My First Job
This lesson helps A2 students talk about their first jobs using real stories from young workers. Students pick up practical vocab for describing work schedules, customer service, and how they feel at work while listening to actual accounts from restaurant servers, tutors, and cinema workers. The lesson builds speaking confidence through relatable topics that connect to students’ own lives and future jobs.
Lesson overview
- Practice describing work experiences and customer service situations
- Learn vocabulary for shifts, tips, workplaces, and common job challenges
- Develop listening skills through three authentic first-job stories
- Discuss different types of work and share personal experiences
Student's Version (Light/Dark)
Teacher's Version (Answer Keys)
Printable Classroom Version (A4)
| Level | Vocabulary | Audio Length | Lesson Time |
| A2 / Pre-Intermediate | 18 words | 0:55, 1:08, 1:00 min | 60 min |
Vocabulary
- shift
- tray
- rush hour
- complain
- exhausted
- tips
- frustrated
- give up
- make progress
- patient
- succeed
- feel rewarded
- mess
- spill
- sticky
- disgusting
- half-eaten
- worth it
Contents
- Lead-in
- Speaking
- Vocabulary 1
- Audio 1
- Vocabulary 2
- Audio 2
- Vocabulary 3
- Audio 3
- Comprehension
- Agree or disagree
- Practice
- Speaking
- Optional discussion
Start with the lead-in activity where students complete sentence stems about jobs and work preferences. This gets everyone thinking about employment before you throw new vocab at them. Give students two minutes to write their answers, then have them share with a partner. This natural warm-up works well because students already have opinions about work even if they’ve never had a job.
Move to the speaking activity with job pictures. Students identify each profession and come up with two positive and two tough aspects of each job shown. This builds critical thinking about work before the listening kicks in. The vocab sections introduce essential words in context. For the first set, students match words like shift, tray, and tips to definitions. Check answers as a class and drill pronunciation on tricky words.
The three audio activities are the heart of the lesson. Before each listening, pre-teach the vocab for that section. Play each audio twice. First time around, students listen for the big picture. Second time, they do the specific tasks like filling blanks or finishing sentences. After each audio, talk through the reflection question to make the content personal. The comprehension table helps students compare all three job stories and spot patterns in first job experiences.
Practice activities lock in the target vocab through sentence matching and unscrambling. These controlled exercises get students ready for freer speaking tasks. The final speaking section offers nine different topics. Students pick one and prep a short story. This works as pair work or small groups. The discussion questions push students to share opinions about work-related topics using language from the lesson. Walk around during conversations and jot down common errors for feedback at the end.
