Fight or Flight Response – ESOL Discussion Activities
Fight or Flight Response – ESOL Discussion Activity – Infographic
The fight or flight response is your body’s natural mechanism for dealing with fear, danger, or extreme stress. Your blood pumps fast; you start to breathe harder; your eyesight improves; your hearing diminishes; your hair stands on end; you may start to shake; your body releases adrenaline (to prepare it for action) and cortisol (to regulate the stress response). In short, your body operates automatically – independently of your conscious thought – to prepare itself to either face up to the source of your fear or flee.
OK, so hopefully we may not need to activate this response on a day-to-day basis, but we can still face minor fight or flight decisions each and every day. For example, your boss calls you into her office to ask you about the missing paperwork that you had forgotten to email her… Your blood pumps fast; you start to breathe harder… and so it goes on! The exercises below provide rich speaking and discussion practice for learners of English at intermediate level and above.
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Work with a partner or small group.
a) Faced with fear or danger, the human body prepares for one of two options: fight or flight. Discuss the vocabulary on the infographic above. What have YOU done in the past when faced with this kind of situation?
b) Discuss the following situations and say what your usual response would be – fight or flight. Why would you behave in that way? How successful do you think you would be in reaching your goal? Why?
Fight or Flight Situations
c) Write ten (or more) of your own situations. Discuss them in the same way.
d) Discuss the following questions:
1. Study the infographic below:
The Fight or Flight Response (Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Fight_or_Flight_Response.jpg)
What happens in each part of the body during the fight or flight response? Discuss why such a reaction occurs and how it could help you with either fight or flight:
a) brain
b) nervous system
c) eyes
d) ears
e) cheeks
f) mouth
g) muscles
h) heart
i) lungs
j) kidneys
k) liver
l) stomach
m) bladder
n) palms
o) skin
p) hair
2. When in your life have you had a real physical fight or flight response?
3. Give some examples of recent more trivial situations where you have had to choose between either fight or flight.
4. Do you normally choose fight or flight? Why? Would you like to change your normal reaction? Why? / Why not?
5. What kind of people… a) always choose fight, b) always choose flight? How can we encourage them to vary their responses to become more proportionate to the situation they face?
6. What is the best way to achieve a balance between fight or flight options?
7. How can we help an angry person to calm down and see reason without resorting to violence?
8. How can we help people who usually or always take the fight option? Is it better to compromise or try to get your own way? Why?
9. Do you face different fight or flight decisions throughout the day – every day?
10. How cool is it that many of the organs of our bodies come together to help us in survival situations? Would you like to be without this response? What would happen if you didn’t have it?
e) Role play some of the situations from b) or c). Take it in turns so both/all of you can imagine how it would feel to respond with either fight or flight. Show the physicality of the fight or flight response in your bodies, as required.
Image by Christine Sponchia from Pixabay