ESL lesson plan | B2 | Understanding ASMR and sensory experiences

Summary

This ESL lesson for B2 English students explores Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR). Students will delve into various sensory experiences, expand their vocabulary related to feelings and sensations, and practice conditional sentences. Through engaging activities, learners will discuss the science and personal impact of ASMR, developing fluency and accuracy in describing complex emotional and physical responses.

Access lesson

Activities

A warm-up discussion where students share personal experiences with pleasant sensory inputs and their initial thoughts on ASMR.
Video comprehension questions based on a discussion explaining what ASMR is and its perceived benefits, including terms like "magic pause" for immediate emotional regulation.
A vocabulary matching task and fill-in-the-blank exercises using terms from the video such as binge-watch, alleviates, euphoria, tingleness, stimuli, benign, and placebo effect.
A grammar exercise focusing on conditional sentences (Type 1 and Type 2) to discuss real possibilities and hypothetical situations related to ASMR triggers and effects.
Idiom practice with phrases related to senses and feelings, including get goosebumps, send shivers down one's spine, on cloud nine, and tune out.
Speaking practice where students discuss questions about ASMR, sharing opinions and personal experiences using the new vocabulary and grammar.

00:00 (brush slightly grazing microphone)

00:02 (whispering)

00:03 Up, or down.

00:05 (fingernails gently tapping glass)

00:09 (rough scraping)

00:14 (whispering)

00:15 One of my favorite things is to gently whisper

00:20 right into your ear.

00:23 Kinda like it.

00:24 (laughing)

00:25 A lot of other people do.

00:27 They binge-watch videos of this.

00:28 People soap shaving, you saw it there,

00:31 whispering, finger tapping,

00:33 and obviously it's a little bit strange

00:35 as you're watching it.

00:36 For a lot of people, members of the ASMR community

00:39 in particular, it's healing.

00:41 They say it alleviates stress, insomnia, depression,

00:43 and even pain, and the reality is I had actually

00:46 never allowed myself to just fully envelop in the sensation

00:50 from that, and it felt a little exciting.

00:53 It gets your attention.

00:55 It does.

00:57 It sucks, it pulls you in so much that you forget

01:00 if something else was going on in your mind that you...

01:02 (whispering)

01:03 Yes it does.

01:04 (laughing)

01:05 I'd rather hear one of the girls whisper like that.

01:07 I would too, put it in the right voice, the right tones,

01:12 the right, obviously they're also using really good audio.

01:17 Why, what is this thing?

01:19 Okay, so ASMR stands for

01:21 Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response,

01:24 and basically it refers to the feelings

01:26 of euphoria and tingleness that people get,

01:30 especially in response to sensory stimuli.

01:32 The most common ones from research studies are

01:35 whispering and crisp sounds, as you saw in that video,

01:38 so the fingernails, eating pickles.

01:41 And the reason why people think that it helps them

01:43 is because it tends to promote this relaxation

01:46 sort of quality, and some people will say

01:49 they've felt better, not only while they're listening

01:52 to those videos, but up to hours afterwards.

01:55 80% of people will say that they increased their mood.

01:58 However, there's no controlled study,

01:59 so we don't actually know how it works.

02:01 I have some clients who swear by this though,

02:03 and they kind of use it alternative therapeutic technique.

02:06 I kind of wanna watch it again.

02:07 Does anyone else?

02:08 Yeah!

02:09 Right, a little bit of that soothing voice?

02:12 You like voice the best?

02:15 Did you guys get some tinglyness?

02:16 Yeah, and the tapping.

02:17 I did, a little bit.

02:19 Of course if someone is on medication, and they're getting

02:23 treatment from a counselor, I wouldn't say stop

02:26 your medication and just do this,

02:28 you should do it in conjunction

02:29 with a medical professional's opinion.

02:32 But if you have mild depression or something,

02:35 and you don't even need medication,

02:37 then this could be really soothing in those instances too,

02:40 or in conjunction with medicine.

02:41 I couldn't agree with you more, but it seems like

02:44 a benign way to calm down, maybe you have a few of these.

02:48 Wait wait.

02:49 Judy, does this work for you?

02:50 (paper rips)

02:52 Yeah, it does.

02:53 It all does.

02:54 I actually, I like that.

02:55 You like that, you want one too?

02:56 I want one too.

02:57 (paper rips)

02:58 Clearly, this could all be placebo effect.

02:59 Pass this down. That's the stuff.

03:02 (paper rips)

03:02 Pass this down, now you do it to Dr. Travis.

03:04 I'm all calm now, let's do some TV.

03:06 (paper rips)

03:08 Oooh, oooh.

03:09 (audience laughs)

03:09 That's the stuff.

Vocabulary focus

The vocabulary section introduces terms related to sensory experiences and well-being. Key terms include binge-watch, healing, alleviates, euphoria, tingleness, stimuli, promote, controlled study, therapeutic, soothing, benign, and placebo effect. Students will learn to describe specific physical sensations and psychological effects.

Grammar focus

This lesson concentrates on conditional sentences (Type 1 and Type 2). Students will review and practice forming these sentences to discuss real possibilities and hypothetical situations, allowing them to express cause-and-effect relationships related to sensory triggers and their impacts.