What would you do if ...?

• Show Slide 2 and ask learners what the woman is doing. Elicit: She is sleeping / She is dreaming.
• Next ask them what she is dreaming about. Elicit the idea of winning the lottery. Ask learners to discuss what are some typical things that people might do if they won the lottery, e.g., buy a house, travel the world, go on a trip, buy presents for people, donate to charity (provide vocabulary if necessary and you can write up ideas on the board).
• Show Slide 3 so that learners can check their predictions. (Explain the meaning of any new vocabulary terms, e.g. donate, charity.)
• Check learners' comprehension of the context by asking them if the woman is rich (no) and if she can do all the things she is dreaming about (no). Clarify that she is dreaming about winning the lottery and what she would do if she were rich. 

• Show Slide 4 and explain the form used for hypothetical wishes (the second conditional). Focus learners' attention on the three parts of the grammar construct [if + past simple] + [would/could] + [infinitive] and highlight once more that the structure is used for imaginary situations.  

Note: Here you can elicit or explain the difference between 'would' and 'could' and also point out that the 'if' clause can go at the beginning or the end of the sentence: 

If I won the lottery, I would/could travel around the world. 

I would/could travel around the world if I won the lottery. 

• Next, ask learners to think about what they would do if they saw an alien. Give them a minute or two to think and then elicit some responses. While they are thinking, write the question form on the board: What would you do if you saw an alien?
• Write a few suggestions on the board to consolidate the form and structure, e.g. If I saw an alien, I would invite it to my house. This is a good time to introduce 'I'd' as the contracted form of 'I would' and to drill the sentences with exaggerated word stress to demonstrate the rhythm of the sentence (Slide 5).
• If you feel that your learners need more time to grasp the concept, you could ask another question and elicit further responses, e.g. What would you do if … lost your mobile phone / became a famous YouTuber? 

Note: The suggestions on Slide 5 can be substituted with your learners' own ideas. 

• ​​​​​Give learners a copy of the student worksheet and ask them to work in pairs to match the sentence starters in Column A with their correct endings in Column B (Task A).
• Allow a few minutes to complete this before showing them Slide 6 so that they can check their answers.

Answers

1f (or e) / 2e (or f) / 3a / 4b / 5g / 6h / 7d / 8c

• Then draw learners' attention to sentence 5 and try to elicit from them what is unusual about it. Hopefully they will spot the fact that the use of 'were' is unusual in the first person, as 'was' would usually be used in the past tense.

Note: You can explain that when we use the second conditional to refer to unreal situations, we can use 'were' for all subject pronouns, singular and plural, e.g. If I were you … / If he/she were rich … (However, you can also mention that in informal speech 'was' is also commonly used for singular pronouns, as in If he was rich, ...)

• Ask learners to work individually to complete the four sentences at the end of Task A. They can compare their answers with a partner. Ask a few of the more confident learners to share some answers with the class. 

• ​​​​​Show learners Slide 7 and ask them if they know what a dilemma is. Try to elicit a class definition before showing them the one on Slide 8.
• Explain to learners that they are going to ask some of their classmates what they would do in different hypothetical situations. Point out that in these dilemmas they have multiple options (not just two), so they can be creative with their answers.
• Use Slide 9 to do an example with the class and elicit some possible answers. Possible answers might be create a new public holiday; make university education free; give more money to doctors and nurses. You could also use this example to reinforce correct use of the question form, which they will need in the next interview task, and the contracted use of 'I'd'.
• Ask learners to interview three of their classmates to complete the table on their worksheet (Task B). Point out that they have to think of the last question themselves. Allow at least 10 minutes for this interaction and monitor the correct use of the second conditional structure, noting any errors for future correction.
• Fast finishers can complete the sentence at the bottom of the worksheet about one of their classmates. Slower ones can do this for homework. 

• Divide the class into two teams and explain that they are going to try and predict what their teammates would do in different situations. If they guess correctly, they win points for their team.
• Give each team a small pile of blank slips of white paper to write their answers on.
• Ask one member of each team to come and sit on a chair facing the board, with their backs to their team so that they can't communicate. Choose a card from the team game scenarios, read it out and ask the teams to write down what they think their teammate would do. You can choose whether to provide a-b-c options or not, or you may want to adapt them to fit your local context. The people on the chairs also have to write down their answers. If their answers match the answer chosen by their team, they win a point.
• Play continues in this way with a different member of the team coming to sit on the chair each time. Remember, you're asking the same question to both teams and if you have a large class, you could have more teams. Encourage teams to use the contracted form when giving their answers as shown below. 

Example 

Teacher: If Maria or Alex could have one of these three jobs, which would they choose? 

A – a professional sportsperson 

B – a famous writer 

C – a videogame designer 

Team A – If Maria could have one of these jobs, she'd be a famous writer. 

Team B – If Alex could have one of these jobs, he'd be a videogame designer. 

If Maria has written down 'famous writer', Team A wins a point, and if Alex has written down 'videogame designer', Team B wins a point. 

After 15 minutes, the team with the most points is the winner. 

• Famous for a day (second conditional consequences) – learners imagine what their life would be like if they were famous for a day and write a series of sentences using the second conditional structure, starting with: If I were famous for a day, I would … [have lots of money to spend]. If I [had lots of money to spend], I would … etc.
• My new world (there would be … / there wouldn't be …) – learners imagine ten things that would or would not exist in a new world if they could create one. 

Note: There is a homework worksheet for learners to choose one of these activities.