Lesson plan | Entrepreneurs are GREAT
Topic: Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship
Learning outcomes:
• Identify what it means to be an entrepreneur and discuss the importance of
entrepreneurship to individuals and society
• Identify the meaning of and use vocabulary in the context of entrepreneurship
• Identify the meaning of and use idioms in the context of entrepreneurship
• Create an imaginary business plan and give a presentation
Age and level: 13-17, Adults (B1+)
Time: Approximately 90 minutes or two shorter lessons (Lesson 1 = Lead-in + Tasks 1-4;
Lesson 2 = Task 5)
Materials: Presentation OR Student worksheet; Copies of text in Appendix for Task 3 (if
doing the running dictation)
Introduction:
This lesson is about entrepreneurship and its place in society. It develops speaking and
writing skills and the use of context-specific vocabulary and idiomatic language. The
students’ own experiences and opinions form the basis of all discussions and written work.
A student worksheet accompanies this lesson. Teachers can use a presentation for a low or
no-printing option.
Procedure
Lead-in (10 mins)
• Write on the board: What is an entrepreneur? Ask students to discuss the question
and to write a definition. They can do this in pairs or small groups. Ask them not to
use a dictionary.
[Link]
© British Council 2012
Lesson plan | Entrepreneurs are GREAT
• Ask some students to read out their definitions. Write a definition on the board which
encapsulates your students’ ideas.
• When you and your class are happy with the definition, compare it to one in a
dictionary, e.g.: [Link]
The definition in the Cambridge Dictionary Online is: ‘someone who starts their own
business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity’
Task 1: Speaking and vocabulary (10-15 mins)
• Show slide 2 of the presentation or refer students to Task 1 in the student
worksheet.
• Students discuss questions 1-5 as a whole class or in pairs / groups. As students
talk, help with new vocabulary related to entrepreneurship. If students discussed the
questions in pairs / groups, invite some to share their responses.
• Write vocabulary from the discussions which is related to entrepreneurship on the
board, e.g.: qualities of an entrepreneur: leadership, vision, discipline, curiosity,
creativity, ability to take risks etc. Check that everyone understands the vocabulary
and knows the pronunciation.
• If appropriate, feed language from the dictation text (see Task 2) into the discussion
e.g.: innovator, think outside the box, set up a business, find a niche in the market
etc.
Task 2: Dictation (15 mins)
Note: The text for this task is in the Appendix at the end of this lesson plan. If you
choose to do option 2, you will need to stick several copies of the text around the
room.
• Option 1: Explain that you are going to dictate a short text about entrepreneurship.
Students must listen and write the text. Approach the dictation in whichever way is
best for your students. Give students time to think and write, repeat sentences if
necessary, and encourage questions e.g. Can you repeat…? How do you spell…? Is
there a full stop or comma here?
[Link]
© British Council 2012
Lesson plan | Entrepreneurs are GREAT
• Option 2: Put students into pairs. One student in each pair is the ‘runner’; the other
is the ‘writer’.
• Explain to the students that they must work in pairs to write a text about
entrepreneurship. Explain the rules: the runner must go to the text, remember a
chunk of it, return to the writer and dictate this chunk in order for the writer to write it
down. They repeat the process until they have written the complete text.
• Before they begin, you could review useful language e.g. Can you repeat that? How
do you spell …? Does a comma go here? Etc
• Set a time limit (10 minutes) and monitor. If no pair has accurately completed the text
within the time limit, the winning pair is the one which has written the most with the
greatest accuracy.
• When you have finished dictating the text or the time limit is up, students could
compare their texts with each other before you give them a copy of the text, or they
take one of the copies from around the room. The text is also available on slide 3 of
the presentation. Students check their dictations.
• Ask students if they know who Richard Branson is, and what he is famous for (he’s
an entrepreneur from the UK; he established the ‘Virgin’ brand, first with music
stores, then with a record label and airline, and Virgin Galactic designed for space
tourism).
Note: You may want to dictate the first paragraph and allow each student in each pair to
take turns to dictate the second paragraph to each other. For further explanation, see here:
[Link]
Task 3: Matching activity (5 mins)
• Show slide 4 of the presentation or refer students to Task 3 in the student
worksheet.
