Where do phobias come from?
Lesson plan overview
This ESL lesson plan for strong intermediate students deals with the topic of fear. Students learn and practise a lot of fear-related vocabulary and watch a video about phobias. You can combine this lesson with the worksheets “Idioms: fear”, “Phrasal verbs: psychology“, and “Idioms: Halloween”.
Vocabulary: the lesson starts with different synonyms of afraid (petrified, horrified, spooked) Students need to put them in different categories according to the intensity of the feeling.
Functional language:after that students are given a list of common things people are afraid of and a few phrases they can use to talk about their own fears (I am really afraid of…, …terrify me). Students discuss their fears in pair or small groups.
Reading: the lesson continues with a short gapped text describing the physical signs of fear. This activity also serves as a pre-lisening activity to teach a few of the more advanced words from the video (e.g. trigger, threat, goosebumps).
Video: students watch a video “Where do phobias come from?” which is divided into 3 parts. There is a matching exercise, gap fill exercise in which students need to write down the information they hear and note-taking exercise. Students discuss their impressions of the video after they have finished watching.
Vocabulary development: this is a bit more advanced exercise highlighting some grammar differences between the different synonyms of afraid. Students identify the odd word based on different reasons.
Homework: 3 research topics are suggested which aim to develop the topic further. The topics, combined with the additional resources provided on theenglishflows.com provide plenty of extra opportunities for contact with topic-related vocabulary in order to reinforce and enrich it.
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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:
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In-class activities
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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.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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