What Do Animals Really Understand?

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are to:

• – develop B1-level vocabulary,
• – enhance students’ speaking fluency,
• – improve discussion skills.

This intermediate speaking lesson gets students talking about animal intelligence by comparing different abilities and debating what makes animals smart.

Warm-up:

The lesson starts with students discussing how smart animals really are.

Video:

Students watch a video called “Wild Squirrel Introduces Her Baby To Her Favorite Dog.” Afterward, they discuss the key ideas from the video using helpful phrases.

Speaking Activities:

Students rank animal abilities from most impressive to least impressive and justify their choices. They then talk about which animal behaviors show more intelligence. Next, learners match terms to their definitions.

Discussion:

The lesson concludes with students debating which animals are smarter and why.