Social mobility and meritocracy: Does hard work guarantee success?
Lesson plan overview
This B2–C1 ESL lesson explores the topic of social mobility, meritocracy, inequality, and the idea of the American Dream. Students develop and refine vocabulary related to society and opportunity while engaging in critical discussion about what determines success in modern societies. The lesson encourages learners to analyse whether meritocracy truly leads to fairness, and to consider how factors such as education quality, family background, social capital, and government policy influence life chances.
Speaking:
The lesson begins with a guided discussion on social mobility in students’ own countries and internationally. Learners compare opportunities across generations and evaluate how easily people can move between social classes.
Vocabulary:
Students learn and practise key vocabulary and collocations related to society and inequality, including poverty, inequality, privilege, social mobility, welfare system, social safety net, social capital, career prospects, common good, and affordable housing. They complete matching, gap-fill, and collocation exercises, and apply the language in context through controlled and communicative practice.
Speaking: Students discuss questions related to the target expressions and rank factors that influence success.
Listening:
Students watch a video featuring philosopher Michael Sandel discussing meritocracy and inequality. They complete a listening comprehension task and engage in a post-listening discussion.
Vocabulary:
The lesson also introduces and practises idiomatic expressions such as rags-to-riches, make ends meet, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, level the playing field, and be born with a silver spoon in your mouth. They rewrite sentences using the idiomatic expressions and use them in discussion questions.
For further practice, you can use the printable conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
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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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