План урока:
◦ познакомить студентов друг с другом и с форматом курса ◦ создать безопасную среду для говорения ◦ объяснить, что такое small talk и зачем он нужен ◦ научить начинать и поддерживать короткий неформальный разговор ◦ отработать small talk в парной практике с карточками
Welcome! Hi everyone, welcome to the course «Conversational English for Designers.» I’m really happy to see you here today.
Before we start, I want to tell you a little bit about how this course will work.
This is a speaking-focused course. That means we will talk a lot, almost every lesson. You don’t need perfect English here. Making mistakes is absolutely okay — it’s part of learning.
In this classroom, we follow three simple rules:
Now let’s get to know each other a little bit.
I’d like to ask you two simple questions. You can answer with short sentences — that’s totally fine.
1. Why are you here?
2. What do you want to improve in English?
Let’s start.
Now we are going to introduce ourselves.
This is not a test. You don’t need long or perfect sentences. Simple English is great.
Please tell us: ◦ your name ◦ what you do or study ◦ what kind of design you do ◦ one expectation from this course
I’ll show you an example:
Время выполнения задания: 10-15 минут Формат выполнения: студенты отвечают по очереди
В этом задании нет цели исправлять ошибки. Если студент потерялся, можно помочь ему, задав дополнительные вопросы:
- What kind of design do you do? - Why do you want to improve your English?
В результате выполнения задания каждый студент уже заговорит на английском, а в классе создастся более безопасная и поддерживающая атмосфера
Let’s stop for a moment and think about what we just did.
When you were talking about yourself, what words were difficult to remember? Or maybe you wanted to say something, but you didn’t know the word in English.
It’s okay if you don’t remember now — just say anything that comes to your mind.
What words did you want to use? Was it about your job, your studies, or your interests?
Let’s try to remember these words and write them down:
Now I’ll say a word, and you make a short sentence. For example: branding → «I work with branding.»
Студенты по очереди составляют по одному предложению с разными словами, которые были выписаны в ходе предыдущего этапа урока.
Now let’s talk about something very important for speaking English.
What do you think small talk is? When do people use small talk? Do you use it in your life or at work?
Small talk is a short, simple, and informal conversation.
It is not a deep conversation. We don’t talk about big problems or serious topics.
The main goal of small talk is to make contact. To feel comfortable. To start communication.
We use it: ◦ before meetings ◦ at events and conferences ◦ when we work with international teams
If you can do small talk, people feel more relaxed with you.
In small talk, we usually talk about safe topics.
Safe topics are easy and friendly. They help start a conversation.
We can ask people how do they feel today, we can talk about the weather, upcoming events or something from our daily lives.
We usually do not talk about very personal or serious topics in small talk.
First, let’s learn how to start a small talk.
You don’t need anything special — just a simple and friendly phrase like «Hi» or «Hello» After «hello», we usually ask a simple question or making a compliment. It helps keeping the conversation going.
When someone is speaking, we show that we are listening. We don’t need long sentences — short reactions are perfect. Something like «Oh wow, sounds cool» or «I see! Nice!»
To show interest, we can react and ask one more question. This makes the conversation natural.
Now it’s time to practice small talk. You will work in pairs.
Each pair will take one card with a small talk topic. For example: work, events, city, hobbies, or design. You have 3 minutes to talk.
After that, I’ll say «Change partners», and you will find a new partner. Please remember to speak English only!
Время выполнения задания: 15-20 минут Формат выполнения: студенты выполняют задание в паре по 3-5 минут. За время выполнения задания студент успевает поговорить с 3-4 одногруппниками
Главная цель этого задания заключается в том, чтобы отработать шаблонные фразы для small talk на практике, и научиться быстро ориентироваться в ходе речи.
В результате выполнения задания: ◦каждый студент поговорил с несколькими людьми ◦small talk стал менее «страшным» ◦фразы из toolkit начали использоваться автоматически
Okay, let’s stop here and come back together. Take a deep breath. You’ve just spoken English a lot — great job. Now let’s talk about how it felt.
What was easy for you? What was difficult? What phrases did you use?
I want to give you some feedback. (время для того, чтобы дать обратную связь, охватить моменты, которые были хороши, описать common mistakes, не сильно акцентируя внимание на ошибках конкретных студентов)
First of all, you all started conversations — and this is the hardest part. Today you proved that you can speak English. And this is just the first lesson.
