The China Teaching Web

Level: Intermediate - Advanced

Discussing the Seven Deadly Sins in your ESL Conversation Class will make for an interesting social topic because it will lead to a discussion about morality in China.

Warmup: Introduce the Seven Deadly Sins to your students and talk a little bit about where they came from. You may have to define the word ’sin’ for them. You can find some good information about the history of the Seven Deadly Sins by clicking on this link http://www.whitestonejournal.com/seven_deadly_sins/

Go through each of the deadly sins and make sure that students understand the new words. You can also ask students to give you examples of each deadly sin.

Here are the Seven Deadly Sins:

1. Pride
2. Greed
3. Envy
4. Anger
5. Lust
6. Gluttony
7. Sloth

 Discussion:

• Which Deadly Sin in your opinion is the worst or most serious?
• Do you think that any of these sins have a good side and a bad side? (Pride and Anger, for example).
• How do you think Gluttony compares to the rest of the sins? Is it as serious?
• Do you think that there are any Deadly Sins that are simply impossible to avoid committing?
• Are there any sins that you think should be added to this Deadly List?