Cultural Awareness: Explanation

Cultural Awareness

• Details

Name of Item	Making A Good Impression
Activity Type	Discussion / Vocabulary
Student Level	Upper Intermediate
Time Allowance	20 - 30 minutes
Preparation Required	preparing to explain / define difficult words
Other Items Needed	none
Vocabulary	rank / gestures / interpersonal distance / eye contact / offensive / offputting / disconcerting
Grammar	nothing special

• Instructions

This was originally designed for a high level "business English" class but it could possibly be used more broadly. To start off with, students match the issues on the left of the upper table with the suggestions on the right. In the course of this, they should become conversant with the vocabulary items included - maybe by using their own dictionaries.

Having done this, they can quickly decide (individually) which of the suggestions they think are good, before comparing their ideas and debating any disagreements. I find this technique, of getting students to commit themselves to opinions in writing, before they discuss them, is a good way of encouraging contention, especially where some class members have a tendency to always agree with what the last speaker said.

In the next part, another matching activity involves matching negative quality adjectives (e.g. "excessive") with an explanation that roughly corresponds to a "likely source" of that quality when it's present in a foreign visitor scenario (e.g. making an inapropriately large effort).

Finally students can discuss one of the situations at the bottom of the page. This is particularly interesting when one or more class members have had such an experience and even better if they are willing to talk about what went wrong.