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Ten Top People from your Country

Activity type: this is a fluency based activity in which students discuss who their favourite people are and why. This is a particularly useful activity if your students are interested in British history and culture.

Level: Intermediate and above

Teacher's notes:

  1. Dictate these names to the students:

    • Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Winston Churchill
    • Oliver Cromwell
    • Diana, Princess of Wales
    • Queen Elizabeth 1
    • John Lennon
    • Horatio Nelson
    • Charles Darwin
    • Boudicca
    • William Shakespeare

  2. Put the students into pairs and ask them to discuss who they think these people
  3. are; explain that they are famous people from the United Kingdom. Monitor and correct as they are talking in pairs.
  4. Ask for feedback i.e. find out what they know about the above people. Listed below is a little information. You may want to find out even more about these people yourself in order to tell your students.
  5. Once the students have done this, tell them that those people were voted the top ten most influential and important people in the U.K. in a phone and internet poll which involved more than 3,000 Britons. Tell them that they are now going to discuss who they think the most influential people are in their countries.
  6. Rearrange the groups into fours or fives. Tell them to initially brainstorm famous people from their countries. You may want to help by adding names or by researching important people the day before, ready for class. Alternatively you can set the students the homework task of researching one famous person that they admire. When the students are in the groups they should tell the rest of the group about that person.
  7. Once they have done this, tell the groups to come up with a ranking list i.e. a list of the names from the most important person to the person who is the least important out of all of the people that they have heard about. Note that this activity will also practice comparatives and superlatives.
  8. Allow each group time to discuss this and to agree on a list.
  9. At the end of the activity, ask each group to present their findings. Begin a class debate on why the students think the people are important and then end by going over any necessary corrections.
  10. You may want to continue this by adding further homework of researching a famous person that they like from a different country e.g. the US.


  • Isambard Kingdom Brunel - born in Portsmouth, England in 1806. He was an engineer who built and designed many bridges, railways etc.
  • Winston Churchill – born in1874 in the Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England. He died in 1965. He was a famous British politician and war time Prime Minister in England.
  • Oliver Cromwell - born in Huntingdon, England 1599. He was a key figure in the English civil war and helped to get rid of the crown i.e. Charles 1. He died in 1658.
  • Diana Princess of Wales – born in 1961 and died tragically in 1997. She was the wife of Prince Charles, mother of Prince Harry and Prince William. She was respected worldwide for her work with underprivileged people.

    Queen Elizabeth I – born in 1533 in England. She died in 1603. She was the daughter of Henry the Eight and a powerful queen who ruled England from 1568 to 1603.

  • John Lennon - born in 1940 Liverpool, England. He was the key member of the Beatles, one of the most famous bands of all time. He was killed tragically in New York in 1980.
  • Horatio Nelson – born in 1758 in England and died in 1805. One of Britain’s greatest naval heroes; his greatest battle was the battle of Trafalgar against the French and Spanish. He died during the battle but only after he had found out that he was victorious.
  • Charles Darwin – born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, England and died in 1882. He was a naturalist who wrote the controversial theory or evolution after having spent years traveling around the world studying animals and plants.
  • Boudicca – born around AD 62. She was the proud warrior queen of the Iceni, a tribe from Norfolk and Suffolk. She led a revolt against the Romans and held them off from totally invading all of the British Isles. Ultimately she was defeated and took her own life instead of face the humiliation of defeat.

  • William Shakespeare - born in Stratford, England in 1564 and died in 1616. He was a famous playwright who wrote plays such as Macbeth and King Lear.

Alternate:

  1. Cut up the information above into strips and stick them around the classroom.
  2. Once the students have brainstormed as much as they know about the above people, nominate one person to be a 'writer" in each pair and one person to be a ‘runner’.
  3. Instruct the pairs to get as much information written down in the ‘writer’s’ notebook as they can.
  4. Tell the runner to run around the room reading and collecting information.
  5. He/she should then run back to the ‘writer’ who notes down everything the runner says.
  6. Make sure that the runners do not remove the strips from the walls. They have to simply read and remember.
  7. The first groups to retrieve the most information win.
  8. Go over the information and have a little discussion regarding each person; add information yourself and see whether the students have heard of these people.
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