Unit 9 is a vibrant, high-interest intermediate speaking unit centered on a universal topic everyone can talk about: FOOD.
From street food to holiday meals, junk-food cravings to wild eating contests, these lessons deliver authentic, real-world speaking practice designed for teens, adults, and mixed-age ESL groups.
Teachers love this unit because:
Students instantly connect with the topic
No prep is needed—everything is ready to teach
Humor, stories, and discussion prompts boost natural speaking
Activities support fluency, vocabulary growth, and cultural awareness
Whether you’re running a conversation class, an adult ESL group, or a fun speaking elective, Unit 9 keeps learners talking, laughing, and expressing themselves in English with confidence.
This four-lesson speaking unit explores food from multiple angles:
Junk Food & Cravings
Celebrating With Food
Street Food Around the World
Food Competitions & Eating Challenges
The unit includes:
Warm-up questions
Short, engaging readings
Real-world vocabulary
Humorous dialogues
Ranking activities
“Would you rather?” games
Cultural comparisons
Practical speaking tasks
Topic variety makes this unit ideal for CEFR B1–B1+ learners building confidence with everyday communication and food-related vocabulary.
Students discuss cravings, emotions, celebrations, traditions, street food scenes, and eating challenges.
Learners compare flavors, describe experiences, and talk about personal preferences.
Across all lessons, students learn terms like:
irresistible, cycle, transform, cope, nostalgia, obsession, host, fast, represent
vendor, mobile, affordable, personality, ingenious
athlete, endurance, risky, technique, brag, shocked
Through guided questions, debates, and role-play dialogues, students develop comfort speaking spontaneously.
Learners explore food traditions in China, Mexico, Spain, Korea, the Middle East, Europe, India, Thailand, and more.
Each lesson includes short, playful dialogues that model natural speech patterns.
Describing food
Sharing personal stories
Giving opinions
Cultural comparison
Explaining habits
Emotional expression
Understanding humor
Listening for details
Responding naturally
Real conversational flow
Food & culture vocabulary
Emotional & sensory adjectives
Verbs for cravings, celebrating, feeling, eating
Expressive sentence structures
Critical thinking
Reflection
Persuasion
Describing cause & effect
Social awareness
This unit integrates:
Communicative Language Teaching
Task-Based Learning
Scaffolding from guided → independent speaking
Visual & contextual clues
Friendly, humorous dialogues for fluency practice
Differentiation for mixed-ability or mixed-age learners
The everyday topic of food ensures that even shy learners feel confident participating.
Unit 9 works perfectly as:
A stand-alone speaking module
A mid-year conversation unit
A cultural exploration unit
Part of a food-themed elective
An ESL class warm-up or fluency booster
It also links smoothly to:
Unit 8 (Entertainment) through online food challenges
Unit 10 or future units about culture, global issues, or health & lifestyle
Advanced speaking modules involving debates, opinions, and social issues
Objective:
Discuss cravings, marketing, brain chemistry, emotional eating, and the idea of balance.
Key Vocabulary:
cycle, irresistible, emotional, cope, spoiler, transform
Activities Summary:
Engaging readings: junk food tricks, dopamine, ads, emotional eating, taste-bud training
Vocabulary practice with real examples
Dialogues about cravings, marketing, and “sugar hangovers”
Ranking common snacks
Discussion about balance and healthy habits
Benefits for Students:
Helps learners talk about personal habits and emotional triggers using natural language.
Objective:
Explore holiday foods, traditions, religious symbols, and family dishes.
Key Vocabulary:
host, spiritual, fast, represent, nostalgia, obsession
Activities Summary:
Readings on global traditions: dumplings, grapes, iftar, matzah, sweet bread
Family memories and cultural comparisons
Dialogues about celebrations and funny holiday food situations
“Would you rather?” festive food choices
Benefits for Students:
Powerful for cultural exchange and sharing traditions in multilingual classrooms.
Objective:
Introduce world street food cultures and build descriptive language for flavors, textures, and experiences.
Key Vocabulary:
vendor, mobile, ingenious, affordable, personality, absolutely
Activities Summary:
Regions explored: Asia, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & North Africa
Vocabuary tasks tied to real foods
Dialogues about food tours, global snacks, and street vendor “superpowers”
“Would you rather?” street-food adventures
Benefits for Students:
Ideal for travel-oriented learners and for teaching cultural appreciation.
Objective:
Discuss competitive eating, spicy challenges, YouTube food trends, and safety concerns.
Key Vocabulary:
technique, endurance, risky, athlete, brag, shocked
Activities Summary:
Readings on hot-dog contests, food challenges, strategy, spicy foods
Fun, dramatic dialogues
Vocabulary review
“Would you rather?” eating challenges
Debates about what counts as a sport
Benefits for Students:
Encourages lively discussion and gives learners confidence talking about extreme or humorous topics.
Let students bring photos of foods from their culture (optional but fun).
Use the dialogues as performance tasks—pairs can act them out.
Encourage sensory vocabulary: crispy, chewy, spicy, creamy, comforting.
Ask follow-up questions to push learners into extended speaking.
For adults: include real food issues (nutrition, marketing, habit formation).
For teens: connect to snacks, influencer culture, and family traditions.
Use any of the following:
Mini-speaking presentations on favorite foods
“Create your own food tradition” activity
Group debates (junk food ads, school lunches, eating challenges)
Street-food comparison charts
Vocabulary-based role-plays