Asking for a Discount

This A2 lesson helps students learn simple, useful phrases for asking for discounts and dealing with everyday shopping tasks. It opens with a relaxed warm up that links nicely to a black friday esl lesson plan and gets students talking about their own shopping habits. Students build confidence through vocabulary practice, short reading tasks and plenty of speaking time. Toward the end, they put everything together in realistic role play scenes typical of an esl shopping lesson.

If you want to extend the topic, we also recommend our B2 lesson “Shopping Tips for Black Friday,” which works great as part of any shopping lesson plan.

Teaching guide

Lead in, Discussion
Begin the lesson with a short Black Friday video showing crowds rushing through an electronics store. Keep this part fun and simple. Ask students what they notice, why people behave this way and how it makes them feel. Make sure they understand it is just a warm up and not the focus of the black friday esl lesson plan. After the video, move into the lead in discussion where students talk about how often they shop, whether they enjoy buying things online or in stores and what their favorite places to shop are in their city. This helps reactivate useful esl shopping vocabulary in a relaxed, natural way.

Vocabulary, Vocabulary practice
Students then look at ten new words related to shopping. For each one they choose the correct definition from two options. Once they understand the meanings, they move on to a quick practice activity where they read short statements and guess which word is being described. This gives them confidence before the reading task and keeps the lesson flowing smoothly.

Reading, Questions, Writing
The reading text How to Ask for a Discount provides six practical tips that support conversations in any esl shopping lesson. Students read together or individually and then answer five comprehension questions to check understanding. In the writing section they read five short situations and write a useful phrase that fits each one. This encourages critical thinking and prepares them for the upcoming esl shopping role play stages.

Speaking, Agree or Disagree
Students complete six sentences with their own ideas about bargains, refunds, sold out items and keeping receipts. Next they respond to agree or disagree statements designed to spark meaningful conversation. These speaking tasks help learners apply their shopping vocabulary in practical contexts.

Role Play
Finish the lesson with three scenario based role plays: asking for a discount, asking for a refund and solving a problem in a busy shop. Each scenario includes roles for customer and cashier along with short guiding prompts. These tasks strengthen fluency and build confidence using the language from the esl shopping role play, supporting even stronger carryover into real shopping situations.