Summary
This ESL lesson for B2 English students delves into the powerful connection between our thoughts, self-image, and overall identity. Through a thought-provoking video and interactive exercises, students will explore the idea that "what you think becomes who you are," examining how mental patterns shape personal perception and life outcomes. This material is designed to spark engaging discussions about self-improvement, positive thinking, and the transformative power of the mind.
Activities
- A warm-up discussion where students consider the meaning of "What you think becomes who you are" and reflect on their own experiences with the influence of positive and negative thoughts.
- A listening comprehension activity based on a video about Dr. Maxwell Maltz's self-image concept, featuring a gap-fill exercise to enhance detailed listening skills.
- A vocabulary matching task introducing key terms from the video such as visualize, gregarious, and introverted, helping students expand their descriptive vocabulary.
- A grammar exercise focusing on the correct usage of the active and passive voice in the past simple, applying these forms to statements related to the lesson's theme.
- Practice with common English "mind" idioms, including mind over matter and change my mind, to enrich students' idiomatic expression.
- A vocabulary in context exercise that challenges students to use the newly learned words in relevant sentences, solidifying their understanding and usage.
All the great teachers all down through
history have all agreed on we become
what we think about.
Dr. Maxwell Maltz discovered the
self-image concept as we know it today
at in 1960 he was a plastic surgeon and
u he realized he he was operating on
people he may removed a you know a nasty
scar from their face and he noticed
sometimes when he removed the scar or
maybe did a nose job on them or
something there was a great
psychological change took place in the
person they where they may have been
introverted they started to become very
gregarious and outgoing and he
postulated that there There must be two
images that we have an exterior image
and we also have an inner selfimage.
>> And he started to study this and he
wrote a magnificent book on it called
psychocybernetics
and he explains how every one of us has
an image in our mind of our self and
it's called a self-image.
Too many people don't know much about
themsel and so they don't have a very
good image of themselves and you'll
often notice that people will shy away
from you. They won't look you in the
eye. They'll look down or look up.
They'll never try to do anything of any
great consequence because they don't
think they can. They have a poor
self-image.
>> Part of that is because through school
we're told about we don't do well, we
failed here, we had low grades or 60% or
whatever.
>> Yeah. I think that um but yes, if we're
told we're not very good, you're just
like your dad, you know, you're a bum,
you're never going to do well, you
didn't go to school, you can't win,
>> that's all that's that's all false. We
can do anything and we should be
encouraging a child. Give him a pat on
the back rather than a kick. Okay. What
can we do members of our viewing
audience right now that most of us walk
around with some degree of a self-image.
Is that fair to say?
>> We all have a self-image.
>> Okay. Would you say most of us have a
have a negative self-image to some
degree?
>> Well, let's say we can all improve our
self-image. I don't care how good your
image is. You can improve it.
>> Okay. How can we improve it?
If a person would sit down and let their
body relax, totally relax, okay, and
then start to visualize in their mind,
see themselves the way they want to see
themselves, and see how you'd like to
live your life. See yourself living it
that way.
>> Okay?
>> Now, understand that that's a picture in
your mind. When you pick up a book, the
book is nothing but a picture that an
author has painted in words. Van Go, the
great artist, was asked one time how he
did such beautiful work. He said, "I
dream my painting and then I paint my
dream." To get the picture of the mind,
then paint it on the wall or on the
canvas. Well, if we would relax, build
the image in our mind of how we'd like
to see oursel.
>> Mhm.
>> How we'd like to see oursel acting in
life, relating to other people, our
social life. Take that picture and
describe it. Write it out in the present
tense. I am so happy now that I see
myself. And write it out.
Now, a lot of people will laugh at this
and say, "It doesn't make any sense." It
makes a lot of sense. They can't tell
you why it doesn't. I could spend hours
telling you why it does, and I could
explain it in such detail that everyone
would understand it. But write out a
description of how you'd like to see
yourself. Start to read it and read it
and read it and read it every day. Carry
it around and keep reading it.
The one point that all the great
teachers all down through history have
all agreed on. They've been in complete
unanimous agreement on it. We become
what we think about. Now, it may be
fantasy at first. It might even appear
to us as being a lie.
>> But if you read it often enough, you'll
start to believe it. And when William
James said, "Believe and your belief
will create fact." You will see the
person's personality change. I watch
people in the seminars personality
change right in front of my eyes. And
all they're doing is starting to see
themselves different. They're starting
to think different thoughts.
[Music]
Vocabulary focus
The vocabulary section introduces and reinforces terms related to self-perception and personal traits discussed in the video. Key terms include visualize, consequence, unanimous, introverted, postulated, and gregarious, used in various exercises to build comprehension and active use.
Grammar focus
This lesson focuses on the active and passive voice in the past simple. Students will practice identifying and using the correct voice to describe past events and actions, particularly within the context of the self-image concept, thereby enhancing their ability to construct clear and accurate sentences.
