Category: Class

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

B2 – Upper intermediate

It’s interesting how we can have one language and have more than one way of pronouncing the same words. Whether you’re American, British, Irish or Chinese, the way we speak English will have differences.

Read the article below to learn how American accent and British accent came to be.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents

Discussion Questions:

1. According to the article, how did the American accent become different from the British accent?
2. What are the differences between the American accent and the British accent?
3. Which accent do you find easier to understand?
4. What other accents do you know of?
5. Does your country also have different accents depending on the region?

What Happens to the Plastic You Throw Away?

C1 – Advanced

Plastic is considered one of the greatest material produced that has helped companies and individuals alike. But how has plastic played a role in harming our environment? Watch the video below to find out more about the journey of a plastic bottle.

Discuss:

1. Explain where plastic bottles end up once we throw them away. What is leachate?
2. What is the Great Pacific garbage Patch? What danger does this pose?
3. Are you aware of where your garbage goes when you dispose of them?
4. Does your city have good programs related to recycling and disposing of trash properly?

What Would Happen If You Didn’t Drink Water?

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Water is an essential part of life. Whether for our own consumption or for the environment. As with any substance, there is a danger of having too much and too little.

Watch the video below and be ready to answer the questions that follow about the effects of not drinking water.

Discussion Questions:

1. Discuss the facts about water presented in the video. How important is it to our bodies?
2. What are the dangers of dehydration? How about overhydration?
3. Who are usually the victims of over-hydration? Why are they prone to overhydration?
4. Do you think you’re getting enough water on a daily basis?
5. What are the other kinds beverages you enjoy drinking? What are some fruits and vegetables that you like?

Speaking Activity : Adoption

goverscrop-420x0

B2 – Upper intermediate

Adoption brings a child into a new family. Birth parents have a number of reasons for placing children for adoption. Overall, they want better lives for their children. Children who are eligible for adoption come from many different settings. Some are in foster care while others live in orphanages or with birth relatives until they can be adopted.

Answer the questions below with your next teacher and be ready to practice your sentence construction.

Discuss:

1. How is adoption viewed in your country?
2. How does being adopted affect a child’s view of themselves?
3. What are some of the reasons people adopt children?
4. What are some of the reasons people give children up for adoption?
5. What do you think about couples that adopt children from different countries?
6. What qualities make a couple or a person qualified to adopt a child?
7. Should the adoption process be more or less difficult than it is now?
8. Should people be able to decide what type of children they want to adopt? For example: boy or girl, hair color, age, etc.
9. How much should the government be involved in the adoption process?
10. What are orphanages like in your country?
11. Would you ever adopt a child?

Drinking to Excess

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Alcoholism is when you drink so much that your body eventually becomes dependent on or addicted to alcohol. When this happens, alcohol becomes the most important thing in your life.

Read the article below to know more about drinking too much.

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Sep2014/Feature1

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you drink alcohol? What kind of alcoholic drink do you usually have and how often do you drink?
2. What do you think causes alcoholism? How can a person prevent it?
3. What are the symptoms of alcoholism? How can you tell if the person is alcoholic?
4. What are the risk factors of alcoholism?

Amazon Opens Convenience Store with a Twist

B2 – Upper intermediate

Amazon is opening a physical store in Seattle where purchases are automatically completed using a phone app. There will be no cashiers, no checkout lines. Just grab what you want, scan it, and walk out.

Read the article below to know more about Amazon Go – the convenience store with a twist.

http://www.voanews.com/a/mht-amazon-opens-physical-convenience-store-with-a-twist/3623667.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. Would you be concerned with this kind of service getting hacked or is there no difference than buying online?
  2. If this works do you think more stores will do this since they wouldn’t need to hire so many employees and could save money lowering the price of items?
  3. Would you rather shop in a store where you could just walk in, grab what you want and walk right out instead of waiting in a line or would you be willing to keep things the way they are so people could keep their jobs?

Google Will Use Renewable Energy

B2 – Upper Intermediate

In an attempt to reduce the impact of global warming, many organizations are looking at using renewable energy. Google is one of them.

Google wants aims to shift to renewable energy by 2017 in order to power all their data centers and offices.

Read the article below and be ready to talk about technology. Share your thoughts as well.

https://www.voanews.com/a/mht-google-says-will-use-100-percent-renewable-energy/3625221.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the benefits of using renewable energy?
  2. What are the disadvantages of using renewable energy?
  3. Do you think more companies will follow once a large company like Google shows that it is possible not to rely on fossil fuels? Why or why not?
  4. With wind farms and solar panels being expensive for its initial cost, do you think it would be cheaper in the long run for companies to do this? Explain.
  5. Is there a push in your country to go with renewable energy sources and electric vehicles? Why do you think this is the case?

Spanish Superstitions

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality—that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events—such as astrology and certain aspects linked to religion, like omens, witchcraft, and prophecies, that contradict natural science.

Top 10: must-know Spanish superstitions

Discussion Questions:

1. What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘superstition’?

2.  What superstitions do you know?  Which ones do you believe?

3. Do you believe that some numbers, days or dates are lucky or unlucky?

4.  Would you change your phone number or home address to avoid ‘bad numbers’?

5. Would you change your name if you heard your name was unlucky?

6. What is your opinion of superstitious people?

Eating Junk Food Is Not Good

B2 – Upper intermediate

Junk food isn’t actually made of garbage. People use the term junk food to describe a food that has few of the nutrients your body needs, and a lot of fat, sugar and salt, which your body can easily get too much of.Potato chips, candy, and soft drinks are often considered junk food. If you like these snack foods, the trick is to eat them in small portions so that you still get the nutrients you need each day.

Reasons Eating Junk Food Is Not Good

Discuss: 

1. What springs to mind when you hear the term junk food?

2. How often do you eat junk food?

3. Do lots of people eat junk food in your country?

4. What is it about junk food that is so bad for us?

5. Are parents who feed junk food to their children irresponsible?

How to Survive Seasonal Dysfunction

B2 – Upper Intermediate

For most, Christmas time might be the most joyous holiday. However, it’s not the case for everyone. It’s quite surprising that some aren’t as ecstatic about this season.

Read on the article to find out how to get over Christmas jitters.

Christmas presence: how to survive seasonal dysfunction

Discussion Questions:

1. According to what you’ve read, what are the ways on how to survive “seasonal dysfunction”?
2. In your opinion, what are some reasons why people dread the holidays?
3. How do you feel about the holiday season?
4. How do you deal with the pressures of this season?
5. What do you enjoy the most during this time of the year?