Describing A Product

Part 1:

I: What to say about a product

5 Great Activities to Help Your ESL Students Describe Products

Picture this scene: a woman walks into a store and carefully looks around.

After a couple of minutes, she realizes that what she needs is either not on display or not available at the store. She needs to ask the clerk but the problem is language. She can’t speak English, and that is when she becomes fully aware that no amount of pointing and hand gestures are going to get her what she needs. She can’t describe what she is looking for and therefore, can’t buy it. This is a very common situation for those who travel abroad and want to do a little shopping, but not only for them. ESL business students also need to develop special skills in order to be able to perform in the world of work. For those who work in product development, or sales and marketing, it is very important to be able to describe their company’s products. As ESL teachers, we need to target these special needs in our lessons. Take a look at these useful activities.

Incorporate These Fresh Ideas into Your Description Lessons

1. What Type of Product It Is

So, let’s consider the product itself. What is it? It might seem like a simple question but, can we expect our students to be able to name all types of products. That is where descriptions come in handy. First the basics, what type of product is it? This is where some new vocabulary comes into play.

Activity 1: First show your students flashcards with images of the following: home/ office device, tool, appliance, machine and instrument. Ask a few questions about what they see in the images. After that, give a card to each student and have them take ask each other questions about products they would like to buy. Encourage them to use the following phrases.

o I’m looking for …..

o I need….

o I’d like to buy …..

2. What the Product Looks Like

Now that they know what it is, they need to know a little about it. This is a basic description, so we need to cover colors, sizes and shapes. The vocabulary regarding color, size and shape you decide to teach, depends on their level and what they already know.

Activity 2: For this activity you can use the same flashcards you used before. Hand them out and have each student describe what is on their flashcard. For this you can practice the following expressions: I have an appliance; it’s white and this big (here they can use

3. What It Is Made Of

Here, you are going to focus on materials the products are made of. Words like metal, plastic, wood, paper and glass should be taught or reviewed. They can describe what some things in the classroom are made of.

Activity 3: Students describe something in the classroom and the other students have to guess what it is. They should provide information like color, size, shape and what it is made of. If your classroom doesn’t have much in it, you can use the flash cards.

4. Product Features and Where They Are

In this part of the lesson, students become familiar with features and where they are located on the product. The features of a product are characteristics that a product has or what it does. For example, some cell phones include features like, camera, voice recognition, GPS, etc. For some products, it is also important to know where these features are located in order to be able to use it.

Activity 4: As a warm up before the activity, practice describing products they are familiar with focusing on their features. After that, show students some ads featuring different products. Give them a minute to read the ad and then ask them to identify at least two product features and if possible, where they are located as well.

5. What the Product Does

Ok, so knowing how to describe product features is great, but the reason we talk about features in the first place is to understand what the product can do. As you can see, one thing leads to another. At this point, students have all the groundwork for product description. All they have to add now is what the product does.

Activity 5: A great activity to do with them at this point is a role play where one student is buying a product and the other is selling it. You can use the same products you discussed in the previous activities or choose a new one. If you decide to use a different product, I recommend you go over the information with them before the role

Source: Pesce, A. 5 Great Activities to Help Your ESL Students Describe Products. Retrieved from

https://busyteacher.org/17817-5-great-activities-product-descriptions.html

II: Language Focus

A: Useful expressions to describe a product

Tell me about (this product)

What can you tell me about (this product)?

Can you give me some information/details about this?

What is special/unique about this?

What are the specifications?

Let me tell you about . . .

This is our (newest) product.

This is one of our latest designs.

It is made of . . .

It can be used for . . .

You can use it to . . .

You can . . . with it

This has/contains . . .

This one features . . .

This comes with . . .

This is equipped with . . .

This particular model . . .

This is priced at . . .

This costs . . .

Source: https://eslgold.com/business/useful_expressions/describing_products/

B: Preposition

Instructions: Underline the appropriate words in these sentences.

