Money, money, money

The objective

To discuss concepts related to money and discuss our experiences with its use

The language

Lexis related to money (see below)

Question forms (see below)

Reporting language (see below)

The set-up

Think of a list of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, phrasal verbs, etc.) related to the concept of money. That list will depend on students´ level or only focus on a specific theme, but could include:

• Nouns: wallet, coin-purse, handbag, credit card, loan, cash, debit card, ATM machine
• Verbs: pay, buy, shop, spend, waste, ask for (a loan), make, earn, invest
• Phrasal verbs: take out (a loan, cash from the ATM), pay out, pay off, pay back, pay up
• Adjectives: rich, wealthy, poor, loaded, profitable, bankrupt, cheap, expensive

You can print them out as a hand out or just jot them down to put on the board in class. Either way, they should be organized as "mind-maps" using either the parts of speech as the center of each bubble or the nouns like the ones listed above. Limit the number of words to three for each map.

The low-down

Put the mind-maps on the board or hand out the worksheet you made and ask students to look at them and discuss any questions about what the words mean with each other, or look them up in a dictionary. Put students into pairs and ask them if they can add any words to the lists. Give them just a couple of minutes to do so. Having shared their additions with the rest of the class, tell them you would like them to write a "Money Questionnaire" using the words from their mind-maps to complete the following phrases, which can be repeated to create a questionnaire with ten questions.

• Have you ever...?
• Do you...?
• Did you...?
• Have you...recently?
• Would you...?
• Or another similar question format if they think of it

Now what?

Put pairs together and ask them to ask each other their questions, noting down each pair´s answers. Give them a time limit. Change pairs. Repeat. Change pairs one last time (time permitting). Ask pairs to review the answers and write a general statement for each question based on the results. Examples could be, "Everyone questioned uses an ATM" or "Only one person was robbed" or "Four out of six people took out a loan recently". Ask pairs to share the most interesting/most surprising results with the rest of the class.

Time to teach

This will begin with the vocabulary focus on the mind-maps but will also happen when you correct people who report their results. You can also write down on the board/elicit the basic format of the reporting stage like this: "Everyone questioned..." "Only one person..." "Four out of six people....recently". These are great ways to get students to focus on these useful "templates" for reporting language/phrases.

More talk-time

Do you think interest rates banks charge for loans and credit cards are fair, or abusive?

Do you think someday paper money will be obsolete?

How do you think people will pay for things in the future?

What´s the worst thing about money or currency as a system of exchange?