Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name's Mrs. Riley, and I'm here today to do some English learning with you.

Today we're going to be learning some new vocabulary together.

Let's get started.

The outcome of today's lesson is to use the words 'diffident', 'hesitant; and 'reticent' effectively in multiple contexts.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

I'm going to say each one, and I'd like you to repeat it back to me.

Noun.

Adjective.

Synonym.

Word pair.

Well done.

Let's go through the definitions.

So a noun is a naming word for people, places, or things.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

A synonym is a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word.

Word pairs are words that often appear together.

Today we're going to be learning three new adjectives.

They're describing words.

So we will probably be describing lots of different nouns, a word for people, places, or things, and to help us to understand what these new words, how to understand them really well.

We are going to learn synonyms for each word and word pairs for each word.

So these four key words are going to come up again and again in today's lesson.

So we're going to be focusing today on vocabulary associated with shy or uncertain words.

We're going to look at three new words, which all mean shy or uncertain.

So before we look at our first word, I would like you to think of a time when you felt shy or uncertain about something.

Here are a few sentence starters to help you.

I felt shy when once I, or I remember.

So you might use that as a sentence stem.

So you can say out loud, you could maybe tell a partner if there was someone there or if not, you could just practise saying this out loud to yourself.

But think of a time when you felt shy or uncertain about something.

Pause the video while you do that now.

Okay, well done.

It's really normal to feel shy or uncertain at different situations in life.

And I definitely have had lots of times where I have felt shy or uncertain about something.

For example, I can remember in a class when I was younger, when I was at school and I had to go in and my teacher had put this long poem on everyone's desk, a photocopy of it.

And I knew when they were go, when we went in there and sat down that the teacher was going to ask one person to read the poem out.

And I was sitting there thinking, please don't choose me, please don't choose me.

And it was like the teacher could sense that they didn't want me to pick, that that I didn't want 'em to pick me.

And the teacher said, could you please read that out? And I thought, oh no.

And I felt really shy.

And of course it was silly of me to feel shy 'cause I was with all my classmates who were very friendly and my teacher was also very friendly.

But it's really normal to sometimes feel shy in certain situations.

I wonder what your situation was when you felt shy or uncertain.

So have a look at our first illustration.

What's happening in this picture? This is Armie, the Armadillo.

What is he doing? How does he look? How would you say he feels? Can you pause the video and be a detective and look at every detail of that picture and say what you can see now.

Okay, well done.

Armie the Armadillo here looks like he is taking part in some kind of karate or judo, and there's a stick there that looks like he's going to try and do a karate chop or a judo chop to break in half.

But he's not looking very confident about it.

In fact, his facial and his bodily expression almost looks like he is dreading doing it.

And perhaps he doesn't feel very confident that he's going to be able to break the twig at or the stick.

And if he, of course, he can't break it, then that's gonna probably be quite painful when he slams his arm down on it.

Let's have a look at what this word is, diffident.

My term, your term.

Diffident.

Diffident is an adjective.

It means modest or shy.

Like someone who doesn't feel confident in their abilities.

If you are a modest person, it's like the opposite of being a showoff.

So you are humble, you are not showing off, and you are a bit shy.

So Armie the Armadillo here is diffident, modest or shy.

And definitely he doesn't feel confident in his ability.

He doesn't look very confident that he's going to be able to karate chop that stick in half.

So these words are synonyms of diffident.

They have a similar or the same, meaning.

Shy, un-confident, and modest.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Armie's diffident manner made him seem nervous.

So these words are word pairs of diffident.

Let's look at them now.

A diffident manner.

Diffident start.

Imagine if you were in a race and you had a diffident start, what that might look like.

A diffident handshake.

What situation might you be in where you might give someone a diffident handshake.

Maybe if you were meeting someone that you felt a bit nervous of a diffident smile.

Perhaps you could show me what a diffident smile might look like.

Ooh, yes, well done.

It's not a confident smile.

It would be a bit of a shy, uncertain smile.

A diffident attitude.

So it's really important when we're learning new words to say them out loud.

So I've read them to you, but I would like you to now pause the video and read these word pairs out loud.

Off you go.

Excellent.

Well done.

These are also word pairs of diffident.

A diffident voice, a diffident step, a diffident suggestion, and diffident air.

Now that doesn't mean the air, just as in the oxygen around me could be diffident, but you might say that a person had a diffident air about them.

So could you pause the video now and read those pairs out loud? Well done.

Here's a check for understanding which of these words is a synonym for diffident.

Is it A shy, B step, or C assertive? Pause the video while you think about the answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is A shy.

