Fixing misunderstandings

 PAIRWORK

Think of misunderstandings you've had with people either in your own language or in English/another language. What happened? 

What were possible reasons?

• the message relied on cultural information that the listener had no idea about
• the message used vocabulary the listener didn't know
• the message was disorganised
• the speaker spoke too fast

Now watch the video. What do you think was the reason of the misunderstanding?

What's wrong with the message?

to the point, succinct, summarise, culture, start, clear, complicated, misunderstandings, disorganised

1. Messages need to be _____ , _____ and _________.

2. If a message is long and ______________, you could ask the speaker to _____________ it.

3. Information that is specific to your ______________ can cause _____________ if you don't explain it.

4. If a message is _________________, it might be necessary to _______ over from scratch.

Communication Skills

Fixing a misunderstanding

Simplify

• The speaker can: identify the key information and repeat; check the listener has understood
• The listener can check for a summary

Clarify

• The speaker can: assume cultural knowledge will not be known; explain anything unique t their culture /language
• The listener can ask the speaker to explain

Organise

• The speaker can: signpost the order clearly; write or draw the instructions
• The listener can ask the speaker to start over.

1. A. Let's meet at 8.

B. Sorry, I'm getting mixed up. Are you _________ eight in the morning?

2. A. So, in other _____ I think we should look at train prices before we book a flight.

b. Yes, that makes _______.

3. A. Ok, if I've been _________you correctly, this should be right now.

B. Let me see....No! You've got it the wrong way_____. This goes here and that goes there. 

4. A. Let me ________ it back to you. Out of the station, turn left. After 500 metres, second right into Broad street.

B. You've  ____it!

OWN IT!
Now think back to the misunderstanding you recalled at the start of the class. Use your new communication tools to fix it.

What on earth is he doing?

How do you usually communicate at work?

Look at these experessions 

VOCABULARY

Delete the verb that does NOT go

0 an email                                 send/draft/post

1. a phone call                          do/make/receive

2. a press release                     put up/issue/put out

3. an advertising campaign       launch/run / make

4. a presentation                       give / make/ tell

5. a meeting or seminar            hold/attend/carry out

6. a report                                 produce /run /publish

7. a notice                                 put out /put up / display

8. a memo to all concerned      publish /send out/circulate

9. information on the net           post/ make / put out

For which of the following would you feel most/least confident using English?

a presentation/ a meeting/ a phone call/ a report/ an email 

This is an extract from an old comedy with Mel Gibson. 

After you watch it, what are your answers to the questions?

What job does Gibson's chracter have in the film?

What do you think is expected of him?

Do the viewers like the product of his work?

What does the gesture his co-protaconist makes at the end mean?

Revise the use of  Present Simple here 

Practice here

Watch another clip from the same film. What is he doing now?



What is he telling himself while he's trying on female cosmetics?
What is he doing tomorrow, you think?

Learn about Present Continuous and Practise here

I do or I am doing? Practice in Kahoot.

Do you communicate at work?

VOCABULARY

Delete the verb that does NOT go

0 an email                        send/draft/post

1. a phone call                do/make/receive

2. a press release            put up/issue/put out

3. an advertising campaign            launch/run make

4. a presentation            give / make/ tell

5. a meeting or seminar        hold/attend/carry out

6. a report                    produce/run/publish

7. a notice                        put out/put up / display

8. a memo to all concerned        publish/send out/circulate

9. information on the net            post/make / put

For which of the following would you feel most/least confident using English?

a presentation/ a meeting/ a phone call/ a report/ an email 

DISCUSSION

Have you had good experiences of dealing with companies through call centers? 

Do you shop online?

About which products or services is f2f contact helpful / not necessary?

READING

Match the paragraphs with the statements

LANGUAGE

Verb Patterns

Company benefits

What is most important for you when choosing a job? Rank from 1-10

an impressive job title                                                    training and staff development

a good salary                                                                  a pension

flextime                                                                          traveling opportunities

opportunities for promotion                                          parental leave

days off and long holidays                                            a company car

READING SKILLS

Read an article here about XErox. What incentives does the article mention for employees at Xerox?

Now answer the questions here

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

What are some expressions with take in the Xerox text that mean:

1. not completely believe smth

2. look after

3. for exaple

4. participate in

5. employs 

6. regarded as important

LANGUAGE PRACTICE: The Past

What tenses can you spot in this job profile? What are they used for?

Steve started as a project manager in global services and since then has moved into sales. He has only been working in the company for two years. 

