ESL Health Unit Five:
Taking Medications

Content Overview
Intermediate Level

Health Focus

• Learn ways to remember and stay on your medications

• Discuss important questions to ask your doctor and pharmacist

• Identify ways to cut costs when purchasing medications

• Understand prescription and over-the-counter medication labels

• Know the risk factors and prevention tips for falling

• Learn how to prevent dangerous drug interactions

• Learn about different types of alternative medicines and practices

• Discuss effective strategies for talking to your doctor about alternative medicine

Language Focus

• Vocabulary for describing medications, side effects, household hazards, alternative medical practice
• Gambits for agreeing/disagreeing appropriately
• Indefinite pronouns (someone, anyone, nothing…)
• Adverbs of frequency (often, frequently, never…)
• Commonly used preposition clusters
• Prepositions to describe place and movement

Cultural Focus

• How medical practices differ from culture to culture and the level of acceptance of alternative medical practices
• Agreeing and disagreeing appropriately when arguing in English