What can improve your students’ skills for reading comprehension you ask? Improvement of reading skills is vital for improving anyone’s English. Reading skills practice is so important for any language learning and language learning as a whole, because you cannot see the skills as separate items! I think my students should read books all the time and get time to read them. Period. But I also want them to read other types of texts to practice their reading skills. Reading menus makes for a super fun lesson and there are 3 reasons why.
Wanna know how I plan my lessons around these types of texts? Grab my free Rad Reading Lesson Checklist here to find out!
Menus are great for reading practice in English
Going to dinner is lovely, and getting to choose your meal is half the fun of it! Bring menus from local or non-local restaurants to class, or get students to find one they like online and bring that. This also ensures ownership of their learning, which is an added bonus. Get them to read menus and possibly answer some general questions about the texts. Also get them to understand the conventions of menus. What layout do they notice in all menus? What rules for writing menus? Then you can have them practice ordering meals to each other. Student A is the waiter and student B the guest!
Reading to practice English language in menus
Learning the words for ingredients and even meals is valuable knowledge! You could teach them a list of vocabulary words for food items beforehand – there are many lists with pictures available online – or you could have them look up any words they don’t know from menus you bring to class, or that students have brought. They could even learn the words for particular well-known meals or dishes. And of course words that they’ll find on many menus, like ‘starter’, ‘main course’, and ‘desserts’. Doing a worksheet on vocabulary makes it extra interesting for students, because they’ll know what they’re actually talking about.
Get students to come up with their own menus
Once they have read a bunch of menus, ask them questions. What have they learned from example menus they have seen so far? Then ask them to come up with their own menu. First they must decide what kind of restaurant they are: Italian, Chinese, Japanese, American, Dutch, etc. Then they should decide on starters, main courses, and desserts. Pricing is also important. Add to the fun by getting students to design the layout of their menu as well. And finally, get them to play restaurant with each other, of course!
So that’s it! I think using menus is a super fun way to develop your students’ skills for reading comprehension in a fun way that will help your students to see where the English language fits in their daily lives. Give menus a try for your reading skills lessons and see if you like it as much as I do!
Something to combine with lessons about menus are lessons about recipes and cooking verbs. I’ve created a bunch of resources that you may like:
Other ways to improve skills for reading comprehension
Would you like some ideas on using other text types, like Recipes, Newspapers, Brochures or Magazines in your lessons? Check the links to find my blog posts on them as well!
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