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Fortunately, unfortunately

I came across this useful lesson starter/filler/plenary which you might like. It was tweeted by English language teacher Matthew Stott (@ThisIsMattStott) It's an oral fluency game called Fortunately, Unfortunately. You could use it with intermediate or, perhaps best, with advanced level students.

It's as simple as this: you go round the class inviting sentences to develop a simple narrative beginning each sentence with either fortunately or unfortunately. If you'd rather not go round the class in turn you could use hands-up or no hands-up. You could either give students a free choice or get them to use the words alternately.

The sequence of sentences might go something like this:

Teacher starts: Last week I went on holiday to Spain.

Fortunately, the weather was great for two weeks.
Unfortunately, when we arrived the hotel wasn't finished.
Fortunately our room was very comfortable.
Unfortunately, the food was awful
Fortunately, there was a great restaurant not far from the hotel.
Unfortunately, you had to book in advance to eat there.
Fortunately, we knew someone who worked there and he gave us a table with a great view.
Unfortunately, it was quite expensive.
Fortunately, my father won the lottery three months ago so we can afford to go to expensive restaurants.
Unfortunately, my mum is vegetarian so she didn't like the menu very much.

And so on.

You could do a few rounds of this in quick succession, or even use the activity to reinforce a language or topic area you have been practising (e.g. in the above example holidays and past tenses).

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