Online Friendly Discussion Worksheet: World Cup 2022 Controversy

Every four years the world (fine, the northern hemisphere) comes together in the summer heat to enjoy great football and national pride. But wait… it’s freezing outside! Enjoy this ESL discussion worksheet on World Cup 2022 as an interactive PDF for your online classes or offline as a printable.

Today you and your students will be talking about World Cup 2022 and the controversies that come with it.

The video: https://youtu.be/ebMUYAJRnt4

If you like warmers, watch this music video at the beginning of class >> https://youtu.be/vyDjFVZgJoo

This is the official soundtrack for the Qatar World Cup. Afterwards, ask your students how they feel about the World Cup in general. Do they pay attention when it comes around? Does it deserve all of the attention it gets? What is their favorite memory from a past World Cup?

1. Watch the video once and ask your students to name one of the controversies mentioned.
2. Distribute the PDF to your students, review the vocabulary in the top right, and then watch the video a second time. Put your students in pairs to answer the questions on the PDF. There are 11 false statements they must rewrite to be true statements based on the information in the video. They can change a few words or rewrite it entirely.
3. Come back to the group. Ask students in turns to share their rewritten phrases. Discuss any difficult questions as a class.
4. Then, move on to the speaking activity. There are several controversies surrounding World Cup 2022 from Wikipedia. In pairs, students will discuss what they think about each controversy and list them from most controversial to least controversial.
5. Come back to the group. Have pairs share their top 3 most controversial controversies. Do any of the groups have common ideas?