French resource: Let's talk about energy

Talk about energy in your EFL class with this resource in PDF and PowerPoint format. It is composed of various sequences allowing your learners to deal with the following themes:

• Energy and its impact on the environment
• The price of energy becoming unaffordable
• Green energy and its future challenges

Description

How do you talk about energy in a foreign language class?

First of all, your learners will start with a general introduction to the topic of energy. They will answer some general questions about the topic.

Sequence 1: “Energy and its impact on the environment”.

As usual, an introduction and an listening will announce the beginning of the sequence. After the listening, your learners will have to answer questions about what was said on the audio recording.

To follow this up, the class will be divided into small groups to try to find the relationship between certain things and energy. Answers and debates are usually done in a forum.

The debates will not stop there! Why? Because when the previous activity is finished, they will have a list of problems related to energy. Still in sub-groups, the objective will be for them to choose 5 problems and to propose a solution. The problem is that they have to agree on THE solution.

Finally, as a whole class, the learners will have to prioritise ways of combating energy pollution. The aim is for them to discuss and rank the solutions in order of effectiveness.

Sequence 2: "The price of energy"

The sequence begins with an audio document presenting a government initiative to help the most modest motorists to be able to travel. You will discover the fuel voucher.

After the correction of this exercise, the class will have to comment on several quotations that are both controversial and full of meaning.

(Contextualising your lesson) The president of your students’ country finds this idea very original and wants to introduce it in his country. And this is where your learners will help him out. They will have to make a presentation using a suggested framework to introduce the new fuel voucher.

Last sequence: “Green energy and energy crises”.

In this sequence your learners will learn that green energy is not so green. However, they can be a very good alternative for certain countries in the middle of an energy crisis.

So you will have background debates on green energy, oral expressions in sub-groups to exchange on their habits in terms of energy, the trailer of a Netflix film that shows how green energy can save a city from starvation, and above all, an article from the newspaper “Le Monde” that pays tribute to the project of Akon. This singer’s ambition is to light up the whole of Africa with renewable energy.

You will finish with a vocabulary sheet and a writing. Corrections and transcripts are available.