Improving soft skills through some activities in english speaking clubs for 10th graders

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUYNH LUU 2 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL ---  TEACHING EXPERIENCE TITLE Improving soft skills through some activities in English speaking

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUYNH LUU 2 UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL - 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE TITLE Improving soft skills through some activities in English speaking clubs for 10th graders

Teacher: Vũ Thị Kim Sự Group: English Tel: 0972018305 Email: levubaoan@gmail.com

March, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENT Page

1.3 Why should teachers introduce soft skills activities? 51.4 Advantages of teaching soft skills through English

3 Samples of helping improve soft skills through some activities in English speaking club for 10th graders 9

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Reasons for the study

The prevalence of English has been a growing concern in the past few years

It is an indisputable fact that, English is the dominant business language and it hasbecome almost a necessity for people to speak English if they are to enter a globalworkforce Research from all over the world shows that cross-border businesscommunication is most often conducted in English English is an importantlanguage for all kinds of professional and personal goals Its importance in theglobal market place therefore cannot be understated Learning English really canchange your life Although learning English can be challenging and timeconsuming, we can see that it is also very valuable to learn and can create manyopportunities! Nowadays, studying English at all levels is not expectedly effectivesince the students are still used to a traditional teacher-centered method of teachingand learning Students have to learn in a passive way and most of them get bored atkeeping sitting and taking notes every day

At The Asian International School, the International English Program hasadopted new teaching methodology applied to all skills and subjects The studentsnot only learn English in class but also get acquainted with this language throughsoft skills activities This is necessary to students’ development of English skills,independence and interest in language

Students can learn helpful lessons necessary to their growth now and then.They will know how to organize group activities as well as independently makingtheir own decisions The most important thing is that students learn how tocooperate and get along with their peers Besides, they will learn new commands

in learning, new vocabulary, and spoken English as foreign teachers’ expectation

Why in recent years, the proportion of children committing crimes, childrengetting involved in social evils and leaving home and damaged are increasingquickly? Why do many students dare leave their families, and find it difficult to getalong with as a group? The above problems are all caused by their severe lack oflife skills

Not a small part of high school students are spoiled, and neglected to study.Bad children seem to be getting younger and younger It is a sad situationnowadays Female students go to school but dye their hair and wear the wronguniform or especially swearing We were shocked to hear our children are middleschool students saying: "Teen sex early, everyone knows only parents don't know".Alternatively, they consider this a very normal thing

Students increasingly have more complicated relationships at school, class,and outside friends Small conflicts that occur in everyday life make them easilyagitated There are instances when high school students beat a classmate.

All of the above phenomena are due to their serious lack of life skills such asself-control, emotions, communication skills and skills to protect themselves fromnegative harm, behavioral skills

Life skills are not a few of the skills we often hear, but include many skillsthat need to be equipped for children Learning life skills has been put intodifferent levels of education, by age, and at each educational level

Moreover, facing the challenges of the times and the new demands ofintegration, soft skills have become extremely important equipment To survive,develop, master and manage work, modern life with an increasingly dynamicworking environment, more pressure and competitiveness, soft skills are anindispensable factor

Being a teacher of English for a long time and from my personal experience,

I myself find out that soft skills are an essential part of improving students’ ability

to work with others and can have a positive influence on furthering their career Ifthey are a small business owner or self-employed, soft skills can help them find,attract, and retain clients

Highly developed presentation skills, networking abilities, and etiquetteawareness can help students win new clients and gain more work from existingclients Honing their abilities to resolve conflicts, solve problems, and provideexcellent customer service can lead to stronger relationships with colleagues,vendors, and other professional contacts Ultimately, strong soft skills can helpthem gain confidence-an invaluable trait in the business world

On the other hand, a lack of soft skills can limit their potential, or even bethe downfall of their business By developing strong leadership, teamwork, andcommunication abilities, they can run projects more smoothly, deliver results thatplease everyone, and even positively influence their personal life by improvinghow they interact with others

Therefore, teaching soft skills in English not only helps students improvetheir English but it is also a significant way to lead them to success in their lives

