The Classroom Airport

One of the biggest struggles of teaching ESL English is that students spend way too much time in the classroom, and no enough time using English in real situations. Of course, we can’t bring out classroom out into the real world each week, so why not try to transform our classrooms into the real world?

This is one of my favorite activities when I have a travel lesson. It gets students up out of their seats, gets their heads out of their books, and gets them speaking English in a much more natural setting. 

Welcome to the Classroom Airport.

I transform the classroom into an airport, and students speak as if they really were at an airport. Here’s how:

Step 1: Teach the vocabulary they’ll need.

Step 2: Divide the class 4 into groups. 

•             Check-in counter employees.

•             Security check employees.

•             Flight attendants.

•             Passengers.

To remove the chaos of having them choose their own groups, and to keep it feeling fair and fun, I use my card method to assign people to groups. I bring a simple set of playing cards to class, and pull out one card for each student. I generally try to keep the number of students in each group fairly balanced, but I always make the passenger group the largest. For example:

• Check-in counter employees = King

•            Security check employees = Queen

•             Flight attendants= Jack

•             Passengers = Numbers

(Pro Tip: I use an equal number of red numbers and black numbers. More on that later.)

Step 3: Give students questions and responses to practice with

            I give students examples questions and responses they’ll need to use at the airport, and a few minutes to prepare for the activity. That way, it runs a little more smoothly, and they can truly have an effective practice time. Since they know what role they’re playing, students can prepare specifically for their own area.

            You could definitely have students write their own as well, but this helps everything stay smooth. When a passenger comes up to the check-in counter, they have a general idea of what is going to be asked of them. So when they hear, “Do you have any checked bags?” They’re not standing there awkwardly, getting embarrassed and holding up the line as they scramble to guess what “checked bags” means.

Step 4: Transform the class into an airport

            I start this while students are practicing. The rows of chairs become aisles on the plane. The front two rows or desks become the check in counter. (Having students stand along one wall also works great.) The classroom door becomes the security scanner.

Step 5: Man positions!

            Tell each student to go to his respective position in the classroom. Since I don’t want all the passengers standing at a line in check-in with nothing for security or flight attendants to do, I tell students that this is a special airport. All passengers who got a red card go through security first, then check-in. All passengers who got a black card go to check-in counters before security. 

 Step 6: Go!

            Finally, it’s time to jump in. I tell each student they can bring their notes if they need to, and they should complete any and all communication in English. If they don’t know how to say something, they can consult their notes or perhaps a classmate in line next to them can help them. I try not to micromanage, but I’m also walking around, monitoring and giving help when needed. If someone gets “lost,” I can also direct them to the next step they should go to.

This activity is a HIT. So many students have told me that they felt super confident about using the vocabulary and phrases—until someone was staring them in the eye asking them if they had power bank in their suitcase. Your students will love actually getting to use the information they’re learning in class, and it will definitely be an unforgettable class.