Young drinkers
By Clare Lavery

Theme: Drinking habits in the UK and binge drinking problems. Rites of passage.
Lexical area: Alcohol and adverbs of frequency. Language used to describe quantity: too much, not enough, percentages and numbers.
Cross curricular links: Personal and Social Education, Health and Nutrition.

Instructions for language assistants in italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
This lesson consists of a text on binge drinking problems in the UK and is followed by tasks to encourage students to talk about their own attitudes towards alcohol.

• For lower levels support this theme with pictures of different types of alcohol and use them to start a brainstorming session on drinks vocabulary, including soft drinks. Ask them what types of drink they have with their meals, for celebrations and at parties. Ask them if they have ever drank alcohol. This can be a good lead in to task 1.Task 6 would be too challenging for a lower level.
  
  For higher levels you could brainstorm drinks vocabulary as for lower levels but at some stage you may wish to look at the types of food and drink available in pubs. If you have an authentic menu or some information about places where young people go in your home town use this.
  This theme could be a springboard for improvisations. Ask students to imagine they arrive home drunk from a party and to enact the conversation with their parents. Another role play could involve one student in a bar or at a party with two others who are insisting they drink something alcoholic. The student under pressure must decline offers of alcohol. This improvisation explores the issue of peer pressure. You could also use this topic to lead in to a study of adverts aimed at young people. This is one of the biggest criticisms of drink manufacturers who are targeting younger age groups.
  
  For all levels you could use the diagrams featured on the sites listed below. These diagrams show the units of alcohol that are contained in typical beverages and show recommended allowances for men and women.

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1. Drinking facts

This exercise should bring out issues relating to how old you have to be to drink and will be a good indicator of attitudes towards alcohol and the role it plays in their culture. Note that you can also give them vocabulary related to drinking too much during feedback.

• Put the sentences from this task on the board and encourage speculation about the first sentence.
• Tell the students about your own experience and your peers.
• Then get pairs to complete the sentences for themselves.
• Form groups of four students to come to a final figure.
  

Task 1 Drinking facts

Try to guess the number which should go into each of the spaces.

• The average age for tasting alcohol for the first time in my country is ……….….(years)
• The percentage of people my age who drink alcohol regularly is……… (%)
• The number of glasses of wine that I would describe as 'too much' is………(glasses)
• The percentage of families in my culture who drink alcohol with their meals is……….(%)

Check your predictions with your class.

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2. Quiz

For this task, make it clear that there may be more than one right answer and that this is not a test. Use the feedback session to see how much they know and give them the basic ideas and concepts without it turning in to a long lecture.

• Put students in pairs to do this.
  

Task 2 Quiz

How much do you know about alcohol and its effects?

• Which of these drinks contains the highest units of alcohol?

Whisky is not necessarily stronger than a strong beer and some alcopops can be very strong. There is no right answer here as it depends on the size of the glass. This is a problem in the UK as wine glasses get larger and people drink more units without realising.

• How many units of alcohol are safe for an average man to drink in one day?

The recommended guidelines are 3-4 for men and less for women.

Do men or women get drunk quicker?

Women. Men have a greater amount of muscle which contains more water so they tend to get drunk less quickly than women. Women have a higher percentage of body fat and less muscle so tolerate lower levels of alcohol.

• Which factors determine how fast you get drunk?

More than one factor counts but the ratio of body fat and body weight count the most. Women get drunk quicker on the whole and are more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol. This is in itself alarming as the figures for binge drinking pinpoint this trend as a problem involving increasing numbers of young women. There has been a 50% increase in the numbers of women drinking more than 14 units per week since 1998.

• Which parts of the body could be damaged by too much alcohol?

All of these are vulnerable to damage as is the nervous system too. Alcohol is implicated in strokes and many forms of cancer. Misuse of alcohol costs the UK an estimated £20 billion a year which includes the cost of alcohol related illnesses, deaths due to drunk driving and loss of working hours due to hangovers. 16% of violent acts are caused by drug misuse but 59% are alcohol related (Police figures),

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3. Drinking in the UK

You can give the sentences from this task to pairs to read and discuss or dictate the sentences and ask them to only keep the sentences they think might be true.

• Ask pairs to compare their choices before they read. Make sure they know what an alcopop is before you continue.
• After reading ask if they are shocked or surprised by any of the information. Ask if they have had an ideas about the UK's drink culture from their own Media. This might be through news items on drunk football fans.
• Ask them to do the last two questions in pairs and then get suggestions around the class. A basic definition of their own drink culture should emerge. You might also wish to discuss the possible reasons why young people might want to get drunk.
• Ask students how alcohol makes people feel and what effect it might have on the atmosphere at a party. Note that many young Britons from all walks of life and educational levels admit to using alcohol as a way to unwind or relax.
• Ask students of other ways they use to unwind.
  

Task 3 Drinking in the UK

Look at these statements about drinking in the UK.

• Tick those which might be true.
• Change the statements to make them true after you read the article.
  
• Young people usually have their first taste of alcohol in a pub when they are 18. (false)
• Drinking too much alcohol is not accepted in most towns. (false)
• Drinking alcohol usually takes place at meal times. (false)
• People only drink alcohol in pubs. (false)
• People over the age of 16 can buy alcohol in shops and pubs. (false - it is against the law until you are 18)
• The biggest drinkers are people over 25. (false)
• There are more 13 year olds who drink than those who do not drink alcohol. (true)
• Find two things you have in common with the UK.
• Find two differences between your own drink culture and the culture in the UK.

