Inglés - Nivel 4

BOOK USED: TOP NOTCH 2B

UNIT 6:  Eating well

Communication Goals:

• Talk about food passions
  
• Make an excuse to decline food
  
• Discuss lifestyle changes you have made
  
• Describe local dishes

Vocabulary:

• Nutrition terminology
  
• Food passions
  
• Excuses for not eating something
  
• Food descriptions

Grammar:

• Use to / Used to
  
• Negative yes / no questions
  
• Offers and suggestions with Why don't…?
  

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

• Use to / Used to: expansion
  
• Be used to vs. get used to
  
• Would + base form
  
• More about negative yes / no questions, Why don't…?

Conversation Strategies:

• Provide an emphatic affirmative response with Definitely
  
• Offer food with Please help yourself
  
• Acknowledge someone's efforts by saving something positive
  
• Soften the rejection of an offer with I'll pass on the ...
  
• Use a negative question to express surprise
  
• Use It's not a problem to downplay inconvenience

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

• Listen for details
  
• Listen to personalize
  

Pronunciation:

• Sound reduction: use to / used to

Reading:

Texts:

• A healthy eating pyramid
  
• Descriptions of types of diets
  
• A magazine article about eating habits
  
• A lifestyles survey
  
• Menu ingredients
  
• A photo story
  

Skills/strategies:

• Understand from context
  
• Summarize
  
• Compare and contrast

Writing:

Task:

• Write persuasive paragraph about the differences in present-day and past diets
  

WRITING BOOSTER

• Connecting ideas: subordinating conjunctions
  

UNIT 7:  About Personality

Communication Goals:

• Get to know someone's like and dislikes 
  
• Cheer someone's up
  
• Discuss personality and its origin
  
• Examine the impact of birth order on personality

Vocabulary:

• Positive and negative adjectives
  
• Terms to discuss psychology and personality

Grammar:

• Gerunds and infinitives as direct objects
  
• Gerunds as objects of prepositions
  

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

• Gerunds and infinitives: other functions
  
• Negative gerunds

Conversation Strategies:

• Clarify an earlier question with Well, for example,…
  
• Buy time to think with Let’s see
  
• Use auxiliary do to emphasize a verb
  
• Thank someone for showing interest
  
• Offer empathy with I now what you mean

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

• Listen for main ideas
  
• Listen for specific information
  
• Synthesize information
  
• Infer information
  

Pronunciation:

• Reduction of to in infinitives

Reading:

Texts:

• A pop psychology website
  
• A textbook excerpt about the nature / nurture controversy
  
• Personality surveys
  
• A photo story
  

Skills/strategies:

• Support reasoning with details
  
• Understand from context
  
• Make personal comparisons

Writing:

Task:

• Write an essay describing someone's personality
  

WRITING BOOSTER

• Parallel structure
  

UNIT 8:  The arts

Communication Goals:

• Recommend a museum
  
• Ask about and describe art objects
  
• Talk about artistic talent and where it comes from
  
• Discuss your favorite artists and the reasons you like them

Vocabulary:

• Kinds of art
  
• Positive adjectives
  
• Materials and objects
  
• Describing how art affects us

Grammar:

• The passive voice
• Form, meaning, and usage
• Statements and questions
  

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

• Transitive and intransitive verbs
  
• The passive voice: form in all tenses

Conversation Strategies:

• Say Be sure not to miss ____ to emphasize the importance of an action
  
• Introduce the first aspect of an opinion with For one thing,…
  
• Express enthusiasm for what someone has said with No kidding!
  
• Invite someone’s opinion with What do you think of ____?

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

• Understand from context
  
• Listen to take notes
  
• Infer point of view
  

Pronunciation:

• Empathic stress

Reading:

Texts:

• Museum descriptions
  
• A book excerpt about the origin of artistic talent
  
• An artistic survey
  
• A photo story
  

Skills/strategies:

• Recognize the main idea
  
• Identify supporting details
  
• Paraphrase

Writing:

Task:

• Write a detailed description of a decorative object
  

WRITING BOOSTER

• Providing supporting details

UNIT 9: Living with computers

Communication Goals:

• Troubleshoot computers problems
  
• Recommend a better deal
  
• Describe how you use computers
  
• Discuss the social impact of the internet

Vocabulary:

• Computers parts
  
• Ways to reassure someone
  
• Computers terms and commands
  
• Internet activities

Grammar:

• The infinitive of purpose
  
• Comparisons with as…as
  
• Meaning and usage
  
• Just, almost, quite, nearly
  

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

• Expressing purpose with in order to and for
  
• As…as to compare adverbs
  
• Comparative / superlatives: review

Conversation Strategies:

• Ask for assistance with could you take a look at ____?
  
• Introduce an explanation with Well,…
  
• Make a suggestion with Why don't you try ___ing?
  
• Express interest informally with Oh, yeah?
  
• Use Everyone says… to introduce a popular opinion
  
• Say Well, I've heard ____ to support a point of view

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

• Infer meaning
  
• Listen for the main idea
  
• Listen for details
  

Pronunciation:

• Stress in as…as phrases

Reading:

Texts:

• A computer troubleshooting website
  
• A computer user survey
  
• Newspaper clippings about the internet
  
• A photo story
  

Skills/strategies:

• Understand from context
  
• Relate to personal experience

Writing:

Task:

• Write an essay evaluating the benefits and problems of the internet
  

WRITING BOOSTER

• Organizing ideas

UNIT 10: Ethics and values

Communication Goals:

• Discuss ethical choices
  
• Return someone else's property
  
• Express personal values
  
• Discuss acts of kindness and honesty

Vocabulary:

• Ways to confirm a response
  
• Ethical choices
  
• Ways to acknowledge thanks
  
• Personal values

Grammar:

• The real and unreal conditional 
  
• Form, usage, common errors
  
• Possessive pronouns / Whose 
  
• Form
  

GRAMMAR BOOSTER

• Present and future factual conditionals: usage and common errors
  
• Order of clauses: punctuation
  
• Possessive nouns: review and expansion
  
• Pronouns: summary

Conversation Strategies:

• Say You think so? To reconfirm someone's opinion
  
• Provide an emphatic affirmative response with Absolutely
  
• Acknowledge thanks with Don’t mention it

Listening/ Pronunciation:

Listening Skills:

• Listen to infer information
  
• Listen for main ideas
  
• Understand vocabulary from context
  
• Listen to apply new vocabulary
  
• Support reasoning with details
  

Pronunciation:

• Assimilation of d + y in would you

Reading:

Texts:

• A personal values self-test
  
• Print and online news stories about kindness and honesty
  
• A photo story
  

Skills/strategies:

• Predict
  
• Infer meaning
  
• Summarize
  
• Interpret information
  
• Relate to personal experience

Writing:

Task:

• Write essay about someone's personal choice
  

WRITING BOOSTER

• Introducing conflicting ideas