Expressing Opinions of Best and Worst

The following exercise focuses on what students like best and least about friends. The exercise allows students to practice a number of areas: expressing opinions, comparatives and superlatives, descriptive adjectives and reported speech. The overall concept of the lesson can easily be transferred to other subject areas such as holiday choices, choosing a school, perspective careers, etc.

Activity

Practice expressing opinions and reported speech.

Choosing which qualities would make a best friend and which qualities would make an undesirable friend.

Best Friend — Friend from Hell: Outline

Help students activate vocabulary by asking them for descriptive adjectives describing good friends and bad friends. Distribute worksheet to students and ask them to put the descriptive adjectives/phrases into the two categories (Best Friend — Undesirable Friend).

Put students into pairs and ask them to give explanations for why they have chosen to put the various descriptions into one or the other of the categories. Ask students to pay careful attention to what their partner says and take notes, as they will be expected to report back to a new partner.

Put students into new pairs and ask them to tell their new partner what their first partner has said. As a class, ask students about any surprises or differences of opinion they encountered during the discussions.

Extend the lesson by a follow-up discussion on what makes a good friend.

Exercise Instruction

Put the following adjectives/phrases into one of the two categories: best friend or undesirable friend. Take notes on the preferences of your partner.

confident in his/her abilities
handsome or beautiful
trustworthy
outgoing
timid
punctual intelligent
fun-loving
rich or well off
artistic abilities
inquisitive mind
possess athletic abilities
well-traveled
creative
free spirit
speaks English well
interested in the same things
interested in different things
from the same social background
from a different social background
loves to tell stories
rather reserved
ambitious
plans for the future
happy with what he/she has