OVERVIEW & OBJECTIVES

This ESL lesson plan about the internet offers engaging activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for C1 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Discuss how the internet has changed and debate its benefits, problems, and future.
• Explore vocabulary linked to algorithms, advertising, platforms, privacy, and online life.
• Watch a video about the internet’s shift from an open web to platform control.
• Practice adjective-to-adverb forms to describe online changes and trends precisely.
• Evaluate the platforms they use and discuss their value, problems, and possible changes.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

Students begin by examining two opposing views of the internet: one argues that it has largely been a force for good, while the other claims it has done more harm than good. They predict the arguments each person might use and decide which side they agree with more.

Next, there is an activity to discuss topics like how the internet has evolved, which turning points have mattered most, and what they remember about using the internet in the past.

They then classify features such as independent websites, divisive content, advertising, misinformation, algorithms, monetization, and noisy early web design according to whether they associate them with the early internet, today’s internet, or both.

The preview finishes with three statements about big tech, privacy, personalization, and advertising. Students choose whether they totally agree, agree to some extent, or disagree and explain their views.

VIEWING ACTIVITY

The video traces the internet from its early, open and decentralized ideals to a web increasingly shaped by social media, advertising, engagement algorithms, and a small number of powerful platforms. It also explores why many users now feel that the internet has become less useful or more frustrating. Before watching, students discuss what the internet was originally created for and what they know about its early history.

In the first exercise, students answer short questions about Tim Berners-Lee’s original conception of the web, one description of the internet in the 1990s, and Jimmy Wales’ early vision for Wikipedia.

Then, students complete a summary about the internet’s transformation. They listen for missing words related to the rise of ads, misinformation, toxic content, social media, the founders’ original ideals, and the growing commercialization of online spaces.

Finally, students choose the three ideas supported by the final section of the video. The statements cover engagement algorithms, harmful content, human responses to threatening information, platform control, and the idea of “enshittification.”

VIEWING FOLLOW-UP

Students first respond to the ideas in the video. They discuss what stood out, whether the video presents the internet positively or negatively, how the web could improve, the positive ways they use it, and which platforms or services have changed everyday activities such as communication, shopping, education, travel, and entertainment.

Next, students complete six statements by changing words in brackets into the correct adverb forms. The examples relate to Reddit, SoundCloud, Canva, Duolingo, Strava, and Skyscanner. Target forms include marginally, alarmingly, undeniably, drastically, noticeably, increasingly, and deceptively, with students using word formation to describe change, scale, reliability, and online experiences more precisely.

LOOKING AT HOW WE USE THE INTERNET

Students first choose two or three online platforms, services, apps, or tools that they use, with examples from social media, AI tools, streaming services, search, shopping, and dating apps.

For Option A, they select discussion questions for each platform and evaluate what it does well, how much they trust it, how their experience has changed, what has become worse, what could improve, and whether they would change the way they personally use it.

Option B asks students to connect their chosen platforms with topics such as algorithms, personalization, privacy and data collection, advertising, tools and features, AI-generated content, user friendliness, and misinformation. They explain how these factors affect their online experience and can use the lesson’s adjectives and adverbs in their responses.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS INTERNET ESL LESSON

• Gives teachers a highly relevant C1 topic with strong scope for opinion and debate.
• Provides modern vocabulary for algorithms, platforms, privacy, ads, and digital culture.
• Develops detailed listening through short answers, a gap fill, and evidence selection.
• Adds a focused word-formation task with useful adjective and adverb pairs.
• Connects classroom discussion directly to the websites, apps, and tools students use.