Tell me your experience

(Recount)

Activity 1
Listen to the teacher reading the following text.
While listening to your teacher, you may fill in the blanks with the words in the
box.

Pic. 2.5 (Dit. PSMP, 2006)

It was my grandpa’s birthday last Sunday. On Friday, my sister and I went

shopping at the …..(1)…... We bought a nice …..(2)… Then,
we wrapped it in a blue paper. Blue is my grandpa’s favourite colour. On Saturday
morning, my brother and I helped my sister making a birthday cake in the …..(3)…... It was a
big and beautiful …..(4)…... I wrote ‘Happy Birthday’ on it. After that, we put some chocolate
and a ….. (5)… on the top of the cake.
On Sunday evening, my uncle and my aunt came to my …..(6)… They brought
several bottles of soft-drink, and …..(7)… for grandpa. Then, we sat together in the
…..(8)…... Finally, grandpa blew the candle and cut the cake while we were singing a
‘Happy Birthday’ song for him. After giving each of us a piece of cake, he opened the present.
He told us that he liked the present, and he was very …..(9)…...

mall shirt house kitchen

birthday cake candle flowers living room happy

Unit 2 - Tell me your experience 1

 Activity 2 After the teacher reads the text, you may read the text loudly with a correct
pronunciation. After that, find the meaning of the difficult words by consulting a
dictionary. You should open your dictionary to find out the correct pronunciation and
the meaning of certain words.

Complete the following recount text with the correct forms of the verbs in the box. Then,
answer the questions that follow.

buy eat get go make see sit take

Shirley’s Day Off

Shirley enjoyed her day off yesterday. She …..(1)….. up late, …..(2)….. jogging in the park,
…..(3)….. a long shower, and …..(4)….. a big breakfast. In the afternoon, she
…..(5)….. a movie with her sister. Then, she …..(6)….. groceries at the supermarket, and she
…..(7)….. a big dinner for her parents. After dinner, Shirley and her parents
…..(8)….. in the living room and talked. Shirley had a very nice day off yesterday.

Questions:
1. In the beginning of the text, what kinds of information do you get?
a. Who enjoyed the day off?
b. When did Shirley have her day off?
c. Where did she spend her day off?
2. What did Shirley do in the morning?
3. What did Shirley do in the afternoon?
4. What did Shirley do in the evening?
5. What kind of day off did Shirley have yesterday?

Pic. 2.6 (Dit. PSMP, 2006)

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Activity 3
In the following exercise, you will learn Andi’s first experience travelling by plane. Change
the verbs in brackets into the correct form. Then, answer the questions that follow.

Andi (1. be) on a plane. It (2. be) the first time for him. A stewardess always (3.
help) him. And she also (4. give) him food, drink, snack and candies. He (5. think),
“How kind she is!”. Then he (6. hear)
an announcement, “Good morning
ladies and gentlemen. This flight is
led by Captain Ferda. It will fly at an
altitude of 28.000 feet. Well, ladies
and gentlemen have a pleasant
flight.” Andi (7. be) so excited that
he (8. shut) his eyes to (9. look)
outside at the clouds. “Wow, I am
flying now.” He (10. think), “What
an exciting experience!”

Pic. 2.7 (http://www.weidemyr.com)

Questions:
1. What did Andi think about the stewardess?
2. Who flew the flight?
3. How high did the plane fly?
4. How did Andi feel?

Activity 4

Listen to the following song and put the correct words in the blank spaces. What
message does the song give us? Discuss with your friends.
Yesterday
(The Beatles)

Yesterday, all my troubles …..(1)….. so far away

Now, it …..(2)….. as though they’re here to stay
Oh I believe in yesterday.
Suddenly, I’m not half the man I …..(3)…..to be
There’s a shadow hanging over me
Oh yesterday, …..(4)….. suddenly
Pic. 2.8 (www.captainsdead.com)

Why she …..(5)….. to go I don’t know She wouldn’t say I …..(6)….., something wrong, now I
…..(7)….. for yesterday
Yesterday, love …..(8)….. such an easy game to play Now I …..(9)….. a place to hide away
Oh, I …..(10)….. in yesterday Mm Mm Mm Yesterday

Unit 2 - Tell me your experience 3

 Production
Activity 1

Your teacher will tell you another story. Listen to the story carefully. Fill in the blanks
with the suitable verbs in the box.

