Conversation - Employees & Employers Negotiate (B2/C1)

One of the skills that I have most focused on in my classes is the oral one. Most part of the time, students want to SPEAK the language rather than just study its grammar (by answering some grammar exercises) in class.

Considering that speaking is developed by practice (that’s just my opinion), I developed some short activities that can be used by teachers in their EFL/ESL classes.

This one is meant to be used with B2 or C1 students.

PROCEDURE: Write the situation on the board

TIME: 30 to 40 minutes

TOPIC: business

SKILL: speaking

TEACHER’S ROLE: facilitator

Read the situation below and brainstorm with a partner a list of pints that both partners might want to include in a negotiation

Situation about the employees and employers:

IMAGINE A COMPANY. NOW, IMAGINE THAT THE COMPANY FINDS ITSELF IN ECONOMIC DIFFICULTY AND THEN EMPLOYEES HAVE ALREADY LOST THEIR JOBS. THE EMPLOYEES ARE UNHAPPY WITH EMPLOYMENT AND SALARY ISSUES.

Now, ask your students to reflect upon the following questions:  

WHY SHOULD EACH PARTY NEGOTIATE?

WHAT DOES EACH SIDE WANT TO ACHIEVE?

After the students have reflected upon the situation as well as discussed with their partners, ask them to share their thoughts on the topic. Then, divide the group into ‘employees’ and ‘employers’ and simulate the situation above.

Ask them to write short dialogues as well as practice them in pairs (or groups). Finally, when you feel that students should talk about negotiation, tell them to start a conversation in which they should use (some of) the structures/questions below:

I am willing to accept________ if ________.

I think we will have to agree with_________.

It would be an alternative to______________.

We can trade this against ________________.

Our intention is________________________.

I would like to_______________________.

We might like to____________________.

We must________________________.

Our main concern is __________________.

It is vital that __________________________.

We refuse to accept __________________________.

It is extremely important for us to include ____________.

How about ______________?

Do you feel that you can accept _______________?

How can we reach a compromise?

Could you tell us why you feel like that?

Shall we put this into a written proposal?

Can you offer us any other possibility?

And you can give them some production moment (I am considering the steps of the PPP approach) in which they are supposed to develop a role-play activity about negotiation (of any kind).

If you have enough time, you can ask your students to think about the last time they were involved in situation in which they were supposed to negotiate something.

HOW MUCH TIME DID THEY SPEND ON PREPARATION?

Ask them if they would prepare differently if they had to negotiate again.

  

PORTAL DA LÍNGUA INGLESA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-partly internet websites referred to in this post, and does not guarantee that any context on such websites are, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

In some instances, I have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here; therefore, I would appreciate any information that would enable me to do so. Thank you very much.

Is something important missing? Report an error or suggest an improvement. Please, I strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact me!

Your feedback is welcome. Please direct comments and questions to me at bruno_coriolano@hotmail.com

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THE VERY BEST LIST OF DICTIONARIES FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS (AND SPEAKERS)

I’m pretty sure you all noticed that I haven’t been writing too often here on Portal da Língua Inglesa, but the truth is: I have been really busy since my defense (May 24^th 2016). Many things – mostly good ones – happened since I last published something.

Today, I would like to write a short entry about ONLINE DICTIONARIES FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS.

Many people may think they don’t need a dictionary, but actually, it is really important to know where you can find contextualized explanations and meanings of (some) words you always find when you read a newspaper entry, for instance.

Thinking about online dictionaries for English language learners (and teachers, why not?), I made a list of some quite useful ones. Obviously, I don’t know whether or not the links will be available; therefore, I strongly recommend you to check them frequently.  

HERE IS THE LIST OF SOME DICTIONARIES. FEEL FREE TO SUGGEST MORE IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT.

Dictionary.com (link)

Urban Dictionary (link) I particularly love this one!

Thesaurus.com (link)

Macmillan dictionary (link)

Visual Thesaurus (link)

Collins (link)

Longman English Dictionary Online (link)

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (link)

WebMD Medical Dictionary (link)

Abbreviations.com (link)

Vocabulary.com (link)

Acronym Finder (link)

Wiktionary (link)

Answers.com (link)

Wordnik (link)

Cambridge (link)

Word Spy (link)

Computer Definitions (link)

Investor Words (link)

YourDictionary (link)

Webopedia (link)

Law.com Dictionary (link)

Marketing Power Dictionary (link)

Mathworld Dictionary (link)

Merriam Webster Visual Dictionary (link)

Oxford Dictionaries Online (link)

Net Lingo (link)

OneLook (link)

Google Dictionary (link)

Write Rhymes (link) – it’s not really a dictionary, but it’s cool!

