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Child Support
Italy's highest appeals court has decreed that fathers must carry on supporting adult children until they find a job to their liking. This was in the case of a son who is in his 30s, has a university law degree, lives in one of the smartest parts of the Naples, and has turned down several job offers. (Family, responsibility, supporting children, court cases, relative clauses.)
Upper-Intermediate
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World Cup 'Sickness'
Warning! Soccer could be dangerous to your health. This lesson looks at heart attacks induced by watching critical match points, a website offering fans a way of missing work and a survey showing what fans are willing to give up in order to have their teams win the Soccer World Cup.) (Soccer, fans and health, Football World Cup, taking 'sick' days, making excuses, dictionary skills, multi-word verbs.)
Intermediate
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Hot Potato Vocabulary Game
This warmer is a noisy and energetic way to review vocabulary by asking questions.
Pre-Intermediate
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Verbs - Transitives
Chistina in Spain has sent Anna a lovely letter which looks at the "most enjoyable things about grammar".
Intermediate
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School
Max takes us on a journey through the history of words associated with places of learning.
Intermediate
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Noisy Yoga
A trendy London yoga institute known as a haven of peace and relaxation has come under attack from local residents -- for being too noisy. (Yoga, neighbors, summarizing, word forms, letter of complaint.)
Intermediate
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Life Saving Computing
Scientists using the power of more than a million home computers, all cranking along as one, have come up with thousands of possible compounds that could be developed as a cure for anthrax. (Computers, networks, health, research, scanning, intensive reading, present participles.)
Advanced
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Chain of Command
This warmer could be done as a review activity after students have learned about reported speech.
Intermediate
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Currency symbols
Arnaud asks Anna about the placement of currency symbols, so Anna consulted a style expert for this reply.
Intermediate
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Karaoke
This is about new technology that could give even the most tone-deaf karaoke crooner perfect pitch. It adjusts sing-along music automatically to the pitch and tempo best-suited to an individual singer. Good news for singers and listeners! (Technology, music, entertainment, survey, role play, nouns used as adjectives.)
Intermediate
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Pacific Weather Patterns
Cutting edge world science has produced a sudden consensus that a feared El Nino weather pattern is likely to be developing in the Pacific. (Weather forecasting, El Nino, affect and effect, keeping a weather journal.)
Upper-Intermediate
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Vocabulary and Storytelling
This warmer is an exciting way to use learned vocabulary.
Intermediate
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Participles -ed or -ing?
Janine asks about the 'rule' for using '-ed' and '-ing' adjectives.
Intermediate
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Sentimental Husbands
As married couples age, husbands appear to become more sentimental in talking about the relationship, while wives grow more reticent, according to a U.S. study of 20 long-term marriages: "The men were really excited about telling their stories... they were willing to show a wider range of emotions in terms of joy as well as sadness." (Relationships, emotion, men and women, pronouns, completing a story.)
Upper-Intermediate
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Lottery Court Case
A Canadian care worker who bought a lottery ticket that won C$11.4 million ($7.2 million) won't pocket a penny. She bought the ticket for an elderly client with whom, she said, she had a verbal agreement to share the jackpot if the ticket was a winner, but the client said she had made no such deal. The disagreement ended up in court. (Gambling, agreements, sharing, court cases, headlines, sequencing, use of superlative structure "One of the _____-est".)
Intermediate
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Luck of the draw
This warmer is an effective way to get students to concentrate on what they are learning.
Intermediate
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Vocabulary - people and persons
Carmen in Spain asks about the difference between people and persons.
Intermediate
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High on Music
Thailand has some new recruits for its war against the country's narcotics problem -- a team of convicts jailed for drug offenses have formed the country's first ever prison choir. (Talking about music and its effect on behavior, comparing things, debating.)
Pre-Intermediate
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Dead as a Dodo
Scientists at Oxford University have extracted DNA from a dodo, the famous flightless bird hunted to extinction in the 17th century. (DNA, endangered animals, summarizing, question words.)
Advanced
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A Longer Life
If you want to live to a healthy old age, head for Japan. The Japanese have the healthiest life expectancy among 191 countries in the world.
(The World Health Organization (WHO), diet, life expectancy, international rankings, adjectives, superlatives.)
Intermediate
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Body Language
Max takes a look at body language.
Intermediate
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Stuck!
A man squeezed into a garbage chute in an apartment building to retrieve a favorite old sweater thrown away by his wife, but got stuck between floors... (Rescue story, apartment buildings, garbage chutes, crossword puzzle.)
Pre-Intermediate
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Sorry About That!
Britain invades Spain! History? In fact, it was an accidental invasion by British troops in February 2002! (International relations, history, geography, errors, mistakes, diplomacy, Gibraltar, adjectives and adverbs, ordering events, guessing from context, negotiating.)
Intermediate
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Whoever
Whoever wants to know the answer to this one can ask Anna!
Intermediate
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Draw your name
This warmer is good for the first class of the year when students do not know each other's names.
Intermediate
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At the movies!
This warmer is an interesting and effective way to introduce a new theme or topic.
Pre-Intermediate
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Vocabulary - populate
Jesus from Spain asks about the word "populate".
