ESL Environment Vocabulary Lesson

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW

This free ESL environment vocabulary lesson plan contains activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials for C1 advanced students. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to express their thoughts on a variety of lifestyles, actively use advanced adjectives to describe the environment, nature, and lifestyles, and converse about their ideal ‘paradise’ place to live.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

This lesson plan on ESL environment vocabulary and alternative lifestyles opens up by students comparing and contrasting the pros and cons of different kinds of lifestyles. This includes the difference between living in a big city, a small town, and remotely in nature. Students proceed to an activity in which they combine adjectives with nouns to describe images of natural environments. They proceed to a discussion questions about the environment in the images, or ones they have visited. There is one more short discussion section about students’ thoughts on what comes to mind when they hear “paradise”.

VIDEO & LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Students watch a video about the lifestyle of a man who lives off the grid in nature. Students do a listening activity for gist on some of the aspects of the man’s life and the environment, followed by an activity in which students listen for detail and choose the correct word they hear the man use to describe the environment and his life.

DISCUSSION & ESL ENVIRONMENT VOCABULARY

To follow up the video, students do some lifestyle discussion questions and give their own feedback about the video and the man’s life off the grid. They then proceed to learn some advanced ESL environment vocabulary. This is based on some adjectives the man uses in the video to describe his lifestyle and the environment. Students do a matching activity featuring some of the adjectives below:

• pristine
• vast
• snow-capped
• crystal-clear
• lush
• majestic
• idyllic

All of these adjectives will provide students with the language they need in order to conduct the final activation phase of the lesson, which is described below.

'YOUR PARADISE LIFE' ACTIVATION

In this ‘paradise life’ activation, students imagine they’re moving somewhere they consider to be ‘paradise’. They have the option to choose a place from a short list, or think of their own. Then, they can choose whether they want to engage in a discussion on what they think this life would be like, or do a role play in which they imagine they’re actually living there and speaking with a friend on the phone about it.

Benefits of using this ESL environment vocabulary lesson plan:

• Critical Thinking: This lesson plan encourages critical thinking and discussions about sustainable living, ecological impacts, and lifestyle choices.
• Vocabulary Enhancement: Students can not only expand their environmental vocabulary, which is useful for discussing global issues.
• Engaging Themes: The combination of topics like the environment and alternative lifestyles connects language learning with current environmental and lifestyle trends, which can drive student interest.
• Imaginative Role Play: The role play activation described above gives students a fun way to imagine their ideal, paradise lifestyles while using advanced vocabulary about the environment.

If you teach any advanced students who are interested in the environment, or if you’re looking for the right alternative lifestyle ESL lesson plan for your class, then this one is for you! The rich language and adjectives they’re exposed to in the video and lesson plan will be useful on a variety of levels. We’d also like to highlight again that this is a free lesson, so why not try it out? Download this ESL lesson plan on environment vocabulary and alternative lifestyles now!