LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson students practise their listening skills by watching a video about how to deal with difficult relationships at work. They also expand their vocabulary (incl. phrasal verbs) while reflecting on typical problems between workmates. The lesson plan also includes two business English role plays.

LANGUAGE INPUT & DISCUSSION

To get students interested in the theme of the lesson, the worksheet starts with two quotations from a video they’re going to watch in the second part of the lesson. Students agree or disagree with them and discuss their work relationships. Next, they analyse five sentences which contain phrases from the video and match them with corresponding definitions. In the next pre-listening exercise, they look at a box with four phrasal verbs (e.g. put off, freeze out) and a set of four sentences with highlighted phrases. They have to substitute the phrases with the correct phrasal verbs. This series of vocabulary exercises finishes with a short discussion in which students circle a number (from 1-5) depending on how strongly they agree with four given statements. 

LISTENING & BUSINESS ENGLISH ROLE PLAYS

Before students watch the video with tips on how to deal with difficult relationships at work, they try to predict them, as well as typical problems between people in the workplace. Then, they watch the video for the first time and check whether any of their own ideas are mentioned. Next, they move on to listening for details. They look at six gapped sentences and complete them with phrases from the video and engage in a short discussion about problems they’ve experienced in the workplace. They watch the final part of the video again and have to decide whether five statements in the next exercise are correct or not. Students identify the mistakes and correct them, which leads to another speaking activity based on agreeing or disagreeing with the statements and exchanging opinions. The lesson finishes with two business English role plays. Students pick a card and act out a situation in the workplace, trying to solve an issue with a colleague. Their task is to incorporate the vocabulary learnt earlier in the lesson.