Outgoing extroverts

In the introduction part of this Intermediate ESL lesson, the student discusses common positive and negative personality traits they or people close to them possess.

Personality adjectives

The vocabulary learning part starts off with an exercise where the student needs to match personality adjectives (e.g. hardworking, friendly, sporty, etc.) with their meanings. After that, personality adjectives should be sorted out into three categories – positive, negative, and neutral.

The student then practices forming adjectives with the same root as some verbs (e.g. to charm – charming). They also test their knowledge and memory in an unscrambling exercise.

Discussion: describing a family member/friend

The student describes a close family member or friend of theirs or friend using pattern sentences and inserting appropriate personality adjectives.

Playing Cupid

In this exercise, the student is given a description of a person whom they have to match with a person of certain personal characteristics. The student decides which characteristics.

Jeopardy

The student chooses a card with a certain number of points. If they answer the question about personal traits correctly, they get the number of points shown on the card.

Personality adjectives 2

The student matches more personal adjectives with a person’s behavior in a certain situation. Then, they discuss different occupations and what personality traits these occupations require.

Video: The Big Five Personality Traits

The student watches a video in which the Big Five Personality Traits are explained and exemplified in various situations. Then, they match these traits with their descriptions and try to define their own personality using only these five traits.

Grammar: mitigators and intensifiers

Mitigators and intensifiers are explained and the student is given a text to complete using some of the presented mitigators/intensifiers (e.g. very, incredibly, quite, etc.).

Wrap-up: the best/worst friend

Using all the personality adjectives they learned in class, the student tries to define a perfect friend as well as the worst kind of a friend.