Parents who smoke and drink should be careful. Children are looking at and remembering and copying the behavior of their mothers and fathers. This is the conclusion of a study made by Dartmouth College in the American state of New Hampshire. A research team asked kindergarten children to role-play a shopping trip. The researchers measured the thoughts and attitudes of the students and found two-year-old toddlers “buying” alcohol and cigarettes.

The study found that children were 3.9 times more likely to buy cigarettes if their parents smoked. Of 120 children aged two to six, 34 "bought" cigarettes and 74 purchased alcohol. Young children who were allowed to watch adult movies were five times more likely to choose alcohol. Researcher Madeline Dalton said: “Children were aware of cigarette brands…a six-year-old boy identified the brand of cigarettes he was buying as Marlboros, but could not identify the brand of his favourite cereal.”

WARM-UPS

1. PARENTS: You are a parent. Talk to the other “parents” in your class about the difficulties of parenting. Talk about the bad behavior of your children. Are you worried that your children are copying any of your bad habits?

2. MIMICKING: In pairs / groups, talk about which of the following behavior you would be worried about if you found your six-year-old child doing them. What would you tell him / her? Did you do any of these things when you were a child?

Smoking Drinking alcohol Using bad language Looking at pornography

Shoplifting Bullying Taking drugs Gambling

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Smoking / parents / bad habits / normal behavior / role plays / shopping / toddlers / alcohol / copying parent’s behavior / brands / breakfast cereal

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. ALCOHOL: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “alcohol”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. BAD INFLUENCE: In pairs / groups, talk about whether children in your country do any of the following. If they do, from what age? Try to find reasons why they do these things. Do you think it is because of bad parenting?

1. Smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol
2. Take drugs
3. Vandalism
4. Graffiti
5. Stealing from elderly people
6. Burglary and robbery
7. Physical assault or murder
8. Under-age sex
9. Gun crimes
10. Blackmail

6. QUICK DEBATE: Students A think today’s children are becoming more badly behaved. Students B think today’s kids are the same as they were many years ago. Change partners often.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	A study has found that many kindergarten students smoke.	T / F
b.	Kindergarten students copy the behavior of their parents.	T / F
c.	Researchers measured how much alcohol children could drink.	T / F
d.	Two-year-olds bought cigarettes and alcohol in a shopping role play.	T / F
e.	Kids are 3.9 times likelier to buy cigarettes if their parents smoke.	T / F
f.	Movies have a big impact on kids’ awareness of alcohol.	T / F
g.	Children don’t have a very good understanding of brands.	T / F
h.	One boy recognized cigarette brands but not breakfast cereal brands.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	drink	mimicking
b.	copying	expedition
c.	conclusion	kind
d.	trip	permitted
e.	attitudes	probable
f.	likely	consume alcohol
g.	purchased	picked out
h.	allowed	views
i.	identified	result
j.	brand	bought

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	Parents who smoke	of cigarette brands
b.	copying the behavior	a shopping trip
c.	the conclusion of	of their mothers and fathers
d.	role-play	more likely to choose alcohol
e.	measured the thoughts	likely to buy cigarettes
f.	children were 3.9 times more	the brand of his favourite cereal
g.	Of 120 children aged two to six,	and drink
h.	five times	34 "bought" cigarettes
i.	Children were aware	and attitudes of the students
j.	could not identify	a study

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WORD ORDER: Put the underlined words back into the correct order.

Toddlers mimic smoking parents

Parents who smoke and should be drink careful. Children are looking at and remembering and copying the behavior of their mothers and fathers. This is study of the conclusion a made by Dartmouth College in the American state of New Hampshire. A research team asked kindergarten children shopping to trip a role-play. The researchers thoughts the measured and attitudes of the students and found two-year-old toddlers “buying” alcohol and cigarettes.

The children were found that study 3.9 times more likely to buy cigarettes if their parents smoked. Of 120 two children aged six to, 34 "bought" cigarettes and 74 purchased alcohol. Young children who watch to were allowed adult movies were five times more likely to choose alcohol. Researcher Madeline Dalton said: “Children brands of aware cigarette were …a six-year-old boy identified the brand of cigarettes he was buying as Marlboros, but could identify of the brand not his favourite cereal.”

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘role’ and ‘play’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. WORD ORDER: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers.

