What is holding women back at work
Lesson plan overview
This business English lesson plan deals with the topic of women at work and the different behaviours that might be holding them back from getting ahead. Students learn expressions to talk about progress, practise their listening comprehension and talk about gender equality, women in the workplace and behaviours that help people advance in their careers. You can combine it with the worksheet “Idioms: gender equality”, or with the video-based lesson plans “Mental load and invisible labor“, “How to get promoted“, “Paternity leave“, and “Dealing with setbacks anf failure“.
Vocabulary: After a short initial discussion, students learn phrases to talk about progress (e.g. we’ve come a long way, we’ve made great strides, there is considerable room for improvement). Then they use this newly-learned vocabulary to talk about different areas of gender equality and the changes that have taken place in the last 50 years. The next activity is a multiple-choice about idioms and expressions students are going to later hear in the video (can’t see the forest for the trees, stay on top of, get in your way, have a hard time).. They practise these expressions by answering a few discussion questions and sharing their personal experiences in the workplace.
Listening: The listening part starts with a pre-listening discussion: students look at different types of behaviours and talk about how each of them might help or get in the way of getting ahead professionally. Then they watch a video: “5 habits holding you back from success” and complete a table with information from the video.
Vocabulary extension: Students learn common expressions used when talking about gender equality (e.g. glass ceiling, gender pay gap, affirmative action) and wrap up the lesson with a conversation on the topic.
Homework: 3 research topics are suggested which aim to develop the topic further. The topics, combined with the additional resources provided on theenglishflows.com provide plenty of extra opportunities for contact with topic-related vocabulary in order to reinforce and enrich it
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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
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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