Shy is a synonym for diffident.

It's now time for you to try a task.

For this task you have got a word map.

Diffident is written in the middle and all the words are around it.

Some of these words are synonyms. If you think the word is a synonym, I'd like you to circle it.

If you think the word is a word pair, I'd like you to draw a line from diffident up or across or down to the word pair.

Here's a sentence to help you.

Armies dissident manner made him seem nervous.

If the word is a synonym, we should be able to take out the word diffident in this sentence and replace it with the synonym.

Could you pause the video now while you complete this task? Well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are un-confident, modest, and shy.

They will have the same or similar meaning to diffident The rest of the words are word pairs, diffident manner, diffident start, diffident smile, diffident attitude, diffident suggestion, diffident handshake, diffident step, diffident voice, and diffident air.

For your next task, I would like you to try and write a sentence using the word diffident.

It can seem a bit daunting to just come up with a sentence without a context.

So here are the word pairs to help you.

For example, you might use the word per step, a diffident step.

And then you can think about a situation.

When might someone take a diffident step? What situation might they be in? Why might they be feeling a bit unsure or a bit shy about something? And then you can build your idea around that.

Perhaps you could think of a character to write a sentence about in a book that you are reading or a character, someone you are studying at school.

Also, think about your sentence being really ambitious.

Think about all the things you've learned in English and grammar.

Think about your punctuation and always, always take the time to read your sentence back and check it once you've finished.

So could you pause the video now and have a go at writing a sentence using the word dissident? Excellent.

Well done for giving that a go.

Here are some examples of diffident in some different sentences.

Armie's diffident handshake suggested he was very nervous to meet Prime Minister.

Ooh, okay.

So Armie's meeting the Prime Minister and his diffident handshake suggested that he was very nervous about it.

The shy girl offered a diffident smile in response to the teacher's terrible joke.

In a diffident voice, Armie asked the scary cook for more porridge.

Okay, so in two of those sentences you might have spotted an apostrophe.

Can you quickly take some time and try and point at the two apostrophes I've used in those sentences? Can you see them? Can you point? Well done.

In the first sentence I've used an apostrophe after Armie, Armie's diffident handshake.

That's because there's not lots of Armies, there's just one Armie, the name of the character.

But his handshake belongs to him.

It's his handshake.

So I've used an apostrophe for possession.

In the second sentence, the teacher's terrible joke, again, the joke belongs to the teacher.

So in both these examples, it's funny because we've used an apostrophe for possession, but a handshake and a joke isn't something you can hold in your hand.

It's not an inanimate object, but it's still a thing.

So it's still something that belongs to someone, the handshake and the joke.

And that is why I've used an apostrophe before the S to show I'm not just using an S because it's plural, but I'm using the apostrophe S to show that something belongs to something else.

Okay, well done.

Okay, let's take a look at our second new shy or uncertain word.

What is happening in this picture? We've got Armie the Armadillo again.

How does Armie look? How do you think Armie feels? What situation is Armie in? Can you pause the video now and either tell someone out loud what you can see, or if you want, you can just have a little think about it.

Well done.

So Armie here looks like he has climbed up and up and up a very tall ladder, which has taken him to a very tall, high diving board.

And there's a pool underneath.

And the way that Armie looks to me makes him look like he's feeling very nervous about jumping off.

He's not confident, he's not excited about it, he seems quite reluctant to do it.

He's sort of edging closer and closer thinking, oh, I really don't wanna do this.

So let's find out what our second word is.

Hesitant.

My turn, your turn.

Hesitant.

Hesitant.

Hesitant is an adjective.

It means nervous or uncertain.

Like someone afraid to jump off a diving board.

Now let's have a think.

This question's there.

Is it a positive or a negative word? Let's just think about it again.

Hesitant means nervous or uncertain.

Can you have a quick think about whether you think being described as hesitant would be a good or a bad thing? Is it a positive or a negative word? If you want, you can pause the video.

Well done.

Now this is quite an interesting one because when I first thought about it, I thought, well, it's a negative word.

It's not good to feel nervous or uncertain.

It's not nice feeling nervous or uncertain.

But actually in certain situations it might be good to be a little bit hesitant.

For example, if you went into a room and there was some kind of danger, it would be a good thing to be a bit hesitant, because if you weren't hesitant, you might end up hurting yourself.

So I think it's an interesting one.

In different situations, it might be a good thing to be a bit hesitant, but in general, maybe being hesitant might be seen as more of a negative thing.

So these words are synonyms of hesitant, unsure, nervous, or uncertain.

And here's the word in a sentence, Armie took a hesitant step on the wobbling diving board.

