and
long adjectives.

33
 E.g.
- Superlative of short adjectives:
- Superiority: [the + adjective + -est] V8 is the fastest of the three cars.
- Inferiority: [the + least + adjective] Mercedes Benz is the least fast of
the three cars.

- Superlative of long adjectives:

- Superiority: [the + most + long adj] ] V8 is the most comfortable of the
three cars.
- Inferiority: [the + least + adjective] Mercedes Benz is the least
comfortable of the three cars.

✓ Get students to practice the target language in controlled activities (e.g. gap filling,
MCQ, ‘Find someone who…’, etc.).
✓ For production, get students to write five sentences to compare footballers, food,
cities, countries, friends, etc. using the superlative.

34
Fourth Year

35
 Objectives and Competencies

Cognitive Objectives (Knowledge to Master) Psychomotor and Behavior (Skills and Attitudes to Master)
Universal Contextualized Universal Contextualized

• Learn how to express • Show an understanding • Express similarities and • Appropriately compare and contrast
similarities and of how to express differences between similar and different people
differences; similarities and people and things in (friends, family members,
differences between specific contexts; celebrities…) and things (towns,
people and things; cities, countries, foods…);

• Acquire a knowledge on • Display an understanding • Appropriately and clearly • Appropriately locate places (public
how to locate and ask for of how to locate and ask locate places and ask for institution buildings, one’s/a
and give directions; for and give directions; and give directions; neighbor’s house…), and ask for
and give directions;

• Acquire a knowledge on • Gain an understanding of • Appropriately describe • Appropriately describe how one, a
how to describe actions how to describe actions actions and talk about friend, others do things (well,
and talk about past and talk about past habits in given contexts; beautifully…) and talk about their
habits; habits; past habits (childhood, family,
community history…);

• Learn how to describe • Display an understanding • Appropriately describe and • Appropriately describe people and
and compare; of how to describe and compare actions; things and compare actions,
compare actions; behaviors and attitudes;

• Learn how to participate • Gain an understanding on • Appropriately • Appropriately and effectively

36
 in discussion; how to participate in participate/engage in a participate in discussions/debates
discussion and express discussion and express and state/defend own viewpoints
thoughts; own thoughts about familiar topics;
/ideas/opinions about
specific topics;

• Learn how to appreciate • Display an understanding • Express admiration, • Appropriately express admiration
and express sympathy; of how to express gratitude and sympathy (beauty…), gratitude (favor…) and
admiration, gratitude and towards people and things; sympathy (death, sickness…)
sympathy; towards people;

• Learn how to talk about • Develop an • Talk about one’s and • Appropriately talk about one’s, a
future life and understanding of how to others’ future lives plans friend’s, a neighbor’s…future life
plans/projects; talk about future life and and projects; and project;
plans and projects;

• Gain a knowledge on • Show an understanding • Ask and talk about the • Appropriately ask and talk about
how to express the of how to talk and ask reasons for doing actions the reasons for doing actions (why),
purpose of actions and about the purpose of and the purpose of things. and the purpose and use of objects
things. actions and things. (what for).

37
 UNIT GUIDELINES / MINI LESSONS

UNIT 1. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

Compare and contrast objects:
✓ Guide learners to compare and contrast objects, surroundings, environment, food,
clothing…
- to be similar to /different from,
- to look like/ to look alike/ to be alike,
- to be the same as
- to be as + adjective + as,
- like, unlike,
- the same
✓ Learners give oral descriptions comparing classroom and other familiar objects
such as a table, school bag, pen, copybook, … (The teacher will help out
Expressing similarities and differences whenever needed, as learners may ask questions when they get stuck).

compare and contrast people:

✓ Learners compare and contrast friends, family members… (comparing size, color
of eyes, features, height, weight, personality, etc.)
Mixed examples:
- Ahmed’s bag is similar to Samba’s.
- Nouakchott is different from Dakar.
- Mauritania is unlike France.
- Mariem and her twin sister look alike. They have the same color of eyes. They
are both tall, slim and elegant.

