From conflict to peace in Northern Ireland

Introduction:

In this multiple skills lesson, students will read about key groups who took part in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and identify key points to negotiate.They will learn some collocations connected to negotiating and some functional language for reaching a compromise. As a final activity, students will develop their speaking skills by taking part in a role play in which they have to resolve a conflict.

Learning outcomes:

• Develop an understanding of the wants and needs of different key groups in the Northern Ireland peace process while reading for detail
• Use collocations related to negotiations and compromises
• Use functional phrases to show active listening, make concessions and reach an agreement

Age and level:

13-17, Adults (B2+)

Time:

Approximately 60 minutes (more if including extension activities)

Materials:

The materials can be downloaded below. 

• Lesson plan
• Student worksheet
• Class presentation

Task 1: Engaging students in the aims of the lesson (2-3 mins)

• Show the welcome slides (1 and 2) and ask students what they know about Northern Ireland. If students completed Lesson 1 (video lesson), then ask what they remember. 
• Show students the aims of the session (slide 3). Read out the aim of the lesson and get the students to guess, in pairs, what the missing words are. Then click through the blue boxes to reveal the answers. 
• Note: You may need to pre-teach compromise. 
• Answers: wants, needs, compromise, conflict. 

Task 2: Key players in the Northern Ireland peace process (8 mins)

• Tell students that they will meet 4 groups that played a role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Remind students that these were not the only groups involved but they played a key role. Show slide 8. 
• Label each student A, B, C, D. Now click to reveal which group each student will read about. 
• Set the questions: who are they? What did they want? 
• As read about the Unionists, Bs read about the Nationalists, Cs read about UK and Irish governments and Ds will read about the NIWC. Give students 1 minute for this. 
• NOTE: tell students that the Taoiseach in Ireland is the equivalent of the UK Prime Minister 
• Students put the texts face down on the table/turn it over/close it and tell the rest of their group about the people they just read about. 
• Once students have exchanged their information, go to slide 9. (If you want to explore any language from the texts or clarify anything, the texts are also on slides 9 and 10). 
• Students discuss the question on the slide in their groups (based on the wants and needs of each group, what do you think the key areas of conflict were?) Before students discuss, draw their attention to the useful language in the speech bubbles (and you could usefully elicit other phrases that could be used on slide 11).
• Give students 2-3 minutes to identify the key areas. Then, if you have time, regroup students so that all As are working together, all Bs are working together etc. Students repeat the task with their new group. 
• Conduct whole class feedback and elicit and comment on their answers. Ask the final question on slide 11 to the whole class – do you know of any similar conflicts/situations in other places?

Task 3: Reflecting on key points in the Peace Talks (8 mins)

• Show slide 12. Ask students to now reflect on what the key negotiation points were in the peace talks. Either set this up as a group discussion or keep it as a plenary discussion. 
• Reveal the answers by clicking through. 
• At this point, you might want to clarify the word ‘consent’ and ‘citizenship’ in this context. 
• Introduce the concept of compromise here. Ask students: ‘when we negotiate, do we always get exactly what we want? Do we have to give up some of our demands to reach agreement? What do we call this?’ 
• Show slide 14 for a definition of compromise and elicit the words underneath the boxes.
• 1. Agreement 2. Argument 3. Demands 4. Opinion

Task 4: Exploring collocations and personalisation (8 mins)

• Slide 19 - Tell students that finding a solution to end decades of violence and conflict and bring lasting peace was not easy. Many things needed to be done. Show students the sentence stems 1-4. Tell students they match with the endings a-d. In pairs, get students to match the first and second half of the sentences and then show the answers by clicking through. 
• Tell students that you will explore three phrases from the list. Show the words in the hexagon on slide 21. Ask students to identify the word outside the hexagon which doesn’t fit. Click through to show answers. 
• Show the questions on slide 23. Give students some thinking time (1-2) minutes to give them time to think of their answers. 
• Now put students in pairs to get them to discuss their answers together. 
• Conduct plenary feedback on content and language (error correction and good language use)

Task 5: Language focus (8 mins)

• Slide 24 - Tell students we will look at some useful phrases that can be used when people try to resolve conflict and reach a compromise. Ask students to match the functions to the groups. Click through to show answers. 
• Show the answers on slide 25.

Task 6: Speaking task (20 mins)

• Tell students that they are about to resolve some conflicts. Read on the task on slide 26. 
• Put students into groups of 4 and label them A, B, C, D. Show the roles on slide 27. 
• Give students 8 minutes to discuss how the arcade should be used, encouraging them to reach a compromise. 
• Then get students to discuss the reflection questions on slide 28 in groups. 
• Now rearrange the groups. Show students the situation on slide 29. Once again, label them A, B, C, D and show the roles on slide 30. 
• Students have around 8 minutes to reach a compromise. 
• Then get students to discuss the reflection questions on slide 31 in groups. 
• Plenary feedback on content and language

Task 7: Reflecting on what students did and learnt (3 mins)

• Slide 32 - Show the lesson aims again and get students in pairs to give them a thumbs up if they think they liked the activities and a thumbs down if they didn’t. They discuss why they decided thumbs up and thumbs down. Return to the confidence thermometer and ask students to decide how confident they feel in each of the areas.

Further information: 

If you would like to know more about the Northern Ireland Peace Process before you teach and to help inform your lesson, you can go here:

• Year ’98: The Making of the Good Friday Agreement A five-part podcast series from the BBC exploring the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement
• What is the Good Friday Agreement? Information about the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (source: BBC)

Other resources in the series:

Click or tap on the title below to access other resources in this series. 

• Belfast (Good Friday) Peace Agreement – visual literacy
• Belfast (Good Friday) Peace Agreement – upper-intermediate video lesson
• Belfast (Good Friday) Peace Agreement – pre-intermediate video lesson

The resources in this series were developed by Sea Steele and Sarah Smith at eltonix