The psychological immune system (Fill in the Gaps)

In this unit, students explore how our minds naturally defend us against emotional distress through the psychological immune system—a set of cognitive and emotional processes that help us adapt, reframe, and recover from adversity.

Through the reading task, learners identify how mindset, meaning, and mindfulness can enhance mental well-being, developing strategies to strengthen their resilience in challenging times.

By completing gap-fill comprehension tasks, students sharpen their reading-for-detail and inference skills, while acquiring a wide range of C1 vocabulary on health, psychology, and emotional intelligence (e.g. negativity bias, resilience, ruminations, toxic positivity). They also reinforce complex structures such as relative clauses, causative expressions, and conditional sentences commonly used in academic English.

Benefits of Working on This Unit

Working on this unit allows students to:

• Build C1-level comprehension and inference skills using authentic texts.

• Expand their lexis on psychological health and emotional resilience.

• Practise advanced linking and cohesive devices (e.g. Ultimately, in the long run, that said, however).

In short, the unit not only enhances linguistic competence but also encourages critical reflection and self-awareness, empowering students to handle stress and personal challenges more effectively—both linguistically and psychologically.