Would you ever renovate a house?

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Vocabulary - houses and renovation

LESSON OVERVIEW

In this ESL lesson about houses and renovation, students learn some useful vocabulary related to the topic, watch a video and talk about house renovations. 

B2 / Upper Intermediate
C1 / Advanced
60 minStandard LessonPremium Plan

VOCABULARY & VIDEO

This ESL lesson about houses starts with a warm-up in which students complete some statements about houses with their own ideas. They also list five things people often renovate in their homes. Then, students look at six photographs and find some things there (e.g. ceiling beams, hearth, backsplash, planter). The teacher can choose to play the video before checking the answers so that students can listen for the words they don’t know. Next, students watch the video and say how the speaker feels about her house. During the second viewing, students should take notes to elaborate on some points from the video. 

SPEAKING

In this part of the ESL lesson about houses, students discuss questions related to the video and to renovating a house. For instance, they need to talk about some typical challenges people face when renovating a house and discuss the influence social media have on whether and how people decide to renovate their houses. Then, students look at a list of tips related to house renovations and explain what they would or wouldn’t follow them. Finally, students look at some photographs of an old house and explain how they would renovate it. There is a list of questions that students can use as a guide. The questions contain target vocabulary. 

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This ESL lesson about houses also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students practise the vocabulary from the lesson. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

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  1. jpbruce

    I liked this lesson, I had a good discussion about house renovations. However, the vocabulary in the video and the lesson are very American. It could be a good opportunity to include some activities on the differences between American and British language and/or even architecture styles in different countries.

    1. Justa

      Thanks for your comment and suggestions! We might think about creating a worksheet with such differences in the future 🙂

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