In
my last post, I talked about using Task Based Language Teaching
in Business English. Today, I want to share with you an example of a
lesson I did with my German students of Business English (level B1). The lesson was about emailing.
Step 1: Schema Building:
My students are proficient in email, but the task here was for them
to
write
down
new
words,
interesting
ideas,
or
things
that
they
learned.
It would be better to have some more focused questions for the
discussion, but I didn't.
During the video, I
paused
to let
them
discuss and write down notes.
I also
skipped
a big
chunk
in the
middle
about
revising
emails because it was really boring
and not relevant. We discussed their
responses at the end of this video.
![]() |
(Yes, Emoticons did come up in the lesson) |
Step 1: Schema Building:
I started
by
talking
(in
English)
about
German
emails. We discussed issues like
- How are they written? What is the format?
- What common phrases do you use? What are the greetings? etc.
- What is good etiquette? What is polite? What is rude?
The idea here
is to elicit
key
vocabulary
about
emails,
including
(but
not
limited
to):
Greeting,
Introduction,
Body,
Conclusion,
Salutation,
Sender,
Recipient,
Reply,
etc.,
as well
as the
translation
of
their
common
forms
for
these
items.
During the discussion, I wrote the
information and the terms
on one
side of
a
digital note
sheet that was projected onto the
wall.
Step
2:
Controlled
Practice
Next, I brought
out a series of emails printed
on
paper. These were
emails
that
were
written
to me
and
emails
that
were
written
by me,
from a
variety
of
settings
(both
business
and
casual)
and
from a
variety
of
people,
including friends,
acquaintances,
coworkers,
and
people
I
didn't
know.
[Side note: It
would
probably
work
better
to
print
the emails it
so that
you can
still
see the
subject
line
and the
email
addresses,
but
that is
not as
important. I
also
shortened
the
emails
to the
relevant
parts
only so
that
the
activity
would
be
quicker, as some of the emails were
quite lengthy.]
I gave each
group
several
(at
least
3) of
the emails.
Their task was to identify
phrases,
formats,
or
things
that
are
different
in the
English
emails
than in
the
German
Emails.
It's a good idea to make
sure that
they
used
English
in the
group
work, because it seems natural to
revert to the NL when tasks are information based rather than
linguistic based. The students wrote on the emails, underlining and
circling items that they found. As we discussed the emails, and I
wrote the
information
on the
other
side of
the note sheet
(for
comparison
with
the
German).
I
also
had
them
arrange
the
emails
from the ones that they thought were the most formal to the ones they
thought were the least formal, and then to explain their choices.
Step
3:
Authentic
listening
practice
After
the
discussion,
we watched 2 YouTube videos that I had chosen. Both were intended for
native English speakers (i.e., they weren't English teaching videos).
This is important to me because I want the students to get a feel for
what real English sounds like, not just what teacher language sounds
like.
The first video was a email guide, probably for people who didn't know how to use email at all.
The first video was a email guide, probably for people who didn't know how to use email at all.
The second
video was about email etiquette. It was shorter and funnier, and the
person in the video also spoke a lot faster.
After,
we
talked
about
the
questions they had (i.e., “What is
Snail Mail?”), and
then
about
the
interesting
content.
They
didn't
remember
some of
the content,
but when I
mentioned
how I
learned
something
from
the
video,
too, it
reminded
them and sparked a little more
conversation.
Step
4:
Focus
on
linguistic
elements
The linguistic
focus for the lesson was a review of the uses of the various present
tenses (simple present, present progressive, present perfect) but we
also ended up reviewing the simple past. The rationale behind this
choice is that, not only do the tenses need to be reviewed, but that
emails generally feature a lot of these tenses. This section didn't
connect as well as another grammar point could have, but you have to
work with your students' specific needs.
I wrote the
three present tense forms (I work, I am working, I have worked) on
the board and at the beginning, I mentioned their technical grammar
tense names once in the beginning, but after that, I focused on their
use. We discussed by comparing two forms at a time (i.e., what is the
difference between “I work” and “I am working”). After that,
we did a go-around-the-room exercise conjugating different verbs for
different circumstances.
Step
5:
Provide
freer
practice
I
split
the
class
into
two
groups,
and
each
group
got a
prompt.
- Prompt 1: You work at company that makes advertisements. You want to make an advertisement for a big toy company. Email the marketing director (you don't know his name) and see if he is interested in working with your company.
- Prompt 2: Yesterday, there was a meeting in your company. You went to the meeting, but you are a little confused. You have some questions about what happened in the meeting. Email your co-worker (the meeting leader) to ask for more information.
Each
group
wrote
an
email
based
on the
prompt.
I gave
them
about
5-10
minutes,
and
then
they
“emailed” their paper to the other team. The other team then
responded to the “email”.
I saw
that
they
were a
little
confused
in the
response,
so I
also
had
them
switch
prompts
so that
they
knew
why the
original
email
was
written.
This
activity
probably needs
more
time and it also
needs
very
simple
prompts.
Step
6:
Introduce
the
pedagogical
task
(Homework)
The last step
was homework for the week. I split the group into partners, and I
handed each person an A or B task, and then briefly
explained
what
was
going
to
happen. Basically, there
must be
at
least 4
emails
total (2 from each person).
Person
A must
initiate
a
meeting,
person
B must
reply
and ask
for a
copy of
the
meeting
agenda.
The students are supposed to print
out the entire email chain and then we
will
review
them in
class
next
week.
Here are the
task assignments: (2 people, 1
group AB; 3 people, 1 group ABC; 4 people, 2 groups AB AB; 5 people,
2 groups AB ABC; 6 people 2 groups ABC ABC OR 3 groups AB AB AB,
etc.)
- Person A: - Initiate a Meeting. Try to find a a time, date, and place. Provide any information that the other person needs.
- Person B: Wait for the email from Person A. Agree on a good meeting time and place. Also, ask for the meeting agenda.
- Person C: Wait for person A and Person B to email you. You can't meet on the day that they suggest, but you are free almost every other day.
I hope you like the lesson. My students told me that they enjoyed it because it was so "interactive." Feel free to use or modify it, and let me know if you have any questions!