Runner-up in the Best Lesson Plan Contest
Level: Advanced Business English
1. Role Play – Job Interview
Goals: Develop interviewing skills, increase self-confidence
Three students volunteered to be members of the interviewing board and came up with a job vacancy. They drafted the respective job description and interviewed three candidates. (Seats were arranged in a way that candidates sat in front of the board). Each candidate brought his/her CV to the board (CV samples were provided in the book).
The interviewing board was clearly instructed to ask candidates questions about their previous experience, reasons of application, personality, etc. Members of the board took notes during the interviews, which they used to support their choice at the end. After the final decision was taken, the students who didn’t have a role in the play (the observers) gave some feedback on the actors’ performance.
2. Group work – Competition
Goals: Practice negotiation skills (find the most effective promotional tools having a very limited budget), and familiarize with promotion and advertising terminology.
Students were divided in groups of three and four, and were asked to promote a product of their choice.
After lengthy discussions, each group came up with a very well-prepared TV Commercial. They even thought of the music they would play (using their mobile phones) while the promotional text was read ‘on TV’.
Remark: This exercise requires the teacher to follow closely the group discussions, which often tend to be very enthusiastic and exciting, but at the end it proves to be very rewarding. It gives students both a lot of fun and information.