The ESL lesson – Money – starts with a warmer in which students should name things that they see in the pictures such as ‘credit card’, ‘wallet’, ‘bank check’, ‘ATM’, ‘cash register’ etc. Then students read the sentences with verbs like ‘pay’, ‘buy’, ‘lend’, ‘borrow’ and so on, and try to figure out the meanings of these verbs by choosing one of three possible answers.
Following this exercise are five short dialogues stuffed with money-related expressions such as ‘refund’, ‘bargain’, ‘discount’, and ‘debt’. After students have read the dialogues, they should match the expressions with their definitions.
This activity is followed by the text ‘How Banks Work’ which describes basic functions of a bank, types of bank accounts, plastic cards, as well as ways of borrowing and buying property on credit. The text contains loads of useful vocabulary, but the keywords are missing. Students should fill in the gaps in the texts with words which are given to them.
Text reading and gap filling is followed by a little discussion with questions like ‘Have you ever borrowed from a bank? What for?’ Students share their experiences while also discussing ways of lending and borrowing. The class ends with a crossword puzzle covering the vocabulary of the entire Money ESL lesson.