Music Preferences ESL Lesson

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW

This ESL lesson on music preferences provides activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for pre-intermediate A2 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Express their musical preferences (genres, bands, and musicians)
• Learn phrases related to talking about music and its effect
• Watch a video of people of mixed ages expressing their music preferences
• Learn and use possessive adjectives and object pronouns in dialogues and conversations about music

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

In the first part of this ESL lesson on music preferences, students engage in a discussion about their music preferences and interests. First, they use phrases such as:

• “Right now, I’m really into…”
• “When I was younger, I loved…”,
• “My favorite [band/musician] of all time is…”

Then, they continue to discuss a few more questions about music. In the third activity, students read some phrases and phrasal verbs from people who are talking about the effects of music on them. These are phrases such as:

“This music pumps me up!” and “This music brings me down.”

Students get the chance to use these phrases to describe some music that has a similar effect on that.

VIEWING ACTIVITY

During the viewing activity, students watch a short video of people expressing their music interests. There is a range of ages in the video, including children, teens, and seniors. They all talk about their favorite music, musicians, and bands, and they explain why.

In the activities, students listen out for some of the people’s favorite musicians or bands and write them. Then, they do a matching activity in which they match the reasons why these people like these bands. The viewing phase of the lesson concludes with students choosing true or false for some of the information based on what the people say about music.

DISCUSSION & GRAMMAR

In the viewing follow-up, students will discuss a few questions about the video they watched.

Then, they read a few sentences about the people’s music preferences in the video. In the sentences, there are a mix of possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, its, their) and object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them). Students must complete a table of these possessive adjectives and object pronouns based on the sentences.

Additionally, students complete a dialogue using the same possessive adjectives and object pronouns. In the dialogue, one person asks another about their favorite genre of music and band, and the other responds.

LET’S CHAT ABOUT MUSIC

In this task-based activation phase, students get two options. In the first option, students can write a set of 4 questions about music for a classmate or teacher. They get a list of verbs provided that they can choose to use in the questions they make. Then, students take turns asking each other their questions and engage in discussion. They are encouraged to use possessive adjectives and object pronouns in their responses.

Additionally, students have the second option to discuss additional personal experiences / preferences related to music. They choose from a list of talking points, each asking about something related to music. For example, there are a few options for students to talk about concert experiences, the music preferences of people they know, how they discover new music, or an album or song that they really like. In this part, students are also encouraged to use possessive adjectives and object pronouns in their discussions.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS ESL LESSON ON MUSIC PREFERENCES

Grammar Practice: The lesson encourages students to use possessive adjectives and object pronouns in context. This gives students practical grammar practice and reinforces their understanding through various activities.

Interactive Learning: Tasks such as completing tables, engaging in dialogues, and creating questions for classmates promote interactive learning experiences, keeping students actively involved throughout the lesson.

Speaking Practice: Both structured and open-ended speaking activities encourage students to practice speaking English fluently while incorporating possessive adjectives and object pronouns naturally into their conversations.

Relatable Content: Most people have music preferences, and many even have strong opinions about music. This can drive student engagement and rich conversations, as students are able to relate to the content in a personal way.