ESL WORKSHEET - Royalty and Historical Figures

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

QUEEN ELIZABETH THE FIRST

LinguaHouse
Sept. 9, 2022

Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)
Type of English: General English
Tags: Celebrities and Historical Figures; People and Places; Royalty; Past Perfect; Past Tenses; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old
Publication date: 09/09/2022

This audio-aided lesson tells the life story of Queen Elizabeth the First (1533-1603). The lesson focuses on vocabulary, listening comprehension, and speaking and includes a short look at the significance of word order in the past perfect (had done something) and the past causative have (had something done). There is also a brief optional extension activity which provides the opportunity to discuss formality and how language changes using the example of thou, thee, thy and thine pronouns in the Elizabethan era (by Stephanie Hirschman).

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in British English.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Queen Elizabeth the First was born in 1533. Her father, King Henry the Eighth, was disappointed that his second wife Anne Boleyn had not produced a son and he had Anne’s head cut off when Elizabeth was only two years old. Elizabeth received the same education that a son would have and studied classical and modern languages, history and religion.
When Henry died in 1547, Elizabeth’s younger brother Edward briefly became king, but on his death in 1553, her older sister Mary took over. Mary was a Catholic and wanted to bring England back into the Catholic faith after her father had broken with the Catholic Church and the Pope in Rome. She tried to achieve this by force and had 300 Protestants burnt at the stake. When “Bloody Mary” died childless in 1558, Elizabeth became queen.
The first challenge Elizabeth faced was to bring the country together after the religious conflicts it had experienced during Mary’s rule. The Church of England that she set up occupied a middle ground between the Catholic and Protestant faiths and allowed some freedom in people’s personal beliefs as long as they attended church regularly. This saved England from further violence, although there were constant threats from both sides.
Elizabeth was very skilled at presenting an image. She had many pictures of herself painted wearing expensive clothes and jewelry as well as makeup to make her face look pale, sometimes showing herself as a goddess or other figure from classical myths. She traveled around the country regularly on horseback so she could see and be seen by her people, who were very loyal to her.
Elizabeth never married. Many men both at home and abroad wanted to marry her, but she played them off against each other. This meant she could avoid taking sides in various domestic and foreign political and religious conflicts, but it also meant that when she died, there would be no clear heir. She saw herself as married to the country, and later, as a mother of the country.
During her time in power, now known as the Elizabethan Age, there were many important developments in art, architecture, music, theater and literature - two of the most famous authors in the English language, William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, were writing during this time. There were also voyages of exploration to the Americas under Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh, and the Queen started the East India Company in 1599 to compete with the Spanish - old enemies who had unsuccessfully sent an “armada” of warships to attack England in 1588.
Elizabeth died in 1603 after nearly 45 years in power. It has been suggested that the lead-based makeup she wore to lighten her skin had poisoned her. After her death, her cousin King James of Scotland took over the English throne as well, but he also inherited many of the religious conflicts that Elizabeth had worked so hard to manage. The next century was notably more unstable than the Elizabethan Age had been.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/queen-elizabeth-the-first. Accessed on September 10, 2022. © 2008–2022 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.