Safe Topics & Taboos

B1 · Intermediate1 hr 13 minBusiness EnglishLesson 2 of 8 · Outline

Aims

Goal: keep small talk in the safe zone — and rescue the conversation in seconds when a taboo topic comes up, with the Graceful Pivot and three model rescues.

The lesson, stage by stage

  1. Warm up5 min

    Warm-up: The dangerous question

    2 warm-up questions

  1. Reading10 min

    Reading: What to Talk About — and What to Avoid

    Read a 201-word text about What to Talk About — and What to Avoid

  2. Vocabulary8 min

    Vocabulary: Topics & Conversation Vocabulary

    7 items

  3. Framework6 min

    Framework: The Graceful Pivot

    The Graceful Pivot, 3 steps

  4. Reading10 min

    Reading: Three model rescues

    Read a 169-word text about Three model rescues

  5. Practice7 min

    Practice: Safe, Caution, or Avoid?

    Matching exercise, 6 items

  6. Practice7 min

    Practice: Fix the Awkward Conversations

    Error-correction exercise, 4 items

  7. Dialogue10 min

    Dialogue: Navigating a Tricky Conversation

    Role-play: You're chatting with someone at a networking dinner. They bring up some tricky topics. Practice steering the conversation to safer ground. (8 lines)

  8. Discussion10 min

    Discussion: Your mission: rescue the dinner

    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.

Start with lesson 1, freeSee Starter pricing

Target vocabulary

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

tabooappropriatesensitivecontroversialneutralicebreakercommon ground

This plan comes from the Networking & Small Talk course in the Tuton library. Browse all free lesson plans.