Money talks, and so will your students with this engaging B1 money management lesson focused on financial empowerment! Watch a video that highlights the importance of changing spending habits and the benefits of saving money. Follow this with a lively discussion on how to maximize your salary while ensuring there is something left in your pocket at the end of the month. This class not only tests students’ knowledge of essential money vocabulary but also equips them with the skills to provide sound financial advice, setting them on the path to financial success!
Once again, everything fell into place, and I ended up with three groups discussing finance. Since this topic is still fresh in my mind, I figured it’d be a great idea to show my students a video that dives into people’s spending habits and the ways of cutting down on monthly expenses. The main goal of the class is to get everyone talking and speculating about how regular people handle their money.
If your students are like mine and love chatting about money, spending habits, and saving tips, just scroll to the end of the post to grab the presentation, worksheet, and teacher’s notes.
Warmer: Spending Habits Discussion
The lesson starts with a casual conversation about what students like to spend their money on and the stuff they want to buy but can’t quite afford right now. This discussion not only warms them up to the topic but also gets into some useful vocab, like to spend money on + noun/gerund and can’t afford + noun / to infinitive. When you teach this to adults, you might notice they hit a wall with the second question. It makes sense, though – most of them probably have what they need or are thinking about loans and payment plans for the pricier items.
Listening for Gist: Overspending and Saving Tips
The input of the class is a video from Bank of America about spending habits and saving tips. Before diving into it, students think of three areas where people usually overspend. If they’re having a tough time coming up with ideas, you can show an example, like how people often splurge on the latest clothes. Students pair up and brainstorm three common areas where people tend to spend too much. After eliciting some answers, you watch the video How to Save Money on Everyday Expenses and see if their answers were mentioned.
Watch the video again, and this time zero in on some specific questions about each topic they bring up (like supermarkets, household expenses, transportation, and activities). Chat about the answers, and if you feel like it, pause after each section and dive into the ideas covered in the video.
Post-Listening Discussion: Saving Tips
Wrap up this part of the class with a post-listening discussion. Give students two opinion-based questions and ask them to share which ideas from the video they found most helpful. Then, brainstorm some other ways they could save money in the areas the video talked about. For example, they could think about buying stuff online to steer clear of those tempting impulse buys, and so on.
Case Study: Budget Challenge
This lesson was designed for a Business English group made up of finance pros. To wrap things up, we decided to have a fun discussion about a made-up character. Since money can be a touchy subject in Spain – especially when it comes to salaries – it felt safer to stick with a fictional person. The students read about Marta, a graphic designer who’s trying to save up for her upcoming vacation. In pairs, they look over her salary and expenses and then brainstorm the best advice for her. Discuss how much she should ideally spend each month on things like food, entertainment, and transportation. They also came up with ideas for cutting costs on rent and household expenses.
If you’ve got some free time, why not wrap up this class with a debate about how young people handle their money? You could discuss whether Marta, who’s 28, should be saving up or if she should just go for it and spend on fun stuff and experiences.
I think my students will have a blast chatting about the different ways they save money, and it’ll help everyone make smarter financial choices. If you agree that classes should mix in some useful vocabulary with real-life conversations, check out the links below for the presentation, worksheet, and teacher’s notes.
Do you believe that diving into the topic of money is too taboo for the classroom? How do you bring the world of finance into your lessons?
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