The power of gratitude: discussing well-being and expressing thanks

Gratitude and well-being β€” a B2 English lesson. Practise using prepositions in questions and expand vocabulary around expressing thanks and abstract concepts.

The power of gratitude: discussing well-being and expressing thanks

Summary

This ESL lesson for B2 English students explores Gratitude and psychology. Using a real video as the basis for discussion, students develop reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar skills across a 90-minute class.

The grammar focus is Prepositions in Wh-Questions (Formal vs. Informal). Key vocabulary includes potent (adjective), virtue (noun), genuine (adjective) and more, all drawn directly from the source material. The practical English section gives students useful phrases for real-life situations: You need to thank someone for their help, a gift, or their kindness. The way you say it can depend on how formal the situation is and how significant the action was..

Activities

00:00:4,646 So gratitude is an incredibly potent virtue.
00:00:8,316 What gratitude does is tells us we are valued in relationship.
00:00:13,071 And we see that when people feel genuine gratitude, they indeed help others.
00:00:18,535 And it binds us to each other.
00:00:21,287 But when we practice gratitude, the devil might be in the details.
00:00:25,834 It's not just what are you grateful for?
00:00:28,711 It's to whom are you grateful?
00:00:31,005 We often express it to other humans,
00:00:33,842 but we can also be grateful to other entities, and in particular,
00:00:38,179 many people around the world express gratitude to God.
00:00:44,394 Our research team was interested in
00:00:46,980 whether gratitude, expressed in the form of prayer to a deity,
00:00:52,360 would differ from gratitude practiced kind of as a self-help exercise,
00:00:57,740 or expressing that gratitude to another person.
00:01:2,078 And so we randomly assigned participants to one of these three conditions.
00:01:6,416 And what we found is that when people prayed,
00:01:10,211 we see more health and well-being benefits
00:01:13,047 than the journaling the gratitude,
00:01:16,593 or journaling and reading it aloud to a person.
00:01:21,514 We know this from other research
00:01:22,891 that when people imbue their goals or relationships
00:01:26,352 with sacred meaning, that they exert more effort
00:01:29,564 and they benefit more from those relationships.
00:01:34,527 Some people might be wondering, well, what if I don't believe in God?
00:01:37,906 Well, you might also think about the fact of existence.
00:01:41,826 Or I'm grateful for the things that are transcendent in my life.
00:01:47,498 For a lot of people,
00:01:48,499 being connected to nature is very effective in this way.
00:01:53,463 If I see a beautiful sunset, who do I thank?
00:01:56,424 There's not a human who made that sunset for me,
00:01:58,551 but I can thank something beyond the self.
00:02:2,764 Gratitude is especially important at this moment in history.
00:02:7,936 In the United States, we have a loneliness epidemic
00:02:11,189 as declared by the Surgeon General.
00:02:13,566 But expressing and feeling gratitude
00:02:16,319 allows us to recognize we're part of something bigger.
00:02:19,948 And that feels a lot less lonely.
00:02:22,200 It becomes expands and can transform a relationship or a community.
00:02:27,914 And so gratitude,
00:02:29,082 especially when practiced in relation to God,
00:02:31,834 is really a potent force for good.
00:02:36,798 It really helps you take a step back and see the bigger picture.

Vocabulary focus

The vocabulary section introduces B2-level words and phrases related to Gratitude and psychology. Key terms include potent (adjective), virtue (noun), genuine (adjective), deity (noun), imbue (verb). Students practise using these terms in context through exercises drawn from the source material.

Grammar focus

This lesson focuses on Prepositions in Wh-Questions (Formal vs. Informal). In English, wh-questions that need a preposition can be formed in two ways. The formal way is to place the preposition before the question word (e.

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