New Year’s Resolutions

Lesson Summary:
This ESL video lesson plan is built around the short video Why did I fail my New Year’s resolution? and explores why New Year’s resolutions often fail. Designed for Pre-intermediate (A2) to Intermediate (B1) learners, the lesson develops vocabulary related to goals, habits and personal change through structured discussion, video viewing, comprehension work, roleplay and reflective writing. Learners also read and respond to the article Why Small Habits Lead to Big Change, helping them connect video ideas to wider real-life contexts.

Learning Objectives:
• To introduce students to the concept of New Year’s resolutions.
• To explore reasons why New Year’s resolutions often fail.
• To expand vocabulary related to goals, habits and personal change.
• To develop viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To improve speaking skills through discussion and roleplay.
• To develop writing skills through creative and reflective tasks.
• To improve visual representing skills through multimodal homework tasks.

Lesson Activities:
• Discussion of New Year’s resolutions and personal experience.
• Prediction activities before viewing the video.
• Viewing the video and answering comprehension questions.
• Analysis and discussion of why resolutions fail.
• Vocabulary work focused on goals and habits.
• Roleplay exploring realistic goal setting.
• Reading and responding to an article on small habits.
• Reflection and written response tasks.

Learner Type:
Pre-intermediate (A2) to Intermediate (B1) mature teens and adults.

Language Focus:
• Goals and goal setting
• Habits and routines
• Personal change and self-reflection

Transform Your English Classroom with This Film English Multimodal Lesson

This ESL video 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.

Watch the short video.