Learning goals:
Practising new vocabulary for describing people: range of adjectives + prefixes
Keywords
Adjectives for appearance : averagelooking, good-looking, medium build, overweight, petite, plain, scruffy, slim, stocky
Adjectives for personality: amiable, bad-tempered, bossy, carefree, cheerful, cool-headed, emotional, extrovert, impatient, intolerant, generous, methodical, nasty, selfish, shy
Describing people
One of the aims of this lesson is to make students realize that it is not enough when describing a person to use simple phrases like
He’s got blue eyes and fair hair
. To describe someone more accurately, we need more vocabulary, e.g. age, shape of facial features, build, hair length/style/colour, etc.
Describing the personality and character of people
When it comes to describing a person’s physical appearance, we can easily talk about what we can see in front of us in terms of their height, facial features, colour of skin/hair, etc. However, we cannot make inferences on things like their personality or character just by looking at a person. It is only through talking to the person and getting to know them, either personally, or through the words of others who have gotten to know them, that we can make a judgement on these aspects. Even then, students should be made aware that such judgements are subjective because t hey are based on someone’s personal views and not facts. For example, we might see the person in question as kind and honest, but someone else might have had different experiences with this person and sees them as rude and ill mannered.
Prefixes
A prefix is a group of letters that can go in front of some words to modify or change their meaning. The
Pratice 3 screen introduces students to the prefixes un, in, dis, non and ir. These give words a negative or opposite meaning. friendly → unfriendly kind → unkind critical → uncritical selfish → unselfish tolerant → intolerant rationally → irrationally
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
Picture 1 – thin, cold
Picture 2 – fat, friendly
Picture 3
– tall, thoughtful
Picture 4 – short, wild
Focus students’ attention on the pictures. Tell them to choose the best words from the box to describe the appearance and personalities of the people in the pictures.
Extension : Give out a copy of the Handout . Ask students to use as many words as they can think of to describe the pictures. Tell them to think about the personality as well as the appearance of the characters.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Audio:
1 Don’t interrupt me when I’m talking.
Most people are just stupid.
Do it now – not later!
2 Come on in, you are very welcome.
Can I do anything for you?
I think most people are nice if you give them a chance.
3 Books are my life and I arrange them in alphabetical order.
What is the meaning of life?
The fool thinks he is wise, but the wise man knows he is a fool.
4 I don’t think about the future. Life is too short.
Driving slowly is so boring!
Come on everybody – it’s party time! Yipee!
Key:
Tell students to listen and match the pictures with the description. Ask them to note down any words that are new to them.
Extension : Ask students if there were any words that they are not familiar with. Then either provide the definitions for them or set a homework task where students have to find the definitions online or from a dictionary.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 amiable
2 cool headed
3 stocky
4 bossy
5 shy
6 impetuous
7 plain
8 selfish
9 average looking
10 petite
Ask students to complete the definitions with words from the box.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Audio:
1 Be careful! He’s very irritable this morning. He’s shouting at everyone.
2 She doesn’t like children and is intolerant of their noise.
3 He has a careful, methodical approach to his work.
4 You can rely on her, she’s always cool headed in a crisis.
5 S he’s always impetuous. She acts without thinking first.
6 He is a generous man. He loves to give expensive presents.
7 What a pleasant person she is; always smiling and always friendly.
8 A typical extrovert person is energetic and loud.
9 She never worries about tomorrow and her carefree style of life makes her many friends.
10 He is rational and gives much thought to every decision.
Key:
1 irritable
2 intolerant
3 methodical
4 cool-headed
5 impetuous
6 generous
7 pleasant
8 extrovert
9 carefree
10 rational
Ask students to choose the best word to complete each sentence. Then tell them to listen and check their answers.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 un
2 in
3 un
4 ir
5 in
6 un
7 un
Explain that prefixes are groups of letters that go in front of some words. Pre-teach the prefixes un, in, dis, non and ir and explain that they give words a negative meaning. Then tell students to choose the correct prefixes to complete the sentences.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
1 medium
2 methodical
3 impatient
4 bossy
5 selfish
6 irresponsible
7 free
8 nasty
9 extrovert
10 shy
11 petite
12 slim
13 bad
Tell students to use the clues to complete the crossword. Explain that the first letter of each word is already given to make things easier for them.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

Key:
Students’ own answers.
This is a ‘free practice’ stage. The aim is personalisation. Give them the following instructions:
Do any words in this lesson fit you? Which ones?
Read and practise the dialogue in pairs.
© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide

© Young Digital Planet 2015 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide