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Past, Present and Future Inventions- Vocabulary and Speaking

A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

ESL lesson plan on past, present, and future inventions. Includes vocabulary, speaking activities, and roleplays.

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Lesson Plan Content:


Past, present and future inventions vocabulary and speaking

Warmer

In small groups, find which of you is more interested in and knowledgeable about technology.

Use the list below to continue your discussion.

 

Inventions used now

3D movies

 

Air conditioning

 

Answering machine

Anti-virus software

 

Automatic pencil

(= Mechanical pencil)

Ball bearing

Ballpoint (pen) (= A biro)

Bar code

 

Blutack

 

Breathalyser

Bulletproof vest

 

Chain saw

Clocking in machine

 

Cloud seeding

 

Correcting fluid (=Tippex)

 

Date stamp

 

Dishwasher

 

DVD

 

Electric drill

 

Electric kettle

 

Electric pencil sharpener

Elevator

Email

 

Erasable pen

 

Eraser

Escalator

Freezer

 

Fridge (= Refrigerator)

Glue stick (= Pritt Stick)

 

GM food

 

GPS

 

Hard hat

 

Heart transplant

 

Highlighter pen

 

Hole punch

 

Hoover (= Vacuum cleaner)

 

Hybrid car

 

Industrial robot

 

Infrared night vision

 

Instant messaging

 

Internet

 

Jet foil

 

Jet ski

 

Keyhole surgery

 

Laptop (computer)

 

Laser eye surgery

 

Low energy light bulbs

 

Machine gun

 

Massage chair

 

Microscope

 

Microwave (oven)

 

Mouse

 

MP3 player

 

MRI scan

 

Nuclear power station

 

Nut and bolt

 

Pacemaker

 

Padlock

 

Paperclip

 

Photocopier

 

Pill battery

 

Pneumatic tyre

 

Pocket calculator

 

Post Its

Rechargeable battery

 

Reinforced concrete

 

Rubber band

 

Rubber gloves

 

Satellite

 

Scanner

 

Sellotape (= Scotch tape = Sticky tape)

Sewing machine

 

Shotgun

 

Shredder

 

Smoke detector/ Smoke alarm

Solar panel

 

Soldering iron

 

Stapler

 

Superglue

 

Tank

 

Taser (= Stun gun)

 

Thumbtack (= Drawing pin)

 

Tumble drier

 

TV remote control

 

Tweezers

 

USB flash drive (= USB = USB stick)

UV light

 

Vending machine

 

Video conferencing

Video game console

Welding torch

 

X ray

 

 

 

 


Roleplays on the topic of inventions

Do a selection of the roleplays below, each time pretending that you are at a time when the thing that you are talking about has recently been invented or could soon be.

 

You think that you can invent one of the things on the list but the head of the funding committee (your partner) thinks it isn’t likely that your research will be successful. Try to persuade them to give you as much money as you can get.

 

 

You are both futurologists. One of you thinks that one of the things on the list will be invented (fairly) soon and the other thinks it will be invented far into the future if ever. Discuss until one of you run out of arguments or you reach a compromise position.

 

 

Imagine you have invented one of the things in the list but your boss won’t accept that that is a good idea. Roleplay trying to persuade him or her that it will be popular and profitable, and try to get as many people as you can on your team to develop it.

 

 

You are the government committee which must decide on the restrictions of use on one of the inventions. Decide what the restrictions should be, one of you arguing that there should be tighter restrictions and the other that there should be fewer or no restrictions.

 

You are the committee to award the Nobel Prize for Engineering and three of the things in the list are on the shortlist. Decide together which invention should be given the prize.

 

 

 

Pretend one of you is an inventor who has just retired and the other is an interviewer from a newspaper or engineering magazine. Roleplay an interview about the history of your invention.

 

 

Roleplay trying to sell one of the things on the list to someone who has never heard of it (because it is a new invention at the time you are speaking). Try to persuade them that it is worth trying.

 

 

Roleplay a phone conversation from someone who bought one of the products for the first time at your suggestion but isn’t happy with their purchase. Try to persuade them to keep using it.

 

 

You both claim to have invented one of the things in the list. Argue about how you developed what you did before your partner and so you should be credited with the invention.

