Houses and homes

Language: Type of housing, names of rooms. More/most

Culture focus: Housing in a variety of countries

Activities: Discussing, listening

Time guide: 45 minutes

1.      Draw the illustrations below on the board and ask the class to name as many types of housing as they can. Write up their ideas next to illustrations.

Guide the class to other words on the list below with questions, for example, What kind of places do students live in? How many rooms are there? ( Answer: one.) What do we call this type of accommodation? ( Answer: one.) You may need to explain improvised home ( a place to live using immediately available materials, for example, cardboard boxes, sheets of canvas or tin).

detached house                                  bedsit                          single-owner apartment

shared houses                         improvised home         shared apartment

trailer                                     attached house                       other / dormitory, nursing, home, etc./

Ask the class to think which types of housing are most common in their country and other countries, and which are rented or owned, expensive, cheap, or free.

2.      Tell the class to write as you dictate the following information aboit housing in the UK, Australia, and Canada. When they have completed the sentences read out the statements and ask the class to tell you which are True or False.

UK

82 percent of British people live in houses, 16 percent in apartments, and 2 percent in bedsits and other types of accommodation.

Australia

79 % of Australians live in detached houses, 12 % in apartments, and 9% in semi-detached, row, or terraced houses

Canada

56% of Canadians live in detached houses, 10% live in attached houses, 31% live in apartments, and 3% live in other types.

Statements

a.       More people in Canada live in apartments than in Australia.

b.      Most UK residents live in flats.

c.       More Australians live in attached houses than Canadians.

d.      More UK residents live in houses than Canadians or Australians.

( Answers: a. T, b. F, c. F, d. F )

3.      Write down these countries´ names on the board:

The USA          England          New Zealand

Read out these three descriptions of places to live in and ask the class to guess which country they are in.

A.      This houses has 2,500 square metres of land which beautiful view of the countryside. It has an open plan living area and two bedrooms, a verandah, and a double garage. It was built in 1997. It is in a historical, riverside town. It costs $50,000.

B.      This is a loft apartment. It has a very large living room/dinning room, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The total area of the apartments is 150  metres, and it has seventeen large windows that look over the city. It casts $5.5 millions.

C.     This is a small house in a terrace with an entrance hall, sitting room, dinning room, kitchen, bathroom, and two double bedrooms. It is about 100 years old and has a rear garden. It is about ten minutes´ walk from the centre of town. It costs $240,00.

( Answers: a. New Zealand, b.  The USA, c. England )

4.      Ask the class which country and what type of place they would like to live in most and ehat sort of features it would have.

The class can write out the descriptions of their ideal dwelling.