2026 World Cup – ESL Lesson Plan For TEFL Teachers
Giving YOU the chance to SPEAK about the biggest tournament in the world!
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About This Lesson
The greatest tournament on Earth is back, this time hosted across the USA, Canada, and Mexico! This lesson is best suited for strong intermediate students and upwards (B1/B2+). Feel free to edit, change, add, or lose any part of this lesson to suit your students.
The lesson includes two video listenings—about the history of the World Cup and the 2026 host cities—alongside useful language to talk about football matches. Finally, there's an FCE-style speaking task where students must choose a host city from a selected list and justify their choices.
Lesson Procedure
1. Warmer – The World Cup in Numbers
Show students a slide with numbers related to the 2026 World Cup (e.g., 48, 16, 3, 104). Put them in pairs and ask how they think the numbers are connected to the topic of the lesson and what the topic might be. (Answers: 48 teams, 16 host cities, 3 host countries, 104 matches).
2. Group Discussion
Put students into groups and give them 5 minutes to go through discussion questions about football and their favourite World Cup memories. Following this, bring everyone together for open feedback.
3. Listening – History of the World Cup
Focus on the last question of your discussion and ask if anyone can explain the history and structure of the World Cup. Tell them they are going to watch a short video about its history.
Put students in A/B pairs, hand out the numbers worksheet, and tell each student to listen for their respective numbers. Allow them to take guesses before you play the video. Give students the chance to watch a second time to share what they heard.
Video link: Watch the video
Post-listening: Did you catch the information in the video? Is anything surprising? Since this is an older video, explain the new format changes for 2026 (the expansion to 48 teams!).
4. Vocabulary – Football Verbs & Scores
Elicit common football verbs (kick, score, head, save) or see if students remember any from the video. Then, elicit win, lose, draw, and the expression X beat Y.
Teacher tip: Highlight that in football, the higher number always comes first, and a '0' is always referred to as 'nil' (e.g., Two–nil, one–nil).
Put students in groups and have them choose a country to represent. Play a fast-paced game where they must unscramble football-related words. Keep track of the times. After each round, review the words and reinforce the "X beat Y" and "nil" phrasing.
5. Describing a Match
Put students in pairs and ask them to brainstorm phrases you might use to describe a match after it finishes. Go over common collocations before handing out the World Cup vocabulary worksheet.
6. Listening – The 2026 Host Countries
Tell students the World Cup is about more than just football; it's also about helping and developing host countries. Divide the class into pros and cons and ask them to brainstorm how hosting a World Cup can help or hinder a country.
After a short discussion, explain that 2026 is unique because it's split across 16 cities in North America. Tell students to watch a travel video ranking the new host cities and note down what makes certain locations stand out.
Video link: Watch the 2026 Host City Guide
Post-listening: Would you like to go to the WC in the USA, Mexico, or Canada? Which city looks best? Were any of your "cons" (traffic, costs, etc.) mentioned?
7. Speaking Task – FCE-style City Selection
Tell students that a brand-new city needs to be added to the tournament. It's their job to look at 5 different fictional prospective towns/cities in their groups and decide which one to select as a final host city.
They should think about:
- WHY they are choosing it
- WHAT needs to be done to bring it up to standard
- HOW it will help the locals after the competition finishes
After 10 minutes, pair the groups up to debate and share their reasons. (Note: This perfectly mimics an FCE Speaking Part 3 task!)
8. Wrap Up & Homework
Finish with open-class feedback, error correction, and a final prediction on who they think will win the 2026 World Cup.
Homework: Assign each student a qualifying country to research and report back on in the next lesson.
Enjoy the lesson!
Luke – CELTA-qualified English Language Teacher with 15+ years experience working online on Zoom.