Uploaded August 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Imagine you are in a lab in order to take part in a tasting experiment. The idea is to rate different types of strawberry yogurt for taste. In order for you to focus on taste exclusively, you are blindfolded. Then the study begins…. (I am not going to spoil it for you… Just watch the clip).
The idea here is that what you expect, is very often what you get. If you tell students something like ‘OK – now we are going to do some writing; I know it’s a little boring but it’s very useful…’ can you blame them if they do find it boring? And what about yourself? Can students really appreciate who you are or how much work you have put into your lesson plan / activities etc.? My answer would be ‘No’. As the experiment here suggests, unless you tell them your lesson is going to be on Vocabulary, they are very likely to think it was on Grammar… The Moral: Shape Student Expectations.

[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].