UNIT 2. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Draw/show the students a picture of a busy street, covering several blocks.
Asking for and giving directions ✓ Elicit from the students the vocabulary words for what they can see in the picture.
E.g. car, street, buildings, bank…

38
 ✓ Drill two to three questions for five minutes about the picture. e.g.
- Where is the red car?
- It’s in the middle of the street.
- Where is the museum?
- It’s on the left…
✓ Draw two stick figures (or bring two pictures—a foreigner, Edward [tourist] and a
national, Ahmed [student]).
✓ Use simple map-like schemas to visualize directions, places…
✓ Pre-teach any difficult vocabulary in easy and obvious contexts.
✓ Use skeletons like the following to build dialogues.
- Hello, can I help you?
- I want to go to the National Museum.
- Could you tell me how to get there, please?
- Walk down Elwihda Elwataniya Avenue.
- Walk two blocks.
- Take the first turn on the left.

- Can you tell/show me the way to…?

- Do you know where the market is?
- Where is the post office?
- Sure. Go/walk/drive…
- Straight/turn right/ turn left…
- You can’t miss it.

✓ Get students to practice asking for and giving directions in meaningful contexts.

UNIT 3. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Draw/show the students a map of Mauritania and bordering countries… provide
vocabulary items for directions and sub-directions.
Talking about location
✓ Drill two to three questions for five minutes about the picture.
- Where is Mauritania located?

39
 - It’s located in North/West Africa.
- What are its borders?
- The Atlantic Ocean from the West…
✓ Pre-teach any difficult vocabulary in easy and obvious contexts.
✓ Use skeletons like the one in the previous exemplar to build dialogues
✓ Get students to play guessing country/city/neighborhood names after other
students locate them. The teacher explains the game rules and provides a model.
e.g.
- Teacher: My hometown is in Trarza. It is to the south of Tiguint. What is it?
- Student: It is Rosso.
✓ Get students to locate their country, hometown, village,… in a short paragraph.

UNIT 4. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Show pictures of professionals or elicit from the class the names of others they
know. E.g. an electrician, a computer programmer, a teacher, an athlete (runner), a
driver, a football player…
✓ Elicit/give the words for the professions
✓ Drill the vocabulary
✓ Elicit what the people are doing/do and how they are doing/do it. Make sure you
highlight the formation of adverbs of manner (regular, irregular)
- Messi is an excellent football player. He plays amazingly. (adjective + ly)
Describing actions - This electrician is carefully fixing the appliances (adjective + ly).
- Look at athlete number 285, he’s running fast! (adverb not ending in –ly)
✓ Use skeletons like the following to build dialogues
✓ Get students to describe how they do things differently from their friends, family
members…. in few sentences. E.g.
- Unlike my sister who writes really well, I write badly.
- My brother drives too fast. That’s why mom always asks him to drive slowly
and carefully.

40
UNIT 5. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ Show pictures of the same person in two different life stages (when he was a
teenager and presently—a young man) or model talking about your childhood.
✓ Introduce the structure:
Subject + used to + Verb When I was younger, I used to adore sweets.
Subject + didn’t use to + Verb When I was ten, I didn’t use to drink tea.
Did + Subject + use to + Verb? Did you use to ride a bicycle to school?
✓ Draw a chart like the following and exploit it with the class. e.g.
- Teacher: Did Hacen use to smoke when he was ten?
- Student: No. He didn’t use to smoke when he was ten.
Talking about past habits
✓ Provide necessary help (vocabulary, syntax) if students are stuck.

Habit Hacen : aged 10 Hacen : aged 18

Smoke No Yes
Ride donkeys Yes No
Hunt birds Yes No
Drink tea No Yes
✓ Get students to write a short paragraph about their past habits.

UNIT 6. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ As a lead in, review comparing people and things, using a picture. Make sure you
elicit examples from the class, such as:
- Djeinaba is taller than Aicha.
- Samba is as friendly as Dan.
- Mouna is more beautiful than Toutou. However, Toutou is more intelligent.
Making comparison
✓ Elicit/teach the target language (comparing adverbs/verbs) and model with
examples:

-Brahim works less hard and of course earns less.

-Pamela is a better runner than Heather. She works harder and as a result wins

41
 more easily in competitions.
✓ Use a chart to compare two people’s actions. e.g.

