LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson about subscriptions are to:

• practise vocabulary related to the topic;
• watch and discuss a video about subscription services;
• talk about real-life subscription services and well-known companies.

In this lesson, students talk about subscription models and explore vocabulary (e.g. recurring revenue, flat fee, auto-renewal contract, etc.) to discuss subscription and payment options for various services. They also talk about their personal experiences and opinions, watch a short video featuring advice on how to manage subscriptions and discuss real-life services.    

VOCABULARY AND VIDEO

This ESL lesson about subscriptions begins with a warm-up where students describe how people experienced different areas (e.g. TV shows and movies, music, food and drink, etc.) before subscription models were introduced and how the experience has changed. After that, they complete company messages about subscriptions with words from boxes. Then, students explain the phrases they created (e.g. 7-day free trial, one-off payment, membership rewards, etc.). Next, they complete sentences about subscription services with their own ideas. Following that, students watch the first part of a video and complete statements with information from the video. Before they watch the second part of the video, students discuss how some things (bank account, chatbot and calendar) might be connected to the advice on how to manage subscriptions. Then, they watch the video and check their answers. After that, students discuss more questions.

DISCUSSION

In this part of this ESL lesson about subscriptions, students examine pairs of situations (e.g. a free trial with access to everything for a few days OR a free subscription with restricted content but no time limit), choose one of them and explain their choice. Following that, they read about real-life services (Imperfect Food, Patreon, LinkedIn Learning and Once Upon a Book Club) and discuss unusual subscriptions and their challenges. Finally, students look at well-known companies (e.g. Coca Cola, L’Oréal, Ford, etc.) and brainstorm how their services or products could be turned into a subscription by using the target vocabulary.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students use the target vocabulary to complete subscription reviews. Then, they write reviews on subscriptions they have used. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.