Speaking about a person you admire

Level

B1 / B2 (Intermediate / Upper-intermediate)

Age

Teenagers and adults

Time

40-60 mins

Procedure

Preparation

Read this plan, and familiarise yourself with the topic.

Make copies of worksheets.

Download the podcast to play on a phone/tablet (see the downloads section on the right) or listen to it online on the podcast page.

1. Introduction

Tell your students that they are going to listen to the first part of a podcast from the Premier Skills English website. Ask them to listen and try to identify the topic of the podcast.

Play the podcast from 00.00 > 2.51.

Here is the Premier Skills English Podcast: Speaking skills - A person you admire

The topic of the podcast is a person you admire. Check your learner's understanding of admire and admiration.

2. Brainstorm

Ask your learners who Jack and Rich said they admired in the first section of the podcast (doctors, firefighters, footballers) On the board write: Who do people admire? Ask your learners to think of seven more types of people that people might admire and to make a spidergram. Ask your students to work in groups to do this. Tell them that they have three minutes to come up with ideas. 

3. Brainstorm 2

Now, ask your learners to look at their spidergrams and choose three types of people that have famous jobs (e.g. actors, singers, footballers) and think of three people that fit each category. Learners may have to add some categories if they didn't have any famous types of people in the earlier brainstorm. Ask your learners to add the names to the spidergram.

4. Discussion

Ask learners to pass their spidergrams to a different group. Give learners 5 minutes to talk about each person that is mentioned in the spidergram. Ask these questions: Do you admire him/her? Why/ Why not? Can you think of one positive characteristic to describe each person?

5. Listen 1

Ask your students to listen to the next section of the podcast  (2:52 - 4:01). Jack and Rich mention three footballers in this section. Ask learners to write down the names of three players (or all four for stronger groups) (Jamie Vardy, Saido Berahino, Victor Moses, Dejan Lovren), their clubs (Leicester City, Stoke, Chelsea, Liverpool) and why their story is interesting (Jamie Vardy went from a factory to the Premier League and the other three were refugees as children). If your students find this difficult, you can give them the transcript so they can underline and circle the answers while they listen. Ask your learners what these players might have found difficult in their lives.

6. Worksheet 1

Show your students the vocabulary worksheet. Tell them to read the statements at the top which are from the part of the transcript that they have just listened to. Ask them to explain the sentences to a partner.

Tell them to complete the matching activity on the worksheet. Ask them if they would use any of the adjectives to describe the footballers that Rich and Jack spoke about.

7. Listen 2

Ask your students to listen to the next section of the podcast  (4:01 - 7:33). Rich talks in more detail about one particular footballer. Ask your students to think about the following questions as they listen and to discuss them, in pairs, after they listen: What's the player's name? Where is he from? What was his early life like? What challenges has he faced? What's his life like now?

Ask them to listen again but this time they have to note down the adjectives they hear which are used to describe Antonio Valencia (brave, determined, ambitious, shy, independent, self-reliant). If you have a weaker class, you may want to give learners the transcript and they can circle the adjectives as they hear them.

8. Worksheet 2

Go back to your earlier definitions of admire and admiration. Point out the difference between the verb and the noun and how they are used in the podcast. You could get learners to notice the difference for themselves using the transcript.

Give out worksheet 2 which focuses on word building and the adjectives that were mentioned in the podcast and how they can be changed and used as nouns.

9. Your turn

Ask your learners to go back to their earlier brainstorms. Each learner should choose a famous person they admire. Give them 5 minutes to write notes - they should write as much as they know about their chosen person. Ask them to choose three or four adjectives from worksheet 2 and ask them to think about why they admire this person. 

Ask learners to present their person to a partner and to talk about why they admire them. Encourage the listener to ask questions to try to find out more about the person.

10. Homework

Learners find out more information about their person and give a group presentation the following week or they write an article about why they admire this person.  Alternatively, they could write their responses as a comment on the Premier Skills English Podcast page: Speaking skills - A person you admire.