In this ESL lesson plan for adults and teens, students watch an informational report and do a listening exercise about gift giving. It includes discussion questions and other speaking activities about gift giving and holidays. Students also learn some important vocabulary terms and phrases from the video. The post-viewing section includes follow-up discussion, CCQ discussion based on some vocabulary used in the video, and an activity on parts of speech from the video. There are two different gift idea tasks, as well as an optional activity featuring adjectives ending in -able versus -ible, and a quiz and review section included.

We’ve all received an unwelcome holiday gift. In fact, around 70 billion dollars’ worth of presents are returned every year in the U.S. In this video, The Atlantic writer Derek Thompson explains why many presents amount to what economists call “deadweight loss”: the company wasted time making it, the giver wasted time buying it, and the receiver wasted time returning it.