You can practise narrative (past) tenses more extensively here.

SPEAKING SKILLS

Asking questions about jobs

-

Work in pairs. Use the prompts to ask questions 1 to 6 about working for your company

Example: Q. Why /like the company? Why do you like the company?

A: It's like a family.

1 Q: long /working /the company?

P. Two years.

2 Q: when / join?

A: In 1978

3 Q: was /first job?

A: A project manager.

4 Q: what /responsible?

A: Growing and maintaining customer relationships.

5 Q: where based?

P. At Uxbridge.

6 Q: would /like/do// in the future?

A: Work abroad and be part of the senior management team.

WRITING SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Write a short piece (110 words approx) about a turning point in your life, work or studies; a moment when you decided to pursue a different route to the one you had until that point. 

Focus on ME-WE

Do you often meet new colleagues, clients, or business partners? What do you discuss?

Here are some answers given by a student to some general questions, They contain one mistake. Can you correct them?

EX. Nice to meet you. My name (is) Pierre.

A Yes, I am thinking English is very important for this kind of work because everyone

uses English in business nowadays.

B Well, it's a business studies degree and I'm interesting in marketing.

C I from a small town in northern Switzerland.

D I'd like work in a marketing department so I've started applying for jobs with

companies in Switzerland.

E Actually, I'm just finish my degree at the University of Zurich.

F Since about six years

Use the answers 0-F from exercise 1 to complete this dialogue,

A. Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Karl.

B

A And where are you from?

B

A Do you work or are you student?

B

A That's interesting What do you like most about your studies?

B

A What are your plans for the future?

B

A Do you think English will be important to you U! your Career?

B

A So how long have you been learning English?

B

After you have exchanged personal information, you may go on to talk about

business topics. Here are some topics you might discuss.

• Business in your home town or country.
• The importance of English in business.
• effect of technology on business.
• Present and future changes in working
• Training and developmentin the workplace.
• Ways of selling products or services.

WRITING

Making contacts

 Tell your partner about your job. Use the expressions (with the correct preposition):

I work for/of/about.....                              I'm involved of/in/with

I'm responsible of/for/about...                  I deal for/with/ of....

I usually report up/at/to...                         I'm in charge of/for/to....

I specialise on/for/in....

Think of one person you see and speak to in connection with your work...

at least once a day                                                       once every six months

Why is networking an important part of many jobs? Is that true for you?  

READING

Read the article about new networking groups. Where do people network and why?

 Choose the correct answer.

Match the expressions with the answers

OWN IT!

How easy is it for you to develop a conversation with strangers?

Imagine you are in a networking event. Meet people and have a conversation following the steps

WRITING

How to write a memo

This part will be done from a hand out

 

Ways of working

1. How do you work most effectively? By working...

Regular/flexible hours                            in a team/on your own

from home/in an office                           for a boss/as your own boss

Answer for yourself and then compare your answers with a partner.

Have you heard about work-sharing? What do you think it is?

How easy would it be for you to job-share? Would your employer think it was a good idea?

VOCABULARY

LISTENING

You will hear a woman called Michela talking about working from home.

What is important for her?

What does she think are some advantages and disadvantages she mentions?

What are her tasks at:

7.00 - get up - get the kids ready 

8.30

9.00

12.00

14.30

How long has she been with her current employer?

Is she doing anything different this week?

LANGUAGE

Present Tenses

OWN IT!

Work in pairs to create a mini presentation on one of the ways to work from activity 1.

• First create a bullet point list of the important points.
• Then decide who presents each point.
• Presto!  

A myth for business?

 Do you enjoy telling stories? What kinds?

How important is storytelling in your culture? 

Are storytelling traditions a thing of the past or should they be preserved for future generations?

Watch Daveed Diggs acceptance speech in Tony Awards. What do you notice about his use of a story?

FOCUS ON

When telling stories, jokes, and anecdotes, Present tenses might often be used instead of past tnses. This can help the listener experience the story as it was happening right now and to them, thus making it more engaging. 

Read the following Aboriginal fable. Change the verbs to an appropriate present tense.

Rainbow Serpent: Aboriginal Story from Australia 

One day, it started to rain. And it rained like it had never rained before. Rain fell for days and days and the world was becoming flooded with water. Two young men, Bil-bil, or the Rainbow Lorikeet brothers, had no shelter, so they came to Goorialla, the Rainbow Serpent. They asked for help sheltering from the rain. The rainbow serpent was hungry and tricked the young men, '1 have no shelter, but you can hide in my mouth. You'll be safe from the rain in there.' The young men climbed into Goorialla's mouth and he closed it shut, swallowing both men. 

