Are you into humanities?

Inna | Apr 13, 2026Apr 13, 2026

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on humanities are to:

• talk about the humanities from a critical perspective;
• practise key verbs for discussing humanities;
• watch a video explaining what the humanities are.

In this lesson, students talk about their school experiences, watch a video about humanities and explore short dialogues. They work with useful verbs (e.g. find out, explore, make sense of), debate possible outcomes of scenarios involving a lack of expertise and discuss school subjects that might help with life goals and projects. Students also talk about the skills the humanities and science help us achieve and read about successful individuals with humanities backgrounds.

WARM-UP AND VIDEO

This ESL lesson on humanities starts with a warm-up. Students share their school experiences and identify which subjects belong to the humanities. After that, they watch a video on the humanities and choose points that complete the statement ‘The humanities are subjects that help us…’. Moving on, students discuss questions about personal involvement in the humanities versus the sciences. Afterwards, they match lines to create dialogues with opinions on different fields. Following that, students review the dialogues and match verbs for discussing the humanities (e.g. solve, design, develop) with their definitions. Next, they examine the sentences from the previous task again and complete the gaps with the missing words (e.g. develop materials, make sense of our feelings, solve problems). Then, students use words and phrases to create more phrases with the verbs (e.g. develop new medicines, make sense of online trends, solve social issues). 

VOCABULARY PRACTICE AND DISCUSSION

In this part of this ESL lesson on humanities, students choose the correct words to complete sentences with scenarios involving a lack of specialised expertise. They then choose three situations and discuss what might happen as a result. Following that, students choose common life goals and personal development projects (e.g. you’re raising a child). They name subjects that might help them with each situation, using the target verbs from the lesson when possible. Afterwards, students look at different skills (e.g. think creatively, improve quality of life, solve global problems). They pick two that they think humanities helps us achieve and two that science helps us achieve. Students give reasons. Finally, they read about four people who studied humanities and achieved success in their lives. Then, students do tasks where they evaluate the professional value and real-world impact of a humanities education.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This ESL lesson on humanities also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students complete questions with the correct forms of the words and phrases from the lesson. They then choose three questions and answer them. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

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