Phones and Relationships

Lesson Summary

Help adult learners explore relationships and the impact of phones on human connection with this engaging B2–C1 ESL video lesson plan. Built around the short video What Is Your Phone Doing to Your Relationships?, the lesson examines attention, intimacy and digital communication. A follow-up article, Eight Ways to Protect Relationships in a Digital World, encourages students to consider practical ways to nurture meaningful connections.

Learning Objectives

• To explore relationships and the impact of phones on human connection.
• To expand vocabulary related to relationships, intimacy and digital communication.
• To develop viewing, listening and reading comprehension skills.
• To improve speaking and critical thinking through discussions and roleplay.
• To develop writing skills through reflection and vocabulary practice.
• To improve visual representing skills through multimodal composition tasks.

Lesson Activities

Students discuss relationships and phone use, predict video content, watch and analyse a short video, answer comprehension questions and write a reflection. They perform a roleplay about phone boundaries, read an article, complete reading comprehension tasks and discuss ways to protect relationships. Multimodal homework tasks extend learning beyond the classroom.

Learner Type

Adults.

Language Level

Upper Intermediate (B2) – Advanced (C1).

Language Focus

Vocabulary related to relationships, intimacy and digital communication. Functional language for expressing opinions, acknowledging feelings, making suggestions and negotiating boundaries.

Time

90–120 minutes.

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.