TED TALK: THE SECRET OF LONGEVITY…

/ B2, C1, Listening training, Speaking and Conversation, Teachers, Vocabulary training

November 2020 – Here’s a lesson idea based on Susan Pinker’s TED Talk from April 2017 about longevity and why some people live longer than others. The lesson is aimed at B2 level (or higher) and includes listening and vocabulary training. The main target is to start and finish the lesson with an open conversation about the topic.

LEAD-IN:

Start the activity with a short conversation discussing some of these questions:
– Would you like to live more than 100 years? Why/Why not?
– Why do you think some people live very long?
– Have you ever known a person who lived 100 years or more? Can you describe him/her?
– Do you know what the average life span for men and women is in your country? How do you feel about it?
– Have you ever considered to move to another country? If so, where and why?
– Do you think that living in some places might help you live longer? If so, why?

MAIN PART:

Now give/send the STUDENT’S VERSION of the worksheet to every student and ask them to read the 10 questions to the video.

VIDEO:

Watch the video and answer the questions (mind: you can also put on subtitles in English, but this way the exercise turns into reading):

After watching, go through the questions and give feedback.

VOCABULARY TRAINING (page 2-3):

Ask your students to take read some passages from the transcript and explain the highlighted words/expressions (they can use a preferably monolingual dictionary to understand their meanings). Discuss these in open class.

Ask students to complete the sentences with the words/expressions discussed before.
Give feedback.