	Drinking in the UK - Where will it end? Having your first alcoholic drink in a pub at 18 years of age used to be an important rite of passage. Now some would argue that the first sips of alcohol are more likely to be taken at home or with friends and the drinkers are more likely to be eleven year olds! This year we learned that a thirteen year old Briton was more likely to be a regular drinker of alcohol than not. The drinkers are getting younger. This worrying trend has its roots in a culture where alcohol is seen as a way to relax, where people drink in pubs, clubs or at parties much more than with their meals. All the experts tell us that drinking alcohol without food means we get more drunk, more quickly. Getting drunk and getting drunk very quickly is the second most dangerous trend in the UK today. You can read a lot in the media about the culture of excess. We live in a highly developed society where people cannot get enough of many things and where TV programmes encourage people to want more things, to want more beautiful homes, to want more clothes or possessions or to want to eat more, party more or to drink more. Binge drinking is a national problem. Heavy drinking on Friday and Saturday nights means many cities and towns can become dangerous places with very drunk young people on the streets after a night of drinking a lot of alcohol very quickly. In the 1990s a new type of drink, the alcopop, made this problem worse. Alcopops combine fruit based fizzy drinks with alcohol. The drinkers got younger and they didn't notice that the sweet pop they were drinking was making them very drunk, very quickly. Shops and pubs know that drinkers must be over 18 years of age to drink anything containing alcohol but it is very difficult to enforce this law in a society where a fourteen year old or a sixteen year old can look like an eighteen year old. This is also made difficult in a culture where there is no shame in going out with friends to get so drunk that you cannot stand up at the end of the evening. It is just a part of the social scene but health officials and experts are worried. Heavy drinking is now more common in young people between the ages of 16 and 25. This is a time when their bodies could be damaged by binge drinking and it is creating an example for younger generations too. But how can we stop people thinking that getting drunk is funny or clever?

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4. Attitudes survey

This is a class survey task. Lower levels will need more guidance with prompts on the board to build questions:

• How often..?
• How much…?
• Have you ever…?
• When did you first….?

Collate their suggestions before they interview other students and ask their questions around the class to get examples.

Higher levels can work in small groups so you can circulate and give guidance where needed. This will lead to more individual and varied survey types.

• Encourage creativity in their survey design. If the students have access to computers try to get a printed survey.
• You could give this survey to other groups to complete and then return them to your class to collate the results.
  

Task 4 Attitudes survey

Find out about the drinking culture in your class or area.

• Make questions to find out about:
• Frequency of alcohol consumption
• Types of drinks favoured by young people
• Attitudes towards drunkenness/getting drunk
• Experience of drinking too much
• Interview as many people as you can
• Present your findings to the class

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5. Rites of passage

Tell students that having your first drink is considered an important step in growing up in the UK. It is a rite of passage. Going to a pub for the first time or getting drunk with friends can be considered a rite of passage. Parents and teachers are becoming worried that binge drinking is becoming a rite of passage for too many young people in the UK today. Other rites of passage might be: starting school, your first kiss, getting the key to your parents' house, your first evening out without parents or your first holiday away from home.

• Discuss the first 2 questions with the whole class then give examples of your own experience of rites of passage.
• Put students in pairs to think of others and get suggestions around the class before they discuss the last 2 questions in small groups.
• The last question could be given as written follow up or homework.
  

Task 5 Rites of passage

Discuss these questions.

• Does alcohol play a part in growing up in your society?
• Is it acceptable or usual for people to drink too much at celebrations or when out with friends?
• What are the main rites of passage in your culture?
• Have any of these customs changed since your parents were young? How?
• Take one important event in your teenage years and describe what happened and why it was important to you.

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6. Changing habits

This task is best suited to higher levels. During class feedback you can discuss how headlines are made and ask what types of word are missed out.

• Give students time in pairs to try and work out the meaning of headlines.
• After discussing the second question with the whole class put students in small groups to work through the discussion questions.
• At the end each group can present their suggestions on how best to inform and educate young people about sensible drinking habits.
• Ask if any of these measures are used in their own country.
  

Task 6 Changing habits

In recent years the British government has tried to deal with the problem of under age drinking and binge drinking. These are some headlines from the UK Media in 2004.

• Blitz on teen drinkers
• Prohibition Britain
• Teenagers to help tackle under-age drinking
• City marshals to fight drink culture
• More 11 year olds drinking alcohol weekly
• British children Top the drinking league
• Clampdown on binge drinking culture in the Capital

• What does each headline tell you?
• What do you think is being done to stop young people drinking too much?
• What would you do to encourage young people to drink sensibly?
• What is the best way to educate young people about the dangers of alcohol?

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Internet links

www.alcoholconcern.org.uk This site has comprehensive reports on young people's drinking habits and the government's National Alcohol Strategy.
www.addaction.org.uk/ This site has useful advice for young people.
www.lifebytes.gov.uk/alcohol/alc_menu.html This excellent site for teenagers has quizzes and interactive tasks. It also covers smoking, drugs and healthy eating.

Essential UK links

Teenagers talking follows up the theme of parent and teenage relationships. Bring out the issue of alcohol and how that might be an issue of conflict in growing up.
Fizzy drink will follow up the theme of drinking with attitudes towards healthy eating and lifestyle choices in the UK.
Teen tribes can be used to follow up the issue of teen peer pressure.

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