I am used to travelling by air and only on one occasion have I

ever felt frightened. After taking off, we … (1)…. low over the
city. It slowly …(2)... high to the sky. But, suddenly it …(3)….
round and …(4)... back to the airport. An air-hostess …(5)…. us to
keep calm and to get off the plane quietly as soon as it …(6)...
down. Everybody on board …(7)... worried and we …(8)…. curious
to find out what …(9).. Later we …(10)…. that there …(11)… a very
important person on board. Earlier, somebody …(12)…. the
police that there …(13)…. a bomb on the plane. After we
…(14)…., the police …(15)…. the plane carefully. Fortunately
they …(16)…. Not …(17)…. a bomb and five hours later we
…(18)…. able to take off again
Pic. 2.9

happened did-find went turned flew

flew told learnt told were
touched landed was searched was
were was

Activity 2

Complete the dialogue below based on the recount text above.

A: How do you
usually travel?
B: .
A: Did you have any interesting experience while
traveling?
B: Yes, .
A: Could you tell me what
happened?
B: .
A: It is really an interesting experience.

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Activity 3
Tell your experience when you were in one of the following situations or places. For
example:
A Party
Tell about a party you enjoyed.
What did you eat?
What did you drink?
What did people do at the party?
“I was at my friend’s birthday party last weekend. We
ate a lot of food and drank many kinds of drink. We
danced and talked about funny things”.

Look at the following pictures and construct a recount text. Use

the questions as guidelines to construct your text.
• When did you go to the theatre, hospital, or library?
• What happened in those places?

Theatre

Pic.2.10 (Dit. PSMP, 2006)

Hospital

Pic.2.11 (Dit. PSMP, 2006)

Library

Pic.2.12 (Dit. PSMP, 2006)

Unit 2 - Tell me your experience 5

 Section Two:
Writen Recount

Presentation
Activity 1

Read Maya’s biography. Then, answer the questions that follow.

Maya Gazali
Maya Gazali was born in Palu. She grew up in a small village. She began school when she
was six years old. She went to elementary school, but she didn’t go to high school. Her family
was very poor, and she had to go to work when she was thirteen years old. She worked on
an assembly line in a shoe factory.
When Maya was seventeen years old, her family moved to West Java. First, they lived in
Bogor, and then they moved to Bandung. When Maya arrived in Java, she wasn’t very happy.
She missed her friends back in Palu and she didn’t speak like other children. She began to
learn to speak like other children, and she practiced with her new friends at the factory in
Bandung.
Maya also studied hard. She learned English, and after a few months she got a job as a
secretary. Now Maya still studies at night, but now she studies advertising at a business
school. She wants to work for an advertising company some day and write commercials.
Maya still misses her friends back home, but she communicates with them very often
over the Internet. She’s very happy now, and she’s looking forward to an exciting future.

Questions:
1. What is the text mainly about?
2. How was her childhood?
3. How old was she when her family moved to Java?
4. What does she do?
5. What is she studying now? Why?
6. What does she do to avoid missing her friends back home?
7. How does the writer start the text?
8. How does the text end?

Activity 2

Put the following sentences in the correct order based on the biography above.

….. Maya’s family moved to Java.

….. Maya studies advertising now.
….. Maya grew up in a small village.
….. Maya’s family moved to Bogor.
….. Maya worked in a shoe factory.
….. Maya began to study English at night.

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 ….. Maya went to elementary school.
….. Maya’s family lived in Bandung.
….. Maya got a job as a secretary

Activity 3

Past Continuous Tense

BE + VERB + ing
(past)

I
He was working
She
It We
You
were working.
They

By referring to the pattern above, read the following dialogues.

Roni : What was Doris doing last night when the lights went out? Ben
: She was taking a bath.

Amy : What were Mr. and Mrs. Green doing last night when the lights went out?
Sony : They were preparing for dinner.

