Why do we feel nostalgia?


Advanced ESL worksheet (B2 and above): Why do we feel nostalgia? - BUY ME A COFFEE if you like my FREE ESL content


In this worksheet, students will read a poem about nostalgia and reflect on their own childhoods and how they feel looking back on them today. Idioms for discussing the past will be introduced (look through rose-tinted glasses, for old time's sake, a blast from the past, salad days). They will watch a Ted-Ed video about how nostalgia was once considered to be a dangerous mental health problem. The worksheet concludes with an article by behavioural economist Ben Ho on how Hollywood exploits our feelings of nostalgia to sell us reboots of the same old stories (think: Jurassic Park, Marvel films, etc.)

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Lesson outcomes: 
  1. Analyse poetic language in 'The Land of Lost Content' by Alfred Edward Housman (e.g. blue remembered hills, happy highways)
  2. Study idioms related to nostalgia and see them in context: to look through rose-tinted glasses, those were the days, for old time's sake, etc.)
  3. Listen to a Ted-Ed video on how nostalgia was medicalised in the 17th century, improving listening comprehension
  4. Read an article by a behavioural economist on how marketers use nostalgia to make us buy movie tickets, with advanced vocabulary like 'to prime', 'demise', 'conformity', etc.

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