Good news or bad news, which do you want first?

Title separator

Functional language - giving news

giving good and bad news in English

photo of the author Justa |

LESSON OVERVIEW

This lesson plan deals with functional language for giving good and bad news in English. Students will watch a short video, learn useful expressions and do a role-play.

B1 / Intermediate
B2 / Upper Intermediate45 minStandard LessonFree / Premium Plan
Unlock the e-lesson plan with the Premium subscription

VIDEO & VOCABULARY

First, students watch a part of an episode of The Office TV series and discuss what the boss did wrong when giving bad news. Before watching, pre-teach students the following vocabulary: every cloud has a silver lining and gutting. Next, students get ten sentences and they need to fill in the gaps with the words from the box. After checking the answers, students read the sentences again and choose appropriate reactions from the list given. This way they will learn how to give and respond to good and bad news. To practise the vocabulary, they get one more task and need to complete some dialogues with their own ideas.

ROLE-PLAY

Finally, the worksheet ends with a role-play. In order to make students practise the expressions for giving good and bad news in English, we prepared three role-play scenarios. Choose whichever you find appropriate for your students or do all of them as they involve different day-to-day situations. Make students work in pairs, give them a card with a role to play and prepare to have a conversation with their partners.

WORKSHEETS

0

Comments

Title separator

Leave a Reply

  1. Natalia

    Thank you for this material! Perfect lesson flow! Worked great with my B1 group.

    The only thing I added was a vocabulary set to learn before the class which helped the Ss understand the video better.

    1. Justa

      Natalia, thanks for you comment! Happy to hear that you like it šŸ™‚

  2. Audrey

    I love this lesson plan, so practica and useful! šŸ™‚

    1. Justa

      Thank you!

      1. Karolina Gic

        That is not Justa!

        1. Justa

          Ha ha ha, yeah Stan is all over the place šŸ˜‰ That’s what happens when you try to migrate comments between websitesšŸ˜‚

  3. [email protected]

    I have a question. What does man in the beginning of the the video answer to the question , “What’s the damage/”
    Thank you in advance!

    1. Stan

      He says ‘it’s complicated’ šŸ™‚

  4. Kiel Adriatico

    I had 2 new students arrive today, both from different countries, joining my class (also a different nationality). They loved it! Many thanks!

    1. Stan

      Awesome! Thanks for sharing your feedback with us.

  5. Yekaterina1421

    it would be fine if you give some scripts for the video.

    1. Ewa

      Hi! You can download the subtitles from YouTube. Open the video on YouTube, click the More Options (ā€¦) button at the bottom of the video and select Open Transcript from the drop-down menu. To remove the timestamps, click the More Options (ā€¦) button again and select Toggle Timestamp. Then copy the text and paste it to an editor.

Browse other materials recommended for you

Title separator
emotion adjectives
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Feel your feelings

General

Talk about emotions with this lesson! Students learn and practise emotion adjectives, watch a film trailer and discuss tweets about the film Inside Out 2. They also discuss emotions triggered by different experiences.

Premium Plan Show
speaking about art and activism
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

Artivism

General

Share opinions on art and activism with this lesson! Students watch a video on an art exhibition, explore examples of artivism and talk about different kinds of art. They can also do an optional vocabulary activity to review useful phrases!

Unlimited Plan Show
useful language for meetings
A2 / Preā€Intermediate | B1 / Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Just to confirm… (functional language for meetings)

Business

Talk about meeting situations with this lesson! Students practise phrases for meetings, watch a funny video and share their own experiences. They also role-play a situation where they are employees at a company discussing who does which task.

Premium Plan Show
B1 / Intermediate
Critical Reading Club 30 min / 45 min
Loading

Let’s pick you a career!

Business General

Discuss career paths with this lesson! Students read an article about choosing a career path, practise phrases to discuss the topic and role-play offering and responding to career suggestions. They also talk about personal interests, skills, and job preferences.

Unlimited Plan Show
lesson on life hacks
B1 / Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Do life hacks really work?

General

Engage in talking about life hacks! With this lesson, students practise action verbs to describe issues and tips, watch two short videos on life hacks and share their perspectives and experiences. They also work in pairs discussing life hacks!

Premium Plan Show
ESL lesson on superstitions
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Flipped Lesson 60 min
Loading

Good or bad luck?

General

Explore the topic of superstitions with this lesson! Students practise useful vocabulary, talk about their personal views and experiences, and watch a video about common superstitions. They also practise phrases to express certainty or doubt!

Unlimited Plan Show
talking about style and clothing
A2 / Preā€Intermediate | B1 / Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Your style, your story

General Lifestyle

Talk about style with this lesson! Students discuss clothing choices, practise vocabulary on clothing and watch an ad for a fashion brand. They also share their personal clothing preferences and work on mind maps.

Unlimited Plan Show
collocations to describe appearance
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Does anyone else look like you?

General

With this lesson, students talk about facial features! They practise collocations to describe appearance, watch a video on the concept of doppelgƤngers and discuss people who look alike.

Premium Plan Show
speaking lesson on guilt
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

Should I feel bad about it?

General

In this speaking lesson on guilt, students discuss guilty pleasures and varied opinions on the emotion. They also watch and discuss a video about ā€˜vacation guiltā€™. Students have an optional vocabulary activity with expressions related to guilt.

Unlimited Plan Show
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 canā€™t guarantee that it will work well).
Read more FAQ
Title separator

ESL Brains

Forgot password?
or continue with
Don't have an account? SIGN UP