Category: Class

Google To Give People More Power Over Their Personal Data

B2 – Upper Intermediate

In the last two decades, the internet has been a widely used platform for the advertising industry. It reaches large audiences at a much cheaper cost. Brands splash their ads in different websites that are suitable to the user’s precise interests. They use the users’ data to give us the ads that we are looking for.

Let’s read the article and find out more about the new user privacy protection measure when using Google.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/19/privacy-by-design-google-to-give-people-more-power-over-their-personal-data

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “pushback” mean? Use it in your own sentence.
  2. What does “opt out” mean? Use it in your own sentence.
  3. What does “watchdog” mean in this sentence, “Just last month the Australian competition watchdog won a court case against Google…”? Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What new privacy strategy Google offers? How does it work?
  2. What is your opinion on third party companies purchasing user’s data easily?
  3. What do you think of the possibility of Google monetising future privacy features?

Immigration

B1 – Intermediate

Immigration is the process of acquiring permanent residence in a foreign country. Most people decide to move to other country when they are not satisfied with conditions in their homeland: lack of jobs, low salaries, high taxes, corruption. All of these make a person seek a better life.

Listen to this audio and read the transcript about immigration.

https://listenaminute.com/i/immigration.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does the word “immigration” mean? “Immigration wasn’t really a problem a long time ago.” Use this word in a sentence.
  2. What does the verb “encourage” mean? “The USA, Australia and Canada encouraged millions of people to come and live in their countries.” Give 2 synonyms and use ‘encourage’ in a sentence.
  3. What does “risk” mean here, “People risk their lives to get the chance of starting a new life in a rich country.“? Give 2 synonyms and use ‘risk’ in a sentence in this context.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is immigration from one country to another a problem? In what ways do you see it as a problem?
  2. What are reasons people immigrate?
  3. Would you like to live and work in another country? Where and Why?
  4. How does immigration affect the economic situation in your community?

Hacking

B1 – Intermediate

Cyber hacking has stolen millions from people worldwide, and not just money but also people’s personal information. Company computers and network systems have crashed because of cyber hacking.

Listen to this audio and read the transcript about hacking.

https://listenaminute.com/h/hacking.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “hacking” mean? Elaborate.
  2. What does the word illegal mean? Give 2 synonyms.
  3. What does the word information mean? Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you know about hacking?
  2. Why do you think hackers do what they do?
  3. Do you always download security updates to protect your computer from hackers? Why or why not?

Electricity

B1 – Intermediate

Electricity is defined as a form of power that modern age people have a tough time surviving without. It has a great influence in media both in communication and entertainment. It powers almost all the appliances that are used on a daily basis such as telephones and cellphones.

Listen to this audio and read the transcript about electricity.

https://listenaminute.com/e/electricity.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does the word “flick” mean? Use it in a sentence.
  2. Explain the word important and use it in a sentence.
  3. What does the word “dangerous” mean? Give 2 synonyms.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is electricity?
  2. What kind of world would we live in without electricity?
  3. Do you think electricity is the greatest invention ever? Why / Why not?
  4. What dangers does electricity pose in your house?
  5. What do you do to save on your electricity bills?

Parents Sever Ties with Their Children

B2 – Upper Intermediate

A parent’s and child’s relationship should be one of mutually beneficial, unbreakable love that endures all ups and down. Regrettably, some parents may find it challenging to keep this bond going. Ultimately, a parent could perhaps decide to leave their roles because they feel they have passed the tipping point. Some parents who choose to cut off contact claim that they do so for their own well-being and security.

But were you aware that some children also constantly try to behave similarly to their parents? Yes, children do estrange themselves from their parents as well. For what reasons?

Follow the link to learn more.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20221207-the-parents-who-sever-ties-with-their-children

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “cut off ” mean? Use this word in a sentence.
  2. What does “ re-kindle” mean in this sentence, ”An attempt to rekindle their romance ended just before she died.”? Use this word in a sentence.
  3. What does “ordeal” mean here, “Without the help and understanding of my daughter, I don’t know where I’d be, as this has been a very lonely ordeal,” she says.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why do parents lose touch with their kids?
  2. Is it acceptable to detach oneself from kinship? Explain.
  3. Is there even an appropriate time to sever ties with your family? Explain.
  4. Why do children estrange themselves from parents?
  5. What does a toxic parent-child relationship entail?

Social Media Marketing

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Social media has its pros and cons, depending on how you use it. You can use it to earn money, communicate with people, build connections, promote a business, or solely just for leisure. With proper use, people and businesses can benefit from it.

Read the article to learn how social media helped a dying business through what some call “accidental influencer” or organic marketing.

https://xsmultimedia.com/2022/06/24/social-media-marketing-the-tropical-hut-invasion/

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “organic marketing” mean, “Tropical Hut’s resurgence is a living proof that organic marketing is one of the most effective ways to revive something so good most especially in this time of digital saturation and peak consumerism.” Use it in a sentence.
  2. Explain the concept “word of mouth” in your own words. “People are more drawn into the aesthetically-pleasing ads, but nothing beats the original, word of mouth type of organic [ marketing].” Use this word in a sentence.
  3. What does “buzz” mean, “A lot of people may call it “Accidental Influencer/Marketing”, and others call it “Organic Marketing”—but the revival of the 57-year-old fast food chain shows that Filipinos are here for what is trending, for what is the buzz, and all everything that falls into the right places.“? Use this word in a sentence.

