This lesson plan for teachers of teenage and adult students at intermediate level is about food and cooking. Students will take part in a discussion about their own preferences and attitudes towards food and restaurants.

 

Introduction

This lesson consists of a series of activities to help students talk about food and cooking.

The main focus of the lesson is a text based on a recent survey in the UK indicating that British people are becoming more adventurous and experimental in their cooking and eating habits due to the growing popularity of cooking programmes. This lesson should challenge stereotypes of British food and encourage students to discuss their own preferences and attitudes towards food and restaurants.

Topic 

Modern British cooking and restaurants; the popularity of celebrity chefs

Level 

Intermediate+

Time 

60-90 mins

Aims

  • To learn or revise vocabulary relating to food, restaurants, tastes and textures
  • To develop reading and comprehension skills
  • To develop speaking skills/ discussing preferences and attitudes towards food and restaurants

Materials

Lesson plan: guide for teacher on procedure including answers to tasks.

Download lesson plan 118k pdf

Worksheets: exercises which can be printed out for use in class. The worksheet contains:

  • Brainstorming exercise
  • Food vocabulary exercise
  • British food quiz
  • Reading task (1): article and comprehension questions
  • Reading task (2): restaurant reviews, discussion questions and creative task
  • Food proverbs exercise

Download worksheets 142k pdf

For more information about this topic you can visit these BBC sites:

 

Kate Joyce, British Council

The plans and worksheets are downloadable and in pdf format. If you have difficulty downloading the materials see the download section of the Help page.


Copyright - please read
All the materials on these pages are free for you to download and copy for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site without written permission from the BBC and British Council. If you have any questions about the use of these materials please email us at: teachingenglish@britishcouncil.org

Language Level

Comments

Submitted by Tolepbergen Anel on Fri, 05/04/2018 - 04:48

That's great! i thing this lesson plan will be useful for me and i find it so interesting information for my students ! i see good activities and Brainstorming exercises! Well done!

Submitted by joerobson on Fri, 12/22/2017 - 01:42

Hi, Great set of activities, I will be using these in my 2nd year Japanese High School classes. One thing I noticed: question 14 in the food quiz. 14. What is the difference between these things? a. ‘chips’ and ‘French fries’ b. ‘crisps’ and ‘chips’ c. ‘fizzy drink’ and ‘soda’ It doesn't really make sense. The other questions are multiple choice but this one is asking students to identify the difference between each pair of words. There isn't a "right" answer here. The answer for all of them is that the first word is British English and the second is American English. Also, as the question implies that students have to find the difference between each pair, it shouldn't be in the multiple choice format. A better format would be either 14. Which pair is different? a. ‘chips’ and ‘French fries’ b. ‘crisps’ and ‘chips’ c. ‘fizzy drink’ and ‘pop’ Where the answer is c. because "fizzy drink" and "pop" are both used in British English; or, 14. What is the difference between ‘chips’ and ‘French fries’, ‘crisps’ and ‘chips’ and ‘fizzy drink’ and ‘soda’? a. One word is British English and one word is American English b. They are made differently c. One word is old-fashioned English and one word is modern English Anyway, thanks for this resource! Joe

Hi Joe, Thanks for your comment and we're happy to hear you'll be using this with your classes - hope it works well! That's a very good point about question 14 and we'll look into changing that the next time we're able to update this resource. Rachael TeachingEnglish team

Agreed. The question is worded poorly, and the file has not been updated. It is now 2022, and I'm not going to hold my breath for an update as promised in December of 2017. I'm hoping for a Christmas miracle in 2022; please kindly update this?

Hi Alice M

Thanks for your comment - the worksheet has now been updated with a differently worded question 14 - Hope you and your students enjoy the lesson!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Valaki on Mon, 06/05/2017 - 17:55

Hi, I stumbled upon this lesson plan about food and I find it very interesting for my business students. Yet, in worksheet B I seem to have great difficulty seeing the difference between "hot" and "spicy". Perhaps an example could help clear things. Cheers!

Hi Valaki, Hot and spicy can be used to mean the same thing (as in, with lots of spices). 'Hot' can also be used to describe temperature (as in, 'not cold'). "Hot and spicy'' is an example of collocation as the two words often go together - as in 'I really love a hot and spicy curry'. Hope that clears things up! Cath TE Team

Submitted by GeminiKanon on Wed, 02/03/2016 - 00:46

I want to use this idea to start with my classes. But I was wondering if I could make the student memorize the names of the silverware and the domestic appliances, then present him a recipe where she must fill the blanks to read it properly and finally make the dish itself. Afterwards, she would compare what she made to what is a staple in other cuisines.

Submitted by jamesaddicott on Sun, 12/02/2012 - 22:49

I'm teaching English in Northern Spain at the moment (The Basque Country). I used this lesson with a lot of my classes last week (pre-int to upper-int) and they loved it. It gave them a really opportunity to discuss their local cuisines with me as well as discover how multi-cultural the UK actually is. I only managed to get through pages 1-4 of the worksheet in an hour and an half lesson but that's great because I can do a part two this week. Thank you very much for the lesson plan and nice one!

(P.S. they got a bit confused with the "e.g. pies" on the food description, they read it as egg pie. Maybe a e.g. might be better - sorry for being such a nit-picker)

Submitted by lplotnek on Tue, 08/21/2012 - 15:42

Hi there

 

Not sure if I'm missing something, but there seems to be a section missing - the activities that correspond with the restaurant reviews. Great looking lesson plan though and am planning to give it a go tomorrow.

Submitted by editor_rachael on Wed, 08/22/2012 - 08:09

In reply to by lplotnek

Hi lplotnek, 

You're right, it seems that the worksheets are slightly mis-numbered and that the one with the questions about the reviews is missing. We are looking into it!

Best wishes,

Rachael

TeachingEnglish Team

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