Стр. 32 - Skurikhin_Communicative style

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B: ___________________________________________________________________
A: ___________________________________________________________________
SPEAKING
Write down a statement that other people will probably disagree with. Say it and see what
reaction you get. Continue the discussion.
Examples
The planning department in this city works really well.
Soft drugs should be legalized.
Barcelona is the best football team in Europe.
BUSINESS MEETINGS
11.GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
WARM-UP
1)
What do you know about ‘small talk’? Give the definition to this phenomenon.
2)
Work in teams (four teams of four). One team should come up with arguments in
favour of allowing or encouraging small talk in business meetings; the other team should
come up with arguments in favour of discouraging preventing small talk in meetings.
Write down the arguments on a sheet of paper.
3)
Choose one person who will to chair a meeting between the two teams to present
and discuss their arguments and to decide on the best approach to managing small talk in
meetings.
4)
At the end, analyse the effectiveness of the meeting itself, e.g. how well did the
chair manage to control the meeting or encourage creativity and compromise, did
everyone contribute equally, or was the meeting dominated by the most confident
speakers, etc.
5)
Fill in the gaps.
Small talk
refers to conversations about things which are not directly relevant to the
current task we are doing or the situation we are in. Classic examples include discussions
at ____ about the ____, the ____, TV programmes, family news, etc. Small talk is small
in the sense that the conversations tend to be quite ____.
READING
1)
Work in pairs to read the texts in order to see which points from the lead-in
discussion they mention. One student in each pair should read the first text (Let’s stop
wasting time and get on with it!); the other should read the second text (Small talk is the
cement that holds businesses together).
2)
Summarise their texts to their partners, focusing especially on similarities and
differences from the lead-in discussions.
Text 1
Let’s stop wasting time and get on with it!
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