Discussion Question:

  1. Share your thoughts on this, “You can have as many clickbait captions and aesthetic photos as you want, but nothing will ever be as effective as organic marketing coming from the testimony of happy and satisfied customers.”.
  2. Based on the article, how did a certain social media post help revive Tropical Hut?
  3. How can people utilize social media to grow their businesses?
  4. What do you think are other strategies to promote a business on social media?

Factors Driving High Employee Engagement

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Employee engagement shows how enthusiastic and dedicated your staff feels toward what they do. It is an essential factor to a company’s success as it is connected to how satisfied and high the team morale is. Some advantages to having engaged employees are better performance and increased productivity.

Read the article about factors that drive employee engagement.

https://www.gallup.com/workplace/284180/factors-driving-record-high-employee-engagement.aspx

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What is the meaning of the word “engagement” in this context, “Teams with higher engagement are less likely to leave their organization.“? Use it in a sentence.
  2. Explain the phrase “record high” in the sentence, “Engagement levels reached a record high in 2019.”. Use it in a sentence.
  3. What is the meaning of the idiom “pie-in-the-sky“, “What would the world of work look like if organizations could double the percentage of engaged workers? This isn’t a pie-in-the-sky question — all evidence suggests it is possible.“? Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Talk about the factors that drive high employee engagement.
  2. How can companies retain high employee engagement? How does your company?
  3. Share your opinion on this, “Changes in employee engagement are best attributed to changes in how organizations develop employees.“.
  4. What are the impact of high engagement among employees?
  5. Personally, how do you keep the level of enthusiasm and dedication you feel toward your job high?

E-mail

B1 – Intermediate

Electronic mail has made the communication system so much easier. It is mostly used for sending messages, files, and documents.

In the previous time, people wrote letters to their relatives and friends to keep communication and contact with them, which was a very slow process. But now email has changed the entire scenario. We can get connected with anyone easily.

Let’s listen to the audio below.

https://listenaminute.com/e/e-mail.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does inbox mean? Use it in a sentence.
  2. What does spam mean? Give a synonym. Use it in a sentence.
  3. What is “ASAP“ short for? Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. For you, what are the good things and the bad things about emails?
  2. How important is email to you?
  3. What you prefer, writing an email or real letters with a pen and paper? Why?
  4. Do you ever receive spam mail? What do you do with it?
  5. How many different email accounts do you have / need? Why is that?
  6. What new functions would you like to see with emails?
  7. What will replace email in the future?

Prepare for the Next Pandemic

B2 – Upper Intermediate

The COVID-19 cases may have declined significantly in the two years since the pandemic began, but our experiences are still fresh in our minds. We didn’t see that coming and were totally unprepared for it.

There have been a number of outbreaks in recent decades, thus future outbreaks of infectious diseases are regrettably unavoidable. If we are ready for them, we may be able to prevent them from spreading and becoming pandemics.


Read this article to learn how to prepare for the next pandemic.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03362-8

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “inevitable” mean? “Finally, governments must abandon the idea that spread of a respiratory pathogen is inevitable.” Use this word in a sentence.
  2. Based on the context of the sentence, “This necessitates the participation of the private sector alongside governments, given its role in vaccine research, production, and distribution.”, what does the word ‘necessitate’ mean?
  3. Explain the meaning of the word “emerge” in your own words. “It is crucial that we quickly obtain and share the genetic sequences of viruses as they emerge.” Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you think the five ways to prepare for the pandemic in the article are effective? Why or why not?
  2. How else can we prepare for the pandemic?
  3. In your opinion, do you think doing these things would actually prepare us for the next pandemic?
  4. Are you physically, mentally, and financially prepared for future pandemics? How so?
  5. How does your national government prepare for pandemics?

Pros and Cons of Social Media

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Social media is undeniably one of society’s most valuable tools. Almost everyone has social media accounts and some even earn money through them. We can’t deny the fact that it has helped us a lot, especially with getting in touch with our family and friends who are far away from us. However, if not used correctly, it could do people more harm than good.

Learn about the benefits and drawbacks of social media by reading this article.

https://www.lifespan.org/lifespan-living/social-media-good-bad-and-ugly

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “lurk” mean? Use this word in a sentence.
  2. Explain the meaning of “facsimile” in your own words. Use it in a sentence.
  3. What is the meaning of the word “vulnerable“? Provide some synonyms of this word.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you use social media? If yes, how many hours a day do you spend using it? If not, why?
  2. Do you believe that social media is useful?
  3. How do you think will the world be without social media?
  4. Are social media websites widely used in your country?
  5. What do you think is the greatest benefit of using social media?
  6. In your opinion, what is the worst effect of social media on its users?