Paul Bress, Teacher, Writer

In this activity, students compare the advantages and disadvantages of living in different countries. It takes 90 minutes and it is designed for intermediate students.

Preparation
Write these phrases on the board:

• standard of living
• mentality
• cuisine
• political situation
• environment
• climate
• culture

Ask your students what they understand by these terms. If necessary, explain what they mean.

Procedure

• Tell your students they have to choose a different country to go to live in
• To make their choice, they have to rank the phrases in the introduction in order of importance. Tell them to do this in writing.
• Ask your students to get into groups of four people and compare and discuss the order that they have put the phrases in.
• Reconvene as a whole class. Ask some of the students what they had in first position etc. Ask them to say why.
• Encourage some class discussion on the topic.
• Ask each student to make a note of any cause-effect relationships between the phrases. Give them time to think and write these down.
• Ask each student to state and explain the cause-effect relationship.
• Encourage a class discussion on this.

Why it works
This activity encourages students to speak, because they have to make individual decisions before talking to the group. This means that they will definitely have something to say.

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