Living a life without regrets
Lesson plan overview
This ESL lesson explores the theme of regret and personal growth, helping students develop vocabulary, grammar, and conversation skills while reflecting on how to live life to the fullest. Students discuss common regrets, learn to express past regrets using different structures and engage in meaningful discussions about personal choices.
Speaking: Students reflect on what makes life meaningful, whether accomplishments or experiences matter more, and how people can live without regrets. Then, they discuss thought-provoking quotes about regret, sharing their interpretations and personal experiences.
Vocabulary Building: Students match common regrets (e.g., overworking, not following dreams, letting friendships fade) to their explanations and definitions. They also explore key words such as ruminate, hindsight, let go, make peace with, and pursue. To reinforce understanding, students complete sentences with the correct vocabulary.
Listening Activity: Students watch a video titled “The biggest regrets people have later in life”, identifying six key regrets and answering comprehension questions.
Grammar Focus – Expressing Regret: Students learn and practice 4 structures:
- I regret + verb-ing
- I wish + past perfect
- If only + past perfect
- I should have + past participle
To practice, students correct sentences where regrets are expressed incorrectly, reinforcing proper grammar usage, and are then asked to write suitable sentences for 10 situations.
Speaking & Discussion: Finally, students share personal reflections, discussing missed opportunities, lessons learned, and what advice they would give to their younger selves.
Homework: Research-based assignments on how to stop ruminating, how to make peace with past mistakes, or how to live life to the fullest for a follow-up discussion.
For more speaking practice, you can check out the conversation cards.
Who Is This Lesson Suitable For?
- Upper- intermediate to advanced ESL learners interested in self-improvement, personal development, and psychology.
- Business English learners who want to discuss decision-making and career-related regrets
- Anyone who enjoys deep, reflective discussions about life and personal choices.
Unlock these resources with one of our subscription plans
Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
All video-based ESL lesson plans include online pre-class activities, which are FREE and can be completed without registration. Perfect for teachers who wish to embrace the blended learning approach. By providing students with resources and engagement opportunities before the actual class session, educators can foster active participation, enhance comprehension, and optimise in-class discussions.
The pre-class activities are optional: if you choose not to assign them, or your students don’t complete them, it will not disturb the flow of the class. You can find and review the pre-class activities for this lesson plan here:
To send the pre-class activities to your students, copy the link below.
In-class activities
To download the PDF files for this lesson, you need to have an active Premium or Premium + subscription.
Browse FREE lesson plans here.
Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
Unlock these resources with one of our subscription plans
Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Not sure yet?
Try one of our FREE lessons plans
Share this lesson plan with someone who will find it useful