Is the AI boom a bubble?
Lesson plan overview
With this ESL lesson plan, students will explore artificial intelligence (AI), market bubbles, and disruptive innovations. They will analyze historical economic bubbles, practice using business and investing terminology, and build confidence in expressing opinions on technology trends, market hype, and investment risks. This lesson is most suitable for B2-C1-level learners and is ideal for students interested in business English, current events, and the evolving tech landscape. Other lessons you might like are “Business trends“, “Where are Europe’s innovative companies?”, “Phrasal verbs: trends and graphs“, and “Productivity and AI tools“.
Speaking:
The lesson begins with warm-up questions about financial hype, and market trends. Next, they look at the definition of a market bubble and 5 images, illustrating historical market bubbles (e.g., the Tulip Mania, the .com bubble, the housing bubble) and discuss what they know about them and their impact.
Reading: Students read about 5 market bubbles.
Vocabulary: Students learn essential investing and financial terms such as speculation, path to profitability, valuation, venture capitalist, burst, and hype. The words are introduced in the text. They match them to their definitions and complete a gap-fill activity to reinforce meaning and usage in context.
Speaking: Students reflect on AI’s role in industries and how it might be shaping future market bubbles.
Listening:
Students watch a video titled “Is the AI boom turning into a market bubble?” and answer comprehension questions about market projections, investment risks, and lessons from the dot-com crash. This activity builds listening skills for understanding business-related content and encourages students to connect past events with current trends.
Speaking: Finally, students then discuss a range of AI tools—from chatbots and art generators to trading bots and smart devices—considering who benefits from them, who might be a potential paying customer, and whether they’re valuable or overhyped.
For more speaking practice, you can use the conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
All video-based ESL lesson plans include online pre-class activities, which are FREE and can be completed without registration. Perfect for teachers who wish to embrace the blended learning approach. By providing students with resources and engagement opportunities before the actual class session, educators can foster active participation, enhance comprehension, and optimise in-class discussions.
The pre-class activities are optional: if you choose not to assign them, or your students don’t complete them, it will not disturb the flow of the class. You can find and review the pre-class activities for this lesson plan here:
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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