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “GOOD PARENTING” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about parenting and its problems.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

careful copying study role-play thoughts toddlers

3.9 120 watch aware six-year-old cereal

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. What did you think when you first read this headline?
2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
3. What adjectives describe your feelings about this article?
4. What do you think about toddlers picking up on their parents’ bad behavior?
5. Did you pick up any bad habits from your parents?
6. Is it OK for parents to drink and smoke in front of children?
7. Do you think people should take lessons to be better parents?
8. Do you love being with children?
9. Are you good with kids?
10. Is there anything new in what you read in this article?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What did you think about what you read?
3. Were you a little monster or a little angel when you were a toddler?
4. Do you think strangers should tell children to behave better?
5. Do today’s kids have an easy life?
6. Did you or did you want to smoke as a child?
7. What would you do if you saw a four-year-old smoking?
8. Can you remember what you thought about cigarettes and alcohol when you were a child?
9. Should parents think about their behavior more seriously in front of kids?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

PARENTING:

You are a member of the government’s new Good Parenting Committee. You have to think of the guidelines on good parenting that all parents must follow. In pairs / groups, discuss the recommendations you want to make, the possible reasons why parents might disagree and your answer to these disagreements.

Guideline	Recommendation	Disagreements by parents	Answer to disagreements
Smoking in front of children
Drinking in front of children
Hitting children to punish them
Teaching children about God
Establishing a “no raised voices” policy in the home
Children and television
Children, diet and exercise

Change partners and explain your recommendations, etc. to your new partner(s). Give each other advice on how to improve your recommendations and provide better answers to parents.

Return to your original partners. Share feedback and make your original recommendations better.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Toddlers mimic smoking parents

Parents who smoke and drink should __ ________. Children are looking at and remembering and _______ the behavior of their mothers and fathers. This is the conclusion of a study made by Dartmouth College in the American ______ ___ New Hampshire. A research team asked kindergarten children to role-play a shopping trip. The researchers _________ the thoughts and _________ of the students and found two-year-old toddlers “buying” alcohol and cigarettes.

The study _________ that children were 3.9 times more likely to buy cigarettes if their parents smoked. ___ ______ children aged two to six, 34 "bought" cigarettes and 74 purchased alcohol. Young children who were ________ to watch adult movies were five times more ________ to choose alcohol. Researcher Madeline Dalton said: “Children were aware of cigarette brands…a six-year-old boy ________ the brand of cigarettes he was buying as Marlboros, but could not ________ the brand of his favourite cereal.”

HOMEWORK

1. 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 more information on children and cigarettes. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. ADVICE SHEET: Create an advice sheet for parents. Write down the top ten points of being a good parent. Show your advice sheets to your classmates in your next lesson. Did everyone have similar points?

4. DIARY / JOURNAL ENTRY: Imagine you are a four-year-old child (who can write very well). Write your diary / journal entry for one day in your life. Write about all the “bad” things your parents do. Which of these things do you copy? Read what you wrote to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. F

d. T

e. T

f. T

g. F

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	drink	consume alcohol
b.	copying	mimicking
c.	conclusion	result
d.	trip	expedition
e.	attitudes	views
f.	likely	probable
g.	purchased	bought
h.	allowed	permitted
i.	identified	picked out
j.	brand	kind

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	Parents who smoke	and drink
b.	copying the behavior	of their mothers and fathers
c.	the conclusion of	a study
d.	role-play	a shopping trip
e.	measured the thoughts	and attitudes of the students
f.	children were 3.9 times more	likely to buy cigarettes
g.	Of 120 children aged two to six,	34 "bought" cigarettes
h.	five times	more likely to choose alcohol
i.	Children were aware	of cigarette brands
j.	could not identify	the brand of his favourite cereal

WORD ORDER:

Toddlers mimic smoking parents

Parents who smoke and drink should be careful. Children are looking at and remembering and copying the behavior of their mothers and fathers. This is the conclusion of a study made by Dartmouth College in the American state of New Hampshire. A research team asked kindergarten children to role-play a shopping trip. The researchers measured the thoughts and attitudes of the students and found two-year-old toddlers “buying” alcohol and cigarettes.

The study found that children were 3.9 times more likely to buy cigarettes if their parents smoked. Of 120 children aged two to six, 34 "bought" cigarettes and 74 purchased alcohol. Young children who were allowed to watch adult movies were five times more likely to choose alcohol. Researcher Madeline Dalton said: “Children were aware of cigarette brands…a six-year-old boy identified the brand of cigarettes he was buying as Marlboros, but could not identify the brand of his favourite cereal.”

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