THE ARTICLE

Commercial passenger flights between the USA and Vietnam resumed earlier today for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. In 1975 a Pan Am airplane ferried fleeing US citizens out of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). The new Communist Vietnamese government imposed a ban on all US airlines. However, just hours ago, almost three decades later, a United Airlines flight touched down at the same airport carrying both US and Vietnamese officials, business people and ordinary citizens. A welcome piece of history and a further piece in the jigsaw of improving US-Vietnam ties. U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Marine, said, “The relationship has been on an upward track for the past 10 years, this is the next natural step.”

This is great news for Vietnam’s economy and tourist industry. “A direct air route between Vietnam and the United States will meet the increasing demand for exchange between the two peoples,” said Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson, Le Dung. The number of airline passenger is set to explode and achieve double-digit growth over the next few years. One million Vietnamese live in the US. Bilateral trade between the two countries has skyrocketed in the past three years, and Vietnam is now a major US trading partner. This comes almost a decade after diplomatic relations resumed, when America lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam in 1994.

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about historic world events / Vietnam / flying / relations with the USA / jigsaw puzzles / …
To make things more fun, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. HO CHI MINH BOUND: Students are on the historic flight to Vietnam. Role play an imaginary conversation between two passengers (strangers) sitting next to each other. Make sure the passengers also have a chat with the other passengers sitting to the other side, behind and in front.

3. VIETNAM BRAINSTORM: Ask students for facts about Vietnam. Students talk about these in pairs.

4. AIRLINE QUIZ: Pairs / Teams do the following airline quiz (answers are at the end of this web page). Brief chat about the airlines after. In a large class this could be a ‘find your partner’ activity:

	AIRLINE	COUNTRY
	Aer Lingus	Australia
	Aeroflot	Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Oman
	All Nippon Airways (ANA)	Bangladesh
	Biman	Belgium
	Cathay Pacific	Brazil
	Delta	Greece
	El Al	Holland
	Gulf Air	Hong Kong
	KLM	Ireland
	Northwest	Israel
	Olympic Airways	Japan
	Qantas	Russia
	Sabena	UK
	United	USA
	Virgin	USA
	Varig	USA

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘flight’ and ‘resume’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a) Non-commercial flights between the USA and Vietnam resumed earlier. T / F
(b) Passengers can now fly to Vietnam for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. T / F
(c) In 1975 the new Communist Vietnamese government imposed a ban on all US airlines.. T / F
(d) It is a further piece in the jigsaw of improving US-Vietnam ties. T / F
(e) This is terrible news for Vietnam’s economy and tourist industry. T / F
(f) The number of airline passenger is set to explode and achieve triple-digit growth. T / F
(g) One million Vietnamese live in the US. T / F
(h) Vietnam is now a major US trading partner. T / F

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	commercial	ban
(b)	passenger	history
(c)	earlier	growth
(d)	impose a	today
(e)	hours	flights
(f)	touch	partner
(g)	piece of	demand
(h)	direct air	flights
(i)	meet	partner
(j)	double-digit	route
(k)	trading	ago
(l)	diplomatic	embargo
(m)	trade	relations

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

US-Vietnam Flights Resume

Commercial __________ flights between the USA and Vietnam __________ earlier today for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. In 1975 a Pan Am airplane ferried fleeing US citizens out of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). The new Communist Vietnamese government imposed a __________ on all US airlines. However, just hours ago, almost three __________ later, a United Airlines flight touched down at the same airport carrying both US and Vietnamese officials, business people and ordinary citizens. A welcome piece of history and a further piece in the __________ of improving US-Vietnam ties. U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Marine, said, “The relationship has been on an upward track for the past 10 years, this is the next __________ step.”		ban resumed natural passenger decades jigsaw
This is great news for Vietnam’s economy and __________ industry. “A __________ air route between Vietnam and the United States will meet the increasing __________ for exchange between the two peoples,” said Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson, Le Dung. The number of airline passenger is set to __________ and achieve double-digit growth over the next few years. One million Vietnamese live in the US. Bilateral trade between the two countries has skyrocketed in the __________ three years, and Vietnam is now a major US trading partner. This comes almost a decade after diplomatic relations __________, when America lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam in 1994.		demand past tourist explode direct resumed

2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the word match exercise.

4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

5. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

6. ‘INTERESTING’: Students underline anything they thought was interesting.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS: Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.
5. ‘INTERESTING’: Students talk about the things they underlined as interesting.

6. ‘FLIGHT / RESUME’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Homo floresiensis. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. PASSENGER INTERVIEW: You are being interviewed by Vietnam TV. Write down a short speech describing your feelings about this historic flight.

4. WORD PARTNERS: Look again at the words in the word partner exercise. Find the definitions that are real.

ANSWERS

1. AIRLINE QUIZ

	AIRLINE	COUNTRY
	Aer Lingus	Ireland
	Aeroflot	Russ ia
	All Nippon Airways (ANA)	Japan
	Biman	Bangladesh
	Cathay Pacific	Hong Kong
	Delta	USA
	El Al	Israel
	Gulf Air	Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Oman
	KLM	Holland
	Northwest	USA
	Olympic Airways	Greece
	Qantas	Australia
	Sabena	Belgium
	United	USA
	Virgin	UK
	Varig	Brazil

2. TRUE / FALSE:
(a) Non-commercial flights between the USA and Vietnam resumed earlier. F
(b) Passengers can now fly to Vietnam for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. T
(c) In 1975 the new Communist Vietnamese government imposed a ban on all US airlines.. T
(d) It is a further piece in the jigsaw of improving US-Vietnam ties. T
(e) This is terrible news for Vietnam’s economy and tourist industry. F
(f) The number of airline passenger is set to explode and achieve triple-digit growth. F
(g) One million Vietnamese live in the US. T
(h) Vietnam is now a major US trading partner. T