Vocabulary Development: Child Labour and Development – JSS1 English Lesson Note (Second Term)

Child labour is work that harms a child’s health or stops the child from going to school. This lesson teaches ten words used when we talk or write about child labour and national development: insurgence, neglect, incidence, catalyst, work, labour, impediment, vulnerable, research and development.

Behavioural objectives

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

• give the meaning of each of the ten vocabulary words;
• use each word correctly in a sentence;
• explain the difference between “work” and “labour”;
• talk about child labour using the new words.

What do the vocabulary words mean?

What is the difference between work and labour?

Work is any useful activity that needs effort. A child who helps at home with light tasks after school is doing work, and this can teach responsibility.

Labour is hard work, often heavy or long, that can tire or hurt a person. Child labour happens when a child does labour that harms health or takes the child away from school.

How are the words used together?

Teachers can read these sentences aloud and ask students to name the vocabulary words in them.

• Neglect and poverty can push vulnerable children into labour.
• Research shows the incidence of child labour in a community.
• Child labour is an impediment to the development of a nation.
• Free and good education can be a catalyst for change.

Evaluation

Choose the correct word from the box to complete each sentence. Box: neglect, incidence, catalyst, impediment, vulnerable.

1. A person who is easily harmed or unprotected is ______.
2. Something that slows down or blocks progress is an ______.
3. The word for how often something happens is ______.
4. Something that causes change or makes it happen faster is a ______.
5. To fail to give proper care to someone is to ______ the person.

Answer key

1. vulnerable
2. impediment
3. incidence
4. catalyst
5. neglect

Assignment

Choose the correct word from the box to complete each sentence. Box: insurgence, labour, research, development.

1. Scientists do ______ to find facts about a disease.
2. Hard physical or mental work is called ______.
3. The growth and progress of a community is called ______.
4. An uprising or violent rebellion against authority is called ______.

Answer key

1. research
2. labour
3. development
4. insurgence