A football is made /of / for / in/ leather.
Leather is made /with / from / by/ animal skins.
FLAT cars are made /from / in / by/ Italy.
All our cakes are made /in / into / with/ fresh cream.
David Copperfield was written /from / by / for/ Charles Dickens.
It was decorated with flowers which were made /into / out of / for/ seashells.
This ice cream is made /with / out of / of/ vanilla.
My wedding ring is made /with / of / by/ gold.
Paper is made /into / from / by/ wood from tress.
This soup is made /in / with / after/ chicken and asparagus.
This photograph was taken /by / in / at/ Thailand.
These songs are sung /in / of / by/ Chilean singers.
I collected some wild flowers /of / from / for/ my husband.
I’ve made some cakes /for / at / by/ your birthday party.
The gardener made a building site /for / into / up/ a beautiful garden.
This palace was built /by / with / for/ the President.
Michael Angelo carved the statue /in to / with / out of/ Carrara marble.
This vodka was made /of / by / in/ Ukraine.
Did you hear the new song /of / from / by/ the Atomic Kittens?
The winning goal was scored /from / with / by/ David Beckham.

Source: www.longman.com

C: Telling measurements

A is/are number+unit of measurement+(ADJ).

- The tunnel is 31 miles long.

- Each side is is 70 feet long.

- The diameter of the paper cylinder is 4 centimetres.

A has/have a total length/weight/height of number+unit of measurement.

- The Eiffel Tower has a total weight of 7000 tons.

- The Patronas Tower has a total height of 452 meters.

- The largest stone of Stone Henge has a total weight of 50 tons.

A weigh(s)+number+unit of measurement.

- The small stones of Stone Henge weigh about 10 kilograms.

- The paper rocket weighs 5 grams.

- The base weighs 103 tons.

D: Useful video clips and lessons for self-studying.

III: Practice

Instructions:

1. Study "Description of a clock.

2. Complete the exercise "Describing a magnifying glass" that follows.

Exercise: Describing a magnifying glass

Instructions: Use the information given in the picture and the brackets to describe the magnifying glass.

1. What are the components of the magnifying glass?

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

2. What are the lens, the frame and the handle made of? [lens (glass), frame & handle (metal)]

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

3. What are the dimensions of the lens and the handle? (diameter of lens = 3 inches, length of handle = 4 inches)

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

4. What are the shapes of the frame and the handle? (frame = circle, handle = cylinder)

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

5. What is the magnifying glass used for? (produce bigger image of object)

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

6. How do we use the magnifying glass?

Notes: No information is given for this item. So, use your own words and ideas to describe it.

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................

Part 2

I: Examples of how to describe a product and how it works

Ted Ed

Instructions: Log into the Ted Ed website. Watch each video clip and answer the questions individually on the website.

1. What is the World Wide Web?

- https://ed.ted.com/on/tO2Qxjfi

2. How does your smartphone know your location?

- https://ed.ted.com/on/5FA2HTjz

3. How do solar panels work?

- https://ed.ted.com/on/7wu00azR

4. How blue jeans were invented

- https://ed.ted.com/on/DCuXhE1a

5. How the Band-Aid was invented

- https://ed.ted.com/on/OuBhvq2V

6. How smudge-proof lipstick was invented

- https://ed.ted.com/on/a7LZARPz

7. How the bendy straw was invented

- https://ed.ted.com/on/ViOdMTlk

11 Amazing Products

Instructions:

Watch the video.
Out of the 11 product, which one do you like the most?
Choose one and answer the following questions.

1. What is the product that you would love to buy (out of these 11 products)?
2. What does it do?
3. Describe how it works.
4. Why do you like it (or why would you buy it)?

