Functional language for online meetings

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Functional language - online meetings

functional language for online meetings

LESSON OVERVIEW

This lesson plan deals with functional language for online meetings. It’s often connected with some problems that might happen when we participate in virtual meetings. We want students to learn some phrases and words that can help them to deal with unexpected situation that can occur when they have their online meetings in English. It’s also useful to us because the same problems might occur during your online classes.

B1 / Intermediate
B2 / Upper Intermediate
45 minStandard LessonPremium Plan

FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE FOR ONLINE MEETINGS

The worksheet starts with a vocabulary task. Students have to match words and phrases from given sentences to their meanings. The list includes words such as: to cut out, to freeze, a lag, to mute, etc. After checking their answers, students move to another exercise. That exercise also includes sentences from the first task, but this time students have to match sentences to create short dialogues.

FUNNY VIDEO & DISCUSSION

Moreover, to have some fun element during class, we’ve found a comedy sketch about online meetings. Students get a few words, have to watch the video (up to 3:00) and tick the words they hear. Next, they move to a short discussion about online meetings, their effectiveness and aspects that might be annoying about them.

ROLE PLAY SITUATIONS

Finally, students need to practise all that functional language for online meetings presented in the worksheet. They get eight situations and need to figure out what they would say and how they would react in these situations.

WORKSHEETS

Comments

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  1. Chase

    Thanks for sharing Stan – Students really appreciated this one!

    1. Stan

      That’s great to hear! It’s always the best feedback to get!

  2. Amy

    This is SOOOO all of our lives right now – Hilarious video!

    1. Stan

      Hahaha!The only thing they missed is endless fight over computer control while screensharing

  3. Krisztina

    I like it a lot, thank you!

  4. Sheridan

    I found this super useful for international students – thanks!!

    1. Justa

      Great to hear that! Thanks for your comment!

  5. Asd

    I really like this lesson plan but I think ‘probably we’ve lost her’ doesn’t sound as good as ‘we’ve probably lost her’. Also, shouldn’t an ‘invite’ be an ‘invitation’?

    1. Stan

      In terms of ‘probably’, I believe it’s a matter of choice so what sounds better is up to you to decide 🙂 Using ‘invite’ as a noun is okay, though. I’d even say that it’s more common in the corporate world than ‘invitation’. I say that based on my personal experience not research :). Frankly speaking, I don’t like it and prefer the good old ‘invitation’ but the reality is that people use it so I prefer my students to know that it’s okay and they can use it if they wish to. Check this post about it: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/can-you-use-invite-as-a-noun

      1. Cordelia

        Yes, our company based in France uses “invite” all the time!

  6. Asd

    Just saw that ‘invite’ is used as a noun in the video so never mind!

  7. Vita Palahnyuk

    Great lesson! Thanks 🙂

  8. Iryna Ozminska

    It’s hilarious!!!!

  9. [email protected]

    My students also really enjoyed this lesson and the video, too. Thank you.

  10. Safaa Hamad

    Thanks for sharing it is really beneficial especially these days

  11. LC

    How do I get access to the worksheet / lesson plan?

    1. Stan

      Hello! This lesson plan is available only to paid members. If you want to become one, please go to the Pricing page and choose one of the available plans (Premium or Unlimited).
      PS
      I removed your two other comments as one of them was a duplication of this one and the other was not related to this lesson post.

  12. Vander

    I’ve just subscribed and ESL Brains has been amazingly helpful. I would suggest you guys post the script of the video as well. Even though there’s a possibility of using the caption on YT, a printable version would be fantastic to work on extra vocabulary. Keep up the good work, guys!

    1. Stan

      Thanks for the comment! I’m happy to hear that what we do is helpful. In terms of the transcripts, we don’t plan to publish them here because the ones available on TED.com are perfect and the ones on YT usually just need a few changes (most of the times). We simply don’t want to focus on doing something that’s already done and you could simply copy+paste it.

  13. [email protected]

    Perfect video! I had a lot of fun.. 😉

  14. Eurospeak_Antwerpen

    This one is great. Participants love it!

  15. Gracie

    Hi, I’ve been using this lesson a lot, with varied levels. I, and my students, find it very useful and practical for today’s remote work activities. The vocabulary is super real and it is easy to relate to the situations you depict in the lesson. The video is very funny, a bit difficult to follow, though, but I make students watch it a second time with subtitles and we analyse all the comments, as all of them are really useful to avoid translation if you learn them.
    The slide where you have to match a situation with a response is also nice to role play it in class to practice some real intonation and even connected speech. I love it Thanks!

    1. Stan

      Thanks for the feedback! It’s great to hear that this lesson works so well for you and your students. Personally, I like how you handled the video and put more time into analysing the language there with your students. Also the addition of pronunciation practice sounds pretty good there. Hope other teachers might get inspired by that and use your approach.

  16. yellowhub

    For future reference:
    1:09 Stuck 
    1:35 – Frozen
    1:41 cut out
    2:29 2:31 invite
    2:36 reschedule

    1. Stan

      Thanks for sharing the timestamps – it’s an old lesson and we didn’t use to add these then.

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