Child Labor on Cotton Plantations in India

Intro

The issue of child labor on cotton plantations is omnipresent, and the clothes we are currently wearing might have supported this. However, many people are not aware of the backgrounds and impacts of their cotton garments. My self-developed material aims to raise secondary school students’ awareness of the reasons and multiple interconnections for child labor on cotton plantations in India, using the mystery teaching method. 

To achieve this learning objective, students first learn the necessary vocabulary and become curious with the help of a story. After listening to the story, students work in small groups to solve the presented case and then present their results in class. Then, the class collaboratively develops strategies to reduce child labor on cotton plantations. These materials are created for an EFL classroom at the eighth-grade level, where students have been learning English since secondary school. Therefore, both the technical and linguistic competencies of the students are promoted.