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Task-based activities-any good lessons out there? (Adults)

 
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:14 am    Post subject: Task-based activities-any good lessons out there? (Adults) Reply with quote

Has anyone got a really good task-based activity that they would like to share?

I've done the building a helicopters and designing a product and things like that.

If you've got a good one, please share it. I need loads as I have a 160-hour course to teach with zilch materials.

I'm particularly interested in activities which encourage soft skills ie teamwork, meetings, presentations and negotiations skills as well as further skills like following SOPs and instructions from workplace manuals.

I'm onto a good business English book with this stuff in it but I'm after the kind of crypton factor stuff that's fun in a classroom like building a bridge to get from A to B etc.

Any good supplementary materials links and book recommendations would be great too.

TIA
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:46 am    Post subject: right Reply with quote

Let me get you started.

1-Put SS in teams of 4
2-Give them ingredients
3-tell them to make a cocktail ie a healthy one, a sour one, a foul one and make names for all of them
4-Get people from other teams to taste and guess the ingredients
5-Feedback on best/worst

This is about teamwork, making suggestions, agreeing/disagreeing

Any more ideas like stuff you can make with classroom stationery or games/puzzles which require all of them to work in a team to solve a problem.
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buravirgil



Joined: 23 Jan 2014
Posts: 967
Location: Jiangxi Province, China

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dragonwipo, THAT is quintessential, acme, the head-liner no sensible performer would open for...oops, follow...
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:05 pm    Post subject: erm Reply with quote

You write something about the cost of living or wages and the world replies. Ask a practical question and zilch.

How sad.

Now I remember why I don't hang around with TEFL teachers.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most of them are brain-dead.
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nomad soul



Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're bound to find ideas from the following resources for teaching business English and business communication:
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buravirgil



Joined: 23 Jan 2014
Posts: 967
Location: Jiangxi Province, China

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What you want...okay...when you want it? It's been what, three hours?

Quodlibetal (thank you AWAD)...however, where I can't fulfill the request is a tangible product to the task. Dmitry Davidoff's Mafia (Werewolf) is a game/simulation that is certainly a task, but requires an experienced facilitator to work well in my opinion. And by the same caveat, trade simulations for Econ classes.
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HLJHLJ



Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 1218
Location: Ecuador

PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Give us a chance dragonpiwo, it's only been a few hours (and I was asleep for most of them). Wink

In a previous life I did a lot of science and engineering workshops. I found that most of the stuff for teenagers could be easily adapted to adults. Crime scene activities were always popular, and if you are seeing the same group regularly, you can easily put a sequence together to get a few classes out of one scenario. Other things that can be used with any age are designing something to protect an egg when you drop it, and anything to do with making things that move (boats, cars. etc). It's been a while since I used it, but there used to be good ideas on here.

http://stem-works.com/activities

Designing board games works, but you have to give a lot of guidance with that or it goes on forever. Creating flow charts for decision making, that can be as serious or silly as you like, depending on your group. It can be anything from deciding which materials to use in construction to deciding what to have for lunch.

Give them a series of tasks related to a single goal, with insufficient time to do them all, so they have to prioritise, but time spent negotiating priorities eats into the limited time available to do the tasks. (Be careful with that if you have any very dominant personalities, people can get aggressive).

I'd definitely suggest you try to extend tasks over a couple of classes if you can. For example, if you have them design a product, then in the next class they produce the marketing materials for it and then in the 3rd class they negotiate with another group to sell it to them. (Both groups decide in advance what they need and want from the final sale, and then try to negotiate a deal that suits both sides).

If you have some stuff planned already and want ideas for extension activities, just ask.
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 5:30 am    Post subject: tnx Reply with quote

Thanks. Stem-works is excellent.
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Knedliki



Joined: 08 May 2015
Posts: 160

PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A virtual stock market portfolio, see which team can make the most money!
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3701 W.119th



Joined: 26 Feb 2014
Posts: 386
Location: Central China

PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 12:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My only real problem is I can't nail my plan in the time allowed ( 2 x 50 minutes). The English level here is so low.

I have my 'go-to' contexts - home, food, free time, travel, sport, family, etc.

Extend it over both classes, yes.

Design a menu, next class, have them role-play the waiter/customer.

It's oral English, though. Get them talking.
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santi84



Joined: 14 Mar 2008
Posts: 1317
Location: under da sea

PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The following PDFs are big files, but have a lot of great task-based activities in them. They are for CLB levels 1-4 (which is beginner to pre-intermediate). I highly recommend reading them and adapting them to suit your locations/audience. 3701 W.119th, I think you would find them quite useful, as they are geared to such a low level within your time constraints.

http://www.moresettlement.org/LINC1-4/LINC4/LINC_1_Classroom_Activities.pdf

http://www.moresettlement.org/LINC1-4/LINC4/LINC_2_Classroom_Activities.pdf

http://www.moresettlement.org/LINC1-4/LINC4/LINC_3_Classroom_Activities.pdf

http://www.moresettlement.org/LINC1-4/LINC4/LINC_4_Classroom_Activities.pdf

And the audio files/higher levels (CLB 5-8, or B1-C1) are here:
http://wiki.settlementatwork.org/w/index.php/LINC_1-4_Classroom_Activities
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adventious



Joined: 23 Nov 2015
Posts: 237
Location: In the wide

PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really like all of these resources! The last one especially!
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