Professional Documents
Culture Documents
06 UNIT 6 Class 2 Extra Meeting
06 UNIT 6 Class 2 Extra Meeting
1. Look at these opinions about meetings. Put a tick beside the opinions you share and a cross
beside the ones you disagree with.
1. The purpose of most meetings is to decide when the next one will take place. d
2. A meeting is a group of people who can decide nothing alone and who decide together that
nothing can be done. d
3. It’s better to send everyone a memo about a new procedure than to have a meeting about it. d
4. Meetings help everyone to feel personally involved in decision-making. a
5. It’s better for the boss to make a decision than to have a meeting. d
6. The most important person at a meeting is the chairperson. a
7. The most important piece of paper at a meeting is the agenda. d
8. Most meetings are un-necessary; they’re just a way of making people feel important. d
9. It’s better to talk to each person individually than to call them together for a meeting. d
10. A meeting may be the only chance the members of a group actually have to see each other
face to face. a
11. Meetings lead to better decisions because of the exchange of information and ideas. a
12. You can never rely on the person who takes the minute to tell the truth about what have
actually happened at a meeting. a
13. More time is wasted during meetings than during any other business activity. a
2. Look at the following eight problems. What kind of meeting is the best way of dealing with
each one?
a. A one-to-one meeting of two people involved
b. A meeting of four or five of the people involved
c. A meeting of about ten of the people involved
d. A meeting of everyone involved
e. No meeting: one person should decide what to do and then inform everyone by phone or by
sending out a memo
2.1. A large customer continually pays late. Your sales manager and credit controller have politely
and repeatedly complained but this hasn’t made any difference. The time has come to decide
what to do about this. a
2.2. In a small factory the older workers are ignoring safety rules and encouraging the younger ones
to do the same. Some of these rules may be excessively cautious and the older workers’
production rates are very good. d
2.3. In a medium sized factory, groups of workers operate as teams. One group has been getting
poorer results than the other teams and verbal warnings have had no effect. e
2.4. The firm is having a bad year and it will probably be necessary to make five members of the
office staff redundant. The normal policy is “last in – first out”. d
2.5. Someone has been leaking information about your firm’s products to your competitor. It may
be a member of your staff or one of your preferred suppliers.
2.6. The board requires a report on your department’s long-term plans over the next ten years.
2.7. The territories covered by your sales force have been unchanged for ten years. A revision of the
boundaries might make the team more efficient.
2.8. There is a company picnic next month and everything has to be planned and organized.
PART II: LANGUAGE WORK
1. STANDARD EXPRESSIONS
2. OTHERS
2.1. If you are in a meeting, you can find out what the other people in the group think
- What is your view on this, John?
- Dr. Brown, what do you think about this?
- Do you agree?
- Ms Smith, what’s your opinion?
2.2. If you want to interrupt someone and put forward your opinion
- If I could just make a point here… Could I make a suggestion?
- Sorry to interrupt but I’d just like to say that … It seems to me that …
2.3. If you want to find out if the others in the group understand what you have said or if they
agree with you
Do you see what I mean? Don’t you think so?
Are we unanimous? Don’t you agree?
Are you with me? Does anyone object?
2.4. If you don’t understand what someone has said
Sorry, could you say that again, please? Sorry, I didn’t quite understand.
I’m sorry, I didn’t catch what you said. Sorry, I’m not quite with you.
2.5. If you want to make strong recommendation
You should/ shouldn’t ____________. I think/ don’t think you should
________.
I would advise you to ____________.
2.6. If you want to suggest other possibilities
What about ______________ ? How about __________?
Why don’t you ______________?
2.7. If you want to respond to the suggestion?
That’s a good idea. That’s out of the question.
That’s a possibility. I don’t think that’s the answer.
I’m not sure about that.
3. Listen to people giving and responding to suggestions and fill in the blanks
Suggestions Responses
1 _____________ your present customers. ____________________ that’s the
_____________ .
2 ______________________ your agency ____________________ about that.
on the Internet?
3 ________________ languages training in ____________________ the question.
their companies?
4 __________________________ more _______ , that’s ______________,
unusual languages. ____________________ to employ
any more people.
5. _________________ specialist translator _______ , that’s ______________
on the Internet? _______________ I will try it.
Participants
3.3. Match these phrases from the conversations to the correct box below.
a. I don’t agree. g. Why don’t we … ?
b. Any view on this? h. I think we should ….
c. I don’t think we should ….. i. We need to discuss ……
d. What do you think? j. The important thing here is …..
e. How do you feel about that proposal …. k. We can either … or …
f. It’s a waste of time.
NANCY MARCEL CARLOS
1. Introduces the subject i
5. Makes a proposal h
e
6. Asks for a reaction 7. Disagrees a
f
9. Rejects the suggestion 8. Suggests an alternative g