Work & City Life: Lost in the city

This A1 ESL lesson teaches prepositions of place, city vocabulary and the language for asking and giving directions, all set on the streets of New York City so beginners navigate a real map from the first task.

What students learn

Students build places-in-town vocabulary — museum, pharmacy, cinema, theatre, subway station, bus stop, car park, shopping centre, coffee shop — and the functional phrases for getting around: Excuse me, how can I get to…?, go straight, turn left / right, next to, opposite, on your right.

Grammar focus

The lesson covers prepositions of place — in, on, behind, in front of, next to, between, near, above, below — with clear picture prompts, matching and map-based gap-fills that connect each preposition to a real location.

How the lesson works

A "guess the city" warm-up opens the topic, then the grammar block, a functional-language section with a tourist-and-local dialogue and true/false, speaking practice using a New York map, a final quiz and homework. Homework includes preposition gap-fills, a dialogue to complete and a map task where students write their own directions, with instant feedback throughout.