Uploaded August 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Imagine a student who writes a story and gets the following feedback: ‘Nice work. You still need some work on the Passive Voice though’. How would they feel? Now listen to Professor Ariely describing a similar incident.
The experiment Ariely describes is fascinating. There are two conditions: in one you get to make robots with Lego bricks and you get paid for it. Your robots are all lined up and you are told they are going to be disassembled later. In the second condition though, as soon as you have made one, it is taken to pieces right before your eyes! Does this matter? And if so why? After all, the robots in the first case would also be dismantled eventually. Yet matter it does. Quite a lot in fact. People in the second condition made 7.2 robots on average, while in the first they made 10.6 – that’s almost 50% more!
The ‘moral’ is clear: people need to feel there is some purpose to what they do otherwise they can be seriously demotivated.
NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
Imagine a student who writes a story and gets the following feedback: ‘Nice work. You still need some work on the Passive Voice though’. How would they feel? Now listen to Professor Ariely describing a similar incident.
The experiment Ariely describes is fascinating. There are two conditions: in one you get to make robots with Lego bricks and you get paid for it. Your robots are all lined up and you are told they are going to be disassembled later. In the second condition though, as soon as you have made one, it is taken to pieces right before your eyes! Does this matter? And if so why? After all, the robots in the first case would also be dismantled eventually. Yet matter it does. Quite a lot in fact. People in the second condition made 7.2 robots on average, while in the first they made 10.6 – that’s almost 50% more!
The ‘moral’ is clear: people need to feel there is some purpose to what they do otherwise they can be seriously demotivated.
NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
![Psychology and ELT - Nudging [Short]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/u5RUi7iKJxc/mqdefault.jpg "Psychology and ELT - Nudging [Short]
What is ‘nudging’? Broadly speaking, it is trying to influence people’s behaviour (often subconsciously) by making small changes in their environment or in the way things are done. Placement, sequencing, packaging, timing, ease or difficulty of access, options given or allowed, all these are little things which can nevertheless have a huge impact on the way one functions.
Here is an example: We all know that left to their own devices, kids will opt for unhealthy food. Gneezy & List wanted to help about 1,000 schoolchildren in Chicago improve their diet. First they tried the direct approach – giving children nutritional education, about the importance of a healthy diet, about vitamins, nutrients, preservatives, food pyramids, etc. etc. Predictably perhaps, this proved a total failure… :-)
Then they tried ‘nudging’: for instance, they replaced whole apples with packaged apple slices (easier to eat and the peel doesn’t stick in your braces!), but what they did with the chips and cookies was simply brilliant: they placed them beyond the reach of children, so that they would have to ask the lunch lady to get them!! That did it!! (‘Who wants to ask the grouchy lunch lady for anything?’) [Gneezy & List: ‘The Why Axis’ – Random House 2013 – p. 162]
In this short clip, R. Thaler gives us two more examples: the first one is again food-related but the second is pure genius in its simplicity and effectiveness.
So this is the idea: by making small, almost imperceptible alterations in the classroom environment or in the lesson routine, I believe we can increase our effectiveness as teachers. Over to you now. Any ideas?
[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].")
![Comedy for ELT - Frank Dad 5 [Sexuality]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vit0IsrlL74/mqdefault.jpg "Comedy for ELT - Frank Dad 5 [Sexuality]
He is male, he is a father and he is divorced. He is also very frank… So when his son asks him about things, he is only too happy to reply. It’s just that one wonders whether his son might not have been better off not asking questions in the first place… In this clip, Paul asks his dad why his mother seemed reluctant to take him on holiday with her… Enjoy! :-)
Quite apart from the entertainment value, these little sketches contain very real-life language, including discourse markers and idioms. Taken from the BBC Series ‘The Armstrong and Miller Show’. Level: C1 – C2. Topic: Family / Parents – Children / Sex / Sexuality.
[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].
SCRIPT
D: Paul, what are you doing up here?
S: Thinking…
D: Careful! Your head might fall off!
S: Dad…
D: Go on son, spit it out…
S: Why didn’t mum want me to go on holiday with her?
D: What – is that all this is about? Well, the thing is… it’s nice for your mum and Jill to go on their own… You see, when you’re in the first throes of big, passionate, lesbian relationship * the last thing you need is some little kid wandering in, saying ‘Mummy, can I go to the swimming pool?’ is it? * You see… your mum was never really satisfied by me – sexually, so it’s nice for her occasionally to get the full treatment from someone on the home team… (he winks at Paul) * I mean, don’t get me wrong, I tried… but when it came down to it, I was just extremely lazy in bed… And your poor, old mum sometimes had to sort herself out… * But where would you rather be? With a couple of rug munchers in Ibiza or here with me watching the ‘Top Gear’ DVD, hey? * Go on – race you to the telly! *")
