The PowerPoint contains advanced language for expressing opinion, personalising the topic, agreeing and disagreeing. It was made with C1/C2 students in mind. If you’re teaching lower levels, the student handout may be more suitable, although I recommend supplementing it with a phrase sheet, perhaps try my FCE Speaking Phrases post.
Put students into small groups (3/4) or conduct the activity as an open class discussion. Before engaging in discussion on the topics, students must decide individually to what extent they agree or disagree with the given statement by circling one of the numbers from 1-6. The idea is that students will be more likely to take a stand and defend their point of view and less able to go along with the crowd if they’ve assigned their opinion a numerical value.
You could also introduce the phrase “to play devil’s advocate” and encourage students do it during the discussion. Another idea could be to assign a specific student from each group as the devil’s advocate for each topic, thus forcing them to come up with counter arguments to what their classmates are saying.
Here are the discussion topics:
Zoos have a positive impact on society.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
Big game hunting should be allowed the money from hunting licences should go towards conservation.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
Humans shouldn’t step in to save endangered species; nature should be allowed to take its course.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
I see no problem with testing cosmetics on animals.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
I see no problem with testing medicines on animals.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
People in the future will view the way we treat animals today as barbaric.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
It’s not a square meal without some meat.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
I could go vegetarian.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
I could go vegan.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
I’m willing to cut down on meat for environmental reasons.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
Eating animals like dogs and cats shouldn’t be viewed as strange; we eat pigs, sheep and cows.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
I would be able to tell the difference between real and synthetic meat.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
One day, all meat will be synthetic meat, grown in a laboratory.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
Factory farming is necessary in order to feed the populations.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
Eating meat is an important part of my culture.
Strongly agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 Strongly disagree
Sports involving animals (hunting, horse riding, bullfighting, etc.) are an important part of my culture and must be protected.
A simple worksheet and discussion activity in which students look at 21 different phrasal verbs featuring either up or down. Download the student handout and answer key below, follow the link at the bottom of the post for a Kahoot game based on the target language:
I’ll be giving a free webinar as part of the Exams Catalunya online conference this coming Saturday the 27th February at 11am Spain time. The talk will focus on tweaks and hacks to get the most out of materials. Sign up by following the link below, and also check out all the other great talks the conference is offering!
This is a guest post by online language tutor and ELT writer Ned Widdows. Ideal for the first class back after Christmas, it is a B1-B2 lesson with reading, vocabulary and speaking, asking learners to reflect on their experiences of 2020 and to look forward to the year ahead.
Download the teacher’s notes and student handout below:
Write New Year’s Eve on the board / in the chat and ask students to share:
5 words connected with New Year (in general)
5 words connected with New Year 2021
Optional: share this image and ask students to describe what they see.
Briefly discuss how Christmas and New Year this year have been affected by the pandemic.
Procedure:
A – D on Student’s Handout is self-explanatory.
Optional ideas:
Dictate the questions in A.
Check the pronunciation of some of the trickier vocabulary in B, e.g. /ˌpɪktʃəˈresk/ /pəˈreɪd/
Get learners to write new sentences with the verb patterns in C, e.g. I’m trying to learn how to play chess at the moment; She misses spending time with her cousins; etc.
Share a link for a padlet and ask learners to post their texts on it. They can read each other’s and see what they have in common.
This is a conversation topic for B2+ students in which they discuss things that annoy them. First they study some expressions related to annoyance and anger, then put them to use in a discussion about different annoying habits. Download the student handout, key and Powerpoint below:
Start by writing “Pet hates/peeves & Bugbears” on the board and give examples of some of your personal pet peeves using some of the expressions from the student handout.
Vocabulary Focus
Give out the handout and have students complete the expressions. Check answers in open class.
Instruct students to cover the handout, then show the first slide from the Powerpoint, students now need to remember the expressions using the words from the exercises on the handout:
STAND – I can’t stand it when…
The sentences are animated on the Powerpoint so you can reveal them one at a time.
Repeat for the expressions about anger.
Discussion
Put students in pairs or groups of three.
Go through the slides on the Powerpoint showing different annoying habits and behaviours.
For each slide encourage students to discuss their feelings about the topic and also think of a specific time in their lives when they’ve witnessed such behaviour, and how they reacted. If they can’t think of a specific time, encourage them to speculate about how they would react: “If I saw someone throwing litter out of a car window, I would lose my rag!”
Encourage students to share their opinions and experiences in open class.
Wrap up the activity by having students write a definitive list of 3 pet peeves/bugbears that they have.
For adult students or groups that you know well, you may want to teach slightly more explicit versions of the expressions:
Lose one’s shit
It fucks me off
Homework
Have students listen to our episode of 2Ts in a Pod on the topic of Pet Hates:
This is a lesson plan for C1/C2 students by Soleil García Brito on the topic of face recognition based around a video and a gapped text exercise. The warmer could also be used with lower levels (B1/B2). At the end of the lesson students can take an online test to see if they are “super recognisers”; you’ll find the link below.
Download the student’s handout and teacher’s notes below.
Super simple conversation activity based around the topic of food. Suitable for a range of levels from A2 upwards. It was written for students based in Barcelona so a couple of questions won’t make sense outside Catalonia, but you can skip/adapt those ones. Credit to my DELTA tutor Neil Forrest for the dressing a salad question and nationalfoods.org for the weird national dishes questions.
Introduce the topic of food debates using the first slide about the Devon vs Cornwall cream tea debate. Cream teas are scones topped with jam and clotted cream but there is a heated debate regarding which should be put on the scone first. Cornish heathens think that the jam should go first, followed by the cream, which is just preposterous. Righteous Devonians know that the correct order is cream first, then jam. (can you guess where I’m from?) Then ask students to discuss any food debates that exist in their country.
This is a cheat sheet/reference grid explaining the different task types that students will be required to complete in part 2 of the Cambridge C1 Advanced writing paper. Download the handout below:
This is another guest post by Soleil García Brito on the topic of gender roles and the colour pink but this time for higher level students (C1/C2). The lesson plan is made up of two video exercises, a gapped text reading exercise and a discussion on the topic. Download the student handout and teacher’s notes below:
This is a guest post by Soleil García Brito. It is a lesson plan on the topic of gender roles. Students complete a First-Certificate-style multiple choice cloze exercise, a listening comprehension based on a clip from Friends and finally, a discussion on the topic. Download the student handout and teacher’s notes below:
