ESL/EFL Level: Advanced (C1/C2)
Lesson Topics: child abduction, China
Skill Focus: Listening, Reading, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: chinese-son-abduction-advanced-062026.docx
Lesson Overview:
Lesson Topics: child abduction, China
Skill Focus: Listening, Reading, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: chinese-son-abduction-advanced-062026.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Students first warm up with a question about China and then try to guess the contents of a story based on a word cloud.
- The lesson's input is a 4:18-minute video (BrE) about a father's quest to find his abducted son. The video describes his arduous journey and joy after reuniting with his son after 24 years. The final portion of the video describes a DNA-matching campaign by the Chinese authorities and gives more background on the issue of child abductions in China.
- After each video, students answer comprehension questions.
- Students then match 12 vocabulary items from phrases in the video to definitions. This is followed by a sentence transformation exercise which requires students ask questions to each other using some of the new words.
- The lesson has two roleplay scenarios. In the first, the son must decide whether to resume life with his biological parents or to stay with the parents who have raised him for the past 24 years. In the second, students debate a proposed citizen surveillance program aimed at reducing crime in China.
- As a language focus, the lesson has a short note on inversion for emphasis.
- Afterward, students review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.
ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Guo Gangtang's Quest
Warm-up Questions
- Would you like to live in China? Why or why not?
- Look at the word cloud on the right. What do you think today’s lesson is about? Write down 2-3 sentences predicting what you think happens in the story.
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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. Claude was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension Question Answer Key:
- …
- Guo Gangtang traveled by motorbike from town to town, covering more than half a million kilometers over 24 years. He carried banners with his son's photo, wore out 10 motorbikes, broke bones, slept under bridges, and spent his life savings — even begging for money at times.
- A film about his search was released in 2015, which brought him national fame in China and helped spread awareness of his story.
- The video states police found the son using a DNA match/test, which confirmed he was Guo Gangtang's biological son.
- (Open-ended/speculative — no fixed answer. Possible ideas: information from the adoptive family about who they obtained the child from, old records resurfacing during a broader trafficking investigation, confessions from suspects caught for other crimes, or police re-examining cold cases as part of the new DNA campaign.)
- Children are abducted to be sold into adoption, or forced into begging/theft for criminal gangs. Boys are reportedly valued more highly because, in Chinese culture, they carry on the family name and are expected to provide financial support to their parents in old age.
- The campaign uses DNA testing/databases to try to match missing people with their families — nearly 10,000 people came forward for testing, resulting in 2,609 children found and 372 suspects arrested. (Second part is open-ended/opinion — students might note the scale of the problem suggests DNA alone isn't sufficient, given tens of thousands of cases remain unsolved, or that it's a meaningful step but not a complete solution.)
Vocabulary answer key: 1-h, 2-l, 3-i, 4-d, 5-k, 6-g, 7-c, 8-f, 9-j, 10-b, 11-e, 12-a
Collocations: 1-e, 2-a, 3-j, 4-i, 5-b, 6-g, 7-f, 8-h, 9-d, 10-c