First Impressions: Talking about Personality
Plus: The Environmental Collection
Note: the complete lessons and other exercises can be downloaded at the end of the post. The Environmental Collection includes PDFs, audio and video files about climate change, decarbonization, renewables, natural disasters and endangered species (10+ exercises, 3 videos and 4 audio files).
1 Vocabulary for first impressions
I have been using pictures for introducing and reviewing vocabulary for 20 years. I actually got the idea from a website teaching health and medical vocabulary that has completely disappeared. But it became a mainstay of my lessons. The biggest and most time consuming problem was finding pictures that correctly illustrated the words, phrases or concepts. But right now is the most fascinating time to find and create images and pictures that match vocabulary.
2 Critical thinking exercises about first impressions
These critical thinking exercises encourage students to dig deeper into all the little things that influence how we judge someone when we first meet them. The exercises explore the snap judgments we make based on how people look, act and carry themselves. It's a great way to get students thinking critically about a social skill we use every day.
3 First impressions dialogue
This listening activity aims to repeat and reinforce the target vocabulary from this lesson and challenge their listening accuracy skills.
4 First impressions pronunciation
It's pretty interesting suddenly being able to create pronunciation exercises in a short time, a task that used to be so time consuming that I often skipped teaching pronunciation for most topics altogether. Actually, I have always enjoyed doing these exercises because they are a fun way to end a class. But since being able to do this for every topic and every class almost effortlessly, I’ve noticed an improvement in the better students’s pronunciation and fluency skills (I think!). Just a little focus on pronunciation every class might have a big impact on speaking and fluency skills. It would be worth some research.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
5 Expressing opinions about first impressions
Finally, this multiple-choice opinion exercise helps personalize the lesson by getting students to reflect on their own experiences with first impressions. With relatable examples, students can connect the key vocabulary and concepts to their own lives and relationships.
