This is an English lesson plan aimed at gaining EFL students awareness of social media addiction and smart phone addiction.

Level: Intermediate/ Upper-Intermediate

Aim: For students to prove comprehension of the video by having a discussion about the pros and cons of social media and smart phones.

Pre-viewing

Lead-in: Play hangman or jumbled letters for “social media” and elicit some ideas about it, for example, ask students Which social media networks do you use?  How do they work? Plus / minuses of each one, Do you think social media is a positive thing ? Why/ Why not?

Pre-teach:

Tycoon, ( appstore ? ), notional follower ( similar to theoretical follower ? ) , to be jacked in ( = connected) , adept = very skilled, it’s up to you, dopamine.

Resultado de imagen de smart phone addiction

While watching the video


Intro: Possibly pause on each initial image and ask students what they can see / elicit their reactions.

Listening for gist: Focus questions 

According to the video, is technology neutral? Why/ Why not?  How is it being used?

Note: the video has subtitles so maybe initially just let students listen without the image.

Listening for detail: Comprehension questions:

( according to the video )

  1. What do social media tycoons have to stop pretending to be?
  2. What do they compare social media to?
  3. How many times a day do people check their phones?
  4. Why do people check their phone even when they haven’t received a notification?
  5. When do we feel stressed?
  6. Why didn’t Steve Jobs allow his children to use the iphone ?
  7. What do people do at a restaurant that is bizarre?
  8. Why isn’t the internet uniting the world?
  9. What are we doing as consumers?
  10. What is the challenge at the end of the video?

Post-viewing discussion:

Resultado de imagen de smart phone addiction

Student A: You like social media. Talk about the advantages of social media.

Student B: You are sceptical about social media. Talk about the disadvantages of social media.