How to Get People to Like You

Lesson Summary
This ready-to-use ESL video lesson plan is designed around a short video titled How to Get People to Like You When You’re Starting a New Job. The lesson explores being likeable in personal and professional situations, with a strong focus on workplace relationships, positive communication, first impressions and social skills.

Students discuss what makes people likeable, predict the content of a short video, watch and analyse the video, answer comprehension questions, study vocabulary, read an article titled The Psychology of Likeability: Why People Warm to Some People Quickly and take part in speaking, writing and roleplay activities.

Learning Objectives
• To introduce students to the concept of being likeable in personal and professional situations.
• To expand students’ vocabulary related to social interaction, workplace relationships and positive communication.
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To improve students’ speaking skills through discussion, roleplay and use of new vocabulary.
• To develop students’ writing skills through reflective and creative tasks.
• To improve students’ visual representing skills through multimodal composition homework tasks.

Lesson Activities
• Students talk about the qualities of likeable people and discuss how to make a positive first impression in a new job.
• Students watch a short video, answer comprehension questions and analyse advice about asking questions, giving compliments, asking for advice and building trust.
• Students read an article about the psychology of likeability and complete comprehension, vocabulary, speaking, writing and critical thinking activities.
• Students perform a workplace roleplay in which a new employee asks an experienced colleague for advice on how to build positive relationships.

Learner Type
• Mature teens and adults.

Language Level
• Intermediate (B1) to Upper Intermediate (B2).

Language Focus
• Vocabulary related to social interaction, workplace relationships, likeability, positive communication, first impressions, trust, rapport and professional behaviour.

Watch the short video.

Transform Your English Classroom with This Film English Multimodal Lesson

This ESL lesson plan is built around a carefully selected short video and designed using the exclusive Multimodal Approach– an innovative methodology that integrates traditional language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) with viewing – the active process of analysing and interpreting multimodal texts – and representing – creating multimodal texts. This pedagogically rich approach mirrors how communication works in the real world, through a combination of language, image, sound, gesture and spatial design, making the lesson more engaging, relevant and effective.

This ESL video lesson plan plan consists of a complete, ready-to-use package that includes:

• A thought-provoking short video
• A detailed teacher’s guide with step-by-step instructions
• A pre-viewing vocabulary glossary to scaffold understanding
• Comprehension, discussion and critical thinking questions
• Creative post-viewing tasks such as roleplays, writing prompts and reflective activities
• A thematically linked reading text to reinforce language and deepen understanding
• A final task encouraging learners to create their own multimodal compositions (e.g. vlogs, posters, infographics or social media posts)

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
• Create authentic, personalised multimodal projects that reflect their own voice and ideas
• Strengthen emotional intelligence and intercultural awareness through affective engagement with multimodal texts

Whether you’re teaching in a secondary school, university or adult education context, Film English lesson plans offer a dynamic, research-informed pathway to meaningful language learning. Join thousands of teachers worldwide who are transforming their classrooms with the Multimodal Approach and helping their students learn English—and live through English—more fully.