Lesson Topics: air travel, complaints, customer service
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: airline-complaint-seat-advanced-lesson-032026.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Note: The video contains the word "asses" twice (describing people's behinds).
- Students first warm up with questions about customer service and airlines. This is accompanied by a short vocabulary matching activity.
- This lesson's input is a 3:50-minute video (BrE) of Alan Carr reading a humorous letter of complaint from an airline passenger. The complaint describes the stench from the nearby lavatory and other issues that contribute to the traveler's miserable experience. Note that the story does contain the word "asses" twice to describe the rear-ends of passengers that bump into her/him.
- The video is followed by comprehension questions.
- Next, students review phrases from the video and match key vocabulary to definitions. Once complete, students use some of the new vocabulary to complete discussion questions.
- The debate prompt in this lesson is set up as a roleplay between the passenger and an airline representative. The question is: Should the passenger receive a refund?
- The next roleplay has a member of an air passenger advocacy group present arguments for increased regulation of the airline industry.
- Next is a rapid-fire discussion activity in which students give their opinion on eight controversial travel-related statements.
- After two famous quotations, students then review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
- As an optional writing extension, students are encouraged to follow up with the airline on their refusal to provide a proper refund.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.
ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Airline Complaints
Warm-up Questions
1) Have you ever submitted a complaint to a company? If so, why?
2) Do you have any travel horror stories?
3) What differentiates a good airline from a bad one? List at least five distinctions.
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension questions:
1) Subjective, but should include: passenger stuck in seat 29E next to the lavatory, describes terrible smell, noise, and passengers invading their space, constructs a makeshift barrier, complains about paying $400, and demands the seat be removed.
2)
- Smell: stench of sanitation fluid blown over them every time the door opens
- Sight: passenger bottoms constantly in their line of vision
- Sound: the whoosh of constant flushing; a man groaning inside
- Touch: passengers leaning against them, mistaking the blanket barrier for a wall
3) The passenger constructed a "stink shield" by jamming one end of a blanket into the overhead compartment. It was partially successful — it blocked some smell and offered some privacy — but backfired by encouraging passengers to lean against it, increasing the physical contact problem.
4) The passenger targets the engineer who designed the seat layout, imagining a boardroom scene where he was praised for squeezing in an extra row next to the lavatory.
5) The passenger requests that the airline immediately remove seat 29E from all of its aircraft, and suggests the empty space be used for luggage instead.
6) Subjective/discussion.
Vocabulary answer key: a-lavatory, b-tortured, c-simultaneously, d-stench, e-sanitation, f-the evil glare, g-giving props, h-groan, i-scars, j-initiate, k-sturdy, l-cargo
Collocations: 1-b, 2-g, 3-a, 4-c, 5-f, 6-d, 7-ed
hi! love your work, big fan. just wanted to let you know that vocabulary match exercise is a bit off, the definitions aren’t put in random, maybe, it was a trick on the students (ngl, worked on me).
Fixed. Thanks Polina!