From war to peace

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Vocabulary
Lab

vocabulary on global conflicts

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • practise vocabulary on global conflicts;
  • talk about how countries handle conflicts and peace agreements;
  • explore news headlines and historical events.

In this lesson, students discuss how they stay informed about global conflicts, explore news headlines and work on war-related vocabulary (e.g. violate a treaty, seek reconciliation, repel an invasion). They complete sentences with equivalent phrases, talk about war and peace and share their thoughts. Students also quiz each other on historical conflicts and retell a World War II timeline using collocations related to war and peace.

C1 / Advanced
C2 / Proficiency
45 min
60 min
Vocabulary LabUnlimited Plan

This is a Vocabulary Lab worksheet. With it, students are introduced to a set of vocabulary on a specific topic and practise it through controlled activities, speaking tasks and games. Learn more about it here.

WARM-UP AND VOCABULARY

This lesson focuses on vocabulary on global conflicts and starts with a warm-up. Students discuss questions about staying informed on global conflicts. They then match news headlines with what the news is about. After that, students explain what some war-related words mean (e.g. ceasefire, treaty, invasion). Moving on, they look at sets of words (e.g. treaty, ceasefire, escalation) and choose the odd word out. There are no incorrect answers, but students need to explain their choice. Afterwards, they look at sentences and complete a second version of them, keeping the same meaning. Students use verbs and nouns to create collocations related to war and peace (e.g. avoid escalation, pay reparations).

DISCUSSION AND VOCABULARY PRACTICE

In this part of the lesson, students discuss questions about war strategies and peace agreements. They then get cards with quiz questions related to historical conflicts and peace efforts. First, students practise vocabulary on global conflicts and complete the collocations in the questions. The first letters of the missing words are provided. Then, in pairs, they ask and answer the questions on their cards. Finally, students look at a timeline and key events of World War II. They retell the information using collocations related to war and peace (e.g. avoid escalation, break a ceasefire, provoke retaliation).

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students find and correct vocabulary mistakes in sentences. They then put the sentences in the correct order to create a story. 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

Comments

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  1. silvigir

    Excellent lesson Olia, thank you!

    1. Olia

      Thank you, I’m glad you liked it 🙂

  2. timexer

    in slide 35 the displayed sample answer states
    ” In 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union but was stopped near Moscow as Soviet forces managed to repel the invasion. Later that year, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, provoking retaliation from the US and prompting them to enter the war. On D-Day, the Allies deployed weaponry and troops to Normandy to launch a major counteroffensive against German forces.”

    However the use of the term “counteroffensive” is misleading or possibly even wrong here as this event happened too long (in this case years) after the initial invasion of France.
    Ergo historians refer to this attack as:
    “a strategic offensive,
    or the Allied invasion of Western Europe,
    or part of the liberation campaign”
    rather than a counteroffensive per se.

    Other than this we really liked the lesson, please more like this!

    1. Olia

      Thanks for your comment! We’ve taken it into account and updated both the pdfs and the e-lesson – let us know what you think 🙂

      1. timexer

        Thank you for taking into consideration our observation, it was a little detailed but sometimes the devil is in the detail!

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