B: Introducing a New Product

By Kenneth Beare

Updated on March 07, 2019

Link: https://www.thoughtco.com/creating-a-new-product-esl-lesson-4045625

Nowadays, it's common to talk about products and their functionality and marketing. In this lesson, students come up with a product idea, mock-up a design for the product and present a marketing strategy. Each student owns a step of the process in the final presentation to the class. Combine this lesson with a lesson on pitching a product and students can practice the essential elements of finding investors.

Aim: Learning vocabulary related to product development, developing team player skills

Activity: Develop, design and market a new product

Lesson Outline

Bring one of your favorite innovative products into class. Ask questions using the vocabulary terms provided in the product vocabulary reference. Give examples for your questions such as: What functionality does this phone have? - You can surf the internet, send email, and download apps. to help students with understanding.
Once you've reviewed vocabulary as a class, ask students to provide their own examples of innovative products.
Provide the vocabulary reference and ask students to write five sentence describing a product they like.
Have students divide into small groups - three to four students is best.
Ask each group to come up with a new product. They can either invent a new product, or create a variation on a product they know.
Have students answer the worksheet questions about their new product.
With the worksheet answered, students should move on to developing a plan for building, designing and marketing their product. Students who feel more comfortable with drawing can design, and business orientated students can take on marketing.
Help students by checking grammar descriptions, asking probing questions about the functionality, logistics of production and marketing, etc.
Students complete the project by giving a presentation to the class. The inventor should provide a product overview, the designer provide a sketch of the product, and the marketer an advertising strategy.
Vote on the best product as a class.

Vocabulary Reference

Use these words to discuss, develop and design a new product.

functionality (noun) - Functionality describes the purpose of the product. In other words, what does the product do?

innovative (adjective) - Products that are innovative are new in some way.

aesthetic (noun) - The aesthetics of a product refer to the values (artistic as well as functional)

intuitive (adjective) - An intuitive product is self-explanatory. It's easy to know how to use it without having to read a manual.

thorough (adjective) - A thorough product is a product that is excellent in every way and well designed.

branding (noun) - The branding of a product refers to how a product will be marketed to the public.

packaging (noun) - The packaging refers to the container in which the product is sold to the public.

marketing (noun) - Marketing refers to how a product will be presented to the public.

logo (noun) - The symbol used to identify a product or company.

feature (noun) - A feature is a benefit or use of a product.

warranty (noun) - The warranty is a guarantee that the product will work for a certain period of time. If not, the customer will receive a refund or replacement.

component (noun) - A component can be thought of as a part of a product.

accessory (noun) - An accessory is something extra that can be bought in order to add functionality to a product.

materials (noun) - The materials refer to what a product is made of such as metal, wood, plastic, etc.

Computer Related Products

specifications (noun) - The specifications of a product refer to size, construction and materials used.

dimensions (noun) - The size of a product.

weight (noun) - How much something weighs.

width (noun) - How wide something is.

depth (noun) - How deep a product is.

length (noun) - How long something is.

height (noun) - How tall a product is.

display (noun) - The screen used.

type (noun) - The type of technology used in a display.

size (noun) - How big the display is.

resolution (noun) - How many pixels the display shows.

platform (noun) - The type of software / hardware a product uses.

OS (noun) - The operating system such as Android or Windows.

chipset (noun) - The type of computer chip used.

CPU (noun) - Central processing unit - The brain of the product.

GPU (noun) - Graphic processing unit - The brain used to display videos, pictures, etc.

memory (noun) - How many gigabytes the product can store.

camera (noun) - The type of camera used to make videos and take photos.

comms (noun) - The different types of communications protocols used such as Bluetooth or WiFi.

New Product Questions

Answer these questions to help you develop your product.

What functionality does your product provide?

Who will use your product? Why will they use it?

What problems can your product solve?

What advantages does your product present?

Why is your product superior to other products?

What are the dimensions of your product?

How much will your product cost?

Source: Beare, K. (2019). ESL Lesson for Creating a New Product. Retrieved from

https://www.thoughtco.com/creating-a-new-product-esl-lesson-4045625?print