Justin Bieber, 2015

This song was co-written by Ed Sheeran, who does the background vocals on the recording.
Caution: The line “And now I know: I’m better sleeping on my own” might make this song inappropriate for some classrooms. Previewing the lyrics is advised.

Choose from the activities below: 

• Listening Listen to the song while reading the annotated lyrics below. Lyrics intended for nonprofit educational purposes only.

Love Yourself, lyrics.docx         Love Yourself, lyrics.pdf

• Listening Watch the official video. It features dancers who are married in real life and is appropriate for most classrooms, although previewing is advised.
• Writing Summarize the video, which tells a story. Working together, my low-intermediate students wrote this summary of the video:

A couple is having a difficult time.
She thinks only of herself.
He tries to fix the problem.
He tries to communicate, but she doesn’t care.
She doesn’t love him.
He recognizes it’s not a good idea to be together.
She wakes up.
He’s gone.

If the summary is written as a list of sentences, it can be used for a Pair Dictation or Disappearing Text activity.

• Singing Listen to the song and sing the chorus, which is repeated four times. It’s easy and fun to sing.

‘Cause if you like / the way / you look that much,
Oh, baby, you should go and love yourself.
And if you think / that I’m / still holdin’ on to somethin’,
You should go and love yourself.

Below is an audio clip of my class singing the chorus.

• Listening Watch Ed Sheeran’s acoustic live performance of the song.
• Grammar Practice using reflexive pronouns. The song repeats the phrase love yourself eight times, so it invites a grammar lesson on reflexive pronouns. Permission is granted to reproduce the worksheet below for classroom use.

reflexive pronouns.docx          reflexive pronouns.pdf

reflexive pronouns (webpage)