 

 

It is twenty years after the invention of one of the things on the list. Argue about whether it was overall a good thing that it was invented or not, using your imagination about what the consequences were. You think it was a good idea and your partner disagrees.

 

One of you thinks that an invention above will have a huge impact, whereas the other thinks normal life won’t change much. Argue until you come to a compromise or one of you gives up.

Do the same roleplays, but pretending you are in or just before the time of one of the past and/ or future inventions below.


Past inventions

(Wooden) barrel

 

Abacus

 

Airship

 

Barrel organ/ Player piano

 

Battering ram

 

Bellows

 

Bone tools

 

Bow and arrow

 

Bronze weapons

 

Candle

 

Cannon

 

Car phone

 

Carbon paper

 

Carpet sweeper

 

Clockwork toys

 

Horse-drawn carriage

 

Chimney

 

Magnetic compass

 

Crossbow

 

Dot matrix printer

 

Dumb waiter

 

Fax

 

Filofax

Flint tools

 

Floppy disk

 

Fountain pen

 

Gas lamp

 

Gunpowder

 

Harpsichord

 

Horse-drawn omnibus

 

Hovercraft

 

Iron weapons

 

Laser disk

 

Lava lamp

 

Mercury thermometer

Minidisc

Monocle

 

Moveable type

 

Movie film

 

Musket

 

Overhead projector (= OHP)

Papyrus

 

Parchment scroll

 

Pendulum clock

 

Pocket watch

 

PDA

 

Personal stereo

(= Walkman)

Pager (= Beeper)

 

Quill and ink

 

Radio cassette player

 

Record player

 

Reel to reel tape recorder

 

Rolodex

 

Slide rule

 

Space shuttle

 

Spear

 

Steam engine

 

Steam ship/ Paddle steamer

Sundial

 

The telegraph

 

Twin tub washing machine

 

Video cassette recorder

 

Windmill

 

Woodblock printing

 

(Film) camera

(Solid) wooden wheel

 


Possible future technologies

 

A medical cure for criminality

 

 

Androids/ Robots which are indistinguishable from people

 

Bionic limbs

 

 

Breeding of extinct animals such as dinosaurs

 

 

Chips in our brains

 

 

Warp speed (= Faster than light travel)

 

 

Cryonic suspension

 

 

 

Driverless taxis

 

 

Gravitational shielding (= Anti-gravity)

 

 

Flying cars

 

 

 

Human cloning

 

 

Growing of human organs

 

 

Human teleportation

 

 

 

A beam which can immobilise objects and people

 

Choosing your dreams from a menu

 

Ordinary clothes which are bullet proof

 

 

Satellite hotels

 

Invisibility/ Personal cloaking devices

 

 

Lightsabres

 

 

Limitless cheap electrical energy, e.g. from fusion reactors

 

Laser guns with the possibility of stun settings

 

 

Medicines which improve our intelligence

 

 

Personal force field shields

 

Time machines/ Time travel

 

 

Reading people’s minds

 

 

 

Virtual reality that is indistinguishable from real life

 

Replicators (= Machines that can scan and copy anything)

 

Reprogramming people’s minds

 

 

Robotic exoskeletons (= External artificial skeletons that makes you stronger)

 

Robots with feelings

 

 

Selecting characteristics of your future child from a menu

 

Self-replicating machines

 

 

 

Uploading our minds (personalities, memories, etc) into supercomputers

 


Inventions pelmanism

Try to find any similarities between the words above, using a different sentence each time. Cross off any you can make a sentence about and score two points. You can’t use any part of the name of either object when you are saying your sentence, i.e. you can’t say “An electric pencil sharpener and… are both electric”.

Useful language for comparing inventions

  • back
  • be used to…
  • beautiful
  • bottom
  • break
  • bulky
  • cause
  • compact
  • component
  • dangerous
  • difficult to…
  • expensive
  • front
  • function
  • hard-wearing
  • heavy
  • height
  • include/ contain…
  • invented…
  • length
  • lift
  • light
  • made from/ with…
  • main feature
  • move
  • obsolete
  • operate
  • pocket-sized
  • popular
  • powered by…
  • produced/ manufactured…
  • rotate
  • round
  • shape
  • side
  • square
  • surface
  • top
  • triangular
  • weight
  • width

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