LESSON OVERVIEW

The business world is multinational. This means that your students work (or will work) with people of different cultural backgrounds on a daily basis. Therefore, it may be the reason your students actually want to learn Business English. While this cultural complexity enriches us, such a melting pot may be a challenge and impact how we work. That’s why cross-cultural communication is such an important topic.

The topic of this ESL lesson focuses on working in a global, multinational team and its various aspects. The cornerstone of this worksheet is a video by Erin Meyer, the author of The Culture Map, who is an expert in strategies of improving the effectiveness of global projects, in which she talks how people from different cultures see each other and communicate.

The worksheet consists of many various activities developing vocabulary (e.g. business  idioms) and speaking skills. As usual, it also includes a video and a listening comprehension task. In addition, it involves a lot of discussion about cultural differences and doing business with people from various cultural backgrounds. Moreover, students will have an opportunity to work on some business fixed phrases and discuss dilemmas connected with workplaces and bosses. Before watching the video, they can learn more about Erin Meyer’s book and the idea of the culture map. Then, while listening, students need to get some information how different cultures perceive each other.

EXTRA WORKSHEET – BUSINESS IDIOMS

Finally, check our extra worksheet on business idioms. It includes such tasks as filling in the gaps, matching definitions and group discussion. The extra worksheet can be done as part of the lesson – at the beginning or at the end of it.