Action Najia Djeinaba

Revise better—Get better grades ** ***
Wake up earlier—Enjoy your day better ** ***
Drive more carefully—feel safer *** *

-Djeinaba revises more often than Najia and gets better grades than her.
-Djeinaba is usually active and alert because she wakes up earlier than Najia and
enjoys her school day better.
-Najia drives more carefully than Djeinaba and feels safer than her.

✓ Pre-teach any difficult vocabulary in easy and obvious contexts.

- He spends as much as he earns.

- She works harder than her sister.
- I drive more carefully than you do.

✓ Have students compare the actions/behavior of friends, family members…

UNIT 7. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ As a lead in, draw a blank face on the blackboard and have some volunteer
students draw eyes, nose, mouth, ears ...; and color them (these activities will help
activate students' background knowledge and help to pre-teach some of the
required vocabulary (body parts, colors ..., adjectives: small / large ...).
Describing/identifying people/things ✓ Present a text like the following:
A dangerous thief
There was a robbery today at 1325 El Amana Street. The robber is a short, middle-
aged man. He has a large nose, is wearing green shirt, blue jeans, black shoes and a
hat. A witness said he had a thin moustache and black colored hair. Another man

42
whose car had been stolen the night before said that a video clip in the area showed
him wearing a red coat.
The police warned the residents of the area, saying that this man is aggressive, rude,
and very stubborn, and advised them to stay away from him!
Adapted from: www.theenglishstudent.com

✓ Model reading the text, and have students read.

✓ Explain the key words (: robbery, witness, warn, aggressive, rude, stubborn...);
and get students answer some comprehension questions such as:

- When/Where did the robbery take place?

- What does the robber look like?
- What clothes was he wearing?
- What did the police say he is like?
✓ Elicit the target language: adjectives (used to describe physical appearance and
character traits). Assign a column for each group (physical/character adjectives);
make sure you give their opposites to help enrich the students’ vocabulary
repertoire. Hint at the positive vs. negative personality traits.
✓ Get students to practice in communicative activities; e.g. ask them to draw an
approximate picture based on the text to help the police find the robber.
✓ Get the students to write a short paragraph to describe a friend, a family member.
✓ Extend or in another session describe objects using students’ classroom tools, or
take them from the previous text, e.g. the robber’s clothing, body parts… (Make
sure you pre-teach the required vocabulary: colors, size, shape…etc.)
✓ Get students to practice describing their own objects: bedroom and
furniture/family belongings.

43
UNIT 8. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS
✓ Show a picture of different sports: football, tennis, rugby, golf, polo, etc.
✓ Ask students, “Which sport do you think is better/more popular?”
Most students will say “football”. Others will choose other sports.
✓ Introduce a short dialogue between two people having diverging viewpoints about
general issues: the internet, films, sports, Indian soap operas, etc.
✓ Explain and drill the expressions of agreeing/ disagreeing from the dialogue
✓ Think of situations for creative expression of agreement/ disagreement: two
players (Messi vs. Ronaldo), two clubs (Real Madrid vs. Barcelona), etc.
✓ Use skeletons like the following to build situations, dialogues…
Agreeing/disagreeing
- I agree with you.
- I don’t agree with that.
- I’m sorry, I can’t agree.
- I think so, too.
- I’m sorry, but I don’t agree.

✓ Have students practice stating/defending their opinions on issues/topics of interest.

UNIT 9. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Show the students a picture of two or three luxurious cars, houses…
Wait for their reactions. Most of them will express their admiration but in their
mother tongue.
✓ Give the target structures:
Expressing admiration -What a nice car!
-I like its color. It’s so wonderful!
-That house is so beautiful!
✓ Introduce short text/a dialogue to contextualize the target language.
✓ Explain and drill the expressions of admiration from the dialogues
✓ Think of a situation for creative expression of admiration: a birdwatcher, someone

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 on holiday in the countryside, a lover of nature, someone admiring another’s
clothes, handwriting, achievements, good deeds, etc. Barcelona), etc.
✓ Provide meaningful situations and help students build dialogues…
✓ Have students to express admiration in specific contexts.