These words are word pairs of hesitant, a hesitant student, hesitant smile, hesitant footsteps, hesitant step, hesitant voice.

So lots of those word pairs.

You might imagine if you were in your room with the door closed and you heard some hesitant footsteps, how might they sound if you heard a hesitant voice outside the door? How might that sound? Could you now pause the video and read these word pairs out loud? Off you go.

Very good, well done.

Let's see some more word pairs.

A hesitant start, a hesitant beginner, a hesitant handshake, and a hesitant glance.

A glance is how you might quickly look at something and a hesitant knock.

So could you pause the video and read those word pairs out loud? Well done.

Here's a check for understanding, which of these words is a synonym for hesitant? Is it A bossy, B arrogant, or C unsure.

Well done.

The correct answer is C unsure.

Unsure is a synonym for hesitant.

Bossy and arrogant are actually quite different to the word hesitant.

It's time for another task.

Now, just as before, you've got the word hesitant in the middle, and you have to decide if the words that are around it are either synonyms. If it's a synonym, could you circle it? Or if it's a word pair, could you draw a line to it? Here's the word in a sentence to help you.

Armie took a hesitant step on the wobbling diving board.

Remember, if it's a synonym, you should be able to take out the word hesitant and replace it with the synonym.

Pause the video now and complete this task.

Well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are unsure, uncertain, and nervous.

The word pairs are hesitant student, hesitant smile, hesitant footsteps, hesitant handshake, hesitant step, hesitant voice, hesitant start, hesitant beginner and hesitant glance, well done.

And you might have noticed that lots of those word pairs were the same as the word pairs for diffident.

And that is because diffident and hesitant are quite similar meanings as quite have quite similar meanings.

So now I would like you to write a sentence using the word hesitant.

Here are the word pairs to help you.

You could pick a word pair and then that will help you to build your sentence around that idea.

For example, you might choose knock (knocking) a hesitant knock.

And then you can think about who might be doing a hesitant knock.

Why might they be knocking in a hesitant way? Whose door are they knocking on? Why might they be feeling a bit shy or nervous about it? So can you please pause your video now and have a go at writing a sentence using the word hesitant.

Well done.

Let's take a look at some examples.

Armie cast a hesitant glance down the dark, scary alleyway and gulped in fear.

"Do I have to wrestle him?" asked Grit in a hesitant voice as he entered the crocodile tank.

Oh my goodness.

I don't blame Grit for feeling hesitant if he's got to wrestle a crocodile.

The head teacher heard a hesitant knock on the door and knew that it was the child who had just scribbled on the walls.

Oh, so imagine that.

Imagine in an assembly that the head teacher had said, "Right, someone has scribbled on the walls and whoever's done it has to come forward and own it and say, and tell the truth and say it was me." So if that was you and you were feeling a bit embarrassed or a bit guilty about it, and you thought you might be about to be told off, you would probably feel very hesitant when you knocked on the head teacher's door.

Okay, so let's take a look at our third new shy or uncertain word.

Here is the final Mrs. Wordsmith illustration for today.

What's happening in this picture? We have got Yin and Yang.

How do you think they are both feeling? How would you describe them? What do you think is happening in this picture? Can you pause the video now and say out loud, or if you want to have a think about what you can see.

Okay, well done.

So we've got Yin and Yang.

Yin is passing the microphone to Yang, and Yin looks really enthusiastic, she's got a big smile.

But Yang is, her body language is showing that I think she's feeling quite nervous and I don't really think she wants to take the microphone.

She's looking very reluctant or hesitant to take the microphone.

And I think that's because perhaps she's feeling shy and doesn't want to speak on the microphone or sing on the microphone in front of anyone.

Let's find out what this word is.

Reticent.

My turn, your turn.

Reticent.

Reticent.

Well done.

Reticent is an adjective.

It means shy and reserved.

Like feeling nervous about performing.

These words are synonyms of reticent, uncommunicative, quiet, reserved, and withdrawn.

Now I don't mean reserved there in the way that you would say this table is reserved as in it's held for somebody else.

You can use reserves to describe, if you are slow to reveal your emotions or your opinions, you would be reserved.

So if there was a group of people discussing something, if there was somebody who was reserved, they perhaps wouldn't really be communicating or sharing their opinions or emotions, they would be quite held back and you might be a bit unsure what they were thinking.

And that's similar with the word withdrawn.

Withdrawn is if you are withdrawn, you are not wanting to communicate with other people.

And uncommunicative means the same thing.

If you communicate, you are talking or telling people how you feel with your facial expressions, or your body language, or your words.

