Polite requests: would you mind vs do you mind

Summary

This ESL lesson plan is designed for A2-level English students to learn how to make polite requests. The lesson focuses on the key differences and correct usage of "Would you mind...?" and "Do you mind if I...?". Through a series of engaging activities, students will improve their listening, reading, and speaking skills in the context of everyday and workplace situations.

This lesson helps elementary students build confidence in their communication. Activities include a warm-up discussion, a listening comprehension task with a fill-in-the-blanks exercise, a reading about the grammar rules, and an interactive vocabulary matching game. The material is designed to provide practical language tools for making requests politely and effectively, which is essential for building positive relationships.

Activities

• A warm-up discussion to get students thinking about how they ask for favors and the importance of politeness in their own language and in English.
• A listening comprehension exercise where students listen to a short audio clip and fill in the blanks, helping them to recognize the target phrases in natural speech.
• A short blog post that clearly explains the grammatical structures of "Would you mind + verb-ing" and "Do you mind if I + present simple," complete with practical examples for the workplace.
• An interactive drag-and-drop vocabulary task where students match key words from the lesson (e.g., colleague, request, lend a hand) with their definitions to reinforce understanding.

Polite requests

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Vocabulary focus

The vocabulary section introduces essential words and phrases for making and responding to requests. Key terms include "request," "favor," "colleague," and "boss." Students will also learn useful expressions like "get things done" and "lend a hand" to sound more natural in conversation.

Grammar focus

This lesson concentrates on two fundamental structures for making polite requests. Students will learn when to use "Would you mind + verb-ing" to ask someone else to do something, and "Do you mind if I + present simple verb" to ask for permission. The lesson also highlights the common mistake of how to answer these questions correctly (e.g., "No, not at all" means yes).