UNIT 10. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Introduce short dialogues in which someone offers to help someone else carry
a table or hold a box; the other person expresses gratitude
✓ Give the target structures:
- May I give you a hand?
- Oh, thank you, I can handle it.
- I think it’s heavy.
- Okay, if you insist. That’s very kind of you!
✓ Explain and drill the expressions of gratitude from the dialogue(s)
Expressing gratitude ✓ Think of a real situation for expressing gratitude:
Lending a friend some money, helping an old person cross the street, give
someone a gift, send someone a postcard, etc.
✓ Have students write a short dialogue to ask for a favor and to express gratitude
in return.

UNIT 11. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Show a picture of an accident (do not use any of a serious wound or any disturbing
graphic scene)
Expressing sympathy ✓ Students are likely to show sympathy with the victims. If they don’t, introduce the
theme yourself.

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 - What did you use to do when you were younger?
- Did you use to ride bikes?
- When I was a teenager, I used to swim in the lagoon with my friends.
- I used to be the best swimmer.
- We used to ride donkeys.
- We used to hunt birds, and cook/smoke them in the woods.
- I didn’t use to smoke or drink tea.

✓ Drill the forms:

- That’s too bad!
- Oh, my God! I am really sorry to hear that!
- etc.

✓ Elicit sentences from students about given stimuli. Provide necessary help
(vocabulary, syntax) if students are stuck.
✓ Use skeletons like the following to build dialogues

- I’m sorry to hear about your illness.

- I’m sorry to hear that she’s no longer here.
- That’s too bad!

✓ Get students to practice the target language in meaningful situations.

UNIT 12. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Review time expressions: days, months, etc
✓ Introduce time frequency expressions: once, twice, three times, four times,
every day, at 8, on Monday, in May…
Expressing frequency ✓ Introduce target language (habitual actions, daily routines, schedules,
household chores) …: wake up, take a shower, get dressed, go to school, eat
dinner, go shopping, go to the stadium, each time giving model sentences.
✓ Elicit/ teach frequency expressions (adverbs/ adverbial phrases of frequency),

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 contextualize new language through a conversation, or model them in
sentences. e.g.
- I always drink tea in the morning.
- Mom cooks dinner every day.
- My family go on holiday in June.
✓ Get students to practice in a guided communicative activity. You can have
students fill in a chart ticking the information that is true for them, then ask
and answer, then write the appropriate sentence:

e.g. - How often do you go shopping? - I rarely go shopping.

Activity always usually often sometimes rarely Never
go shopping ✓
Play football
revise lesson
✓ Ask students to talk about their typical day, using the appropriate language, as
a homework.

UNIT 13. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

✓ Introduce plans, project and intentions using pictures containing some people
thinking about future activities (thoughts can be expressed by texts or pictures in
balloons) ...
Talking about plans and intentions
✓ Devise a guided activity supported by pictures (Typically: future projects:
becoming an engineer, doctor...

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 ✓ Use skeletons like the following to build dialogues:

- What are you going to do next week?

- Next week I am going to visit my uncle.
- What time does the train leave?
- It leaves at 12:00.
- A: What are you doing this afternoon?
- B: I’m playing football with my friends.

✓ Get students practice in a guided communicative activity about short-term plans

and intentions.
✓ Personalize the activity by telling the students to speak/write about their own
plans.

UNIT 14. GUIDESLINES / MINI LESSONS

Expressing purpose of things:
✓ As a lead in, bring some kitchen tools (a knife, a spoon, a plate, a whisk, a pot...);
if not available, provide a picture, or draw them on the board.
✓ Ask students to give the names of different items in English (this activity will help
students acquire the vocabulary they need learn the activity).
✓ Give students time to come up with their answers. Help them if they are stuck.
✓ Write the names of the different objects on the board.
✓ Hold an item and ask the students: “What is X used for?”.
Expressing the purpose of actions/things e.g. What is a knife used for?
✓ Expect students to answer in their mother tongue to express the purpose of the
object, if none of them knows the word in English; help with the correct English
word.
✓ Elicit/explain the target language: (What is X used for? / What is X for? /it’s used
for + gerund. / It’s for + gerund /It’s to + infinitive)
✓ Provide model sentences, model reading them and get students to read.
e.g. What is a spoon used for? – It’s used for eating. / it’s used to stir food.
e.g. What’s a hoover (a vacuum cleaner) used for? – It’s used for removing

