- Levels: B2C1
- Lesson Types: Lesson Plans
- Recommended for: Download and Go
- Themes:
🕑 60 minutes
🎚 B2, C1
🎯 vocabulary for fear and being scared (uneasy, flinch, dread, shudder, cower away from), speaking from pictures, conversation questions
🕑 0-5 minutes
– Print one worksheet for each student.
– Print the Teacher’s Insights or keep them at hand as they contain the answers to the exercises.
– Keep a list of phobias and superstitions, or the Internet, at hand for the introduction questions.
Introduction: speaking intro on phobias and superstitions: what they are and the strangest ones you know
Speaking II: decide whether each of twelve pictures shows a superstition or a phobia
Vocabulary Focus: match eight words for fear (uneasy, flinch, dread, shudder) to their definitions
Speaking: use the new words to answer eight questions about what scares you
Get your students talking about broken mirrors, black cats and the fear of balloons with this phobias and superstitions ESL lesson plan and printable worksheet for B2 to C1 learners.
Detailed Description
In today’s lesson, students work out the difference between a phobia and a superstition, see plenty of examples of each and learn eight words for fear and being scared. It suits a Friday the 13th (or a Tuesday the 13th in Spain), Halloween, or any conversation class.
The lesson begins with two sets of introduction questions: what a phobia is, what a superstition is, whether the students have any, and the strangest ones they know.
Next, students look at twelve pictures, from a broken mirror and a black cat to a snake and a bunch of balloons, and decide whether each one shows a superstition or a phobia. The Teacher’s Insights explain every picture, with the story behind each superstition and the name of each phobia, so there is plenty to tell the class.
In the vocabulary focus, students match eight words and expressions for fear, such as uneasy, flinch, dread, give someone the creeps and shudder, to their definitions, and then use them to answer eight speaking questions.
The Teacher’s Insights also include a research activity for extra time, where students look up a phobia online and the class guesses its name, and a reminder to check first whether anyone in the class has a fear that could trouble them.
ESL lesson material for English language learners, ready for online and face-to-face English classes in 2026. Updated November 2026.
Liked this worksheet? Check out some of our other worksheets for free:
Halloween: Students learn Halloween words, read where the festival comes from and practise -ed and -ing adjectives (scared or scary?).
Birds Aren’t Real (Free): Students watch a TED Talk on conspiracy theories, discuss why people believe them and invent one of their own.
You Can’t Ask That! (Free): Students learn expressions for what is appropriate and discuss which questions you can and can’t ask in different situations.