If you are uncommunicative, you are not communicating.

So if someone is reticent, it might be quite hard to know how they were feeling.

But perhaps you might guess that they were feeling a little bit shy or quiet, and that was why they perhaps weren't sharing their opinions.

And sorry, the final one there is shy as well.

Yin's reticent personality meant that she didn't want to perform.

So that's what's happening in this illustration here.

I wonder if you've ever felt like that before you've ever felt that you didn't want to get up and perform when other people did.

So these words are word pairs of reticent.

Reticent individual, a reticent temperament.

A temperament is a person or an animal's nature, just like what they're like as a person.

Reticent nature and reticent personality.

So there's only four word pairs.

Can you pause the video now and read those out loud? Excellent.

Well done.

Here's a check for understanding.

Which of these words is a word pair of reticent? Is it A nature, B shout or C bully? Pause the video and answer the question now.

Well done.

The correct answer is A, a reticent nature.

You couldn't really have a reticent shout.

You perhaps might have a reticent bully, but a bully would normally, you would associate them with being quite overly confident.

So it would be strange to describe bully as reticent, but you could have describe someone's reticent nature.

Okay, it's time for another task.

You have another word map with the word reticent in the middle.

Please could you first circle the synonyms and then draw lines to the word pairs? Here's a sentence to help you; Yin's reticent personality meant that she didn't want to perform.

Remember, you could remove the word reticent and see if you could replace it with a word.

And if you can, it might be a synonym.

Pause the video now while you complete this task.

Well done.

The synonyms are quiet, reserved, withdrawn, shy, and uncommunicative.

The word pairs are reticent individual, reticent temperament, reticent personality, and reticent nature.

For your final task for today's lesson, I would like you to write a sentence using the word reticent.

This is quite a tricky word to use, so don't worry if you find it a little bit difficult.

Here are the word pairs to help you.

A reticent individual, reticent temperament, reticent nature, and reticent personality.

Perhaps you could think of a character in a story that you've read or something that you might have watched or in a unit it's school that you've learned about, who you might describe as being reticent, someone who's a bit withdrawn or uncommunicative.

And then you might write a sentence about their reticent personality, for example.

And what might they, what actions might go with that? What might a reticent person do? So could you pause the video now and have a go at writing a sentence using the word reticent.

Make sure you read your sentence back to check if it makes sense.

And to check all those really important things like capital letters, and punctuation, and finger spaces, and spelling.

Off you go.

Well done for giving that a go.

Like I say, it's quite a tricky word to use.

Here are some examples of the word reticent in some sentences.

Armie's reticent personality, made him a wonderful listener and he would always lend an ear to his friends when they needed someone to talk to.

Oh, okay.

So that's something that's quite a positive thing, if you had a reticent personality.

That whilst it would mean that you perhaps wouldn't be too communicative or chatty, because you are a bit more reserved or shy or quiet, it would mean that you would be really happy to listen to other people.

So there's a positive thing about being, having a reticent personality.

The reticent individual surprised everyone with their confidence speech in school assembly.

Hmm! So perhaps because this individual is usually reticent, everyone thought they would be very shy and quiet when they gave their speech, but actually they surprised everyone and they were very confident.

And finally, here's a sentence about an animal.

The litter turtle's reticent nature meant it would often hide inside its shell, but sometimes it would slowly peek out to enjoy the warm sunshine.

Oh, that's a nice image, isn't it? Okay, so.

Well done for having a go at writing your own sentence.

Like I say, that was quite tricky.

So let's summarise what we've learned today.

We have learned three new pieces of vocabulary associated with shy or uncertain words.

The first one we learned was diffident, an adjective, meaning modest or shy, like someone who doesn't feel confident in their abilities.

The second word we learned was hesitant.

An adjective meaning nervous or uncertain, like someone afraid to jump off a diving board.

And finally, and thirdly, we learned reticent is an adjective, meaning shy and reserved, like feeling nervous about performing.

Often when we learn a new vocabulary, I might ask you to do a task where you have to fill in the gaps with one of these words.

But actually today, in today's lesson, these three words we've learned are, could be used quite interchangeably because actually they're quite similar.

Hopefully the word pairs and the definitions will help you to see that they are, there is a nuanced definition for each one.

They are all a little bit different, but they are nevertheless quite similar words.

And so hopefully now if you come across these words in a book that you were reading or something like that, you would know and understand what they meant.

And perhaps you might even have a go at using these words in your own writing or when you are describing something or speaking out loud.

So well done for all your hard work today, and hopefully I'll see you another time.

Bye.