ESL WORKSHEET - California, USA

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

VISITING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: CALIFORNIA

LinguaHouse

Aug. 22, 2023

Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)
Type of English: General English
Tags: Travel and Leisure; Describing Places; Explaining and Speculating; 18+ Years Old; 16-18 Years Old; Visiting Places; Vocabulary Lesson; Article Based
Publication date: 08/22/2023

This lesson will focus on California and all the things that the Golden State has to offer. Students will listen to someone from California describe a little about the history of the state. The article that follows looks at a road trip on the Pacific Coast highway. Within the lesson, students will learn new vocabulary and then personalize it by talking about California and its similarities or differences with their own countries. The lesson also includes a homework task in which students can learn even more about California. (by Peter Clarkin)

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

AUDIO/VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Oliver: Hello guys, I’m Oliver and I’m here to tell you all about the place I call home, California. Perhaps you know already but California is often called the Golden State due to our beautiful climate and the plentiful natural resources that we are blessed with.
At the moment there are over 39 million people living here and our most heavily populated cities are Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. As you might be able to tell from the place names, there is a huge Spanish influence in our state and the first Spanish missionaries arrived here in the 1700s with their influence clearly still being felt today. However, quite surprisingly California didn’t become a part of the United States until 1847 and in 1850 it was officially named the 31st state.
One of the things my state is most known for is movies and the Hollywood sign is perhaps the most recognizable sign in the world. It was constructed in 1923 and has been an ever-present since then, although something many people don’t know is that it originally said HOLLYWOODLAND and was created to promote real estate.
These days California is also well-known for tech, and Silicon Valley is home to so many world-famous companies like Apple, eBay and Zoom. With an estimated profit of $275 billion it is believed the valley is home to 81 billionaires and provides the perfect environment for start-up companies hoping to explode.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/visiting-the-united-states-of-america-california. Accessed on July 5, 2024. © 2008–2024 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.