Lesson Topics: social mobility, social class
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: social-mobility-habitus-upper-intermediate-112025.docx
- The lesson begins with warm-up questions about class and social mobility.
- Next, students watch a 1:43-minute video on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of Habitus, the idea that the groups we are raised in result in ingrained behavioral patterns that influence our social mobility. The video's speech is at a regular pace, and it contains subtitles, so it should be accessible to B2 students.
- The video is followed by comprehension questions.
- For vocabulary, students match nine terms from the video to definitions and then use them to create discussion questions to ask a partner.
- The lesson has two debate topics about social mobility and division.
- Next, students try to classify certain behaviors and possessions into social categories -- lower, middle, or upper-class.
- The lesson has two roleplay scenarios. The first is set between a married couple who are debating whether to send their daughter to public or private school. The second is between a couple who are struggling with class-based challenges in their relationship.
- After famous quotations, students review the lesson's collocations and vocabulary.
- Finally, the lesson ends with some final discussion questions.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2/C1) Lesson on Habitus
Warm-up Questions
- Describe a time when you felt out of place in a social situation. Why did you feel that way?
- Are you from the lower, middle, or upper-class? Why do you say so?
- What helps people move up in society: money, education, or appearance, something else?
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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
1-habitus is the set of habits, behaviors, and ways of thinking shaped by our background
2-upbringing, education, social class, and interactions with others influence habitus
3-it guides our manners, tone, and comfort level in different situations
4-it can limit access to opportunities and reinforce class differences
5-open-ended — e.g., feeling comfortable or uncomfortable in a particular social context
Vocabulary answer key: 1-interactions, 2-barriers, 3-cues, 4-reinforcing, 5-upbringing, 6-get-together, 7-inequalities, 8-fitting in, 9-concept
Collocations: 1-f, 2-a, 3-c, 4-d, 5-e, 6-b