Reimagining the workweek

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Speaking
class

lesson about a four-day workweek

This is a standalone lesson but it can also be used as part of the set titled:

photo of the author Ewa |

LESSON OVERVIEW

In this speaking Business English lesson about a four-day workweek, students discuss the idea of implementing changes to a workweek. They also watch a video and do a roleplay activity. Additionally, there is an optional vocabulary activity at the beginning of the lesson. 

B2 / Upper Intermediate
C1 / Advanced45 min
60 minSpeaking ClassUnlimited Plan
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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 & VIDEO

As an optional warm-up task to this lesson about a four-day workweek, students create nouns from several verbs and adjectives (e.g. implement, adopt, applicable). The nouns will be useful for students throughout the lesson. However, the teacher can choose to skip the task. Then, students look at some changes to labour law that took place in the past. They need to rate them from the most to the least important. Before watching the video, students read a definition of a four-day workweek and decide which of three video summaries is the most accurate. Then, they watch the video and check their answers. After the video, students look at some statistics from the trial mentioned in the video and discuss some questions. 

DISCUSSION

In the second part of this lesson about a four-day workweek, students look at four comments about the four-day workweek model and discuss to what extent they agree with them. Then, they consider how some industries might benefit or suffer from adopting a four-day workweek. The industries include e.g. tourism & hospitality, public services and wellness & fitness. After that, students imagine their company has decided to adopt a 32-hour workweek. They need to consider some possible models and explain what the benefits and challenges of each one might be. 

In the last task of this  lesson about a four-day workweek, students get three ideas to discuss. The ideas are all related to the way people work. Students have to choose a role (e.g. employer and employee, company owner and head of HR of the company) and have a conversation about the ideas. 

WORKSHEETS

 

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  1. PatsyJaeger

    FYI, the link to the video is no longer available.

    1. Ewa

      Hi! Sorry about that! It looks like there’s an issue with the YouTube channel that posted the video. We’ll look into it and let you know when the video is available again.

      1. caverissimo

        Was this the video you originally proposed in the lesson?
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf_HklqsbEQ

        1. Ewa

          Hi! We’ve updated the lesson.

    2. Bruna Suzin

      Meanwhile, I suggest using this video instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSUnGkn_JHs&ab_channel=BreakThroughNews

      1. Ewa

        Hi! We’ve updated the lesson 🙂

        1. rozgadani

          Ewa, are you sure? The video comes up as private in the google slides.

          1. Ewa

            Hi! Could you make sure you have the updated e-lesson? Because we added a different video and changed the viewing task.

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