Lesson Topics: conformity, individualism
Skill Focus: Reading, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: asch-experiment-intermediate-lesson-042025.docx
- The lesson begins with warm-up questions about individuality and psychology.
- The reading passage, at 202 words, describes Solomon Asch's famous conformity experiment that shows people's willingness to follow a group even if though they disagree. The passage ends with a link to a short (optional) video showing Asch's experiment. Note that the comprehension questions and lesson's vocabulary focus on the passage, not the video.
- Next, students answer comprehension and follow-up questions based on the passage.
- This is followed by a review of eight vocabulary items from the passage.
- After vocabulary matching, students form discussion questions with the target vocabulary.
- The lesson has one debate prompt about the value of being a team player.
- There are also two roleplays. In the first, friends discuss what kind of review to give an ESL school they attended. The second roleplay, between a parent and teenage daughter, has students discuss whether fitting in is more important sometimes than expressing one's individuality.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a review of vocabulary before presenting some final discussion questions.
INTERMEDIATE (B1/B2) Lesson on Asch’s Famous Experiment
Warm-up Questions
- Do you think most people want to be different from others or the same? Why?
- Can you think of a time when a group made a bad decision? What happened?
- Have you taken a psychology course? Are you interested in human behavior? Why or why not?
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). 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. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension Question Answer Key
- Recall & Retell: …
- To see if people would follow a group even when the group gave a wrong answer.
- Because the researchers wanted to see how the person would really act. If he knew the truth, he might not act naturally.
- It shows that people sometimes follow others even when they know the group is wrong. They do this to fit in or avoid standing out.
- …
Vocabulary: 1- blurt out, 2- therapy, 3- impulsive, 4- self-reflection, 5- projection, 6- attribute, 7- snap at, 8- unconscious, 9- resentment, 10- suppress, 11- confront, 12- hostile
Top exports: The United States-petroleum, Canada- petroleum, Mexico-cars, China-communication devices, Brazil-soya beans, The U.K.-cars, France-aircraft, Germany-cars, South Korea-electronic circuits, Australia-coal, Greenland-fish, Russia- petroleum
Vocabulary: 1-e, 2-c, 3-f, 4-g, 5-b, 6-h, 7-a, 8-d
Collocations 1-d, 2-e, 3-b, 4-a, 5-c
[1] Sources: https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRh5qy09nNw