Environmental issues listening, speaking, vocabulary and critical thinking exercises
12th July 2024
1 The Water Crisis
The exercises in this worksheet are about water conservation and the water crisis, including methods of conservation, causes of the crisis, sources of clean water, and opinions on water-related issues.
Extract from The Water Crisis (PDF)
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2 Decarbonization
This is one of the most pressing topics of the 2020s! It’s a little more advanced than other exercises on this page, but it’s very interesting. The decarbonization and the clean energy transition lesson includes vocabulary, listening, comprehension, discussion, and review exercises covering key concepts, critical minerals, and geopolitical implications.
Extract from PDF (subscribe at Substack to get answers)
3 Environmental Issues cause/effect problem/solution
The listening/speaking exercise below is for discussing environmental issues in the classroom. Students have to try and describe the problem depicted in each picture and suggest causes. effects and possible solutions to each problem. Students can listen to the audio before or after filling in the worksheet, depending on the level of their language skills.
Environmental issues cause/effect worksheet)
(see the YouTube video)
4 Elements of the Contemporary Environment
The exercise below is for introducing and exploring academic vocabulary for environmental issues in the classroom. First, students listen to the audio and match the items to the pictures. Then they match the vocabulary to the pictures. Or vice versa.
Elements of the contemporary environment (PDF)
5 Describing Environmental Issues (listening)
The exercise below is for discussing and describing environmental issues in the classroom. Students listen to the audio and complete the sentences.
Describing environmental issues (PDF)
(see the video version on YouTube)
6 Climate Change
More exercises and options for teaching climate. This PDF includes vocabulary matching, sorting, question-answer matching, classifying, and ranking exercises about climate change concepts, causes, effects, and solutions.
7 Endangered Species
The exercise below is for introducing and exploring language for endangered species in the classroom. A teacher may ask students to work in pairs, groups, or as a class. First, students can match the vocabulary to the pictures. Then they can use the conversation cues at the bottom of the worksheet to discuss endangered animals. If they are weak, they should try and write a conversation before they practice with a partner.
Endangered species speaking activity (PDF)
8 Renewable Energy
As above, students are again encouraged to think critically about their familiarity with various types of renewable energy, the benefits associated with using renewable energy sources, and the challenges that renewable energy technologies face.
9 Environmental issues (speaking)
Another exercise for environmental issues ….. a teacher may ask students to work in pairs, groups, or as a class. First, students can match the vocabulary to the pictures. Then they can use the conversation cues at the bottom of the worksheet to discuss environmental issues. If they are weak, they should try and write a conversation before they practice with a partner.
Environmental issues vocabulary and speaking activity (PDF)
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10 Natural Disasters
The exercise below is for introducing and exploring language for natural disasters in the classroom. A teacher may ask students to work in pairs, groups, or as a class. First, students can identify the natural disasters depicted in the pictures. Then they can use the conversation cues at the bottom of the worksheet to discuss natural disasters. If they are weak, they should try and write a conversation before they practice with a partner. This exercise helps familiarize the students with the vocabulary of natural disasters in English.
Natural disasters vocabulary and speaking activity (PDF)
11 “Environmental Island” teaching idea
This is a creative and fun lesson designed to help students learn and use the vocabulary and language of environmental issues. Environmental Island is a model guide and example worksheet for a speaking activity that teaches the vocabulary and language for environmental problems. Read the instructions about this activity on the PDF.
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