Lesson Topics: loneliness, regrets
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: could-have-been-man-upper-intermediate-032025.docx
- The lesson begins with warm-up questions about making friends and childhood.
- The lesson's video, entitled Profound and Heartbreaking: The Most Raw Conversation I've Ever Had, is 2:08 in length. It is a short interview with a man who considers himself the "greatest failure on planet Earth" because he has lived a life of loneliness and regret.
- The video is followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
- Next, students review the 8 vocabulary items by matching them to their corresponding definitions.
- After vocabulary matching, students form discussion questions with the target vocabulary.
- As speaking activities, the lesson has two roleplays. In the first, one student provides suggestions to James (the lonely man from the video) in order to make him happier in life. In the second, the YouTuber behind the video series interviews a stranger to try to get her to open up and talk about important moments in her life.
- Next, the lesson has a short review of the past modal could have and the third conditional. (Please skip this if you don't want to get into the weeds of grammar.)
- Next, the lesson presents a few famous quotations about loneliness and regret.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a review of vocabulary and collocations before presenting some final discussion questions.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2/C1) Lesson on Loneliness & Regret
Warm-up-Questions
- Describe the last time you had a conversation with a stranger. What did you talk about?
- Do you find it easy or difficult to make new friends? Explain.
- Did you have a happy childhood?
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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. ...
2. He feels he never achieved his potential ("could-have-been man"), lacks money, career, and meaningful relationships.
3. In his youth, he prioritized chasing girls and didn’t think friendships or careers mattered at the time.
4. His mother was emotionally cold and distant; she showed no warmth or affection.
5. ...
6. ...
7. ...
Vocabulary: 1-c, 2-b, 3-g, 4-h, 5-a, 6-e, 7-d, 8-f
Collocations: 1-d, 2-e, 3-b, 4-c, 5-a