BBC Learning English

Working Abroad
Ideas for using Working Abroad in class
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Reading

1. Jigsaw reading: assign one section of the website to each group of students. Ask them to read it and
take notes. Regroup the students so that there is one person from each of the original groups in each
new group. Ask the students to share their notes and tell each other about the section they have
read. This would work well with the Experience sections of the interviewees pages.

2. Matching: cut up the texts (e.g. The person, The job and The experience) for three or four of
the people featured on the website (Federico, Adam, Maralde, Chris, Andre or Richard Cook).
Delete all of the names except from The person texts. Using this information, ask the students to
match the other pieces of text to complete the profile for each individual.

3. Comprehension questions: assign one of the sections of the website to each group of students, or
individuals. Ask them to write a set of comprehension questions for the other students to answer.
They can then exchange their questions and answer these while reading through the other sections.

4. Matching headings: print out the transcripts from the interviewee pages (Federico, Adam, Maralde,
Chris, Andre or Richard Cook) and delete the headings from each of the paragraphs. Give the
students a list of the headings in a jumbled order and ask them to match them to the paragraphs.

5. Similarities and differences: choose two of the interviewees (Federico, Adam, Maralde, Chris or
Andre) and ask the students to read through their individual pages. They should try to find three
similarities and three differences in the situations and experiences that they describe.

Writing

1. Letters: ask the students to pretend they are one of the five people on the website who have been
working abroad (Federico, Adam, Maralde, Chris or Andre). They can write a letter from this
person to a friend at home, summarising their experiences.

2. Job applications: ask the students to create a job application for the company or group that one of
the people featured on the website works for or in. For example, a job application to work at the
hospital where Chris works or an application to become a member of Adams band. The other
students can then fill in the applications and the creators can choose who they would like to
employ.

3. Article: ask the students to write an article for their companys magazine on the issues involve in
working abroad. They can do their research on this website and then summarise the ideas.

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4. Dictation: choose a section of the website or one of the listening transcripts to do as a dictation with
your class.

5. Summaries: assign one of the sections of the website to each group of students. Ask them to write a
short summary of the ideas discussed. You could then ask them to edit and collate all the
summaries into a larger piece of writing.

Listening

1. Accents: discuss what kinds of differences in accent there are when people from different countries
speak in English. Play a short excerpt of each of the people featured on the website (Federico,
Adam, Maralde, Chris, Andre or Richard Cook) and see if they can identify which country or
continent they are from.

2. Comprehension questions: assign one of the recordings from the website to each group of students,
or individuals. Ask them to write a set of comprehension questions for the other students to answer.
They can then exchange their questions and answer these while listening to the other recordings.

3. Dos and donts: ask the students to listen to one or all of the whole programmes from the Useful
links sections of the website and make a list of Dos and Donts for working abroad, according
to the advice given.

4. Vocabulary prediction: use the whole programmes for this from the Useful links sections of the
website. Introduce the topic of the programme you are going to focus on. Ask the students to work
in groups and predict the key vocabulary items they are going to hear. The students then listen to
the programme and tick off any vocabulary they correctly predicted. They can also add any they
had not anticipated.

5. Gap-fill: print out the transcripts of the sections you would like the students to listen to. Delete
some of the key words (approximately one in every two sentences). Ask the students to complete
the gaps as they listen.

Speaking and pronunciation

1. Introductions: ask the students to read about one of the six people featured on the website
(Federico, Adam, Maralde, Chris, Andre or Richard Cook). They should take on the role of this
person and introduce themselves to the rest of the class. The other students can then ask them
questions about their experiences working abroad which they should answer as they think that
individual would.

2. Group discussion: put the students into groups and ask them to discuss how one or all of the five
main topics (language, body language, time, status and/or relationships) works in their culture.
They can then present a summary of their discussion to the rest of the class.

3. Roleplay: ask the students to choose one of the situations (e.g. the time when Amelie washed her
clients hair instead of getting her a glass of water) described by the interviewees and roleplay it for
the rest of the class.
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4. Presentation: ask the students to choose one of the five main topics covered by the website
(language, body language, time, status or relationships). They should then prepare a 3-minute
presentation for the rest of the class, covering the main points and advice given by Richard Cook.
They can also add their own opinion about the topic, and information about their own experience of
how it works in their own or other cultures.

5. Individual sounds: ask the students to find examples of words containing particular sounds on the
website. You could then ask them to use some or all of them in a sentence or paragraph and practice
saying them in pairs or small groups.

Grammar

1. Examples: ask the students to find a fixed number of examples of specific grammar points within
the text on the website. You can then look at all the examples they find and discuss how and why
that particular grammar has been used.

2. Question forms: ask the students to read through the pages of the website and write questions for
the other students to answer. For example What is the experts name?. This could be a good
activity to familiarise students with the overall content of the website.

3. Reported speech: use extracts of the interview transcripts to practice converting direct speech into
reported speech.

4. Modal verbs: ask the students to write sentences about the advice given for one of the topics using
modal verbs to show the relative importance of each piece of advice. For example, you must or
you could or you should

5. Comparative forms: ask students to compare the experiences of two or more of the interviewees
and write sentences using a variety of comparative forms (e.g. comparative adjectives, asas, etc.)

Vocabulary

1. New words: ask the students to read through a particular section of the website and find a fixed
number of words which are new to them. They can then look up their definitions, check the correct
pronunciation and write example sentences. The students can then share what they have learnt with
the rest of the class and create a Working Abroad class dictionary to add to whenever they work
with this website.

2. Using words in context: choose a small set of vocabulary from the lists given on the website (up to
12 words). Ask the students to check their definitions and then write a paragraph using as many of
the words as possible.

3. Mind-maps: ask the students to work in groups and create mind-maps of words that are linked to
the topics you cover from the website (i.e. language, body language, time, status and relationships).

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4. Matching: type out the words and definitions from the unit you are looking at, cut them up and ask
the students to match them.

5. Choice of words: some of the transcripts of the interviewees contain errors in choice of vocabulary
often words that dont collocate. Have a look through the transcripts from the unit you are
working on and circle any words that are used inappropriately. Ask the students to suggest more
suitable alternatives.

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Working Abroad bbclearningenglish.com BBC Learning English 2008

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