General Applications of Materials
for Teachers
The lesson ideas and materials associated with this module stem
from the basic themes presented by the text The American Ways by
Datesman, Crandall and Kearney and serve to supplement the material presented
in the text. These themes include equality of opportunity, material
wealth, hard work and competition and help to characterize U.S. business
culture.
The links presented on this page may be downloaded by the teacher
and distributed in the classroom as reading material, or the links may
be used in the computer lab for reading assignments.
Corporate
Culture Lesson Ideas
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Introduce students to the idea of "corporate culture" through
the first two articles listed. Use the articles for class discussions
on the concept of corporate culture. Ask them to read the mission
statements, or "corporate culture" statements of two of the companies listed
and have students compare and/or contrast the corporate culture of the
two companies. This may be done as pair work as a part of a classroom
discussion and then assigned as a short essay writing assignment.
Women in Business
Lesson Ideas
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1) The ' Part 1' link of the
50 most powerful women in business is well suited for skimming/scanning
exercises and associated short writing activities. Students can select
two or three women from the reading and identify what has attributed to
their success, or they may identify the main idea of the story and find
supporting details.
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2) Ask Students to explore the 3 links
of business magazines: Women's Work, Women's Wire and Women.Com.
Using the table of contents or indexes, ask students to try and identify
some of the issues that women are concerned with or have to face in the
workplace. This can be done initially in the lab with pair
work and discussion and then assigned as a writing exercise.
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3) The Glass
Ceiling is a long article (23 pages), but it is well subtitled so students
can be directed to particular sections for skimming and scanning exercises
and writing assignments (main ideas and supporting details). Writing
assignment can include summarizing or paraphrasing certain
sections.
Facets of U.S.
Business Lesson Ideas
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Each of the sites in this section focuses on different themes or aspects
of U.S. business. These include the entrepreneurial spirit and equality
of opportunity, material wealth, our service oriented economy, getting
rich quick, corporate responsibility and finding employment. Any
of these sites can be used for short, opinion writing assignments, identifying
the subject or main idea, or to draw conclusions. They may also be
used for group or pair discussions.
Business Movies
Lesson Ideas
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These movies present two different themes of U.S. Business and
either may be used to effectively communicate different aspects of our
business culture. Working Girl is a comedy that focuses on
women's' issues and obstacles in the corporate world, while Wall Street
is a serious drama that highlights the ferocious competitiveness of corporate
America. These movies may be introduced by pre-viewing discussions,
which outline the characters and plot of the movie. A listening comprehension/short
answer task sheet should be reviewed before the movie. (See the example
provided in the Working Girl link.) After watching the first
half of the movie, students can answer any relevant questions on the list.
Class discussions in pairs or groups can answer or generate questions about
the plot. Post-viewing discussions at the movie's conclusion can be used
to brainstorm short essay topics.
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Students can read Roger Ebert's movie reviews accessed by the
links below for
background and clues to the plot of each movie.
Cross-Cultural
Communication Lesson Ideas
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1) Two activities may be used by
students online to explore what is culturally acceptable in job interview
and business meetings.
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2) Decoding Body Language and the
Cross-Cultural Communication for Business and Industry (Sections
1 and 2) links are well suited for group/pair discussion work-either in
the lab or the classroom. Short answer questions may be used for
writing assignments with either of these links.
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3) The 'Cross-Cultural Communication
Challenges' link provides a well organized reading
which can be used for discussions or a one paragraph essay focusing on
one of the six
patterns presented.
Business
Focused Writing Activities
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1) The 'Business Proverbs and Sayings'
link may be used for class group/pair discussions or as an outside class
activity. One possibility is to have students select five of the
sayings and ask Americans to explain the meanings and relate what these
expressions convey in terms of attitudes in U.S. business. Students could
then write a short essay on the conclusions they've drawn from this exchange.
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2) The 'Resume' link may be used
to explain the idea of just how job seekers are expected to sell themselves
to their employers in the U.S. Modesty and humility get you
nowhere in business in the U.S. and resume writing is a difficult skill
to master even for native English speakers, so ESL students can benefit
from being introduced to U.S. resume styles.
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3) The link to writing a product
description may be used in a number of ways for writing descriptive essays.
Students can either make up a product/service or select a product/service
off of the Internet and write a short descriptive essay using the guidelines
offered by BizPlanIt.com.
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