Managing Diversity

Here you have an online Listening Exercise by the British Council.

Managing Diversity

Listen to an Interview on how companies manage diversity, then do Task 1 for General Comprehension Task 2 for Specific.

You can check your answers online and download both the transcript and the podcast.

And when you finish... Why not surfing the web to look for more?

Writing letters

You may have forgotten how to begin and end letters... Here you have some basic rules for you to remember:

1. If you know the name of the person you're writng to, begin Dear + title + surname. If not, begin Dear Sir or Dear Madam.

2. Finish your letter with Yours sincerely if you know the person's name, and Yours faithfully if you don't.

3. If you are writing a letter rather than an email, print your name underneath your signature.

Monty Python's Job Interview

A British Comedy Classic!

Career advice

Visit MONSTER, a career advice website, to practise your reading and learn more about the topic of WORK.

Answer the interview questions HERE. Then click on the question to launch a video with advice from recruitment experts. How well did you do?

Finally HERE you have some listening and vocabulary exercises on how to prepare a job interview.

Vocabulary: WORK

In this post I've gathered several exercises and activities to practise the topic of WORK:

1. Practise the vocabulary you learnt with a CROSSWORD

2. MATCH the two halves of several collocations.

3. Play a game of Snakes and Ladders to revise jobs.

4. Short-answer Jobs Quiz.

5. Listening exercises: "Setting up a company"

Innocent drinks

Visit the Innocent Drinks website to practise your reading and learn more about the company we talked about.

Also interesting, and to pratise your listening skills, a 25-minute TV documentary by the BBC to know more about the company, its ethos and how it started: BBC Start Up Stories: Innocent drinks (transcript available at the bottom of the screen)

Speaking: Daily life, routines, jobs

More ideas for Speaking practice!!

Monologue task

Read these 25 questions quickly and then choose 10 to talk about.

1.      What is the best place to work – an office, a factory, a laboratory, outside …?

2.      How has technology changed people’s working lives?

3.      Do women and men do similar jobs? Are they paid the same?

4.      What would be your ideal timetable? What is a normal working week?

5.      Would you prefer to work three 12-hour days or six three-hour days?

6.      What are the three most important things about a job in your opinion?

7.      What is the best age to start work? And the best age to retire? What age do you think you will retire?

8.      How important is it to get on well with your workmates?

9.      Is it normal for people to do lots of overtime? Are they paid extra for this?

10.  Do lots of people do part-time jobs or are most people in full-time jobs?

11.  What is the rate of unemployment? Will it go down soon?

12.  What do you think about working on Sundays?

13.  Is it important to get on with your boss? Is it important to have a nice boss?

14.  What is more important – job satisfaction or a big salary?

15.  What are the highest/lowest paid jobs?

16.  What are the most interesting/boring jobs?

17.  Which of your friends or family has the most interesting job?

18.  What kind of jobs do you need a university degree for?

19.  How much is a fair salary? How much would you like to earn?

20.  What kind of questions do they ask in a job interview?

21.  Is it a good idea to have a good work-life balance?

22.  What’s a ‘workaholic’? Do you know any?

23.  Would you prefer a job where you travel a lot or a job close to home?

24.  What are the advantages of working for yourself?

25.  Why do so many people suffer from work ‘burnout’?

Ideas for Speaking: Work, Relationships, Communication

Apart from the Speaking exercises from the book...

Answer these questions, or use them as inspiration, related to the topics we've seen in class.

WORK AND SUCCESS  

1   Which person has inspired you the most?  

2   What is your main ambition?

3   What kind of work would give you job satisfaction?

FAMILY AND PERSONALITY

1   Which three adjectives best describe your personality?

2   Which three adjectives describe personalities that you particularly dislike?

3   Which personal characteristics have you inherited from your parents?

4   When you argue with friends or family, what do you argue about?

5   How much do you know about your family tree? Have you ever researched it?

6   Is there anyone in your family you'd like to know more about?

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1   Why is it important for you to be good at English?

2   What is the most difficult aspect of the English language for you?
3   Why is English such an important language in the world today?

In your 3-minute presentation you can also talk about one of these statements, saying if you agree or disagree. Give reasons

1   ‘It is not possible to be both successful and happy.’

2   ‘Most people are unhappy in their jobs.’

3   ‘It is not possible for people to be nice to each other all the time.’

4   ‘Most people’s personalities do not change as they get older.’

5   ‘The English language will not be as important in the future as it is now.’ 

6   ‘It is not necessary for everyone to learn a foreign language.’