Japan PM’s solution to dire birth rate has already been rejected by young

Level 3: Advanced – Teacher’s notes

8. spearhead; spearheads
Article summary: This article describes the 9. shun
Japanese Prime Minister’s efforts to urge 10. Strain; strain
families to have (more) children to pick up 11. flesh out
Japan’s declining birth rate. 12. gaffe; gaffe(s)

Time: 90 minutes 3. Comprehension check

Skills: Reading, Speaking a. Ask students to scan the text quickly to find the
paragraph that contains the information and then to
Language focus: Vocabulary read it carefully before they make their choice.

Materials needed: One copy of the

Key:
worksheet per student
1. under 800,000 7. challenging
2. people 8. immigration
3. 30 per cent 9. work–life balance
1. Warmer 4. are over 65 10. embarrassed
5. financial 11. won’t
a. The purpose of this activity is to introduce the topic 6. twice
of population trends and to get students thinking
about why a country’s low birth rate could be an 4. Key language
issue. At this stage, you could just establish that
birth rate can be provided as births per 1,000 people a. Students could be asked to do this exercise
in a population and is not always synonymous with individually, and then compare their answers in pairs.
number of births. Have students share knowledge The answers given are the phrases used in the text.
about demographic trends around the world and All of these are idiomatic phrases. For item 1, Follow
hypothesise reasons for and consequences of the script is also possible, as is think again in item 4.
these trends. The last phrase is a slight variation on the more
common expression put your money on something.
2. Key words
Key:
a. Ask students to do the exercise individually, and then 1. drag into the depths of despair
compare their answers in pairs or small groups. The 2. heed the call
word crass is generally offensive when describing 3. stick to the script
people. Most of the other words in this set are formal 4. think twice
(except for gaffe, a more formal synonym would 5. now or never
be faux pas). The word prong is often used with a 6. the smart money must be on
number, as in ‘two-prong plan/programme/campaign’.
b. Ask students to use the phrases in their own
Key: sentences. If they need more support, you can
1. pronouncement; pronouncements provide sentences stems like:
2. dysfunction
3. doomsayer; doomsayers • I always stick to the script when …
4. insurmountable • If …, I would heed the call.
5. prong; pronged • I’d think twice before …
6. crass • If I want to …, it’s now or never.
7. Dystopian; dystopian
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 Japan PM’s solution to dire birth rate has already been rejected by young
Level 3: Advanced – Teacher’s notes

5. Discussion

a. Allow students time to note down their ideas about

each statement and encourage them to say why they
agree or disagree with each one.

6. In your own words

a. The task could also be done as a homework task

and students could then present their reports to
the class.

D •
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W N IA

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