(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

You are standing with a couple of friends at a party talking. Across the room, you notice someone who looks kind of attractive, and you think that you’d like to meet that person. Maybe if he or she likes you, you’ll be able to get a phone number, or perhaps have a date. You feel a bit excited but also nervous about approaching this good-looking person.

Feeling nervous is a common emotion in this kind of situation. We are often afraid that if we try to start a conversation, the other person will reject us. According to Jean Smith, a social and cultural anthropologist, fear of rejection is the most common reason why we decide not to start a conversation with an attractive person whom we’d like to meet.

However, according to Smith, we can overcome that obstacle if we think in a different way about our goal of being liked or of getting a phone number or having a date. (See complete article below.)

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings”  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: ESL Reading> Short, High Interest Articles for Extensive Readings

Here is the fourth article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

Continue reading →

(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

A researcher used to get upset. He often saw people throwing things in the wastebasket, for example soda cans or gum wrappers, that they should have put in the recycling bins. Then he became interested in why they do that. As a result, he set up some experiments.

In one study, 150 volunteer students were asked to give their opinion about a pair of scissors. (The students thought the study was about the scissors, but actually, the researchers were secretly studying recycling.)  They gave each of the students a sheet of paper. They told half of them to practice with the scissors by cutting the paper into eight pieces. The other half were told to just hold and practice squeezing the scissors but not cut the paper. (See complete article below.)

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings”  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: ESL Reading> Short, High Interest Articles for Extensive Readings

Here is the third article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

Continue reading →

(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

¹ Imagine that you and your friends have just arrived at a popular restaurant.  Unfortunately, you are told by the hostess that you’ll need to wait in line for about 30 minutes to get a table because there are many other customers who had arrived before you.  After about 10 minutes, a man and woman arrive and talk to the hostess.  You notice that he secretly hands her some money.  Immediately, she takes them to a table.  Most of us would feel that this was unfair and will feel resentful toward the hostess.

² Some researchers have recently become interested in finding out if the idea of unfairness is a unique emotion only felt by people or is it also experienced by animals.  A study looked at how dogs react when a second dog is rewarded in an unequal way for doing the same trick.  The researchers shook hands with two dogs, and the dogs were happy to do that whether they got a reward or not.

³ Next, they asked the dogs to “shake hands” and gave one a reward of a tasty sausage, and the other one a dull piece of bread when they did. Interestingly, the dogs didn’t seem to notice the difference and continued to follow the command and shook hands even though one got a tastier reward than the other. (See complete article below.)

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