Adult ESL Lesson Plan: Discussing how English skills can boost Personal Development and Growth
Struggling to get your adult learners to see the long-term value of English beyond passing an exam?
This 3-hour, no-prep lesson helps students connect English proficiency to their own personal growth, making them more motivated, engaged, and successful.
From four short texts, ESL students will discover the reasons why the journey to improve English skills is not just about learning a language. It’s a “path” to personal growth through (1) enhanced communication, (2) increased knowledge and exposure, (3) personal growth and boosted self-confidence, and (4) expanded career opportunities.
This scaffolded lesson ensures the tasks are suitable for most ESL/EFL learners (levels A2-C1). Students build and review vocabulary gradually as they progress through the activities.
Have a look at the next three images to see how the activities are scaffolded so learners can build vocabulary. Follow the new word “perseverance” through the different activities.
First activity, learners guess the definition through context
Here’s a preview of the vocabulary game based on the third text of four, “Personal Growth and Development”. It shows how each new vocabulary word is introduced in boldface within a text. Using this “context,” students match the word to its definition. See the new word “Perseverance.”
Next in Activity 2, students are asked to use critical thinking skills
Activity 2, students are asked to use critical thinking skills to match the result, which naturally comes from the progression of acquiring English skills. The third text is themed “personal growth and confidence,” with three obtainable results. “If I improve my English, I will increase my personal growth and self-confidence”.
More reinforcement of the new word in matching “I can”, “I am” statements
Activity 3 uses “I can” and “I am” statements to introduce synonyms of the new word “perseverance”.
Activity 4 asks students to change the verb “persevere” into a noun “perseverance”. Creating word families increases vocabulary exponentially.
Want to save yourself three hours of prep time this week? Download a free sample of the lesson with the new word “perseverance” here OR get the full 17-slide, ready-to-use bundle on TpT.
Why even discuss how ESL skills can boost personal development and growth? A surprising result from a TOEIC exam survey led me to this lesson plan
I became curious when I read the results of a survey by ETS, the makers of the TOEIC exam, that 30% of TOEIC takers in 2023 took the test for “learning”. That’s around 1 million young adults worldwide. I asked myself “Why would young people spend so much time and money to prepare and take a test just for the sake of learning?”
I could understand the motivation to take the TOEIC to prove high English skills for a job application or for graduation, but learning and self-improvement? I couldn’t understand their motivation. So I asked Gemini, Google’s large language model AI. How could improving English skills be considered personal development? The results of the Gemini prompt led me to create this motivating and eye-opening lesson plan.
Other Resources to use in class
- Motivate your adult and university English learners to excel in their English language journey by asking them to do an AI search on one of four discussion questions and then present their findings to the class.
Students can do the research on their phones using a free AI app such as Gemini. They can download Google Slides or Canva to their phones to create the slides. For making a video, they can film and edit directly with their phones. Classroom teachers will need a way to project the slide show or videos, however.
1) How could improving English skills be considered personal development? (example of this prompt below)
2) How can achieving fluency in English contribute to a sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction?
3) How can strong communication skills help foster trust and loyalty with colleagues?
4) “How can improving English skills lead to personal growth?”
Download free PDF handout with instructions and guidelines for creating a slideshow or video from a discussion question using AI. Here’s the Goole Docs file in case you need to edit the handout.
Here are examples of some words students will learn . All of these new words are often used to discuss the personal benefits of improved English skills:
How can achieving fluency in English contribute to a sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction?
- fluency
- contribute
- accomplishment
- personal satisfaction
- navigate (the complexities of)
- diverse
- enriching
- fulfilling
How can strong communication skills help foster trust and loyalty with colleagues?
- foster
- integrity
- cohesion
- empathy
How can improving English skills lead to personal growth?
- resilience
- self-awareness
- self-confidence
- self-esteem
- worldview
How can strong communication skills help foster trust and loyalty with colleagues? (This question appears twice in your previous message – I assume it’s a duplicate.)
- foster
- integrity
- cohesion
- empathy
Show these videos after students have mastered the vocabulary:
1. This is a Crazy video where two blue-haired gals try to help Bob to transform into a different person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPiHPlPMLg
2. Here’s listening practice with a podcast on 20 words for discussion of personal development. You’ll hear much of the same vocabulary such as: resilience, empathy, self-awareness. It’s a couple who discuss the explanation of each word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-HJyrLDZrk
3. This video presents phrasal verbs for personal development. set up, set out, etc. AI voices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OktDO9qVbY
Do students still need more convincing that Improving English can develop skills for jobs for their future?
The World Economic Forum recently published a report on “The Future of Jobs in 2025” Future of Jobs in 2025 Infographics” and their results listed core skills employers worldwide are looking for. The red arrows point to skills naturally developed through improving English!
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I hope you will use this post in your business English classes as well as your TOEIC preparation classes. Leave a comment if you liked this post. Sign up for the newsletter if you want to receive more posts.
Need another Adult ESL/TOEIC lesson plan?
For more tips on improving business English vocabulary, check out this three posts
https://www.businessenglishallure.com/toeic-lesson-plan-discussing-goals-and-success/
https://www.businessenglishallure.com/toeic-lesson-plan-leverage-english-skills-to-achieve-goals/
Hello Ellen
Thank you (again) for a great lesson: you cover everything needed to produce and deliver an excellent class for ESL/EAL students!
I am now working with EAL students at The British School of Monaco, from Year2 to Year13.
I don’t know if you’d be interested but one day it would be great to have you come into school and give our students an alternative voice and perspective.
Please let me know if this is something that would interest you.
With kind regards
Andrew
Hey Andrew! You are so kind to comment on this blog post. I had so much fun learning about how improving English can be transformational and learning to use Gemini AI. What a nice invitation to come to your school. Could you reach out again in September? You’re a really great guy and teacher!