Where do you shop?

This lesson encourages learners to develop listening comprehension skills while exploring some of the different types of shops we can go to and the products we can buy there. The materials provide meaningful language practice and encourage learners to think critically by discussing the positive and negative effects of buying products from different places on people and the environment. 

Lesson outcomes

All learners will:

• learn and review shopping vocabulary 
• listen to people talking about places where they like shopping 
• learn some facts about what happens to products before and after we buy them
• discuss the positives and negatives of these facts for people and the environment. 

Age and level

13–17 at CEFR level A1/A2

Materials

Lesson plan
Student worksheet
Presentation
Transcript
Audio file

Lead-in (10 minutes)

• Show the learners the three images on Slide 2 and ask them, in pairs, to talk about what is the same about these places and what is different. Ask them to look closely and imagine that they are there. Ask them 'What can you see? What can you smell? What can you buy ... in these places?' Set three minutes for this.  
• Monitor closely and put some of the learners' ideas on the board as they are on task. 
• After doing this, ask the learners to look at the ideas on the board, and deal with some pronunciation and vocabulary if needed. 

Listening 1 (5 minutes)

• Tell the learners that they're going to listen to three people talking about these different places to shop. Show Slide 3 and ask them to listen and put the places in the order that they hear them. 
• Play the audio once, then quickly check in pairs. 
• Ask 'Which place did the first/second/third person talk about?' Click on the slide to reveal the answers. 
• Follow-up question: Which place do you like to go to, and why? 

Pre-teach vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Tell the learners that they're going to listen again to really find out which place they want to go to most, but first they'll look at some words to help.  
• Set up the activity: learners put the words in the sentences. They can do this individually, then check with a partner, or do the activity in pairs. Hand out Worksheet Activity 1. 
• In feedback, show Slide 4 with the answers and check the meaning of any words learners found challenging. Model and drill each for pronunciation – elicit where the word stress is on each word and highlight any difficult phonemes for them in response to their needs.

Listening 2 (10 minutes)

• Now the learners listen again. Set up the listening task on Slide 5. Learners make a note of what we can buy in each place, and why the people like shopping there. (See Worksheet Activity 2.) 
• Play the audio again (twice if needed) .
• The learners check their answers in pairs.  
• Show Slide 6. Click to reveal what each speaker says they can buy (underlined in blue).    
• Elicit why the people like shopping in each place. Then click to reveal what each speaker says about why they like the places (underlined in green). 

Productive task part 1 (10 minutes)

• Tell the learners that you have bought three things, one from each place: the market, the shopping centre and the charity shop. Show Slide 7 and elicit where they think you bought them from. Reveal the answers on the slide (second-hand shirt = charity shop, fruit and vegetables = market, jeans = shopping centre). 
• Tell the learners that you need their help. You want to know more about what happens to the products before and after you buy them and how that affects people and the environment.    
• Tell them that you have some facts about these products. They need to put the sentences in the correct columns (see Worksheet Activity 3). Do the first one with them. Make sure you let them know that some go in two columns.  
• Monitor closely and help learners with ideas and language (you may need to pre-teach factory, lorries and to transport). Here is an opportunity to put some language on the board in reaction to learners' needs, or that could be useful for the next stage of the lesson. 
• Show the answers on Slide 8 – reveal one column at a time. Allow learners to check the answers themselves and ask questions. You can help/explain further and react to their needs. 

Productive task part 2 (10 minutes)

• Put the learners into groups of about four. Tell them that you still need their help because you want to know if these facts are positive, negative or both in relation to people and the environment. 
• Do the first one with them with Someone made them in a big factory for the second-hand shirt and the jeans. Let this be an open-class discussion. Some learners may say that factories are negative for the environment because they make pollution. Others may say they are positive for people because they give them jobs.  
• There is an opportunity to put some process language on the board to help the learners: I think … is negative because …; Yes, but we can also say it's positive because …; No, I disagree, I think it's ... Monitor closely and take notes of some of the good ideas learners say (not their language – their ideas) and write this under 'correct language' on the board. 
• Use these ideas on the board to finish the class with some feedback. Let this be generated by the ideas on the board and the learners' comments and questions. 
• Finish with Slide 9 by asking learners, in their opinion, which is the best for people and the environment. 

Extension task 

• The learners could draw/make a poster/infographic of the journey of an item typically bought from a market, a shopping centre or a second-hand shop to show the impact on people and the environment.