Cultural Small Talk

A2 · Elementary48 minConversation SkillsLesson 7 of 8 · Outline

Aims

Goal: make small talk across cultures — safe topics everywhere, the questions to avoid, and how to recover from a faux pas.

The lesson, stage by stage

  1. Warm up5 min

    Warm-up: Small talk across cultures

    2 warm-up questions

  1. Reading10 min

    Reading: Small Talk Around the World

    Read a 275-word text about Small Talk Around the World

  2. Framework6 min

    Framework: Cultural Do's and Don'ts

    Cultural Do's and Don'ts, 4 steps

  3. Practice7 min

    Practice: Cross-Cultural Communication Vocabulary

    Gap-fill exercise, 5 items

  4. Dialogue10 min

    Dialogue: Meeting an International Colleague

    Role-play: You're at a company welcome lunch for a new colleague who has just relocated from another country. You want to make them feel welcome while being culturally sensitive. (4 lines)

  5. Discussion10 min

    Discussion: Your mission: small talk without borders

    5 discussion questions

Open the full lesson

The remaining 5 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.

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