Talk about trends and social

changes in society

C1

Talk about social

trends and changes
in society
Communicate clear distinctions between similar
concepts or ideas.

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

Let’s talk about trending topics

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

Discuss

work / jobs family the climate

education politics dating

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

Describing trends with the progressive aspect

We use the progressive aspect to describe a social trend or change that is/was/will be in
progress at the time of speaking:

The number of online video streaming subscribers across platforms has been
rapidly increasing since the start of the year.
More and more young people are living with their parents for longer.

If the process is complete, then we have to use the simple aspect:

The average daily screen time has dramatically risen between 2010 and 2020.

When we talk about social trends and change we often refer to specific data sets presented
in graphs, charts or tables. Some common verbs / nouns for describing this data are:

Upward trends rise, incline, climb, increase, reach a peak

Downward trends fall, decline, drop, decrease, dip

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

Complete with the correct

form
1. Most people are only now starting to take climate change
seriously.

1. A lot of people are _____ (move) out of the city at the

moment.

2. More and more young people _____ (become) social

activists due to the populist politics in their countries.

3. In the last decade, tech companies _____ (become) more

powerful than governments.

4. Recently there’s been an increase in the number of

people that _____ (worry) about their future.

5. AI is _____ (be developed) so fast that soon it’ll be doing

most jobs.

6. Overall, people _____ (watch) less TV and _____ (spend)

more time on the internet instead.

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

Read and discuss

I think I’m like a lot of people in that I find it quite hard
to keep up because it seems like everything is rapidly
changing all the time at the moment.

One area in which I’ve really noticed this is how people

communicate with each other. When I was a kid, I had
all my friends’ home numbers memorised and used to
spend hours on the phone in deep conversation. When
texting came along, that changed and I found I never
spoke to anyone on the phone anymore.

But recently, I’ve been zooming because of the

pandemic. The thing is, though, that you’d think that
would be more like how I used to talk to people on the
phone, but it’s not because as I’m zooming, I’m also
constantly checking social media and messaging other
people so I’m not anywhere near as engaged with just
one other person as I was when I was a kid.

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

Describe the data

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

Your turn!

“Everyone is becoming addicted to technology.”

○ Team A: you agree.

○ Team B: you disagree.

● In your team discuss the points you want to

make to support your argument.

● Begin the debate.

That’s true but what about…?

I have to disagree...
I can see your point, but…
I think … because, for example,…
While that’s true to some extent, have you considered that...

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

In this class, I was able to...

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 Talk about trends and social
changes in society

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