Mar 6

Could You Disappear for 25 Days Without Getting Caught?

speaking practice
A Brilliant ESL Speaking Lesson Your Learners Won't Forget?
In this video I show you a high-engagement speaking lesson for intermediate ESL learners and above, based on the British TV programme Hunted.

The idea is simple: contestants try to disappear while professional investigators track them down. But the fascinating thing is that most people get caught because of tiny emotional decisions, like buying a coffee or contacting a friend.

You can access all the lesson materials below free of charge. 

FREE Hunted lesson plans

Video transcript - Hunted: A Lesson Your Learners Will Talk About All Week

Did you know that buying a coffee could get you caught by the police in under an hour?
It’s true- and it makes a great scenario for a lesson, too. If you want to know how that goes, keep watching.

Hi, I’m Jo Gakonga from ELT-Training, and today I want to show you a lesson that your learners will absolutely love. It’s based on the British TV programme Hunted: a reality TV thing where ordinary people try to disappear for 25 days and a team of professional investigators try to track them down.

So, the question at the centre of the programme and the lesson is simple:
Could you disappear for 25 days without getting caught?

You can download the lesson materials above completely free of charge and it works brilliantly at intermediate level or above.

You start with a video that explains the programme.

Then there’s a short reading text that explains:
• how people on the show try to hide.
• why cities often work better than the countryside.
• and why most people are caught because of tiny, emotional decisions.

After the reading, the learners work with comprehension questions and then you can use the text as a really natural springboard for speculation language.

Things like:
• They must have used their phone.
• They shouldn’t have gone home.
• They might be hiding in a city.

All of the teaching notes are in the lesson plan!

Then comes the main task.

In small groups, you get learners to design their own 25-day escape plan.

They decide:
• where they’d go.
• who they’d trust.
• what they’d avoid.
• and what would probably get them caught in the end.

If you’re working online, you can do this in breakout rooms and get groups to make notes about their decisions on a shared Google doc to make it easy for you to monitor.

What I like about this lesson is that it’s opinion-based, it’s modern and relevant and it generates genuine interaction. It’s exactly the kind of thing I share in other teacher-training materials on my site. Check them out at ELT-Training.com and as I mentioned, if you’d like to download the lesson materials, the links are above - completely free.

Hope it’s helpful!

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