Addicted to the game

In this Intermediate ESL lesson, students will learn vocabulary related to the world of gaming, how to express a necessity / strong desire, and how to use the Present Continuous to complain about repeated actions.

Video gaming: Discussion

The lesson starts with a few questions about the student’s video gaming experience and their opinion on gaming addiction.

This is followed by an exercise in which the student learns about gaming equipment and gaming genres by matching them with the pictures. Then, they try to talk about the difference between different genres (e.g. RPG vs. FPS).

Video: Gaming addiction

Prior to watching the video about gaming addiction as a mental illness, the student learns a few words which will appear in the video to facilitate understanding of the video content.

After watching it, the student answers questions to check their understanding and then completes the collocations mentioned in the video (e.g. serious problem, significant impact, etc.).

Reading: Addicts or not?

Based on their knowledge of gaming addiction, the student reads descriptions of people’s gaming habits, decides whether they are addicts or not, and explains their opinion.

Ways to express a desire

The student learns about phrases used to express general desires as well as very strong desires (e.g. I would like to…, I am dying to…, etc.).

Then, they practice using these phrases by expressing their desire for things such as food, coffee, a cold drink, etc.

Grammar: Present Continuous for complaints and annoyances

The student learns about an advanced use of the Present Continuous Tense – repeated actions that we find annoying and want to complain about.

Afterwards, they practice using Present Continuous for this purpose by deciding whether the sentences in which Present Continuous is used are complaints or descriptions of on-going activities. 

The student also learns about the words adding emphasis to the complaint/annoyance (e.g. repeatedly, constantly, all the time, etc.).

Discussion: Hypothetical situations

Finally, the student practices the new use of Present Continuous by imagining annoying situations and figuring how they would react.