Choc Horror ESL Lesson

About This Choc Horror ESL Lesson

Chocolate is an everyday treat, but what happens when the cocoa behind it becomes increasingly expensive? This B1–B2 ESL lesson explores why chocolate makers are shrinking bars, changing recipes and raising prices, and asks whether chocolate could eventually become a luxury.

Students examine the pressures facing small cocoa farms, particularly in West Africa. They learn how changing rainfall, extreme heat and disease can devastate harvests, why farmers’ livelihoods are vulnerable, and why higher shop prices do not necessarily lead to higher farm incomes. The article also considers resilient cocoa plants and cocoa-free alternatives.

Students then run a chocolate brand facing doubled cocoa prices, weigh the interests of shoppers, farmers, shareholders and environmental campaigners, and role-play a press conference. The lesson finishes with a writing task about who should pay the real cost of the things we enjoy.

What's Included in Choc Horror?

• Magazine-style B1–B2 ESL student worksheet
• Original reading and matching audio about cocoa prices, climate change and the future of chocolate
• Five vocabulary words (vulnerable, devastate, livelihood, volatile, resilient) and five true-or-false comprehension questions
• Five discussion questions about chocolate prices, fair pay for farmers and cocoa-free alternatives
• You Run the Chocolate Brand critical-thinking challenge: make five business decisions and identify who will object
• Language in Context: complete five sentences using the article vocabulary
• Speaking challenge: role-play a press conference between a chocolate-company spokesperson and a cocoa farmer
• 150–200 word opinion-writing task about whether shoppers, companies or governments should pay the real cost
• Teacher guide, complete answer key and model writing
• Ready-to-use classroom presentation