The Free Dictionary (link)

Well, I believe that we already have a very long list. I have just checked every single link and I can safely say that right now all of them are working pretty well. I do hope you guys have fun with the dictionaries. Hopefully, they are very useful online tools for you all!

Cheers! See you around!

PORTAL DA LÍNGUA INGLESA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-partly internet websites referred to in this post, and does not guarantee that any context on such websites are, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

In some instances, I have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here; therefore, I would appreciate any information that would enable me to do so. Thank you very much.

Is something important missing? Report an error or suggest an improvement. Please, I strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact me!

Your feedback is welcome. Please direct comments and questions to me at bruno_coriolano@hotmail.com

Did you spot a typo?

Do you have any tips or examples to improve this page?

Do you disagree with something on this page?

Use one of your social-media accounts to share this page:

  

How to Teach Reported Speech: Alternative Approach.

  

Reported speech is used to talk about things other people have said. Instead of introducing this topic using a range of different tenses, stick with a very simple structure for this first lesson. “He said he liked soccer.” where both verbs are past tense, would be ideal. A lesson on reported speech is the perfect opportunity to review different structures and vocabulary.

How to Proceed

1 Warm up

Use the warm up activity to get some simple sentences on the board. You can elicit certain sentence structures if students need more practice with something in particular. You can do this by asking students to make groups and giving each group a different question to answer. This way you will get three to six sentences for each structure and can cover a range of topics. After giving students some time to discuss their questions and write individual answers, have volunteers read sentences aloud. Write some sentences and the names of the student volunteers on the board. Be sure to use at least one sentence from each group.

2 Introduce Reported Speech

You may choose to have students stay in their groups or return to their desks for the introduction. You can try to elicit the target structure by asking a question such as “What did Ben say?” Try to use a sentence that is written on the board. Most likely students will search for the name Ben and then read the sentence exactly as you have written it but you can then say “You’re right! He said he was very tired. Good job!” You have now introduced the target structure. Write the sentence He said he was very tired. on the board next to Ben’s original sentence I am very tired. Use a few more sentences from the warm up as examples and encourage students to make reported speech sentences. Now play a short game such as Crisscross with the remaining examples to give students some practice.

3 Practice

In their groups, students should trade sentences with group members and rewrite the sentences using the reported speech structure. Be sure to allow time for the majority of students to present their sentences to the class so that students can have lots of examples and some speaking practice. If students have questions, this is an excellent time to address them and review anything they are struggling with. Next use short video or audio clips for an exercise where students listen to material and complete a worksheet testing comprehension and practicing reported speech. You could also use a written dialogue for this type of activity but it will be more challenging if students have to listen to the material even if that means reading the dialogue aloud to the class. Check the answers as a class after several repetitions. If there is time, you can also play the material once more after the answers have been checked.

4 Produce

Reported speech is a great opportunity for students to do interviews with classmates, teachers or family members so this activity may be best as a homework assignment. If students have never had the opportunity to conduct interviews before, it would be good to provide them with several questions to ask. It may also be helpful to provide the translations of these questions for the interviewees.

5 Review

What students present depends on the amount of time you would like to spend on this activity. Students could either use the reported speech structure to talk about the response to one interview question or summarize their findings. This activity allows you to ensure that students are using the structure correctly. If students have difficulty with something, you can review and practice that in the warm up for the next lesson.

Being able to talk about things they have heard allows students to share more information. It is one thing to say what you think and totally different to talk about what other people have said. This will definitely be practiced further when you talk about giving advice because often someone will prompt advice giving by saying something like “I want to/think ~ but my parents said ~.” Covering this topic thoroughly now will give students the confidence to create this section of dialogue in giving advice dialogues and role plays later on.

See our Reported Speech worksheets here.

