Can Meta’s Threads kill Twitter?
Lesson plan overview
This breaking news ESL lesson is about the recently launched social media platform Threads by Meta, which is a direct competitor to Twitter. It could be used both as a General English and Business English lesson. Students will discuss social media platforms and competition. You can combine this lesson with the following lessons: “Big Tech monopolies”, “Phrasal verbs: social media“, and “Idioms: competition”.
Speaking: the lesson starts with a general discussion about different social media platforms, what they are best for and which ones students use.
Vocabulary: As a pre-listening vocabulary activity, students look at 9 sentences and match the words and expressions in bold (leverage, direct competitor, flee, challenger, buzz) to their definitions. To practice, they complete 5 sentences with the correct word and then discuss 4 questions given.
Pre-listening discussion: Students discuss Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the recent changes at Twitter and Meta’s response.
Listening: Students watch a video “Meta’s new Threads app ignites social media war with Twitter ” and answer 7 questions. Finally, students engage in a post-listening discussion and talk about the future of Twitter.
You can use the conversation cards to review the target vocabulary and for additional speaking practice.
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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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