He soon realized that people would notice the young men missing and come looking for them. He knew they would find their tracks leading right into his mouth. He didn't want to be caught and so decided to hide in the only place he knew he would be safe: the sky. He saw people's sadness at losing these two young men, so he decided to try and make them happy again by turning his body into big arc of beautiful colours. 

Now, just after it rains, you can see the Rainbow Serpent sharing his beautiful colours with the people on the ground as his way of saying sorry for taking those Rainbow Lorikeet brothers.

 VOCABULARY

OWN IT!
Now, using the tips we explored today, turn your childhood story into an inspirational one to promote your company's message.

A natural or a hard worker?

 What have the masters achieved? To what extent are their achievements due to natural talent or hard work in your opinion? 

 

So how did Judith become so good ____chess?

She had a long-term commitment _____ becoming the best.

So, from a very early age, she focused ____ the game and pracised.

Where do Stephen's amazing abilities stem ___?

Already as a child, he had a passion ____ drawing.

Practice prepositions

https://create.kahoot.it/share/prepositions-advanced/20ca120f-311c-4ae7-a6f9-30c426e8afb5

Circle all the /dj/, /tj/ and /sh/ sounds in the tongue twisters (1-8). 

Practise saying the tongue twisters in pairs. 

1. I'm sure 1 saw Sheila selling seashells on the seashore, but I can't be sure she sold seashore shells. 

2. Julia, George, Jean and Joan joyfully jumped down the jagged hill. 

3. Chester the Cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese. 

4. Fresh fried fish, 

Fish fresh fried, 

Fried fish fresh, 

Fish fried fresh. 

5. If a dog chooses to chew shoes, whose shoes does he choose to chew? 

6. Jenny just got jeans and a jacket for graduation in June or July. 

7. Jump then touch your chin, jaw and cheek. 

Jump then touch your jaw, cheek and chin. Jump then touch your cheek, chin and jaw. 

8. She saw Shirley's shoes on the sofa, but was she so sure she saw Shirley's shoes on the sofa? 

B Discuss the questions in pairs.

1. Which of these sounds exist in your language?

2. Which of these tongue twisters did you find the most challenging? Why? 

3. Did you find any of these tongue twisters easy? Which, and why? 

YOUR TURN

Find a person you know for being a master in his domain (business, sports, etc). Prepare to talk about them using the words from the exercise above and the vocabulary of the lesson.

It must have been invented by...

 When and where do you think there were invented?

brain surgery, concrete, eye make-up, water sanitation systems

Read the text and check your predictions

Which information did you find the most surprising? 

How certain is it that the sentences are true? 

Write certainly true (CT), possibly true (PT) or certainly not true (NT). 

1 Egyptians invented make-up.  

2 Both men and women in ancient Egypt wore make-up. 

3. Our ancestors knew about bacteria. 

4. It was a bad idea to perform brain surgery.

5. Roman concrete was good as modern concrete. 

6. Roman concrete was very strong. 

7 The people in the Indus valley were safe from dangerous diseases. 

Find the sentences in the text that told you the answers to Exercise 3. Match the modal structures with their meaning (1-4). Then read the Grammar box to check. 

1 It's very probable or certain that something happened 

2 It's quite possible that something happened. 

3 It's impossible that something happened. 

4 It was wrong to do something. 

GRAMMAR Speculating about the past 

You can talk about possibility and certainty in the X past using the structure: modal verb have X past participle. 

• Use must have if it's very probable or certain that something happened. 

Some of these operations must have been successful. 

• Use may have or might have if it's possible that something happened. 

Egyptians may/might have been the first to use make-up. 

• Use can't/couldn't have if it's impossible that something happened. 

Roman concrete can't have been as strong as modern concrete. 

• Use should/shouldn'"t have to talk about mistakes or express criticism. 

They shouldn't have been doing surgery then.

Practice

Social media sharing

LESSON GOALS Formal and informal English distinction

Omit pronouns and auxiliaries to make writing more informal 

Use informal quantifiers, expressions and phrasal verbs 

Write and respond to social media posts 

SPEAKING Work in pairs. Look at the infographic and discuss questions. 

1 Which social media platforms do you use? If you don't use any, why not? 

2 What content would you be most and least likely to share on social media? Why? 

3 Which type of social media person are you? Are you sometimes a different type depending on what and why you share? Why? 

