Reimagining the workweek

Ewa | Jun 14, 2023Feb 26, 2024

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. 

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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