HC #3 business English

• Engels
• MBO
• Studiejaar 3

Welcome!

Business English

About the workplace

Today's lesson

Watching and speaking

Goal

You will be able to listen and talk about new business vocabulary as well as talking about your new work environment.

In this conversation lesson, students watch a TED talk about limiting distractions in the workplace to increase productivity. Students then discuss the speaker’s ideas. Do the warm-up with students, teach the vocabulary, show the video, and then have students do the conversation questions in small groups.

In pairs discuss the following:

What are some distractions people commonly have to deal with in an office?

What things do companies do to minimize these distractions?

Talk with your partner for 5 minutes

Give them a few minutes to discuss the questions and then meet as a class. Get some quick feedback from students about the above questions.

Vocabulary

TED TALK: Some words the speaker uses: WRITE DOWN THE MEANING

burst/to burst                                                   provocative

to lease                                                                 stretch of time
to shred                                                                instant messaging/IM
to bump                                                               spontaneous
enlightened                                                        toxic
collaboration/to collaborate
decoy
to ban


 

Tell students they are going to watch a video by Jason Friede, a software engineer with some revolutionary ideas about how to create a more productive work environment.

Before playing the video, define some of the challenging vocabulary Friede uses in the video.

Questions during listening:

1.  According to Jason Fried, where do people normally go when they really need to get something done?
2.   What does he say are the two biggest distractions at work?
3.   What are his three recommendations for creating a more productive workplace?

01:31

What do you expect to find at your workplace? Name a few items.

02:45

Where do you go when work needs to be done?

06:50

Do you often get interrupted when you are trying to work? ( job, doing homework etc? )

11:33

Do you feel meetings are important?

12:20

Have you ever heard about 'casual Friday?

YES

NO

explain casual friday;

Casual Friday (also known as dress-down Friday or casual day) is a Western dress code trend since late 20th century, in which some business offices relax their dress code on Fridays. It has since spread to other parts of the world. Some businesses that usually require employees to wear lounge suits, dress shirts, neckties, and dress shoes, may allow more casual wear on Fridays.

What do you think of company policies that ban Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other websites? Do these policies help people be more productive? Does your company ban certain websites at the office?

After video discusion

 What are the pros and cons of having a “no-talk Thursday” at the office?

Would you like to have a “no-talk Thursday” at work? Why or why not?

Questions?