ESL WORKSHEET - Nikola Tesla

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

NIKOLA TESLA

LinguaHouse

Sep. 6, 2024

Level: Pre-Intermediate (A2-B1)
Type of English: General English
Tags: People and Places; American Culture; Historical Events; Science and Technology; Celebrities and Historical Figures; 13-15 Years Old; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old; Vocabulary Lesson; Speaking
Publication date: 09/06/2024

This refreshed lesson covers the works of the legendary engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla. The lesson focuses on vocabulary, listening comprehension, and speaking. (by Stephanie Hirschman)

• 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/listen to the audio 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 British English.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Narrator: Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Croatia. He was a very clever child - at school, his teachers were surprised to see him doing difficult math problems in his head. When he was 14, Tesla left home to study science and engineering.
In 1884, Tesla decided to move to New York City. At that time, many scientists were working to find ways to bring electricity to cities. One important scientist was Thomas Edison, and Tesla went to work for him, improving and creating new products.
The two men had some disagreements, so Tesla started his own business. At first, he was unsuccessful because his business partners stole his ideas. However, he found some new partners and in his second business, he invented a new system to bring electricity safely to buildings over long distances. This was called alternating current, or AC.
Tesla’s earlier partner Edison was developing another electrical system called direct current, or DC. The two men fought hard to make their own system the winner in these "Current Wars." With the help of a powerful businessman called George Westinghouse, AC became the main system used in the USA. Westinghouse and Tesla also used hydroelectric energy for the first time to bring electricity from Niagara Falls to the large city of Buffalo, New York.
Tesla then started to work on a way to send information and even electricity from one place to another without using wires. Although he started building a huge tower to send information and power around the world, this project was not successful.
Tesla never married. He worked very hard all his life - he only slept two or three hours each night. He had a strong imagination and could plan his inventions in his head. As he grew older, Tesla’s ideas developed in unusual ways. He became interested in photographing people’s memories and in producing a weapon called a death ray. He died in 1943, aged 86.
Tesla is remembered today as the inventor of the technology which makes our modern life possible. To remember his achievements, his name was given to the electric car company, Tesla Motors, in 2003.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/nikola-tesla. Accessed on September 6, 2024. © 2008–2024 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.