Desirable Qualities

Students rank personal quality adjectives they'd most like to apply to themselves and to a friend, then compare and discuss with a partner.

Procedure

1. Read out a set of adjectives (see word banks below) and ask learners to raise hands if they consider each a positive quality. Check understanding and clarify ambiguities.
2. Write the adjectives on the board.
3. Ask learners to choose the four words they'd most like to apply to themselves and rank them 1-4 (1 = most important).
4. Ask learners to mark with a cross any words they would NOT wish to apply to themselves.
5. From the same set, choose the four qualities they'd most want in a friend, ranked a-d. Circle qualities they would NOT want in a friend.
6. Learners work with a partner to compare opinions, giving reasons.

Word Banks

• Elementary-Intermediate: friendly, cheerful, greedy, calm, kind, loving, funny, gentle, thoughtful, boring, formal, nasty, brave, generous, wise, helpful, forgetful, careless, honest, shy, strong
• Intermediate-Upper Intermediate: sociable, approachable, relaxed, ambitious, deep, blunt, respectful, determined, selfish, distant, uptight, nervous, self-conscious, uninspiring, quarrelsome, amusing, straightforward, responsible, rough, proud, charming
• Upper Intermediate-Advanced: cultured, witty, sneaky, driven, antagonistic, sly, pedantic, shallow, charitable, highly strung, nonconformist, aggressive, compassionate, altruistic, sharp, ambitious, approachable, controlled, upstanding, self-confident, narrow-minded, passionate

Tips

• Start by brainstorming all personal qualities students already know (positive and negative), then add new ones.
• Expand the list to include attributes beyond personality: rich, poor, etc.
• Variation: ask which qualities are important (or to be avoided) for different professions — teacher, bus driver, parent.