Lesson Topic: etiquette, manners
Skill Focus: Speaking, Reading, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 2 hours
Lesson Plan Download: etiquette-manners-advanced-122025.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Update: This lesson was significantly revised and expanded in December 2025.
- The lesson begins with warm-up questions about manners and social rules in the student's culture.
- The reading passage covers ten scenarios related to paying a bill, public displays of affection, bad dates, tipping, unwanted gifts, sitting on the bus, being seen as ‘part of the team’, odors, white lies, and online privacy.
- Post-reading, students match C1/C2-level vocabulary to their definitions.
- Next, students use the vocabulary to rewrite discussion questions, which they ask to each other.
- After one debate prompt, students review a list of questionable behaviors and plot them on a scale of "extremely rude" to "totally acceptable".
- As a bonus, the lesson has a language focus on the phrase can't stop + gerund / can't stop + but + infinitive.
- For a roleplay, the students first list inappropriate behavior on airplanes. They then roleplay trying to convince a neighbouring passenger to stop doing some of these behaviors.
- Continuing with speaking activities, next students review a list of seven tips for social interaction, and discuss which ones they agree or disagree with.
- After two famous quotations, students review vocabulary, collocations, and then discuss some final discussion questions.
ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Etiquette & Manners
Warm-up Questions
- Are the people of your country well-mannered compared to other nationalities?
- What customs or social rules does your country have that a foreigner might not know?
- What examples of bad manners do you often see?
Membership is required to view this post. Please support EnglishCurrent by becoming a member today. Members, please log in.
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.
Vocabulary answer key: 1-h, 2-c, 3-f, 4-L, 5-b, 6-I, 7-k, 8-e, 9-g, 10-j, 11-a, 12-d
Informal language: (Answer key: 1–hate to break it to you, 2–clock, 3–can’t put your finger on, 4–Mind you, 5–the thing is, 6–better off, 7–my DMs were blowing up, 8–this is just all to say)
Collocations: 1-b, 2-j, 3-I, 4-c, 5-d, 6-a, 7-e, 8-g, 9-h, 10-f
[1] Some original content; some ideas taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1d10p1w/what_are_some_unspoken_social_etiquette_rules/
Good evening, thank you very much fot inspiring topics, i have found three of them really helpful with my intermediate students. Your material is somewhat wider in concept, but full of topical expressions:), which i like. thank you once again. Veronika