Would you still pass?

The objective

To take a written driving exam and find out if students would still pass today

The language

Modals: You should, you can, you must

Conditionals: If you see a red light, you should stop.

The set-up

I admit that this activity involves a rather time-consuming set-up (unless teaching ESL in England, USA, etc.), but believe me, it´ll be worth it! Find a driving exam for the country where you´re working on the internet. You´ll have to translate it to English, unless you´re lucky enough to find an English-version. Here in Spain, for example, there are many websites which offer hundreds of exams. Each exam has thirty multiple-choice questions, some depend on photographs to depict situations. Avoid using these types of questions. Print out one for each group of three. Make sure you have the answers also.

The low-down

Ask the class who has a driver´s license. Did they pass the exams the first time? Do they think they could pass today? Tell them that they are going to take the written driver´s exam together in English. Any vocabulary they don´t know, they can consult in a dictionary or guess from context.

Now what?

When they´re finished, get groups to read their answers aloud and the rest to listen and decide if they agree or disagree. Act as referee before giving the official answer (with explanation, if possible). Who got the best score?

Time to teach

Having made a list of all difficult vocabulary, write it up on the board and ask learners to choose five words to define. They can look them up in the dictionary if they like. Then organize learners into teams and ask them to "teach" each other their words for about 10 minutes. Finally ask them to turn over their definitions and quiz groups, awarding points for right answers.

More talk-time

Did you take the driving exam? When?

Was it difficult to pass?

Describe your experience taking the exam.