From: BusyTeacher.org

PORTAL DA LÍNGUA INGLESA has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-partly internet websites referred to in this post, and does not guarantee that any context on such websites are, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

In some instances, I have been unable to trace the owners of the pictures used here; therefore, I would appreciate any information that would enable me to do so. Thank you very much.

Is something important missing? Report an error or suggest an improvement. Please, I strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that does not look right, contact me!

Did you spot a typo?

Do you have any tips or examples to improve this page?

Do you disagree with something on this page?

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SUGESTÃO DE ATIVIDADES PARA NÍVEIS INTERMEDIÁRIO E AVANÇADO DE INGLÊS.

Na verdade, esses vídeos não seriam atividades de longa duração, mas poderiam ser explorados pelo professor de diversas formas, desde perguntas mais especificas ou até mesmo como forma de “energizar” a turma. Pois é, existem aqueles momentos, principalmente em aulas de longa duração, em que os alunos ficam “alheios” e parecem perder o foco. Essa postagem surgiu primeiro na nossa página do Facebook (veja) para depois vim parar aqui no blog.

Se for utilizado como WARMER, o professor poderá fazer o mesmo papel do apresentador, Jimmy Kimmel, e pausar o vídeo sempre que achar necessário e pedir para que os estudantes, baseados na linguagem corporal dos entrevistados, adivinhem o que eles irão dizer. Aqui podemos trabalhar como um aquecimento para tópicos como futuro, passado simples, presente simples ou “present perfect”.

Tenho preferência pelos vídeos mais engraçados como:

Have You Ever Been Arrested? (Present perfect)

Have You Ever Smoked Pot? (Present perfect)

How Old Were You When You Lost Your Virginity? (Past Simple)

Are You Stupid? (present simple)

Claro que os vídeos não darão aula por você, professor, mas poderão te ajudar muito a tornar as mesmas mais engraçadas e fazer com que os alunos se sintam mais à vontade para falar em inglês (não seria esse um dos obstáculos que temos?). Só alerto aqui para o cuidado na hora de preparar a aula, pois não seria nada apropriado perguntar aos alunos, após ver os vídeos ou mesmo antes, coisas do tipo: How Old Were You When You Lost Your Virginity? Ou Are You Stupid?  Seria burrice e a aula teria efeito totalmente contrário. Podendo causar até o seu desligamento da escola ou perda de alunos. (Preciso dizer isso, pois acredito que alguns ainda pequem um pouco nesse quesito).

Como sabemos que temos todo tipo de aluno e existem aqueles que estão ali apenas porque foram obrigados, é sempre bom tomar cuidado no tipo de conteúdo, mesmo que todos nós saibamos que podem não ter como fins expor temas que são “tabus”, para evitar constrangimentos.

Lembrem-se que as aulas dependem muito da criatividade dos professores. Se gostou dessa postagem ou fizer uso da mesma, mesmo que com modificações e adaptações, compartilhe nos comentários.

Os vídeos foram postados nesse blog do site Youtube. Até essa data, 01 de agosto de 2013, todos estavam disponíveis no site. Não possuímos nenhum direito sobre os mesmo. Se o proprietário acreditar que os mesmos devem ser retirados do blog, faremos a remoção dos mesmos. 

ELT Conferences 2012 in South America.

(The Trinity College - Dublin.)

Here’s a list of conferences and seminars for English teachers in South America in 2012. I am waiting for other TESOL organizations to confirm dates for this year’s events. 

ELT Conferences 2012 – South America:

May 11-12  ARTESOL 25th Anniversary Conference Santa Fe – Argentina

May 25-26  VENTESOL 30th Annual Tesol Convention Valencia – Venezuela

July 6-8   IATEFL Peru International Annual Conference - Peru

July 9-11  Teaching Unplugged Course (Braz Tesol RN) Natal – Brazil

July 12-14  ABCI Conference São Paulo – Brazil

July 16-19 Braz Tesol National Convention Rio de Janeiro – Brazil

July 20-21 XII IATEFL Chile International Conference – Santiago – Chile

July 23-24  9th CTJ TEFL Seminar Brasília – Brazil

July 26-27 7th Share Convention Buenos Aires – Argentina

July 31-Aug 2  XX Peru Tesol Annual Conference Chiclayo – Peru

September 20-22 XXXVII FAAPI Conference San Martin de los Andes – Argentina

From: http://eltbakery.edublogs.org/