The Highest Levels of Human Performance (Intermediate)

ESL/EFL Level: Intermediate (B1/B2)
Lesson Topics: specialization, human performance, education
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: peak-performers-study-intermediate-032026.docx
Lesson Overview:

  • Students first warm up with questions about childhood and talent.
  • This lesson's input is a 212-word reading passage about a new (Dec, 2025) academic study on the acquisition of the highest levels of human performance. The study investigates the relationship between early specialization in youth and later peak-level performance as adults. The findings suggest that there is a negative correlation, and instead of pushing our children to become experts in one field, we should encourage a multidisciplinary approach.
  • The passage is followed by comprehension questions.
  • Next, students review phrases from the video and match key vocabulary to definitions. Once complete, students use some of the new vocabulary to complete discussion questions.
  • The lesson has one debate prompt on the value of pushing children to specialize in a particular area.
  • As a roleplay activity, a child has a 'hard talk' with his parent and tries to persuade them to let him quit chess and focus on other interests.
  • Students then review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
  • As usual, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.

A kid being yelled at by coaches

INTERMEDIATE (B1/B2) Lesson on Top Performers

  1. As a child, did you have any special talents?
  2. In childhood, what did your parents want you to become? Did they push you to do anything?
  3. Have any of your friends or classmates from childhood become famous or very successful?

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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 questions:

  1. ...
  2. They wanted to find out if the best young performers also become the best adult performers.
  3. False — the best young performers and the best adult performers are rarely the same people.
  4. A childhood with a broad range of activities, rather than focusing on one.
  5. They may need to think again about how they select young people based on early performance.
  6. ...

Vocabulary answer key: 1-j, 2-h, 3-e, 4-c, 5-f, 6-d, 7-i, 8-a, 9-g, 10-b

Collocations: 1-d, 2-a, 3-b, 4-e, 5-f, 6-c 

[1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt7790

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