Lesson Topics: language acquisition, culture
Skill Focus: Speaking, Reading, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: arieh-smith-languages-upper-intermediate-122023.docx
Lesson Overview:
- After warm-up questions, students try to guess the language-learning tips that might appear in the passage.
- The reading passage is 333 words and is a summary of a BigThink's article on polyglot Arieh Smith's approach to learning languages. Smith's approach focuses on learning practical phrases, immersion, and persistence. The end of the lesson has a link to a short (30-second) YouTube clip showing Smith conversing in Mandarin.
- After a memory recall activity, students complete comprehension questions. This is followed by a vocabulary-matching exercise and an activity where students make questions using the target vocabulary.
- The first speaking activity is a debate between parents on what language their child should learn.
- The lesson includes two roleplays; the first is between a job applicant for an English-teaching position at a college and an interviewer. The second roleplay is a bit different. It attempts to demonstrate the value of learning set expressions for survival in a foreign-language environment. (I have not tried this activity out so I am not sure how it will land. Please leave a comment below the lesson about how it went in your lesson.)
- The lesson ends with a few famous quotations related to language learning, a final vocabulary review, final discussion questions, and a review of collocations.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2/C1) EFL Lesson Plan on Language Learning
Warm-up Questions
- Did you learn a second language in school? Were the lessons useful?
- What are the best tools and methods for learning a second language?
- Does learning a language require talent? Why does it seem easier for some people?
Predicting: The below passage presents tips for language learning from a polyglot (a person who knows several languages). What tips do you think might appear in the passage? Make some guesses.
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-- Lesson plan on learning languages written by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). ChatGPT was used to suggest expressions for speaking activities and generate answer keys. Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. For questions, contact the author.
Possible answers to follow-up questions:
- Smith likely didn't learn much in high school because traditional language education often focuses on grammar and vocabulary memorization rather than practical language use and immersion, which he found more effective later.
- By contrasting the total number of words with the number of words actually used in daily conversation, the author wants to show that it’s possible to communicate with knowledge of only a limit number of word forms.
- Comprehensible input is about understanding language slightly above your current level through context. For example, figuring out the meaning of new words in a sentence based on known words.
- False: Watching hours of Japanese television did not help Smith gain fluency because the content was too advanced for his level at the time.
- The final paragraph suggests that in Paris, people might not appreciate foreigners attempting to speak French as much as people in other places might.
- …
Vocabulary Answers: 1-d, 2-k, 3-a, 4-b, 6-j, 7-e, 8-c, 9-f, 10-i, 11-g
Vocabulary Review Answers: See original passage
Collocation Answers: 1-b, 2-a, 3-d, 4-e, 5-c
[1] https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/polyglot-language-learning