New Internationalist Easier English Ready Upper-Intermediate Lesson Youth New Internationalist Easier English Ready Upper-Intermediate Lesson This lesson will take 1 – 2 hours. 1

Why .... a) is it good to be a youth (15 – 24 year-old) in the world in 2012? b) is it difficult to be a youth (15 – 24 year-old) in the world in 2012? You can divide class into 2 groups to list reasons for a or b. Then discuss in pairs: a and b. 2

Why .... a) is it good to be a youth (15 – 24 year-old) in the world in 2012? b) is it difficult to be a youth (15 – 24 year-old) in the world in 2012? You can divide class into 2 groups to list reasons for a or b. Then discuss in pairs: a and b. 3

True or false? Discuss: There are 1 billion youths in the world. 51% of the youth labour force is unemployed in Spain in 2012. “NEET” stands for “Neither in Employment, Education or Travel”. There is 50% youth unemployment in Africa. 44% of 15 – 24 year olds are underweight in India. In Sub-Saharan Africa, young men are up to 8 x more likely than young women to be HIV positive. The legal marrying age in Iran is 13 for girls and 15 for boys. 6 million adolescent girls become mothers every year around the world. The youth literacy rate is 74% in Africa, and 97% in Latin America. The biggest killer of girls aged 15 – 19 is disease. You could dictate the true-false sentences first, then learners could look at the slide to check. Then they discuss whether they are true or false. 4

Now check the facts: http://www.newint.org/feature s/2012/10/01/n456_infograph ic.jpg KEY: 1 – F(1.2 billion) 2-T 3-F(training) 4-F(60%) 5-T 6-F(opposite: 8X more likely for women) 7-T 8-F(16 million) 9-T 10-F(pregnancy and childbirth) 5

What are young people doing to help the world change? And why? Read these two easier English texts to find out: http://eewiki.newint.org/index.php/Young_peo ple_becoming_more_important http://eewiki.newint.org/index.php/Giving_up_ our_ideals_is_no_longer_an_option You could print out both texts and give one to each half of the class and do this as a jigsaw-reading – or all students could read both texts. 6

Follow-up: Now read the original articles – they will seem much easier: http://www.newint.org/features/2012/10/01/y oung-people-mcintyre/ http://www.newint.org/features/2012/10/01/se lling-out-youth-laurie-penny/