Now, look at the pictures and make similar dialogues about these people.

Pic. 2.13 (Dit. PSMP, 2006)

Unit 2 - Tell me your experience 7

 Activity 4

Recount is a text which has social function to retell events for the purpose of
informing or entertaining. Read the following text carefully.
Last summer, the writer of a famous novel went to Italy. He visited museums. He sat
in a public garden, and a friendly waiter taught him a few Italian words. He thought about
postcards yesterday. His holiday passed quickly. On the last day, he got up early and bought 37
cards. He was in his room all day, but he did not write a single card. (Modified from Alexander,
1990)
When you tell about what happened in the past, it means that you make a recount text.
A recount text has the following text structure:

Orientation : provides the setting and introduces participants The

writer went to Italy.

Events : tell what happened, in what sequence He

visited museums.
He sat in a public garden.
He thought about postcards yesterday.
His holiday passed quickly.
He got up early and bought 37 cards.

Re-orientation : optional-closure of events

He was in his room all day, but he did not write a single card.

Language features of a Recount

Underline the participants in the following text.
Circle all the verbs written in past tense in the text.
Number 1 has been done for you.

Please send me a card

No Transitional devices Events
1 Last summer The writer went to Italy

2 He visited museums.

3 He sat in a public garden,

a friendly waiter taught him a few Italian

4 And
words.

5 Everyday he thought about postcards.

His holidays passed quickly but he did not
6
send any cards to his friends.

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 7 On the last day he got up early and bought 37 cards.
He was in his room all day, but he did not
8
write a single card.

Practice
Activity 1
Chained story
With your classmates, make a biography of famous people that you know. One of you may
start the biography by telling the name and the profession. It should be someone famous,
so that your friends can continue the biography.

For example:
A : Britney Spears is a very famous singer. B
: She was born in America.
C : She made several albums some years ago. D
: She began her career in her early twenties.
E : Her popular song was Baby One More Time. F
: She got married already.
G : and so on

Activity 2

Vocabulary building
Look at the following picture. Where do you think they are? What are they doing?

Pic. 2.14 (Dit. PSMP, 2006)

Fill in in the word map with the activities which people usually do in their vacation.

Unit 2 - Tell me your experience 9

 When you are traveling, you may have problems.
The following expressions describe the people’s feeling.
We often use colourful expression to describe how we feel. Try to match the
following expressions with the feelings they describe.

….. 1. “My stomach is growling.” A. angry

….. 2. “I can’t keep my eyes open.” B. embarrassed
….. 3. “I’m jumping for joy.” C. tired
….. 4. “I’m seeing red.” D. nervous
….. 5. “I’m feeling blue.” E. scared
….. 6. “I’m on pins and needles.” F. hungry
….. 7. “I’m shaking like a leaf.” G. sad
….. 8. “I’m ashamed to look at them straight H. happy
in the eye.”

Activity 3

Read this text and then discuss with your friends the questions that follow.

One day Sandra Dewi fell sick in the middle of the English lesson. All the students did
reading tasks. Suddenly Sandra Dewi vomited. All other students stopped writing. Mrs. Lidia
helped her immediately. The chairman of the class sent for the school’s doctor.
In five minutes the doctor came. He examined her carefully. He examined her eyes.
He felt her stomach. He listened to her heart beat. He measured her blood pressure.

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 Then he took her temperature. “I’m
afraid she suffers from
malaria. Her temperature is very
high. That is why she vomited. She
has a very bad cough, too. I’ll give
her some pills for her malaria, some
tablets for her fever, and syrup for
her cough. She needs a week’s
rest”, said the doctor.
Pic. 2.15(Dit. PSMP, 2006)

Questions:
1. What is the text telling you about?
2. What did the students do? What happened?
3. What was the name of the teacher?
4. What did the doctor do?
5. What was Sandra Dewi suffering from?
6. What did the doctor recommend?
7. Identify the text structure by listing the happenings according to these
categories of: orientation, events, and re-orientation.

Activity 4

Reflecting on information organization Read

the letter below.
Read the letter below.

