Seasonality in business
Lesson plan overview
This Business ESL lesson plan deals with seasonal businesses and strategies to minimize the effects of seasonality (diversification and off-season marketing). Other lessons you might find interesting are: “Business models”, “Business relationships”, “Overpopulation” (for describing graphs), “Christmas marketing“, “FOMO marketing“, “Phrasal verbs: marketing and advertising”, and “Phrasal verbs: sales and selling”.
Speaking: The lesson starts with a few conversion questions about seasonal businesses.
Vocabulary: Students learn vocabulary to describe graphs and charts. First, they look at 4 graphs showing the sales of 4 seasonal businesses, and match the business to the correct graph. Next, they read a short analysis for each graph, and learn vocabulary to describe graphs (e.g. a surge, a boom, skyrocket, soar, pick up, spike dramatically, a slump, a dip, a plunge, plummet, a drastic decline, taper off, drop off completely). Then, students are given 2 more graphs and are asked to describe them. After that, they are given a few seasonal businesses and are asked to talk about their peak seasons, and off-seasons, using the vocabulary.
Vocabulary: Students learn vocabulary related to business seasonality (e.g. diversify, multiple revenue streams, core business, a window, inventory management, staffing). To practice, they complete a gap-fill activity, and then discuss a few conversation questions.
Videos: Students watch 2 videos. The first one is about diversifying a seasonal business: “Seasonality in business revenue / being busy at different times of the year”. The second one is about off-season marketing: “Seasonal marketing tips” (this video is quite long, so students watch the first 4 minutes).
Speaking: Finally, students are asked to discuss tier organization (if is experiences seasonality), or another business, and to think of an off-season marketing strategy, and ways to diversify it.
For more speaking practice, you can check out 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.
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In-class activities
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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