Do you currently have any students who are preparing to go to an international event or conference? I am sure they would like to feel confident, as in the second picture rather than the first!
In this month´s blog post, you will find some activities you can do with your students so as to make them feel at ease when talking to strangers in another country.
Let´s start off with getting students to introduce themselves. First of all, though, it might be worth just talking about non-verbal communication with your students such as the following:
| SMILE! | EYE CONTACT (although in some cultures it is not considered as important as others) |
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| SPEAK CONFIDENTLY | OPEN GESTURES |
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ACTIVITY 1:
LEVEL: A2
Present the following phrases either on the board or on a screen. Get the students to repeat after you correcting their pronunciation, if necessary.
| STUDENT A | STUDENT B |
| Hi, my name is … and I´m from (name of city). | Nice to meet you. My name is… and I am from (name of city). |
| Nice to meet you too. Where are you based? | I´m based in (name of city) What about you? |
| I´m based in (name of city). | What do you do? |
| I am a (profession). I work at (name of company/university). What about you? | I work as a (profession). |
| It was nice to meet you. See you around. | OK, catch up with you later. |
Ask the students to get into pairs. They should practise the dialogue together. Afterwards, they can change pairs and practise again.
ACTIVITY 2
LEVEL: B1
Tell the students to imagine they are at a conference dinner. They are sitting next to people they don´t know and have to make conversation. Cut out the following strips of paper and place them face down on a table. In groups of four, the first student picks up a question and asks the others in the group. When the conversation dries up, the next student should turn over another piece of paper and ask the question to everyone. The activity goes on until all the questions have been asked.
| Do you enjoy watching films or series? What have you seen recently? | What does your job entail exactly? |
| Which university/company do you work for? Can you tell me about it. | Do you travel much? Where have you been lately? |
| What´s the weather like in your country at the moment? | What kind of music do you like? Do you go to concerts or shows very often? |
| What are the main tourist attractions in your city? | What are the most common sports in your country? |
| What´s a typical dish or drink from your country? | How does the education system work in your country? |
| What do people normally do at weekends in your country? | Have you ever been to (country)? What did you think of it? |
ACTIVITY 3
LEVEL: B1
Tell the students they are going to prepare a 5-10 min talk for the next lesson. Give them the vocabulary below:
| – The purpose/aim of my presentation today is to… – I have divided my presentation/talk into 3 parts. – First of all/To begin with… – Afterwards/Next, we will look at… – To sum up/Finally, we will consider… – If you have any questions, please leave them until the end, when I’ll be happy/glad to answer them. – Let´s start by looking at… – Now let´s move on to… – So, that´s an overview of… – Next, I´d like to take a look at… – Well, that brings us to the next section. – Now, if I can just summarise the main points. – That brings us to the end of my presentation. – Thank you for your attention. |
Ask if they have any doubts about vocabulary. In pairs, ask them to brainstorm what they think they will talk about next lesson. Set the homework to prepare the presentation and in the next lesson ask each student to give their talk.
