Cultural Connections Wellbeing

Lesson 4: Discussing Health Issues

WALT (We Are Learning To):

Express ailments and symptoms using culturally appropriate language, focusing on body parts and common health issues in the target language.

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Learning Objectives and Curriculum Links

Aligned with the NSW Languages K-10 Syllabus for Years 9-10, this lesson supports students to:

• Initiate and sustain interactions to exchange and compare ideas about health-related topics from their own and others’ cultural worlds.
• Use culturally appropriate vocabulary related to body parts and common ailments to describe symptoms.
• Demonstrate awareness of language conventions, including pronunciation and etiquette, when discussing health issues.
• Reflect on how language learning influences communication about wellbeing across cultures.

Specifically, this lesson aligns with the following syllabus outcomes (example for an LOTE such as Indonesian, Spanish, Chinese):

• Stage 5 Outcome: Communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings on familiar and some unfamiliar topics using spoken, written and digital texts.
• Use accurate pronunciation, intonation, and culturally appropriate expressions when describing health and wellbeing.
• Apply knowledge of language conventions and structures to enhance meaning when discussing health issues.

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Success Criteria

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Name at least five body parts and common health ailments in the target language using culturally appropriate terms.
• Describe symptoms clearly and appropriately in dialogues or role plays.
• Demonstrate respectful cultural behaviours when talking about health.
• Read and understand short culturally relevant texts about health issues with dyslexia-friendly supports.

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Lesson Duration

60 minutes
Class size: 12 students

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Lesson Outline

1. Warm-up / Starter (10 minutes)

• Begin with a culturally relevant icebreaker game such as “Simon Says” (targeting body parts vocabulary) in the target language.
• Use clear visuals showing body parts labelled in both English and the target language (with dyslexia-friendly font and spacing).
• Teacher models pronunciation of key body parts and common ailments (e.g., headache, cold, stomach ache).

Differentiation:
Visual learners benefit from labelled images; auditory learners hear consistent pronunciation; kinesthetic learners engage physically in the game.

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2. Introduction to Health Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Present a short culturally authentic text or dialogue about a person describing their symptoms in the target language. This text should be simple and printed in a dyslexia-friendly font, with spacing and colour coding for difficult sounds.
• Discuss culturally appropriate ways of expressing health concerns (e.g., polite phrases, indirect language if culturally relevant).
• Highlight the vocabulary for body parts and ailments, e.g., “head”, “arm”, “cough”, “fever”.

Extension:
Advanced learners attempt to translate or rephrase the text using synonyms or compound sentences.

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3. Interactive Practice: Role-play (20 minutes)

• In pairs, students take turns being “patient” and “doctor”.
• Using vocabulary sheets and sentence starters, students describe ailments and symptoms respectfully.
• Encourage natural questions and answers, e.g., “Where does it hurt?”, “Do you have a fever?”
• Teacher circulates, providing feedback and scaffolding language use.

Differentiation:
Provide scaffolded scripts for students needing extra support and allow advanced learners to create more complex interactions.

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4. Group Discussion & Cultural Reflection (10 minutes)

• As a class, discuss differences between how health issues are discussed in the target language culture and in Australia.
• Reflect on cultural practices related to health and wellbeing—e.g., traditional treatments or attitudes to illness.
• Students share in English or the target language, applying metalanguage terms where appropriate.

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5. Plenary and Assessment (10 minutes)

• Exit slip: Each student writes or verbally states three new vocabulary words (body parts or ailments), plus one culturally appropriate phrase they learned.
• Collect exit slips for formative assessment to gauge vocabulary acquisition and cultural understanding.

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Resources & Materials

• Dyslexia-friendly glossary sheets with pictures of body parts and ailments.
• Culturally authentic short texts/dialogues (printed with appropriate font and layout).
• Audio clips of native speakers describing symptoms.
• Visual aids/flashcards.
• Role-play sentence starters and prompts.

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Differentiation Strategies

• For diverse learners: Use visual supports, provide sentence scripts, allow oral instead of written responses.
• For learners with dyslexia: Dyslexia-friendly texts with clear fonts, spacing and colour coding. Oral repetitions and audio support.
• For advanced learners: Encourage use of complex sentence structures, synonyms, and creation of original dialogues.
• For EAL/D learners: Use bilingual word banks and scaffolding questions.

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Teacher Reflection Prompts

• Did students engage with the cultural aspect of discussing health?
• How well did students use appropriate language structures and vocabulary?
• Were the needs of diverse learners met effectively?
• Were opportunities for extension sufficiently challenging?

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This lesson plan blends language skills development with cultural awareness and wellbeing, exemplifying NSW syllabus goals for Stage 5 Languages. It uses interactive, multi-modal activities suited to Year 10 learners and aligns with success criteria specific to the NSW language curriculum framework.