Do you have a Premier League diet?

Level

B1 / B2 (Intermediate / Upper-intermediate)

Age

Teenagers and adults

Time

40-60 mins

Procedure

Preparation

Read this plan, and familiarise yourself with the topic.

Make copies of worksheets.

Download the podcast to play on a phone/tablet (see the downloads section on the right) or listen to it online on the podcast page.

1. Introduction

Tell your students that they are going to listen to the first part of a podcast from the Premier Skills English website. Ask them to listen and try to identify the topic of the podcast.

Play the podcast from 00.00 > 2.06.

Here is the Premier Skills English Podcast: How to eat like a Premier League footballer

The topic of the podcast is diet and nutrition.

2. Brainstorm

Ask your students to work in groups. Are Premier League footballers healthy? (yes) Do you think they have a healthy diet? (yes) Tell them that they are going to spend 3 minutes brainstorming things a Premier League footballer eats and drinks. Ask each group to nominate a writer who will write down anything that the members of the group come up with.

3. Worksheet 1

Show your students the vocabulary worksheet. Tell them to read the statements at the top and ask them if they are familiar with the vocabulary.

Tell them to complete the matching activity on the worksheet.

4. Podcast

Tell your students that they are going to listen to another part of the Premier Skills English Podcast. In this next section, Jack talks about some of his eating habits and Rich gives him some advice. Ask your students the following questions before you listen: Does Jack have a healthy diet? What advice does Rich give to Jack? Ask the following questions after you listen: Is your diet healthier than Jack's? What's the unhealthiest thing you often eat?

Play the podcast from 2.07 > 6.27.

Students listen and discuss their answers/opinions.

Listen again. This time your students have to listen for specific items of food and drink that are mentioned and write them down in two columns under the headings 'healthy' and 'unhealthy'.

Play the podcast from 2.07 > 6.27.

5. Classifying

Ask the groups to spend 5 minutes looking back at their ideas from the brainstorm and the items they heard mentioned in the podcast. Groups need to classify all the different foods into the following groups: vegetables, fruit, cereal, meat, dairy and treat. Students have to take special care about which food items should go into the 'treat' group, which are foods that should only be eaten occasionally. 

6. Language focus

In the section of the podcast you are about to listen to, Rich and Jack introduce some phrasal verbs and other important phrases to talk about diet. Listen to the podcast and ask students to write down three phrasal verbs that are used to talk about diet and nutrition.

Play the podcast from 6.28 > 8.20.

Hand out worksheet 2 and ask your students to complete the activities and discuss the questions about diet and nutrition.

7. Discussion

Ask your students to work in pairs or small groups. Tell your learners that they have been asked to write an article for a new book called 'healthy food from around the world'. Each pair/group has to think of a healthy dish from their country and the best article will represent their country in this new book. Students have to think about:

• whether the dish is for breakfast/lunch/dinner
• if it is low in sugar
• if it is low in calories
• whether it contains fruit and/or vegetables
• why they think it is healthy
• why they think it is tasty
• why this dish should represent their country 

Encourage students to write notes and use vocabulary from the podcast and previous worksheets.

8. Presentation

Split the pairs/groups into new pairs/groups so there is one student from each of the previous groups. Each student takes it in turns to speak about their dish and why it is healthy. 

9. Listening

While the other students are listening, they have to decide how healthy and how tasty the dish sounds. They should give the dish marks out of ten for health and taste. The dish with the highest score is chosen for the book.

10. Homework

Students write 200 words about their dish. They need to include the ingredients, the method of cooking, why it is healthy, why it tastes great and why it's popular in their country.  Alternatively, learners could write their articles in the comments section on the lesson page on the website.