Behind every success there are dozens of failures

Title separator

Vocabulary - failure idioms

LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson about success and failure students watch an interview with Jeff Bezos and learn a few idioms related to failure. They also put them into practice through a role-play activity involving different aspects of business failures.

C1 / Advanced60 minStandard LessonPremium Plan

WARM-UP & BUSINESS VOCABULARY

The warm-up activity starts with students brainstorming the words they associate with the word failure. Then, they engage in a discussion about failures in personal and professional life. The next two exercises focus on pre-teaching the vocabulary students will hear in an interview in the second part of the lesson. First, they match eight words with their meanings (e.g. morph into, iterate, prone). Then, they see them used incorrectly in eight sentences and have to correct the mistakes.

VIDEO & IDIOMS RELATED TO FAILURE

This part of the lesson starts with a video. Students watch an interview with Jeff Bezos from Amazon and make a list of successes and failures at Amazon which he mentions. Then, they listen to the interview once again focusing on six specific statements. Students’ task is to decide whether the statements are true or false. The video activities are followed by another discussion in which students get the opportunity to reflect on the businessman’s views on success and failure, agree or disagree with him. After that, they analyse eight idioms related to failure (e.g. throw in the towel, fight a losing battle, a blind alley) and choose one correct explanation of each of them out of the given two. Then, they put the idioms into practice and use them to complete eight questions. Once the correct answers are clear, students answer the questions in pairs or groups. You can assign questions to a group or tell them to choose four which they want to answer. The final activity consists of a role-play. Students work in groups of three and each of them picks a card with instructions. They have to prepare a speech imagining the situation described in the card and make it more interesting by using the idioms related to failure from the lesson.

WORKSHEETS

Comments

Title separator

Leave a Reply

  1. deborah

    Great lesson! However, in slide 8/9 , shouldn’t one ’embrace’ be ‘iterate’???

    1. Justa

      Thanks for the comment! Yeah, it makes more sense to have ‘iterate’ so that students can take it from the sentences. We’ve just changed that!

  2. deborah

    Another few observations, please. I think there are more ‘failures’ mentioned in the interview (Cosmo, pet.com) Then, I believe that ‘third party sellers’ and ‘marketplace’ are the same thing. (Slide 12). Moreover, in slide 14, letter A is TRUE because the statement is ‘Marketplace constitutes more than 30% of units sold on Amazon’. So ,if it constitutes MORE THAN 30% then, 40% is more, making the statement TRUE. Finally, in slide 8, it says, ‘A good leader should encourage their workers to be…`Shouldn’t that read, ‘A good leader should encourage HIS/HER workers…’ OR ‘Good leaders should encourage THEIR workers…’???

    1. Stan

      Deborah, thanks for the feedback – we definitely will improve the lesson based on what you say. Let me address the things one by one:
      1) failures/sucesses: yes, third-party sellers = Amazon Marketplace, we will fix that in the TV, so there’s no confusion that these aren’t 2 separate things. In terms of Pets.com and Kosmo, these are Amazon’s investments that failed, not something they developed, so we skipped those in answers purposefully.
      2) the T/F question – you’re right it’s confusing and logically it’s True, we’ll change that to something unambiguous.
      3) we often use the singular “their” or “they” instead of the awkward “he/she” or “his/her” and that’s widely accepted even by academic styleguides, e.g. APA or CMOS. Some prefer avoiding a situation when you need to use his/her or simply saying “his or her” but it’s all a matter of style, I suppose.

  3. Rebecca Page

    Less Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, please? 🙂 Love your lessons though!

    1. Stan

      Yeah, enough of these guys. I guess there’s too much about them out there already. We’ll try to steer away from both of these gentlemen (for a while at least 😉 ).

    2. Marcin Ratajczyk

      Yes please! I’ve had enough of them too! We need materials about people who are REAL HEROES not these inhuman, gangster style racketeers.

  4. library

    Thank you for a wonderful lesson!!!

    1. Justa

      Thanks for the comment!

Browse other materials recommended for you

Title separator
digital business vocabulary
C1 / Advanced | C2 / Proficiency
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

The digital Revolut(ion)

Business

With this lesson, students talk about online services and learn vocabulary related to the topic. They also discuss their own experiences, watch a video about a successful neobank, and discuss the features of digital businesses.

talking about work models
B2 / Upper Intermediate | C1 / Advanced
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Office, remote or hybrid?

Business

With this up-to-date lesson, students discuss work life after lockdown and practise vocabulary to talk about workplace changes. They also watch a news video about companies changing the way they work and discuss different work models.

ESL lesson on nepotism
C1 / Advanced | C2 / Proficiency
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

When familial meets professional

Business General

In this lesson, students reflect deeply on work-family dynamics, explore nuances of nepotism, and enrich vocabulary through engaging discussions. Students also listen to excerpts from a podcast to spark critical thinking.

collocations related to business and investment
C1 / Advanced
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Would you invest in a franchise?

Business

With this lesson, students master key collocations to talk about business and investment, analyze the franchise business model, and enhance listening skills with an informative video about McDonald’s.

Business English flipped lesson
C1 / Advanced
Flipped Lesson 60 min
Loading

What if we redefined ambition?

Business General

Embark on a thought-provoking exploration of ambition! This lesson encourages students to critically examine traditional notions of success and consider alternative perspectives on personal fulfilment and well-being.

C1 / Advanced | C2 / Proficiency
Critical Reading Club 30 min / 45 min
Loading

Adaptability and other must-have traits

Business

In this lesson, students discuss the article they read at home about adaptability as a must-have trait. They work with some vocabulary and discuss other traits necessary for business. 

Business competition vocabulary
C1 / Advanced | C2 / Proficiency
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

That’s a bit over the top!

Business General

This lesson focuses on business competition vocabulary through learning about unusual business ideas. Students learn useful phrases, watch a video, and discuss business cases.

C1 / Advanced
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Mergers and acquisitions

Business

In this lesson, students learn and practise some advanced Business English vocabulary. They also watch a video and talk about mergers and acquisitions. 

C1 / Advanced
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Can you elaborate on your thinking here? (polite language)

Business

In this ESL lesson on polite language students watch a video, have a discussion, learn and practise useful phrases. 

Show more lessons

Questions

Title separator

Is there a minimum subscription period if I choose a monthly subscription?

No, there’s no minimum required number of subscription months. You can cancel any time you want. Basically, you can sign up and then cancel your subscription the next day, which will mean you have access for 1 month and won’t be charged again.

What currencies can I pay in for my subscription?

Our default currency is USD (American dollar), but you can also pay in EUR (euro), GBP (British pound sterling) or PLN (Polish zloty). You can change the currency you want to pay in at the Pricing page before selecting a subscription plan.

How can I edit an e-lesson plan?

You can get your own editable copy of an e-lesson plan and make changes to it. To do so, either (1) make a copy of it on your Google Drive (preferable method) or (2) download it in a Powerpoint format (but formatting might be a bit off so we can’t guarantee that it will work well).

Read more FAQ
Title separator

ESL Brains

Forgot password?
or continue with