Communication Styles Across Cultures

C1 · Advanced1 hr 13 minBusiness English AdvancedLesson 4 of 8 · Outline

Aims

Goal: catch the hidden message — decode hedged feedback like 'quite good' or 'we will do our best', check your reading aloud with the Read-Back, and pin down what was actually agreed.

The lesson, stage by stage

  1. Warm up5 min

    Warm-up: Hearing what wasn't said

    2 warm-up questions

  1. Reading10 min

    Reading: When 'quite good' costs you the contract

    Read a 203-word text about When 'quite good' costs you the contract

  2. Vocabulary8 min

    Vocabulary: Communication Styles Vocabulary

    7 items

  3. Framework6 min

    Framework: The Read-Back

    The Read-Back, 4 steps

  4. Reading10 min

    Reading: Three model read-backs

    Read a 332-word text about Three model read-backs

  5. Practice7 min

    Practice: Decode the Communication Style

    Matching exercise, 6 items

  6. Practice7 min

    Practice: Diplomatic Language Construction

    Word-ordering exercise, 4 items

  7. Dialogue10 min

    Dialogue: Interpreting Communication Styles

    Role-play: You are coaching a colleague who is struggling with cross-cultural communication in their new global role. (3 lines)

  8. Discussion10 min

    Discussion: Your mission: run the Read-Back

    3 discussion questions

Open the full lesson

The remaining 8 stages of this lesson, with the procedure, the examples and the exercises, are included with Starter, along with the interactive version you can teach from. Lesson 1 of this course is free: the full plan is on this site, and a free account opens it in the interactive player.

Target vocabulary

In a Tuton account these words become your student's vocabulary deck, so they come back in practice between lessons.

nonverbal cueturn-takinghedgingparaverbalproxemicsregisterelliptical

This plan comes from the Cross-Cultural Communication course in the Tuton library. Browse all free lesson plans.