READING FOR WRITING

Read the three social media posts. Match them with a type of content and a personality type from the infographic. Explain your choices to your partner. 

Work in a group Discuss the questions. 

1 Which of the social media posts would you be most likely to read in real life?

2. What comment would you leave below each post?

Look at the Writing skill box. Find two examples of each type of informal language in the social media posts and comments.

 
WRITING SKILL
Informal language
When writing on social media. we tend to be more informal. Some common examples are
Omitting pronouns and auxiliary verbs
Have you ever. seen a bear doing yoga?
Informal quantifiers
after a bit of a nap
got a ton of comments
Phrasal verbs
She's quite into yoga
What have you been up to?
Informal expressions
I might give it a shot myself!
You'd love it! It's right up your street.


Change the expressions in bold to make them more informal. 

Use the Writing skill box and social media posts to help you. 

1 I've just got back from the city. There's a large amount of air pollution there 

2 I think I' ll try yoga. I've never done it, but it looks fun 

3 The benches can be installed in many different places. 

4 Have you got any thoughts on this? 1 would love to hear your opinion 

5 1really hate people who always postpone things 

WRITING TASK

Write three social media posts. Use your own ideas or choose from the table. Write about 200 words in total and leave room for comments underneath. Find or describe any photos or links you would like to include with your post. 

Things you've read about (interesting articles/ funny stories/ important news)

Personal stories Places you've visited, frustrations and complaints)

Recommendations (a film, book, product you liked) 

CHECK Use the checklist. I have ... 

written posts that are engaging  and/or aldor useful to other people 

used informal quantifiers 

replaced formal verbs with phrasal verbs 

omitted unnecessary pronouns and auxiliary verbs. 

REVIEW Stick your posts up around the classroom. Walk around the room and read your classmates' posts. Leave a comment below at least two of the posts. 

SPEAKING 

Discuss the questions as a class. 

1 Which post did you find the most interesting? 

2 What new information about your classmates did you learn from their posts? Based on the posts, what sort of social media personality from the infographic are your classmates? 

Are you a result of your genes or your lifestyle?

•  

Is our way of living more important or our genes and the way we grew up? What is your opinion?

Let's watch a video on our genome, first.

1. genetics

2.heredity

3.traits

4.inheritance

5.factor

6.implement

7.determine

8.compound

a. decide/ affect

b.characteristics

c. the characteristics or things passed down from previous generations

d. decide

e. the process that determines what biological characteristics are passed down to the next generation

f. something that determines a result

g. apply

h. mixture

i. the science of analysing the human genes

1. What is the function of the gene in an organism?

2. What did ancient people know about heredity?

3. How long would DNA be if we unraveled it?

4. How many genes do we have?

5. Where are genetics useful?

6. What are the dilemmas that humanity is facing now?

So if our genes are so important, what role does our lifestyle play to our life?

Let's watch it on the news!

Adjectives

What is the extreme form of these adjectives?

very big
very small
very clever
very bad
very sure
very good
very tasty

Walking/running as exercise

alcohol/ junk food for health

vegetables/ food for brain

swimming quick way to build arm muscles

smoking bad for the lungs

Playing along

 Did you use to play any of the games in the photos?

What toys or games do you remember playing from your school days? Were any of them crazes? (i.e. fads for a short time?) Do not name it, only explain the rules and let others guess 

Did you use to improvise any games? (i.e. invent them while you played? Can you name one?

 According to the author, why did some games stand the test of time?

What point does the author wish to make by mentioning each of the following?

a. 'toothpaste', 'snake eyes' and jumbos' (lines 1-2)b Egypt three millennia ago (lines 6-7) 

c. video/computer games (lines 11, 23 and 25) 

d. cognitive growth (line 19) 

e. In the attic (line 29) f rules and structure (line 34) 

READING SKILL

Using topic sentences 

Paragraphs in more formal texts, such as articles and essays, often include topic sentences. Most topic sentences are at the beginning or end of a paragraph. They summarize the paragraph in some way: by stating the argument, asking a key question or establishing its structure or content. 

It may be useful to identify topic sentences, such as when you need to summarize a text. When a topic sentence sums up the message of the entire text, it can be used as a 'pull quote'. These are short quotes from the text that are displayed in larger writing to encourage people to read the article 

GRAMMAR

EXPLORE MORE! Find an article or video that discusses the benefits of video games for children's development. Search online for "effects -+ video games + child development"