Vocational Training Resources for ESL Teachers: Mingling Task

Showing posts with label Mingling Task. Show all posts

Negociating. Bargain hunters

Aim: students practice haggling in a flea market
Level: intermediate and higher

Lead in 1

Click here to download the materials for this task.

See below for explanation of materials for this task.

Lead in 2

You will need 3 items:

Bargain Hunter's Teacher's notes by P.Vahle (PDF)
A picture or two of a flea market. These are provided inside this post ("lead in 1" and "lead in 2") . If Internet connection is not available, you can download these very same pictures from the provided link. ( Word document: "Flea Market Lead in")
Worksheet Bargain Hunters with all the tasks for the students by P. Vahle (PDF)

You may find these useful:

Vocabulary Task (Word)
Post reading task (Word)

These previous items are included in the Worksheet Bargain Hunters (PDF above) but I separated them to make photocopying easier.

Cards ( 3 cards) with pictures of items students can sell. Peter Vahle proposes to bring real stuff to class so that students can sell real items (see teacher's notes) . To avoid the hassle I have created 3 pages/cards with pictures of various items. Feel free to use them as you wish. (3 Word documents: Items to sell)


Sample items to sell at the flea market.

List of items included in the 3 cards above above.(Word document: list of items to sell). See for example of the items to sell in card 2 .

Click here to download the materials for this task

Materials obtained from OneStop English.
Task by Peter Vahle. Adapted by María Zabala Peña.

Street Signs: How would you group them?

Aim: the aim of this task is to decide how you would
group these street signs.

Attention! There is no correct answer. The most important thing is that you use English to decide how to group these street signs.

Use these language items:

I think we could create a category called...
The Drunken man can go under the category...
I think the category.... is better
We could create a new category called
How about including the street sign ... under the category...?

Once finished, compare your distribution/categories with other teams'

What categories did you create?
Where did you include the sign of...

Trade Fair: Role-play

Banknotes

Click HERE to download the materials

Roles:
a) Sellers: Wholesalers at a trade fair

b) Buyers/clients: Department store managers who attend the fair to buy products for the company they represent

Materials:
a) Banknotes
b) Client role- play cards
c) Wholesalers role-play cards
d) Invoice templates
e) Sales record templates
f) Teacher’s pack

General Overview-level:

One of the 7 wholesalers' cards

This is a mingling role-play. Some of the students are department store managers who attend a Trade Fair in Chicago. Other students are wholesalers at the fair. The sellers offer 7 different kinds of products. The department store managers shop around to buy products for their store. Wholesalers provide the managers with their invoice.

Click HERE to download the materials

Discussion: What to take (or not) on a business trip

Click HERE to download the handout

Instructions

Purpose: This is a fun speaking activity. Pairs of students need to agree on the 3 items they would take on a two day business trip to London.When they finish they compare their choices with other pairs of students. If your students are high achievers, ask the negative questions: Why didn't you choose to take the...?

Level: The handout contains images of different objects (labtop, camera, umbrella, music CDs, hamster...). As students need to agree on what 3 objects out of 10 they would take, they need to be able to use basic comparison (this is better than this) and basic reasoning ( I think this is not necessary...)
List of Objects on Handout: Wellington/rubber boots, camera, laptop, music CDs, iron, reading book, hamster, hair-dryer, (building) pictures, folding umbrella

Click HERE to download the handout

Based on talk by ????? at the MacMillan Barcelona Conference 2011 (Barcelona)

A walk through the office. Personality Test

Purpose and Procedure: the teacher asks 6 questions to the students. The students answer and interpret questions to find out what they are like. The setting is an office.
Click HERE to download the materials.

Business Card Role Play

Click HERE to download both the teacher's instructions and the PowerPoint.
Underneath you can PREVIEW the Business Card PowerPoint

Instructions

Purpose: students role-play a business card exchange. They learn how to be polite by commenting on the card that is given to them.
Extension: students can watch a video about exchanging business cards. See task (video + set of questions) HERE

Level: students need to know how to say basic sentences about the design or content of a business card. The sentences can be only in the present simple. Students are given model sentences that they can use later when they practice the card exchange.

Examples of model sentences in the exercise: This here is very original! / One colour on each side. I really like the combination/ I really like the logotype!!/ So your company is in Leeds. Are you from there? /

Materials:

a) provided PowerPoint to show to the students (provided underneath)

b) teacher’s instructions (provided underneath)

c) projector

Procedure:

Part 1) the teacher uses the overhead projector to show students the provided PowerPoint. Students need to decide if the comment under each business card relates to content or to design.

Then the students need to write their own comment for some provided business cards.

Teachers can preview the PowerPoint on the blog before downloading it.See underneath

Part 2) students create their own cards and role play a business card situation. Students need to add a comment on the content or on the design of the business card they receive. Students can create the business card on paper or use a provided page for designing cards (see teacher’s instructions)

Click HERE to download both the teacher's instructions and the PowerPoint.
Here you can PREVIEW the Business Card PowerPoint

Speaking practice: what can I do for you?

Mingling Activity: What can I do for you?

Level: low intermediate and upper

Students need to be able to say/write simple sentences about what they can do. They may do so without using the verb “can” (see examples underneath) , if they wish. You may want to pre-teach the structure:
I 'm good/bad at + noun

I 'm good/bad at + ing

When students report their activities they may need to create simple sentences in the past.

Materials: Some pieces of (recycled) paper or some cards
Procedure: Distribute a piece of paper to each student.
A) On one side of the paper the student writes down something s/he can do and that might be of interest to the rest of the class in an office setting. The students should not write their name on the card.

E.g.:

I can make free photocopies
I am good at typing
I am very good at planning
I have many extra pens and pencils
I have a powerful computer
I am very good at excel
I can teach how to use PowerPoint

If students prefer, they can invent the services they wish to provide.

B) The teacher collects the pieces of paper and distributes them around the class. Students move around and see the services other students provide.

C) The students choose 2, 3 or 4 services that interest them and go around looking for the students providing those services.

At lower levels the structure: I am looking for a person who… may have to be pre-taught

E.g. I am looking for a person who can teach me PowerPoint. Are you that person?

D)Teacher should encourage students at higher levels to talk about the activity and arrange an appointment /Lower level students can just find the person and jot down his/her name.

E) Some students report to the class: Who they met and what this person did. Students may use the present or the past, depending on their level.

E.g. I know that Antonia is very good at...
E.g. I have met Antonia and she told me she ...

Thanks to Carme Porcel, my teacher of French at EOI for providing me with this activity.