Intermediate
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Magic Butterflies
Forget confetti or rice -- guests at chic Australian weddings are casting live butterflies at the newlyweds. (Weddings, traditions, business, writing an advertisement, verb forms.)
Intermediate
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'Drink of the Gods'
Growing health concerns about kava have thrown a spanner in South Pacific plans to turn it into a big export crop, straining already frail island economies. Vanuatu's Finance Minister, Joe Baumol Carlo, said adverse medical reports were not the fault of kava, but of the derivatives added by pharmaceutical companies. (Herbal medicines, health, natural remedies, kava, trade, business, government controls on drugs, prepositions.)
Upper-Intermediate
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Work Internet Stopped
Major corporations are increasingly classifying employee email and Internet privileges as potential security hazards, distractions or worse, costly legal dangers in the making. As a result, companies are considering dramatically curtailing, or even abolishing completely the freedoms, on which employees have grown increasingly reliant over the past few years. (The Internet, business, employment, personal phone calls at work, adverbs, writing a memo.)
Advanced
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Dogs of war
A descendant of the San Francisco attack dog that went wild and mauled a young woman to death is being advertised for sale in a local newspaper as "bad to the bone, protective and stable,". The owners of the killer dog have now been found guilty of murder. Dogs in Europe have killed an elderly woman and a young boy. Who is responsible? (Dogs, controls on dogs, verb participles used as adjectives, debate, essay writing.) WARNING: The news content in this lesson may be upsetting to some students.
Upper-Intermediate Lesson Updated: 4 April 2002
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Expert
An effective and fun warmer that can be used in the middle or towards the end of a lesson when students' attention might waver.
Pre-Intermediate
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Punctuation - apostrophes
Narbal from France asks for some help on when to use apostrophes.
Intermediate
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Chew!
Can't remember life before mobiles? Chances are you'll also struggle to recall your home phone number and family birthdays, a 2007 survey found and a 2002 joint study found that chewing gum has a positive effect on cognitive tasks such as thinking and memory. Make sure your students chew gum while they do this lesson! (Chewing gum, habits, science, memory, research, adverbs, the modal verbs may, might and could.)
Intermediate
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Animal Chatter
Max talks about the words we use to describe the noises animals make.
Intermediate
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Drummed Out
London's theater district could lose a popular musical because of local resident complaints that the show is too noisy. The show's producer first thought it was a joke. "Here we are in the middle of the West End playing a musical and they're saying it's too loud... But if anyone buys a place in the West End, they must understand they are not going to have peace, quiet and tranquillity." (Live performances, theater, conflicting rights, South Africa, London's West End, reviews, use of 'if'.)
Upper-Intermediate
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Wake Up, Doc!
Lack of sleep may make less-experienced doctors more likely to make mistakes, according to UK researchers. (Sleep, health, doctors, confidence, writing questions, doing a survey, using comparative sentence structures.)
Intermediate
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Caged In
A popular Indian film actor crammed himself into a tiny cage and asked for compassion for chickens as part of a "Compassion, Not Cages - Go Veg!" campaign by an international animal rights group. (Animal rights, vegetarians, protest, farming, 'so' linking two clauses.)
Elementary to Pre-Intermediate
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Coin Grab
A fun, communicative warmer that will keep you laughing.
Pre-Intermediate
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Vocabulary - happy and merry
A student from Vietnam wants to know the difference between happy and merry. Have a happy day!
Intermediate
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Four corners
This warmer is a good way of getting students moving and communicating with each other.
Pre-Intermediate
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Relative pronouns - What you mean
Guillermo in Spain has a student who has a lot of problems using that and what. Anna provides some advice on how to change that.
Intermediate
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In Love With My Car
A survey of drivers in the U.S. found that 63 percent actually talked to their cars, 43 percent said they considered their cars to be "part of the family," and 12 percent said they valued their cars more than anything else in their lives, including their children or their home. (Cars, automobiles, possessions, surveys, comparative language using 'more than' and 'less / fewer than'.)
Pre-Intermediate
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Ebola
The persistence of Congo's Ebola outbreak and its deadly spread to Uganda in recent days show how societal issues are as crucial as scientific advances in controlling disease outbreaks. (Health, diseases, preventing the spread of disease, present perfect simple and present perfect continuous.)
Intermediate
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It's a dog's life
A plush, furnished place with televisions, a Feng Shui garden, showers, piped music and an aromatherapy unit - for homeless dogs! Funded largely from money left in a will. (Wills, leaving money to people and organizations, debate, designing an advertisement, English expressions.)
Upper-Intermediate
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Vocabulary - False friends
Patrizia from Italy asks for help with words that could be the same - false friends.
Intermediate
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Silly Starters
This is a good warmer to use on the very first day of a new class to help students remember each other's names.
Pre-Intermediate
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Question tags
Valeria from Chile says she has had a lot of
problems finding information or exercises about questions tags so Anna offers some help.
Intermediate
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To get ..... or not?
Anna from Russia asks about being and getting hungry.
Intermediate
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Are you a giraffe?
This lively warmer is a nice complement to the many Instant Lessons with an animal topic. It ties in very nicely with the lesson "Shelter Pup Finds Career".
Pre-Intermediate
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