Speaking about phobias

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The list of phobias below was taken from Wikipedia. Before you show the list to the students elicit what the difference between phobia and fear is (phobia is _irrational_ fear of something).

Task

1) Hand out the strips of paper with various types of phobia written on and ask your students to discuss the two questions in pairs:

What everyday problems might such a phobia cause to a suferer?
What would you recommend a person suffering from this phobia?

2) A light-hearted whole-class speaking activity. Assign one phobia to a student. Tell your students they are at the party and each one of them suffers from a a different phobia. Tell students they cannot speak openly about their phobias. Then the class mingle and make a small talk. After they have finished ask them to guess their friends' phobias.

Excerpt

Bacillophobia, Bacteriophobia, Microbiophobia – fear of microbes and bacteria.Gelotophobia - fear of being laughed at.Coulrophobia – fear of clowns (not restricted to evil clowns).Nomophobia – fear of being out of mobile phone contact.Tomophobia – fear or anxiety of surgeries/surgical operations.Xenophobia – fear or dislike of foreigners. [...]