Green English Or What Would Motivate Us To Do Our Part

Level: Intermediate- Advanced Time: 60- 90 minutes Language Focus: Second Conditionals (and environment-related vocabulary Skills: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing

This lesson focuses on the factors which motivate us to take action to protect the environment. The language point which it incorporates is the use of conditionals sentences and the second conditional in particular. The lesson is designed for intermediate to advanced English learners and would take 60- 90 minutes to teach. 1. Give the learners a list of actions that we can take to protect the environment and ask them to say which ones would help to make a difference, while concealing the fact that they would all help. Here are some examples you could use: -insulating your house - buying a smaller car - recycling plastic bottles - re-using a bag at the supermarket - taking the train instead of flying - turning the heating down

- turning the television off instead of leaving it on standby 2. Ask the learners which activities on the list they do or have done at some point (this provides an opportunity for some present simples versus present perfect practice). They discuss their responses in pairs or small groups and then feedback to the rest of the group. Aim to facilitate neutral discussions and avoid any possible elements of boasting or learners feeling left out if they are not as active as others. There should be at least one activity that everybody has taken part in. 3. Ask the learners to give a reason why they have done one of the activities that they have done and why they havent done one of the activities that they havent done. They discuss their answers in pairs or small groups and then feedback to the rest of the group, at which point the teacher could draw a table on the board with the reasons given by the learners: reasons for taking action on one side and reasons for not taking action on the other. 4. Introduce the concept of the carrot and stick model for motivation. Carrots are factors which motivate us to do something and sticks are factors that we want to avoid. Ask them to consider if this is an appropriate model for their motivation to help the environment and if so, why or why not. Can they think of a better metaphor?

5. Ask one of the strongest learners in the group: How motivated would you be to do something to protect the environment, if you had to get up early on a Saturday morning? -highly motivated, -very motivated - motivated enough to do it - not very motivated - not motivated at all Elicit the answer in a complete sentence that starts with if, encouraging the learners to recycle the language from the question: If I had to get up early on a Saturday morning, I would not be very motivated. Write up the complete question and answer and then ask the whole group: How motivated would you be, if protecting the environment won you the respect of your friends or colleagues? Ensure that the answer is a complete sentence. Give them some more similar questions to ask and answer in pairs. 6. Ask the learners which of the two components of these if-sentences is the condition for the fulfillment of the other component. The fulfillment of this condition is distant from reality. Draw the learners attention to the following structure: If + past simple, would + infinitive without to. They can then create and ask their own questions about motivation to protect the environment using the same structures. 7. As a follow-up activity, you could discuss factors which motivate them to do other things, for example learning English.