• Explain that the text contains seven idioms which we could use when we talk about
entrepreneurs or entrepreneurship. Students should match the idioms with their
meanings. They can do this individually or in pairs.
• Check answers with the whole class: 1c, 2g, 3a, 4e, 5f, 6b, 7d
[Link]
© British Council 2012
Lesson plan | Entrepreneurs are GREAT
Note: You may like to make the table of idioms and definitions into cards for students to
match up. Alternatively, you could hand out the individual cards at random in order for
students to mingle to find their ‘pair’.
Task 4: Gap-filling activity (5-10 mins)
• Show slide 5 and slide 6 of the presentation or refer students to Task 4 in the
student worksheet. If using the slides, give students time to read the sentences on
slide 5 before moving onto slide 6.
• Individually or in pairs, students complete the gaps with idioms from Task 3. In some
cases, they may have to think about the verb forms.
• Check answers with the whole class: 1. success breeds success; 2. thinks outside
the box; 3. ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’; 4. a niche in the market; 5. get off the
ground; 6. movers and shakers; 7. to take the plunge
Task 5: Create a business plan (45 mins +)
• To set the context and give your students inspiration, it may be useful to introduce
them to the ‘Dragon’s Den’ TV series. This has become a popular way for
entrepreneurs to attract investment in their ideas by making a televised pitch to some
of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs. The following link provides some useful
clips: [Link] . Select clips in which
entrepreneurs are pitching their ideas.
• Refer students to slide 7 of the presentation or to Task 5 in the student worksheet.
Read through the points of the business plan and check that everyone understands.
If necessary, brainstorm some business ideas with your class first. Not all students
will be full of inspiration.
• Depending on your students, they can work individually or in pairs / small groups.
Give them time to think of an idea, and then to prepare their business plan. Circulate
as students work and help where necessary.
• Make sure that students are preparing to present their ideas to the class. Depending
on time and resources available, they could make a PowerPoint presentation, a
[Link]
© British Council 2012
Lesson plan | Entrepreneurs are GREAT
poster or an online presentation. They make like to have time to practise the
presentations.
• When students are ready, they should present their business ideas and plans. They
can present to the whole class, or to other groups if you have a large class.
• Tell students who are watching the presentations that they have an amount of money
to invest in one (or more) of the business ideas (you could decide the amount with
the class). If you have it, give students toy money.
• At the end of the presentations, students say which entrepreneurs they would invest
in and why.
• If you like, you can use the presentations as an opportunity for evaluation and
feedback.
Homework
• For homework, students can write about an entrepreneur and their achievements.
This could be somebody famous that they admire (from anywhere in the world), or a
person that they know.
• Elicit or give ideas of what students could include: where the entrepreneur is from;
the qualities they have that make them an entrepreneur; how they started and any
difficulties they faced; how they became successful; their impact on society and other
people.
• They should try to use vocabulary and idioms from the lesson in the text. Remind
them that it would be unnatural to use too many idioms all in one go, however, for the
purposes of learning idioms effectively, it can be useful to learn them as a lexical set.
• Students can bring in their work next lesson and share what they have learned with
the class. You could also use the texts for evaluation purposes. Take in the texts and
provide feedback.
• Alternatively, students could record themselves reading their work aloud at
[Link] This gives them the opportunity to self-correct. They can even
send their recordings to you so you can give more detailed feedback.
[Link]
© British Council 2012
Lesson plan | Entrepreneurs are GREAT
Appendix: Dictation text for Task 2
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs are innovators. They are people with a
clear vision about how they want to make their mark in
the world. They are individuals who think outside the
box; the movers and shakers who take the plunge and
overcome difficulties in order to set up new businesses.
Famous entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson, are
renowned for believing ‘nothing ventured, nothing
gained’. They realise that, in order to get off the ground,
innovators must identify a niche in the market and be
prepared to take a risk. They understand that success
breeds success and the achievements of just one
person can have an impact on the world and change the
lives of many.
[Link]
© British Council 2012
