In this lesson, students will consider the drawbacks and benefits of a world that relies on smartphones. They will watch a video about the topic and complete some comprehension tasks, as well as sharing their own opinions.

After watching and completing the video quiz, ask students to discuss the following questions in groups: Do you agree with the main idea in the video? Have smart phones turned us into "dumb people"? Was life better before smart phones?

For a follow up task, students could prepare for a debate or an opinion essay, focusing on the benefits and drawbacks of smart phones in society.

Show the class pictures (on a slide, or printed out) of the following items: a pager, a map, an alarm clock, a camera, an mp3 player, a torch, GameBoy, a calendar and a diary. Ask them to discuss in pairs whether they use these things and if not, what they use instead. (Depending on the age of your students, this could be quite revealing - they might not know what some of the items are, in which case this could be done as more of a guessing game).This should quickly move into a discussion on smart phones and their many uses.

Next, show the image from the short film of three girls sitting at a bus stop. Ask the students if this is a common scene. When and where do people use their phones? Keep this brief.

Now, explain that they are going to watch a short film related to the topic of smart phones. For the first watch, they will just watch and try to find the answers to the following questions: What is the speaker's view on mobile phones? How would his life have been different if he had used his phone to find the address he was looking for?* Leave these questions up while playing the video (on a small whiteboard or A3 paper on the wall) for students to refer to.  Play the video all the way through for the class to get the general idea. *You may need or choose to simplify the second question since it contains third conditional! 

After the first watch, have students discuss their answers in pairs or small groups before conducting brief whole class feedback. Tell them they are going to watch again, but this time they will need to listen carefully in order to answer questions.

Imagine how different life could be if people weren't always staring at their phones...

Look Up - Drawbacks & Benefits Of Smart Phones

look-up-drawbacks-benefits-of-smart-phones

Let's do English ESL general vocabulary practice. In this lesson, students will consider the drawbacks and benefits of a world that relies on smartphones. They…