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 dust from the carpet. / It’s for removing dust from the carpet. /It’s to remove
dust from the carpet.
✓ Guide the students to practice asking and talking about the purpose of
things/objects; (you can prompt them with pictures/or give them clue words).
✓ Get students to write a dialogue between them and a tourist/ foreigner to explain
what some of their local objects are used for. (e.g. Taditt: a recipient that
Mauritanians use to milk animals; Asheilal is an instrument/ a device consisting of
a stick and a rope attached to it with a recipient to drain water from a well and it is
used to water the palm trees, especially in Atar –Mauritania; lahal, a wood
recipient used by Pulaar community to ferment milk to make traditional yoghurt).

Expressing purpose of actions:

✓ Proceed in a similar way to teach Purpose of actions.
✓ To do that, ask the students some questions like: Why do people eat? / Why do
students go to school? / Why do you revise your lessons? Then, teach/elicit the
target language (in order to…/ in order not to….; in order that….; so that;);

e.g. Why do people eat? - They eat in order to survive.

- They eat so that they can survive.
Point out that:
in order to + Infinitive
so that/in order that + subject + verb

✓ Provide model examples and get students to practice in meaningful

communicative situations (e.g. ask students to select 5 items at home and tell what
they are used for in few sentences, as a homework).

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APPENDIXES

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 THEMES FOR TEACHERS TO CONTEXTUALIZE THE TARGET LANGUAGE:

1st Cycle Suggested Themes

1. Personal information

2. Family/home/household (family tree, houserooms and furniture…)

3. School

4. Correspondence (email, letters…)

5. Clothing

6. Colors

7. Time

8. Food

9. Neighborhood

10. Childhood

11. Hobbies/leisure

12. Sports

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 LESSON PLANNING SHEET
Date: _____________________________________ Level: _______________________ Time (in minutes):_________________
Lesson title: _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Universal and contextualized knowledge: ________________________________________________________________________
Universal and contextualized skill(s): ___________________________________________________________________________
Lesson objective(s): __________________________________________________________________________________________
Materials: __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Motivation/lead-in/warm-up (___ minutes)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Information/presentation (______ minutes)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Practice/guided practice/controlled practice (_____ minutes)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Application/production/free practice (____ minutes)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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 SAMPLE TESTS

FIRST YEAR SAMPLE TEST

Part I. Fill in the blanks with the items in the box to complete the dialogue. (2 points)
name, Thank, Hi! , am, like, Nice, purple, too

A- Hello! B- _________!
A- How are you? B- I am fine. _________ you.
A- What is your name? B - My _________is Sidi.
A- How old are you? B- I _________12 years old.
A- What’s your favorite food? B- I _________ rice and fish.
A- What is your favorite color? B- My favorite color is_________.
A- Nice to meet you. B-_________to meet you, _________.

Part II: Rewrite the time in letters. (2 points)

Example: What time is it, please?
7:00: It’s seven O’clock.
8:00 : ____________________.
8:15 : ____________________.
8:30 : ____________________.
8:55 : ____________________.

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Part III. Write texts to talk about the people. (4 points)
Name: Sidi Name: Diana
Age:12 years old Age:13 years old
Address: Ksar, Nouakchott. Address: London
Country: Mauritania Country: England
Family: One sister and one brother Family: One sister
Hobbies: Reading and Football. Hobbies: Watching films
Favorite food: Chicken and chips. Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite color: Green. Favorite color: Pink

Example:
His name is Sidi. Her name is Diana.
____________________. ____________________.

Part IV. Put every object in the room box where it belongs: (2 pts)
sofa, towels, mirror, TV, soap, toothpaste, forks, knives; armchair, bed lamp; wardrobe; toothbrush; water heater, fridge, carpet,
bed.
Living room Bedroom Bathroom kitchen

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Part IV: Fill in with the prepositions: in, on, next to, under to locate the items in the picture. (2 pts)

The fruit bowl is ______ the table.

