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Discussing social issues

Free
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Intermediate+/B2
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Society
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
45-60 min
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Low-Resource
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Overview

In this first lesson on the topic of society, students will discuss a number of contemporary societal issues. They will learn vocabulary and expressions to help them engage in meaningful conversations about relevant and important social matters.

The lesson plan includes suggested boardwork, highlighting one way to capture new language and phrases on the board and prep your students for the following discussions. The group will then participate in several low-resource classroom activities, focusing on collaborative speaking exercises. A class debate will form a central part of the lesson, allowing students to get comfortable with some of the new language. The session concludes with a fun classroom game, ensuring a memorable wrap-up of the topic.

Lesson Outline
Activities
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Boardwork
1Group discussion
2Discuss in pairs
3Class debate
Games
1ESL Pictionary
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Classroom activities

Low-resource ESL lesson plan

Use of the board

Start by eliciting or adding four social issues to the board. Then discuss concepts and vocabulary related to each one. Use this spider diagram as a guide.

EFL - ESL Lead-in activity | Upper-intermediate | Social issues | B2

Low-resource ESL activity

Group discussion

Discuss one of the social issues from the board as a group.

Consider the following:

  • Is it a problem in this country?
  • What is its impact on society?
  • What are the possible solutions?

Add any new ideas and vocabulary to the board.

Low-resource ESL activity idea

Discuss in pairs

Following on from the previous activity, students will now work in groups of three to discuss the remaining social issues left on the board.

Before they begin, encourage them to use the questions from the previous activity to kick off their conversations. You can add the following prompts to the board to remind them:

  • In this country
  • Impact on society
  • Solutions

When they have finished, have another group discussion on each issue. Again, add any new concepts and vocabulary to the board.

Low-resource ESL activity idea

Class debate

The students will debate some controversial arguments related to issues in society.

Organise this depending on the size of the class. One option would be to pair the students up, assign each student to one side of an argument, and have them present one at a time. For a larger class, you may want to divide it into two groups and have them work on a couple of issues.

Give the students enough time to prepare their arguments. Five minutes if you've paired them up, ten minutes for two larger groups.

You will chair the debates and make sure that everyone has had a chance to say their piece and respond to any counter-arguments. Make it more fun by picking a winner at the end of each debate, based on their performance. You should justify your choices.

  1. Is animal testing a justified?
  2. Are video games containing violence appropriate for children?
  3. Is euthanasia justified?
  4. Torture is justified when used for national security.
  5. Cigarettes should be banned.

 

Low-resource ESL lesson plan

Suggested homework

The students have to learn their fictional addresses.

Our suggested homework for this lesson is to have the students learn their fictional addresses so that we can have them produce this information as part of a revision/warmer activity for the next few weeks.

Classroom games

Low-resource ESL classroom game

ESL Pictionary: Social issues

Players have to represent abstract concepts related to society on the board while their teammates guess what they are.

Start by dividing the class into two teams. On each turn, give the student in play an abstract concept related to societal problems. That student must then represent it on the board using only images and symbols. Their teammates earn a point when they guess it correctly.

To make it more competitive, split the board into three parts, set a stopwatch for two minutes and give the student with the marker three concepts to represent. The team with the best time wins.

Try to use new concepts that came up during the lesson. If you're stuck for ideas, here are a few to get you started:

  1. Graffiti
  2. Healthcare
  3. Debt
  4. Drug dealer
  5. Unemployment
  6. Overpopulation