Family Relationships Lesson Plan

Mother and daughter working on lesson
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Using dialogues in class allows students to work on a wide range of skills. Asking students to write up their own role-plays can extend the activity to include written work, creative development, idiomatic expressions, and so on. This sort of activity is perfect for upper-intermediate to advanced level students. This family role-play lesson focuses on relationships between family members. If your students need help developing their family-related vocabulary you, use this exploring relationships vocabulary sheet to provide help.

  • Aim: Consolidate skills through role-play creation
  • Activity: Creation and in-class performance of role-plays related to family relationships
  • Level: Upper-intermediate to advanced

Lesson Outline

  • Use this activity as a larger theme-related objective focusing on vocabulary and communication skills related to family relationships.
  • Quickly review the language of compromise. Write helpful phrases and expressions on the board so the students can reference these later in the activity.
  • Pair up students. Ask them to imagine various scenarios that could lead to interesting discussions in the family.
  • Hand out the role-play sheet and ask students to choose a scenario from those provided. If students are not interested in any of the provided role-play situations, ask them to use one of the scenarios they came up with in the warm-up activity.
  • Have students write out their role-play.
  • Assist students checking their grammar, suggesting alternate appropriate phrases and vocabulary.
  • Allow students ample time to practice their role-play. If they can manage to memorize the role-play, the final "performance" will most likely be much more entertaining and instructive for all involved.
  • Students perform their role-plays for the entire class.
  • As a follow-up activity, ask students to choose one of the role-plays they were not involved in and write up a short summary of the conversation.

Family Role-Plays

Choose a role-play from one of the following scenarios. Write it up with your partner, and perform it for your classmates. Your writing will be checked for grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc., as will your participation, pronunciation, and interaction in the role-play. The role-play should last at least 2 minutes.

  • You are a student at an English institute outside of your country. You’d like your parents to send you some more spending money. Telephone your father (your partner in the role-play) and ask for more money. Your father feels that you are spending too much money. Come to a compromise.
  • You are visiting your cousin (your partner) whom you haven’t seen in a long time. Catch up on all the news from your two families, as well as from your own lives.
  • You are a student who has improved at school, but your mother/father (your partner) doesn’t feel that you have done enough. Discuss together what you can do to improve your grades, but also recognize your increased efforts.
  • You are the aunt/uncle of your partner. Your partner wants to ask you about what life was like with your brother (your partner’s father) when you were both teenagers. Have a discussion about the old times.
  • You would like to get married to a man/woman your parents do not approve of. Have a discussion with your mother/father (your partner) about your plans. Try to break the news gently, while still maintaining your desire to get married.
  • You are having a discussion with your husband/wife (your partner) about your son who is having problems at school. Accuse each other of not being a good parent, but try to come to a conclusion that will help your child.
  • You are a technological wizard and have a new idea for a great startup on the internet. Try to convince your father to fund your business with a $100,000 loan. Your partner will be your father who is very skeptical about your idea because he thinks you should be a doctor.
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Your Citation
Beare, Kenneth. "Family Relationships Lesson Plan." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/family-relationships-lesson-plan-1210576. Beare, Kenneth. (2023, April 5). Family Relationships Lesson Plan. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/family-relationships-lesson-plan-1210576 Beare, Kenneth. "Family Relationships Lesson Plan." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/family-relationships-lesson-plan-1210576 (accessed March 28, 2024).