Where are Europe’s innovative companies?
Lesson plan overview
This upper-intermediate Business ESL lesson is focused on innovation and why Europe is lagging behind in terms of producing tech giants, unicorns, and innovative companies in general. It is focused on speaking, with students discussing innovation, comparing small and big companies, entrepreneurial spirit, brain drain, and how to stimulate innovation. Other lessons you might find interesting are: “Big tech monopolies”, “Would your business survive Dragons’ Den?” , “Innovation inspired by nature“, “Brain drain”, “Employee mindset vs entrepreneur mindset”, “Business models”, “The happiest countries in the world”, “Phrasal verbs: business expansion”, “Phrasal verbs: change and innovation”, “Idioms: innovation”, “Idioms: bureaucracy” and “Idioms: entrepreneurship”.
The lesson starts with a couple of speaking activities: First, students discuss 5 questions related to students’ countries and businesses that are most developed in their country. Next, they compare big and small companies, using given factors, and discuss the importance of each type of company.
Vocabulary and speaking: Students look at 7 statements, each containing a piece of target vocabulary for this lesson (e.g. a startup, a unicorn, to raise capital, to scale up, risk-averse). Students match the words to their definitions and then discuss the statements. Next, students make a list of 10 tech companies and discuss where they are based, and why some regions become tech hubs. As a pre-listening activity, students look at 2 pieces of information from the video and discuss reasons why Europe might be lagging behind in innovation.
Video: Students watch a video called “Why does the EU suck at tech”, and complete 2 listening comprehension activities.
Vocabulary: Students learn about different types of funding (e.g. bootstrapping, venture capital, angel investors, government grants, crowdfunding), and discuss them.
Speaking: Finally they are given 9 discussion questions, related to bureaucracy, consumer protection, entrepreneurial spirit, social safety nets, and brain drain)
For more speaking practice, and to review key vocabulary from this lesson, 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
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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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