Home | Crosswords | Word Searches | Flash Cards | Verbs | Songs | Creative Writing | Work Sheets | Phonics | ABCs Survival English | Business ESL | ESL for Adults | Ask Thomas | Lesson Plans | Young Learners | Jobs |
Reporting Changes in Corporate Indicators
by Chris Gunn
Materials:
Reporting Changes Activity Sheet
Reporting Changes Activity Sheet Expanded
Grammar Sheet: Due to, Because of
Vocabulary Sheet: Increase, Decrease, Fluctuate
Vocabulary Cloze: Increase, Decrease, Fluctuate
Purpose and Audience:
The purpose of these materials is to get the students to practice reporting changes in corporate indicators such as profits, sales, revenue, and costs and explaining the reasons why the changes occurred. The language points covered are reporting changes (increased, decreased, rose, dropped, fluctuated, leveled-off, bottomed-out, mildly, wildly, slightly, dramatically, gradually), stating reasons (due to, because of), and getting someone's attention (Can I speak to you for a minute? Can I see you for a moment?).
Vocabulary Warm-up:
As a warm-up, the teacher can draw some graphs on the board and then ask students to try and describe what's happening. Profits are increasing. Prices are fluctuating. After the teacher has gone over a few examples, the teacher can then hand out the vocabulary sheet, which reviews the appropriate vocabulary and as an exercise, have the students fill out the cloze activity. Finally, the teacher can have the students practice writing some sentences explaining the causes of something using the grammar sheet.
Class Activity:
Each student is given a corporate annual report. The student will have to summarize their report to the other students and listen to summaries in return. The dialogue on the activity sheet should serve as a guide. The teacher should give a few minutes to the students so that they can digest their reports and possibly translate the reports into English: In the first quarter, profits declined slightly due to rising costs and decreased sales. Students then need an activity sheet to fill out. I recommend you use the activity sheet with the dialogue guide on the left and enlarge that to B4 size paper. But if that is not an option, you may want to use the expanded A4 activity sheet to give your students more room to write.
Students walk around the room and ask to talk to each other for a minute. They inform their partners that their reports are finished and then the partners ask for summaries. After students finish giving summaries they go onto a new partner.
All materials (c) 2007 Lanternfish ESL