B2 ESL Video Lesson Plan: Emotional Communication

Lesson Summary:
This Upper Intermediate to Advanced ESL lesson explores emotional communication through a short, thought-provoking video titled The Importance of Expressing Our Needs. Learners build vocabulary for emotional self-expression, practise discussing sensitive topics, and develop critical thinking skills through guided discussion, roleplay and reflection. The lesson is extended with an in-depth article, Why Timing Matters in Emotional Honesty, allowing learners to further explore how timing influences emotional honesty in relationships.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the concept of emotional communication.
• To introduce students to ways of expressing emotions clearly and respectfully.
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to emotional communication and self-expression.
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To develop students’ writing skills through reflective and creative tasks using new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ speaking skills through discussion and roleplay using new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ visual representing skills though multimodal composition homework tasks.
• To practise critical thinking through discussion and reflection on relationships and communication.

Lesson Activities:
• Pre-viewing discussions on emotional communication.
• Viewing and analysing a short video.
• Comprehension and critical thinking tasks.
• Guided writing and reflection activities.
• Extended roleplay on expressing emotional needs.
• Reading and discussion of a follow-up article.
• Post-reading writing and discussion tasks.

Learner Type:
Upper Intermediate (B2) – Advanced (C1) adult learners.

Language Focus:
• Emotional communication vocabulary
• Expressing needs and emotions
• Emotional honesty and timing
• Relationship communication language

Benefits for Teachers:

• Save hours of preparation with a fully developed, flexible lesson plan
• Engage students through compelling stories and real-world themes such as emotional intelligence, character, values, empathy, personal development, identity, relationships, global issues and social issues
• Build classroom routines that integrate multimodal literacy naturally and progressively
• Foster more inclusive and differentiated learning by using varied modes of input
• Promote social-emotional learning (SEL)
• Rely on a trusted methodology backed by educational research and grounded in the theories of Vygotsky, Kress, Mayer and Krashen

Benefits for Learners:

• Develop communicative competence and confidence through integrated skill-building
• Expand vocabulary and improve listening and reading comprehension through repeated, meaningful exposure
• Think critically and creatively while exploring powerful social and emotional themes
• Strengthen emotional intelligence and intercultural awareness through affective engagement with multimodal texts

Watch the short video.

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We hope you enjoy this ESL video lesson plan.

Thanks for being part of the Film English community, and happy teaching!
— The Film English Team

Transform Your English Classroom with the Multimodal Approach
This ESL video lesson plan is built around a thought-provoking short video and designed using the innovative Multimodal Approach, integrating listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and representing. Engage learners with real-world themes, develop communicative competence, build vocabulary and foster critical thinking through dynamic, research-informed activities. Find out more about the Multimodal Approach and join thousands of teachers transforming their classrooms with Film English.