A Halloween themed lesson for business students

I planned this lesson to work with my adult business students who are are levels B1+ and above. I decided to make it a Halloween themed lesson to discuss some cultural differences around celebrating it or not in the workplace, and another reason I decided on this theme is to include my business students in the Halloween parties atmosphere, too. I always find it very difficult to plan thematic lesson plans for this audience. Although my target is business English students, this plan can be easily adapted for adult and young adult students who are having general English classes.

In terms of language, I decided to focus on informal language. It is not uncommon to hear from my students that in working contexts they can communicate with confidence, however when they have to socialize after work in informal environments, they struggle to understand some expressions used or even find it difficult to adapt their speech to sound more relaxed and less formal. Adapting the register from formal to informal is a really demanding task. Bearing that in mind, I selected seven informal expressions used in an episode of Modern Family, aired on ABC – American Broadcasting Company.

The lesson includes a lead-in where students will discuss whether they celebrate Halloween at work and if they would be comfortable wearing costumes in their workplace.

The second stage is to prepare students for listening/watching. There is a guiding question to help them focus while listening. Additionally, there is an optional slide where I pre-teach three words before showing the video. You can find the link to the video on the slides, but if you prefer, you can search for Season 2 Episode 6 (after 00:35 min). Here you have the direct link.

After watching the video, students will check their predictions and listen one more time for details. The following slide focuses on matching the words with their definitions.

There is a slide for controlled speaking practice and, at the end, two slides with open questions for a freer practice focusing on workplace strategies to boost team morale.

If you would like to use this lesson, you can download it here for free.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

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