Gastrodiplomacy (with food idioms)

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Vocabulary - food idioms

Flipped

food idioms

This is a standalone lesson but it can also be used as part of the set titled:

LESSON OVERVIEW

This food lesson plan is prepared for B2 students and it concerns a phenomenon called gastrodiplomacy. Sounds weird but basically it means promoting one’s country through food. It’s an interesting concept to strike up a conversation about food and culture and how they build relations.

The worksheet is based on a video (8 min) which explains the term and gives more details about it. The in-class part should take around 45/60 minutes depending on how much your group of students will be engaged in answering questions from the last exercise.

B2 / Upper Intermediate45 minFlipped LessonFree

This is a Flipped Classroom lesson plan. In a nutshell, it means that the first part of the lesson needs to be done by students at home. Learn more about flipped classroom and how we implement it in these lesson plans in our post.

PRE-CLASS ACTIVITIES

There are just two things that your students must do at home: study new vocabulary and watch the video.

First of all, at home students need to learn some vocabulary that appears in the video. It will be easier for them to understand the concept and answer comprehension questions. Therefore, they need to read 8 sentences and match words/phrases in bold with their meanings. The second task is listening comprehension. Students watch the video and find answers to four questions.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES

In the classroom, the lesson should start with a discussion based on what students have watched and what they remember from the video. There are four questions which also concern students’ opinions about gastrodiplomacy. Next, they should think of some dish they like (from their country or other), work in pairs and describe it to their partner. They should also explain why they have chosen that dish.

As this lesson plan is about food and cuisine, the next task includes a lot of food idioms. Students have to study food idioms/expressions and their meanings, and then complete them with correct words from the list. These include such food-related idioms as turn sour, have a lot on one’s plate, have a bun in the oven, sell like hot cakes, etc. Finally, students work in pairs and answer questions which contain idioms from the previous task to practise using them. Try to monitor whether they use and understand all these idiomatic expressions correctly.

WORKSHEETS

Comments

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Leave a Reply

  1. Lidia Marta Miller

    Very well planned with useful information that motivates communication. Thank you!!

    1. Justa

      Happy to hear that 🙂

  2. Joanna

    Wow, I love this lesson, brilliant and beautifully done! Great job guys and thanks for sharing! :))

    1. Stan

      Enjoy! We’re glad you like it!

  3. Alice

    Do you have also B1 worksheets?

    1. Stan

      Sure! A few of them actually. Use the top menu to see lesson plans for different levels. You can actually find all B1 worksheets here: https://eslbrains.com/esl-lesson-plans/b1-intermediate/

  4. Nazar Marko

    Guys, you are life savers! Thanks a lot.

  5. Magda Zun

    Wonderful worksheet and very interesting topic! My students and I loved it! Thanks a lot guys <3

    1. Justa

      Thank you 🙂

  6. Isom

    Hello!
    Great lesson! I just wanted to point out that the idiom you referred to as:
    ❌ “to take smth with a pinch of salt” is more commonly referred to as
    ✅ “a grain of salt” and not “a pinch”.
    A pinch, on the other hand, it’s a great expression used for when referring to recipes and dishes
    – i.e. add a pinch of salt.

    Thank you for all your great work!!

    1. Justa

      Hi there! I think that both of them are fine. The phrase “with a pinch of salt” is typically used in British English and “with a grain of salt” in American English. See this dictionary entry.

    2. Helen Pearce

      in the UK, we say pinch of salt .

  7. Reamaral

    wounderful theme and development for speaking production.
    Thank you

  8. jobun17

    This really made an interesting lesson for myself and my students. Food is always a winner!!

  9. DavidRichmond

    Really interesting lesson and well-selected, I’m sure my class will like this tomorrow

    1. Justa

      Thanks! Hope you have a great class 🙂

  10. Karolina_W

    My students who are involved in the food industry absolutely loved it! We all learnt interesting facts and ended up having a deep conversation. Well done! 🍜 🍙 🍱

    1. Justa

      Hi Karolina! I’m thrilled to hear that your students enjoyed the lesson 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to comment!

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