Benefits of being bilingual

Introduction

This lesson was devised to celebrate International Mother Language Day on 21 February, which exists to promote awareness of linguistic diversity and multilingualism. However, it can be used at any time of the year.

The lesson begins with a few statements about bilingualism. The students decide if these are true or false and then read a text to check their ideas. Having discussed the topic of the text, the students move on to look at impersonal report structures. These are very common in essays, articles and more academic-type writing, and it is useful for students at this level to be aware of them and to be able to produce them accurately.

After some practice with these structures, the lesson ends with a more light-hearted and personalised practice activity.

Aims:

• To raise awareness of the benefits of speaking more than one language
• To enable students to recognise and use impersonal report structures
• To provide students with practice in making predictions and reading to confirm them

Age/level:

Adults or older teenagers with CEF level B2 and above

Time:

45–60 minutes

Materials:

The lesson and student worksheet (3 pages) can be downloaded in PDF format below

Important: Please read

To support teachers having to work online during the COVID-19 pandemic, this lesson has been adapted for teachers providing online classes. The lesson notes are specifically for online lessons and the class materials have been made available as a PowerPoint.

Included in the teachers' notes, there is guidance and advice for what teachers need to know and do before and at the beginning of an online class. Please read the lesson instructions carefully before using them. They are for guidance only, and designed to be used with the most common online platforms. You may need to adapt the lesson to the format and online platform you are working with.