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Theme: Young people’s spending habits in the UK, teenagers working.
Lexical area: Money, earnings, saving, consumer goods, quantity and numbers.
Cross curricular links: Citizenship, economics, social science.
Instructions for language assistants in italics
Classroom materials
Introduction
Introduce this topic by brainstorming around the word money Draw a mind map on the board with the central word money and branches off the word. Give examples to get them started: e.g. income (the money you earn from your job). For a lower level give a word search grid and hide some of the key words from this lesson in it: earn, save, spend, savings, pocket money, job. Contrast the use of words like savings (compared to the verb to save), earnings (to earn)
You could also use the title of the lesson e.g. Does anyone know what pocket money is? Do you get any? Do you think it is a good idea? What does ‘pester’ mean? Look it up in a dictionary. Who is doing the pestering?
1. Your consumer habits
The questionnaire can be done individually with oral feedback. Get examples of answers round the class. You could also do it as a pair interview. This questionnaire helps you clarify vocabulary coming up in the lesson and previews ideas. Explain the meaning of odd jobs, get more examples of what an odd job might be. You can also introduce the word chores as an odd job which some parents pay their children to do. Is this strange? Do parents pay children to make their beds in their country? Is this a good idea?
Task 1 Your consumer habits
Complete this questionnaire
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2. Pocket money and pester power
You could get students to try to predict the answers to these questions before they read. This will help to prepare them and focus them on the information they need to look for. Then give the text out and get them to see if they were correct.
Task 2 Pocket money and pester power
Read and find out:
- Where does most of children’s spending money come from? (Pocket money)
- Who spends more money, girls or boys? (Girls)
- Who saves more money, girls or boys? (Girls)
- What is pester power? Who has it? (The power to persuade parents to spend money. Children as young as 3 in the UK have it)
- What is the latest trend in spending? (Mobile phone top up cards)
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Pocket money and pester power There are over 9 million children aged between five and sixteen years old in Britain. Big companies and advertisers know that this consumer group is very powerful. The total spending power of children in this age group is over sixty million pounds per year! So, how do they get so much money? How do they persuade their parents to spend so much money on things for them? Weekly pocket money or a monthly allowance is one way for children to get some money to spend. The other way is by asking again and again, in other words, by pestering their parents until the parents buy what they want. Young people’s consumer habits - Fact File - Sources of income
Parents give 60% of pocket money.
Other sources of money are
a. Odd job earnings (helping with chores around the house for money, a paper round delivering newspapers to houses in their area, cleaning Dad’s car, babysitting)
b. Handouts (presents of money from friends or relatives)
c. Saturday jobs (over 13 years old some teenagers work on Saturdays e.g. in clothes or music shops, supermarkets, sports centres)
- Amount of money
Average amount of pocket money = 3.19 pounds a week
Girls total amount spent = 13.20 pounds a week
Boys total amount spent = 11.20 pounds a week
- Spending trends
Two thirds of pocket money is spent on sweets and chocolate
Girls also buy: clothes, shoes, magazines and make up (cosmetics/toiletries)
Boys buy : more food and drink, computer games, videos and CDs
Recently teenagers are spending more on mobile phone cards than on sweets
Girls spend 50% more on mobile phones than boys
Pester power is increasing every year. Children as young as three years old pester their parents to buy the latest videos, sweets and toys. |
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3. How do you compare?
Give as much guidance as necessary depending on the levels. With lower levels you can write 2 contrasting sentences and they tick those which apply to them. You could do this as a dictation. Dictate possible contrast sentences and students only write those which apply to them.
- The ‘pester power’ discussion could be developed more with higher levels. Is there children’s TV? Do they find a lot of adverts with toys and sweets during the children’s programmes? Do they agree with this?
- Note: Check the exchange rate and look at the money in your local currency. Is it a lot? The same? Less? Use this as an opportunity to look at money and numbers with a weak group. A simple follow up is to give a list of articles teenagers buy and their average price. Students ask and answer using the prices. How much does a teen magazine in the UK cost? It usually costs X pounds. That’s more/less than teen mags here.
Task 3 How do you compare?
- Does any of the information about British children surprise you?
- Do you get weekly pocket money or a monthly allowance?
- Is giving pocket money a custom in your country?
- Do you spend your money on similar or different things?
- Do you think young people have pester power in your country? Why? Why not?
- Make sentences about yourself comparing your consumer habits to British children.
- I get more/less…than
- I save/don’t save as much as..
- I spend don’t buy as many/buy more…than
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4. Class survey
Depending on the enthusiasm and level give guidance on questions for the survey with prompts on the board: How much/How many /How often/ do you/ get/ earn/buy/save
Run through each pair or group’s questions before they ask each other. A scientific class might like to represent their findings in graphic form.
Task 4 Class survey
These facts come from a national survey, The Walls Pocket Money Monitor. Make questions for a similar survey in your country. Use the information in the fact file to help make your questions.
- Example: Girls total spending = “How much do you spend per week?”
Ask people in your class.
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5. Discussion
This discussion is best suited to intermediate level students. Put them in small groups to work through each statement. Hold a class vote on each statement and/or get each group to write one sentence in their own words to say what the attitude to teenagers working is in your host country.
Task 5 Discussion
Here are some arguments for and against teenagers working. Which ones do you agree with?
- A job teaches young people the value of work. It helps them appreciate how hard their parent work to buy them things.
- A job distracts young people from their studies/homework. They should be doing homework at the weekend.
- No child should be allowed to work, it’s cruel. Children and teenagers should rest after school.
- All young people should have some work experience before they go into the real world. Saturday jobs help parents financially. It is not always possible for modern parents to buy expensive trainers and fashions. Teenagers with a job can help save for expensive things with their parents.
- Parents should not allow their children to work. They should give them everything they can and work extra hours if necessary to pay for this.
- It is good for teenagers to have their own money. It helps them become independent.
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