The cake is ______ the fruit bowl.
The cat is ______ the table.
The chicken is ____ the oven.

Part V: Jack is an American boy. He writes you a letter asking for your friendship. (6 points)
“Hello! My name’s Jack. I’m 12, and I am American. I go to Manhattan Junior Secondary school. I want you to be my pen pal.
Just, I want to ask you to talk to me about yourself, your family members: their names, what they look like; your houserooms and
furniture; your hobbies, likes/dislikes; your typical day; your favorite subject at school, your favorite food, your favorite color,
your favorite sport...

I can’t wait to hear from you. Bye!

Jack.”
Write a response letter to answer what he wants from you.
Good Luck!

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 SECOND YEAR SAMPLE TEST 1

1. Complete the dialogue with the following words:

about, do, later, What, too, are, Hi, Where, goodbye, How, And

Ali: ------------!
Aicha: Hello!
Ali: ---------- are you?
Aicha: Fine, thank you. ---------- ‘s your name?
Ali: My name’s Ali. ----------- you?
Aicha: I’m Aicha. ------------- are you from?
Ali: I’m from Rosso. And you?
Aicha: I am from Kiffa. Where ----------you live?
Ali: I live in Arafat. What- ---------- you?
Aicha: I live in Arafat, -----------.
Ali: OK Aicha, ----------------!
Aicha: See you -------------.

2. Describe a member of your family (your dad or mom, uncle… ) or any other person you know giving his/her name, age,
physical appearance...

3. Your classmate, Ali, has just received a family picture (the one below). He wants to show who is who in his family. Imagine
a dialogue between you and Ali in which he identifies and describes to you each member of his family.

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4. Cite 3 things a Muslim must do and 3 others a Muslim mustn’t do.

5. Fill in the blanks with: much, many, few/a few, little/a little

a/ Aicha is very busy these days. She has ______________ free time.
b/ Do you mind if I ask you ______________ questions?

c/ “Would you like milk in your coffee?” “Yes please. ______________.

d/ ______________ Mauritanians like tennis but very ______________ of them play it.

6. Your friend and you decide to eat at a restaurant. The waiter receives you. Write a short dialogue in which you make your
orders (food, drinks, and desserts).

Good luck!

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 SECOND YEAR SAMPLE TEST 2

1. Look at the picture and complete the questions with the words below. Then write the questions where required. (4 points)
that these this those

1. What’s _________? It’s milk.

2. What’s _________? It’s a cake.
3. What are _________? They’re crisps.
4. What are _________? They’re biscuits.
5. ________________? They’re sandwiches.
6. ________________? It’s cola.
7. ________________? They’re strawberries.
8. ________________? It’s water.

2. Complete the sentences. Use my, your, his, her, our, and their.(5 points)
a. She’s from Spain. Her house is in Malaga.
b. I’m from Italy. __________ pen friend is from Germany.
c. Karen and Andy are students. __________ school is in London.
d. A: Hello. What are __________ names?
B: Hannah and Gordon. __________ address is 32, High Street, Bristol.
e. A: Stefan is in Moscow.
B: What’s __________ phone number?

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3. Look at the map and complete the conversations with the following: past, down, across from, right, in front of. (4 points)

Conversation 1
Tourist: Excuse me, how do I get to the Happy Hotel?
Passer by: Go down the Wood Street Road. Turn ……... Take the Forest Road. Go ..……. the Grand Hotel and the Bank. The Happy
Hotel will appear ……… you, ……... The Railway Station.

4. Fill in the blanks with the missing words or expressions. (4 points)

do you spell it, you repeat that, Could you explain, Excuse me, sir,

a. A: Excuse me. Is this your pen?

B: I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Can _____ _____ _____, please?

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b. A: My name is Timbera.
B: Sorry, how _____ _____ _____ _____?

c. A: _____ _____ _____ this word for me, Ciao?

B: This word is from Italian origin. It means ‘Hello!’

