Your dream job - an EFL/ESL lesson plan

This is aimed at intermediate and post intermediate students and is a way to practice discussion, presentation and listening skills. You'll need an access to the internet and a way of recording either audio or video.

Lesson Plan

1 Students form groups of 2 - 4 and give them 2 minutes to write down as many jobs as possible e.g. teacher, doctor etc.

2 The groups with the longest list writes it on the board. Ask other students to add to it.

3 While the students are doing this write down their names on pieces of paper. When they have finished the job exercise hand out the names at random.

4 Students now decide which job from the list on the board would best suit the person whose name is on their piece of paper. The student then tells the other what job they choose and why.

5 Now ask students to write down their own dream job and why it would suit them.

6 Discuss this in pairs/groups.

7 Now explain to students that they are going to watch a video another job and they have to write down as many details about it as possible.

(To find out more details about the job click here)

8 Students compare notes and decide what kind of person would be best for this job.

9 Now explain that in part of the application for the position involves posting a 60 second video on Youtube . See some examples here. Their job is to create their own video. To find out more details about the position get them to study the full job description here.

This can be done with a webcam, video camera or their mobile phone (audio or video). The video can be edited with Windows Movie Maker, which comes as standard with every copy of Windows. Alternatively, they can use their own images or images off the internet to create a video with still images and a voice over. Photostory 3, Windows Movie Maker or Slideshare, and Animoto are some of the programs you could use.

Read more about the person who got the job, Ben Southall.

Re-imagining the essay

One of the beauties of using web 2.0 tools is that you can re-invent more traditional learning exercises. A case in point is the discursive essay which most students have to master at some point during their EFL/ESL careers. For most this will be a boring grind which they will struggle with. However, we can sugar the pill be using the possibilities offered by the internet in order to awaken their interest and also get them to practice other language skills.

Basically, the idea is that we after working on the essay we then present it using pictures, video, music etc. in the form of an online presentation. There are a number of free tools that allow students to do this. The most widely available is Windows Movie Maker which comes with every copy of Windows. With it you can add photographs, video, titles, music, and voice over. In essence what you are asking students to do is turn their essay into a documentary. See the video tutorial below.



While this may sound ambitious it does not require much in the way of fancy equipment or technical skills. Video can be provided via a cheap web cam, digital camera or the student's mobile phone. The program is pretty simple to use and teaching students how to use it is a pretty good language learning opportnity in itself.



A simpler version might include just pictures downloaded from the internet - the Life archieve on Google has some great ones or you could used Flickr and a voice over which can be captured via a cheap microphone (mine cost three euros and works just fine). you could also use Movie Maker but Microsoft's Photostory 3 or the internet based application, Voicethread.


Whatever approach you use the emphasis here is on creativity and making what you wrote as interesting as possible. To give your student some ideas of the possibilities show them the Magnum photo agencies collection of photo essays here.

As well as knuckling down to the discipline of putting their thoughts on paper in essay form they get to work on speaking and presentation skills all of which will probably feature in any exam they are likely to take.

Mash it up

I posted this video again just to remind myself that you can a lot using the simplest of internet tools. The video was made using Microsoft's Photostory 3 (which can be downloaded free from here) and pictures of Thessaloniki I took using a cheap (and now even cheaper) point and shoot digital camera. The music is Help Yourself by Death in Vegas.