Lesson Plan: Starting A Business

Lesson Level: Senior 2          Duration: 40 Minutes

Lesson Title:  Starting A Business

Grammar and Vocabulary

tough

risk

achieve

benefit

impressive

career

fashionable

reasonable

Lesson Objectives

Students will be able to identify listen to and understand a short dialogue about starting a business.

Students will participate in group discussions 

Students will be able to find the meanings of unfamiliar words. 

Materials Required

A recorded dialogue about starting a business.

Preparation

Prepare the dialogue. It should be recorded by speakers who are not known to the class.

Procedure

1 (2 Minutes/ 2 Minutes)

Introduction. Ask students what we mean by starting a business,

Elicit and write on the board different kinds of businesses.

2 (2/4)

Put these questions on the board.

The man and woman are named Henry and Ping.

What does Ping want to do?

Who is her business for?

What does Henry say people in America like to do?

What is an entrepreneur?

What is Henry's job?

Why does Ping think her idea is good?

3 (8/12)

Play (or have students read) the dialogue and elicit the answers.

4 (8/20))

Put this on the board

Write the vocabulary words on the board.

tough risk achieve benefit impressive career fashionable reasonable

Put the students in groups of four

tell them to write the meanings of the words – they can use their books but MUST write the meanings in English.

5.(10/30)

Put these instructions on the board.

Each group, you want to start your own business.

What kind of business will you start?

Where will you be based?

What does your business do?

What is your company name?

What will each person in your group do?

Why did you choose this kind of business?

As students work, monitor the groups and assist as necessary.

6 (10/40)

Have each group in turn stand up and explain their business by answering the questions on the board.

Notes

1

The dialogue used is from Non-Stop Talking Book 4 Unit 1

If this is not available the following dialogue and questions may be substituted.

Mike: Hello Lee, I haven't seen you for a long time.

Lee: I've been busy planning my new business.

Mike: A new business? That must be tough. And in these economic times, a bit risky.

Lee: True, but without a little risk I won't achieve and great benefits.

Mike: What kind of business is it?

Lee: I'm going to publish a series of English text books for students in Chinese schools to use.

Mike: Wow! That's a hard business to break into. Where are you going to get the right books. There's a lot of competition in that market.

Lee: Have you seen the competition? Many of the books are really old-fashioned and some of them aren't very good. My books will be modern, focussed on things people need in the modern world and full of really interesting things.

Mike: Who will write them?

Lee: They're written already. I wrote them when I was working as a teacher. They are based on all my old lesson plans. I've had a lot of help from my wife. She's drawn the pictures. She's a commercial artist. And my brother is a first rate photographer, so he's provided lots of pictures.

Mike: How many books are there in the series?

Lee: At the moment there are four but we have two more almost completed and we are planning to have twelve in the range altogether. Plus workbooks, audios and a web site with lots of extra material.

Mike: Very impressive. You are quite an entrepreneur. And a web site is the fashionable way to go these days.

Lee: Fashionable and reasonable. The web site will also carry some advertising. I have some sponsors lined up. It's another revenue stream.

Mike: Sounds like a lot of hard work but it's definitely a good career move. Do you need any help with the web site. Don't forget that I'm a web designer.

Lee: That's great. We have some ideas but we don't really have a good design yet. Come over to my office tomorrow and we can discuss it. You can see the layouts and get an idea of what we want and we can talk about getting a proper contract drawn up. Two O'clock OK?

Mike: Sounds great. I'll be there.

Questions

What does Lee want to do?

What kind of business is it?

What will write the books?

What is an entrepreneur?

What is Mike's job?

Why does Lee think the idea is good?