OK, this is a very Britain-centered lesson and I completely understand if you don’t want to use it but I came in today and found that all my students were talking about the big Brexit vote so I knocked up a quick lesson for them. If you’re interested, here it is…probably a few days too late…but better late than never, eh?

• Time: 1 – 2 hours
• Objective: Encourage sts to read between the lines / expose them to real English / raise awareness of English culture.
• Levels: (strong) Pre-intermediate and above

Materials:

1. word worksheet: Brexit worksheet
2. pdf worksheet:Brexit worksheet
3. teachers’ worksheet:Brexit teachers’ worksheet

Procedure:

1. Introduction: Write Brexit on the board and ask sts to discuss what they know about it and then hand out the definition to clarify.
2. chunks of language: sts match up the meanings to the phrases in the text.
3. discussion: Sts discuss the questions in small groups. Feedback as a class and board their ideas.
4. Sts read through the comments and decide in/out for each one. I would monitor and make notes of interesting errors / emergent language on the board but I wouldn’t help out much. Instruct them that you won’t answer questions and they can’t use dictionaries.
5. Reflect: ask sts what the point of your activity was (you’re hoping to raise awareness of the importance of engaging with the culture of a language and how in the real world you won’t always have a dictionary)
6. Vocab from context: sts match up the meanings with the words/phrases from the text. Encourage sts to underline 1 or 2 further words they don’t know and try to work the meaning out in pairs.

Follow-ups:

1. debate on Brexit.
2. give each person a character from the comments box and they must discuss the topic from that person’s point of view.
3. sts write their own opinions and text them into the Metro where this article came from.