Why what others think doesn’t really matter

In this B1 lesson plan about whether we should care about other people’s opinions or not, your intermediate ESL students will:

• – discuss their opinions about personal growth and decision-making in engaging discussion activities and realistic English conversation practice;
• – improve their English vocabulary by completing an interesting variety of ESL practice activities, such as spotting synonyms, reading authentic texts, and replacing sentences;
• – get useful English listening practice by watching an authentic English-language video about why we shouldn’t worry about what other people think.

This intermediate ESL lesson plan allows students to work with synonyms and useful verb phrases to express their opinions about whether or not they care about what other people think.

During the lesson, students are encouraged to compare and contrast the ideas covered in the authentic materials with their own opinions, and to actively engage in discussion activities with their teacher.

The initial exercises focus on vocabulary-building and accuracy, while the closing discussion activity focuses mainly on the student’s fluency.

Warm-up:

Students talk about a selection of discussion questions with their teacher. Students should provide reasons or examples to support their answers, and to ask the teacher what they think, too. By doing so, they get to practice a natural English conversation flow. The teacher should take the lead in this section, asking follow-up questions to increase the student’s talking time.

Video:

Students watch an authentic English-language video called “A reason not to worry what others think”, noting down key ideas and new expressions that they hear. Students are encouraged to ask the teacher about new phrases or ideas in the video that surprised them. New language should be noted down so that they can use it in subsequent conversation practice. Following the video, students react to what they heard and express their opinions about it.

Exercises:

This part of the lesson focuses on boosting the students’ active vocabulary by having them complete a variety of English vocabulary activities. Students will learn to summarize parts of sentences with single words, find synonyms in text, and group phrases into appropriate categories. By working with the language in a variety of ways, students will find it easier to retain and recall the new language when participating in discussion activities.

ESL reading practice:

Students read an authentic English-language text and answer questions about it. Students are encouraged to think about whether they agree with the ideas in the text or not, and also to note down any new expressions that they come across. If these expression would be useful for the final conversation practice activity, the teacher can briefly show the student how to use them. For other, less useful expressions, the student should be encouraged to look them up after the lesson.

Discussion:

Students react to a series of statements related to other people’s opinions, saying whether they agree or disagree, and why. Students should use new language from the lesson, and also provide reasons and examples to support their point of view. More confident students should also be encouraged to ask the teacher for their opinions. During this stage of the lesson, the teacher focuses primarily on the student’s fluency, not letting minor mistakes interrupt the flow of conversation. This will help to build the student’s confidence when participating in real-life English conversations. The teacher should also elicit use of new language from the lesson if necessary by asking leading questions.