| LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this speaking lesson on meetings are to:
- discuss experiences and approaches to meetings;
- watch part of a video on meeting fatigue;
- revise advanced phrases to decline a meeting.
With this lesson, students explore a workplace meme, discuss statistics about work meetings and talk about their experiences and calendars. They also discuss formal and informal vocabulary for declining meetings (e.g. pass on a meeting, keep someone in the loop on something, bow out of a session), talk about meeting culture and watch part of a video (to 03:13) about tips on reducing meeting fatigue. Students also discuss different communication channels for different work tasks.
C2 / Proficiency45 min
60 minSpeaking ClassUnlimited Plan
This is a Speaking Class worksheet. It includes a variety of tasks that let your students practise their speaking skills. This lesson format does not focus on grammar or vocabulary. Learn more about it here.
WARM-UP AND VOCABULARY
This speaking lesson on meetings starts with a warm-up. Students look at a workplace meme and rate how familiar the situation is for them on a scale from 0 to 10. Afterwards, they look at some statistics related to work meetings (e.g. 37% of meetings result in a decision) and share their thoughts. Students comment on anything that stands out, seems surprising to them, or confirms their own experience. Moving on, they look at their calendar and choose three meetings. Students then decide which category (e.g. a meeting you would prefer to skip) they would put them in and add details. Next, they complete the missing letters in sentences about declining or skipping meetings (e.g. I would prefer to contribute asynchronously). Then, students decide which of the statements are informal and suggest a more formal alternative.
VIDEO AND DISCUSSION
In this part of this speaking lesson on meetings, students discuss questions about meeting culture and time management. After that, they watch part of a video (to 03:13) which shares three tips on reducing meeting fatigue. Students discuss which strategies they would like to try out or see implemented by their team. Next, they discuss different scenarios about common meeting frustrations (e.g. You realize you are double-booked). Students say whether any of them have happened to them and how they handled, or would handle, the situation. Finally, they look at sets of tasks involving team communication and coordination. Students assign the task to different communication channels (meeting, email, direct message) and explain their reasoning.
WORKSHEETS
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This is one of the best speaking lessons I’ve used for my business students.
So happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing 🙌
Regarding Task 4 and the question of register: can the phrases “keep me in the loop” and “I may be juggling too many meetings” really be considered formal? They seem better suited to a semi-formal context, with a casual tone.
Thank you!
It might depend on the context, of course. In ex. 4, the only point we suggest is that these phrases are not informal. They could certainly be seen as semi-formal in many situations. In any case, you’re free to discuss this with your students and draw on their own experience when deciding how to categorize the phrases 🙂