5. Describe a person (3 points)

Mohamed is a new student in your classroom. He doesn’t know any of the students. He describes a classmate (Demba) to you
and asks you to introduce this classmate to him. Write the dialogue, start like this:
Mohamed: Who is that boy with long hair?
You: Oh, that’s Demba. Let’s greet him. (….). Hi, Demba. This is our new classmate Mohamed. Mohamed…………

Good luck!

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 THIRD YEAR SAMPLE TEST

I. John is your new American pen friend. He writes you a letter in which he asks you to tell him about yourself, your
family, your country and your hometown.
Write him an email in which you:
a. talk to him about yourself, your family, your country and your hometown.
b. invite him to visit Mauritania.
c. tell him/her about what you intend to do in the future. (10marks)

Support: Letter format:

Your address.............................................. City…………………., Date.................................

...................................................................
...................................................................
Dear.................................,
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................
Sincerely, Yours.
Your name ...........................

II. Your pen friend John pays you a visit. Write a dialogue in which you welcome him and offer him hospitality. (4marks).

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II) Grammar (8 marks)
Put the verbs between parentheses in the appropriate tense to form grammatically correct and meaningful sentences.
1- They ________ (come) to the wedding, if we ________ (to send) them invitation cards on time. (1mark)
2- While children ________ (to play) football, it ________ (to rain) slightly. (1mark)

3- When the tourists ________ (to arrive), the plane ________ (to take off): they were too late. (1mark)

4- You ________ (to be) satisfied, if you ________ (to work) hard. (1mark)

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 FOURTH YEAR SAMPLE TEST

1. a. Read the text.

MANUELA DA SILVA FROM PORTUGAL

People think it’s always warm and sunny in Portugal, but January and February are often cold, wet, and grey. I don’t like winter. I
usually meet friends in restaurants and bars and we chat. Sometimes we go to a Brazilian café. I love Brazilian music. But then
suddenly it’s summer and at weekends we drive to the beach, sunbathe, and go swimming. I love summer.

a. Are the statements True (T) or False (F)? (3 points)

a. Manuela is from Brazil. _________

b. The weather is always warm and sunny in Portugal. _________
c. Manuela goes to bars with her friends when it’s cold and grey. _________
d. Manuela goes to a Brazilian café in summer. _________
e. Manuela goes swimming in summer. _________
f. Manuela goes to beach on foot because she likes walking. _________

2. Match the questions in the balloons with the answers. Fill in with the right letter a. b. c.d. (4 points)

a b c d

Where is Big Could you, please, tell Is Ora Bank on

Good morning, sir.
Market,please? me where I can find a ElHadj Omar Tal
Is this Carrefour
good restaurant? Street?
Madrid ?

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…..Yes, it is.
…..Just go straight ahead, then turn left. It’s on the corner.
…..No, it isn’t? This is Carrefour Elmouqawamah.
…..Sure. Go in this direction, then turn right. Then you’ll be in the food street.

3. Complete each sentence with a word from the list below: (5 points)
who whose when where which
a. Ali can’t remember the room ________ he left his glasses.
b. b. He showed us the car ________ he wants to buy.
c. 3. That’s the man ________ stole my bag.
d. 4. I still remember the moment ________ I first saw her.
e. 5. We have never met the neighbors. ________ apartment is above ours.

4. Rewrite the sentences placing the adverb in its correct position. (3 points)
a. Mary goes shopping to the mall. (usually)
b. Lalla helps her parents with the housework. (sometimes)
c. We are late to school. (never)
d. My brother goes swimming. (often)
e. My friends are quite punctual. (often)
f. The girls buy new clothes for weddings and naming ceremonies. (always)

5. Rewrite the sentences placing the adverb in its correct position. (5 points)
didn’t use to - did X use to - used to
a. _______ you _______ ride bikes?
b. When I was a teenager, I _______ swim in the lagoon with my friends.
c. I _______ to be the best swimmer.
d. We _______ to smoke. What about Said. _______ he _______ to smoke, too?
e. We _______ hunt birds, and cook/smoke them in the woods.
Good luck!

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 CLASS PROJECT THEMES:

• Community service:

- Awareness raising about diseases and other issues (drugs, smoking…)

- Trash cleaning

- Tree planting

- Volunteering

• Story writing.

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