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No Kids The Secret To A Happier MarriageA new study has found that having a child can make a couple less happy with each other. Researchers from the University of Denver conducted an eight-year study of 218 sets of parents. Their report is called “The effect of the transition to parenthood on relationship quality”. It is published in the March 2009 edition of the ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology’. The psychologists examined how happy couples were in the eight years after the birth of their first child. They concluded that the first baby put a lot of stress and pressure on a marriage. Ninety percent of couples experienced a decrease in marital bliss immediately following the birth of their first child. Unmarried couples experienced bigger problems.
It’s not all bad news for would-be parents. Some couples in the research said their relationship was stronger after their baby was born. Parents who were married for a long time before starting a family were happier. Couples on higher incomes also seemed to have fewer problems. Researcher Scott Stanley said his team’s findings did not mean children bring unhappiness in life. He said that parents may be happier as part of a family than as a childless couple. He noted that “this type of happiness can be powerful and positive”. Stanley also pointed out that couples who did not have children also became unhappier with each other over time. However, he said parenthood accelerated levels of unhappiness.
WARM-UPS1. MARRIAGE: Walk around the class and talk to other students about marriage. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. MARITAL BLISS: What are the secrets to a happy marriage? Complete this table. Share your answers with your partner(s). Change partners and share again.
4. HAPPY FAMILIES: Students A strongly believe children lead to a stronger marriage; Students B strongly believe children cause too many arguments for parents. Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. CHILDREN: With your partner(s), rate these things in order of which brings greatest happiness to parents. Share your ideas with your partner(s).
6. HAPPINESS: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘happiness’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one. combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.A new study has found that having a child can __________________ happy with each other. Researchers from the University of Denver conducted an eight-year study __________________ parents. Their report is called “The effect of the transition to parenthood on relationship quality”. It is published in the _____________________ the ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology’. The psychologists examined how happy couples were in the eight years __________________ their first child. They concluded that the first baby put a lot of stress and pressure on a marriage. Ninety percent of couples experienced a decrease in marital bliss immediately following __________________ first child. Unmarried couples experienced bigger problems. It’s not all bad __________________ parents. Some couples in the research said their relationship was stronger after their baby was born. Parents who were married for a long time before __________________ were happier. Couples on higher incomes also seemed to have fewer problems. Researcher Scott Stanley said his team’s findings __________________ children bring unhappiness in life. He said that parents may be happier as part of a family than __________________ couple. He noted that “this type of happiness can be powerful and positive”. Stanley also pointed out that couples who did not have children also became unhappier with each __________________. However, he said parenthood accelerated levels of unhappiness. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘happy’ and ‘marriage’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…? 4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. 5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:
STUDENT PARENTHOOD SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about parenthood in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.
MARRIAGE DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEA new study has found that (1) ____ a child can make a couple less happy with each other. Researchers from the University of Denver conducted an eight-year study of 218 (2) ____ of parents. Their report is called “The effect of the transition to parenthood (3) ____ relationship quality”. It is published in the March 2009 edition of the ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology’. The psychologists examined how happy couples (4) ____ in the eight years after the birth of their first child. They concluded that the first baby put a lot of stress and pressure (5) ____ a marriage. Ninety percent of couples experienced a decrease in marital bliss immediately following the birth (6) ____ their first child. Unmarried couples experienced bigger problems. It’s not all bad news for (7) ____ parents. Some couples in the research said their relationship was stronger after their baby was born. Parents who were married for a long time before (8) ____ a family were happier. Couples on higher incomes also seemed to (9) ____ fewer problems. Researcher Scott Stanley said his team’s findings did not mean children bring unhappiness in life. He said that parents may be (10) ____ as part of a family than as a childless couple. He noted that “this type of happiness can be (11) ____ and positive”. Stanley also pointed out that couples who did not have children also became unhappier with (12) ____ other over time. However, he said parenthood accelerated levels of unhappiness. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about marriage for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about marriage. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. PARENTHOOD: Make a poster about the difficulties of parenthood. How can they be overcome? Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. MARITAL BLISS: Write a magazine article about a couple who fell out of love after their first child was born. Include imaginary interviews with the parents and the baby. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s). 5. LETTER: Write a letter to researcher Scott Stanley. Ask him three questions about his research. Give him three ideas on what he should tell the parents in his study to stay happily married. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: No kids the secret to a happier marriageA new study has found that having a child can make a couple less happy with each other. Researchers from the University of Denver conducted an eight-year study of 218 sets of parents. Their report is called “The effect of the transition to parenthood on relationship quality”. It is published in the March 2009 edition of the ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology’. The psychologists examined how happy couples were in the eight years after the birth of their first child. They concluded that the first baby put a lot of stress and pressure on a marriage. Ninety percent of couples experienced a decrease in marital bliss immediately following the birth of their first child. Unmarried couples experienced bigger problems. It’s not all bad news for would-be parents. Some couples in the research said their relationship was stronger after their baby was born. Parents who were married for a long time before starting a family were happier. Couples on higher incomes also seemed to have fewer problems. Researcher Scott Stanley said his team’s findings did not mean children bring unhappiness in life. He said that parents may be happier as part of a family than as a childless couple. He noted that “this type of happiness can be powerful and positive”. Stanley also pointed out that couples who did not have children also became unhappier with each other over time. However, he said parenthood accelerated levels of unhappiness. LANGUAGE WORK
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