Can politicians keep their promises?

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are for students to:

• – analyze political discourse and campaign promises, and to examine persuasive language;
• – improve their advanced English language skills by completing synonym identification, word replacement, error correction, and reading comprehension activities;
• – actively engage in a critical discussion about political motivations and campaign rhetoric after watching a video about whether President Trump can actually control inflation.

In this C2-level ESL lesson plan, students analyze political discourse and campaign promises, and examine examples of persuasive language.

Warm-up: 

Students discuss which statements from a selection they think are true.

Video: 

Students watch a video titled “Can Trump Alone Actually Control Inflation?” before completing a gap-fill exercise based on the video.

Exercises: 

In the first exercise, students are asked to think of synonyms for selected words in a text. 

In the second exercise, they work on their paraphrasing skills by replacing parts of some sentences with alternate expressions. 

Finally, students work on their accuracy by identifying the mistakes in a selection of sentences.

Reading: 

Students read a short text about why some people strive to become politicians, before answering comprehension questions to confirm their understanding.

Discussion: 

Students make use of the language covered in the lesson by unscrambling a quote about politics and discussing it with the teacher.