Ryan Lochte: a conversation lesson

The Olympic games are the gift that keeps on giving for conversation lessons. Although the games ended two weeks ago, they are still being talked about and we now have the Paralympic games starting tomorrow.

The Ryan Lochte story interests me firstly because I like swimming, but also because it’s so crazy that you almost end up believing it (as in, nobody would be that stupid and entitled, would they?).

This lesson can be used with students who are B1+, but there are follow-up activities for C1 students as well.

Ethical Living: a conversation lesson.

Living ethically is something I have been thinking about recently, particularly how difficult it can be to do good things when you are aware of the consequences of your actions.

I found an article that reflected my opinions on the topic and a new lesson came out of it. This is better suited for adults and young adults, although I imagine some adolescent students who are mature for their age or who are interested in environmentalism will appreciate it too.

You are what you wear: a conversation lesson

I have a student who is majoring in psychology at university. Every now and then I try to find texts that talk about psychology but that are general enough that I can understand and take part in the conversation.

For a while, I have had a video activity to talk about clothes and dress codes and I finally managed to find an interesting text to match with it (from Forbes, of all places). This lesson can be used with adults to discuss the importance of appearance in a work context but could also be adapted for younger students, mainly those who are about to go to university.

Zika virus: a conversation lesson for adults

This lesson was aimed at two students I have who are doctors, but it can be used with adult students in general as this is a hot topic in Brazil at the moment. Here you’re going to find a video and article, both from The New York Times, to help your students to talk about the Zika virus outbreak.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – A conversation lesson

I have recently discovered that one of my one-to-one students is a big Star Wars buff. I had been promising him to have a Star Wars-themed lesson for the past few weeks and the week after Thanksgiving was perfect for it.

Why so, you may ask? It turns out that Thanksgiving weekend in the USA is a big date not only for eating turkey and shopping but also to advertise your blockbuster film. Because of that, new videos and articles were published and those were ideal for the type of lesson I like to teach.

Talking about the Paris terror attacks

One of the things I like about being an English teacher is that, depending on the teaching context, you can take a variety of different topics to class and discuss it with students.

For the last few days the terrorist attacks in Paris have dominated the news and I wanted to hear what my students have to say about it. It can be a controversial topic, but I haven’t been afraid of tackling those in the past.

Is Technology Always a Good Thing?

It’s funny how lessons can sometimes come from the most unexpected of places. A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a snippet to use with an advanced level class that included a sample of the passive voice. I found one I liked, and it turns out the snippet had both good language and an interesting topic – technology.

So, after my passive voice lesson I went looking for a text that would match the video I had. I ended up finding two, and they both had points I thought were interesting. Now, usually the texts I use on the blog are authentic (adapted for length), but I can’t claim this is the case here, as I merged both texts into one.

Halloween video lessons for adolescents and adults

As an English teacher Halloween is one of my favourite events. Not because I particularly enjoy wearing costumes (I don’t think I’ve worn one in the past 10 years), but because I love using TV series in my lessons. There are some great Halloween episodes around and these are two of my favourites, one to be used with adolescent groups and another with adults.

Comfortable in your own skin: a conversation lesson about tattoos.

So last week I had come across a very personal article where a man explains why he has got dinosaur tattoos. I thought it was interesting and save it for a future lesson. As luck would have it, I saw a YouTube video on my timeline last night that talks about tattoos in a very similar way. And thus a conversation/vocabulary lesson was born.

Narcos and Breaking Bad

In my very first post on this blog I shared a lesson about drugs. Today’s post shares a common theme with it, as it presents two TV series focused on drugs, through a video snippet and a text.