How to Get People to Listen to You

Lesson Summary:

This complete, ready-to-use ESL video lesson plan is designed for Upper Intermediate (B2) to Advanced (C1) mature teens and adults. Built around the short video How to Get People to Listen to You, the lesson explores active listening, attentive communication and workplace influence. Students discuss what makes someone a good listener, analyse strategies for being heard, expand vocabulary related to listening, communication, conflict, body language and persuasion, watch a short video, answer comprehension questions, read a follow-up article, take part in a roleplay and complete speaking, writing and multimodal homework tasks.

Learning Objectives:

• To introduce students to the concepts of active listening, attentive communication and workplace influence.
• To expand vocabulary related to listening, communication, conflict, body language and persuasion.
• To develop students’ viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To develop students’ writing skills through creative tasks and use of new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ speaking skills through roleplay, discussion and use of new vocabulary.
• To improve students’ visual representing skills through multimodal composition homework tasks.

Lesson Activities:

• Discuss good listeners and the qualities of attentive communication.
• Explore quotations about listening and relate them to personal experience.
• Predict the content of a short video on how to get people to listen.
• Watch the video and answer comprehension questions.
• Analyse communication strategies from the video.
• Read an article titled Why Confidence and Curiosity Help People Listen.
• Discuss ideas raised in the article and answer comprehension questions.
• Perform a workplace roleplay and complete speaking, writing and multimodal tasks.

Learner Type:

Upper Intermediate (B2) to Advanced (C1) mature teens and adults.

Language Focus:

• Vocabulary related to active listening and attentive communication.
• Language for workplace influence, disagreement and conflict management.
• Expressions connected to confidence, curiosity, body language and persuasion.

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.