Orientation Dear Grandpa and Grandma,

(who/where/ when) Yesterday at my school we had an International day.
We had performances, food stalls, displays, raffle
ticket draw, and some of us were dressed in costumes.

Event 1 We started our day off with performances but the one
I liked best was the one from fourth grade. We played
games. The performance I was in was Labamba.

Event 2 Straight after our performances we had our lunch.

There were food stalls. They came from Australia, Asia,
Arab, and Greece

Unit 2 - Tell me your experience 11

 Event 3 Everyone had a job. These people were from sixth
grade. I did my job after I had lunch. My job was to sell
International Day Books.

Event 4 We had displays in the hall. These displays were good

but I didn’t get to see them. The displays came from a
lot of countries.

Event 5 There was also a Trash and Treasure stall where they
sold toys. The school got these things by asking the
children to bring them in.

Re-orientation Although I didn’t win anything, International Day was

(the writer’s still fun
feeling) Love from Sue

Answer these questions

1. Why did Sue write the letter?
2. To whom did she write the letter?
3. What did she tell in the letter?
4. Mention the words that Sue uses to tell the order of events.
5. Are the verbs in the present or in the past tense?
6. Write all the action verbs (e.g., started, played etc,) you find in the
letter.
Production

Activity 1

Identifying text structure

Read the postcard and complete the diagram.

Dear Sylvia,
How’s everything? We just came back from our vacation in Peru.
It was fantastic.

Machu Picchu is an Inca city in the Andes Mountains.

We took a bus in Aguas Calientes and arrived in Machu Picchu in
the morning.
We spent the day there and went to Cuzco in the evening.

In Cuzco we hired a Peruvian guide, and we learned a lot about The

Inca culture.

Talk to you soon,

Peter and Julie.

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 Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 Event 4 Event 5

Took bus learned a

in Aguas lot about
calientes inca
culture
After completing the diagram, make a postcard telling your friend your experience when
you were away. Use the following questions to guide you.

• Where did you go?

• What happened first?
• What happened next?
• What happened at the end?

Activity 2

Edit the text below so that it makes sense. Things to look for are apostrophes, capitals,
commas, and spelling.
Down the Drain
one saturday evening while washing the dishes mum accidentally
nocked her favourite ring on the tap immediately she glanced to see if it was all
right to her horror she noticed that one of the gems was missing without
thinking she pulled the plug out and observed the green stone slid under a
plate and go down the drain mum was dreadfully upset because it was her
grandmother’s ring.
(Taken from O’Brien & Purcell, 1998)

Homework
Write a recount text of your own. Think about a memorable event in your life.
Remember these points when telling.

• Begin the story by telling when and where it happened as well as who
participated.
• Write the events in the order they happened.
• End your story.
Summary

In this unit, you have learned

• how to respond to spoken recount being told to you;
• how to make spoken recount of your own;
• how to respond to written recount; and
• how to make written recount of your own.

Unit 2 - Tell me your experience 13

 You have also learned these.
• Recount is a text which has social function to retell events for the purpose of
informing or entertaining.
• When you tell about the happenings in the past, it means that you make a
recount text.
• A recount text begins with information about who, where, and when; continues
to list the events that happened; and ends with a closure.

Evaluation
Rearrange the following sentences into the correct order.
1. His life ended with his being hanged in Melbourne jail.
2. He was the leader of the Kelly Gang.
3. At the age of eleven, his father died.
4. Ned Kelly is Australia’s best known bushranger.
5. Ned drifted into crime, being arrested as a fifteen-year-old for
bushranging.
6. Soon after, he was sent to prison for three years for horse theft.
7. As he felt victimized, Ned finally embarked on three years of
violent crime.

Reflection
1. I think I know how to retell past events to inform or to entertain.
2. Part of this unit that is the most impressive is

Vocabulary List

Parts of
Words Indonesian Equivalent
Speech
ketinggian di atas
altitude n
permukaan air laut
bushranger n penguasa hutan
day off n liburan
entertaining adj. bersifat menghibur
event n kejadian
experience n pengalaman
gem n batu permata
pleasant adj. menyenangkan
sequence n urutan

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