New car smell

The objective

To analyze and comparison-shop for cars using information/sales brochures in order to decide on the best model for various types of people

The language

Present simple: The BMW is..., It features...

The set-up

This may be difficult to pull off but you´re going to have to get some car brochures from various dealerships. Nothing beats the real thing--they´re glossy, full of beautiful photographs and even more full of information. However, if you can´t be bothered to stop by a couple of places (which I admit takes time), then the internet is not a bad second place. Look up any of the leading brands and see if you can print out a page or two about each car. Ideally, you´ll provide three choices (which can be passed around and shared).

The low-down

Tell students to imagine that they are shopping for a new car. What kinds of things do they look for? (If someone doesn´t have a car or doesn´t drive, you can ask them to stretch their imagination a bit). Get some feedback on this before handing out the brochures to each group. Tell them that you would like them to analyze the cars based on the following criteria:

• sportiness or ruggedness
• size
• design elegance
• features
• price
• fuel efficiency (if available)
• type of customer

Once they´ve taken notes on each car. Ask them to decide which is the best for:

• a family of four
• a single guy or girl
• a couple with a large dog
• a successful person
• a new driver

Now what?

Ask students to share their results and decide as a class the best car for each. You can ask students to choose one and write a report on the advantages and disadvantages of each car choice for that person/family.

Time to teach

Hands-down, the most difficult thing here is the vocabulary. A lot of vocabulary is going to come up. And it will be especially true if you hand out the English language versions from the internet, though still to an extent with the originals as well. My advice is to focus on the most common language and forget the most specialized. If you have students who really must know everything, tell them to look up the meanings of the more unusual words for homework.

More talk-time

Have you ever bought a new car? What influenced your decision?

Which of these cars would you buy? Why?