As a result, it is very necessary for us to introduce soft skills in school

Having applied these soft skills activities, my students have studied moreactively and effectively and they can gain a lot of emotional intelligence or theability to interact amicably with others They are more excited to access the lesson

My students are encouraged and they are eager to learn as well From these

activities, they can draw many lessons in life and no longer feel stressful and boredduring classes To be honest, I feel satisfied with what I have done

I would like to recommend some soft skill activities in English speakingclubs so that my colleagues can apply them to help their students be successful inlife The topic is “Improving soft skills through some activities in English speaking clubs for 10th graders ”

Of course, this study cannot be perfect in limited time I do hope that thecontribution of my colleagues will bring it to perfection and be widely applicable

II Aims of the study

The aims of this study are:

- To give a brief overview on soft skill activities and introduce samples ofhelping improve students’ soft skills through some activities in English speakingclubs

- To increase students’ creativity and activeness

- To help students learn in free and flexible ways

- To boost students’ confidence and help develop a learner-centred dynamic

- To produce a dynamic and stimulating environment

- To reduce students’ stress and pressure

- To achieve the highest achievement in learning a foreign language

III Methods of the study

- Base on my personal teaching experience

- Study a variety of documents and share experience with my colleagues

- Carry out surveys and interviews among 10th graders as well as havingsmall discussions about the effectiveness of the application

- Apply and adapt some essential knowledge from the workshops andclasses I have participated in before

IV Scope of the study

10th graders

PART B: CONTENT

I Theoretical and practical background

1 Theoretical background

1.1 What are soft skills?

Soft skills are character traits and interpersonal skills that characterize aperson's relationships with other people In the workplace, soft skills areconsidered a complement to hard skills, which refer to a person's knowledge andoccupational skills Sociologists may use the term soft skills to describe a person'semotional intelligence quotient (EQ) as opposed to intelligence quotient (IQ)

Soft skills have more to do with who people are, rather than what they know

As such, they encompass the character traits that decide how well one interactswith others and usually are a definite part of an individual's personality In acompetitive labor market, employees who demonstrate they have a goodcombination of hard and soft skills often see a greater demand for their services

Soft skills, like the ability to communicate and work together, are some ofthe most sought-after employee skills In fact, 92% of recruiters say soft skills arecritical tools they look for in their applicants Unfortunately, soft skills do notcome naturally to everyone Activity-based soft skills training gives you theopportunity to instill these desirable qualities in new hires

1.2 When to use soft skills activities?

At the high school level, life skills education is integrated in the mainsubjects, activities to salute the flag at the beginning of the week, weekendhomeroom activities, extracurricular activities, cultural activities, sports, youthradio programs

Many schools have actively organized soft skills activities for studentsthroughout the school year, forging student skills to participate in collectiveactivities, handicraft village sightseeing activities, historical relics, English festival

In Quynh Luu 2 high school, our English group sets up monthly Englishspeaking clubs with various combination of soft skills activities in the aim of:

+ Improving students’ soft skills through activities

+ Giving students opportunities to practice listening skills and practicespeaking interactively real English within the students’ community

+ Increasing fluency, reducing accents and building confidence to think andspeak English

+ Providing opportunities for students to express opinions and debate issuesand thereby encourage critical thinking

+ Learning English in a fun way in a natural and authentic English speakingclassroom community

English speaking club plan:

September, 2019 Ability to work under pressure and time

management

October, 2019 Negotiation and conflict resolution

November, 2019 Communication

December, 2019 Self – motivation and leadership

April, 2020 Responsibility and problem solving

May, 2020 Flexibility and decisiveness

1.3 Why should teachers introduce soft skills activities?

Most interactions with other people require some level of soft skills At acompany, you might be negotiating to win a new contract, presenting your newideas to colleagues, networking for a new job, and so on We use soft skillseveryday at work and developing these soft skills will help you win more businessand accelerate your career progression

On the other hand, a lack of soft skills can limit your potential, or even bethe downfall of your business By developing strong leadership, delegation,teamwork, and communication abilities, you can run projects more smoothly,deliver results that please everyone, and even positively influence your personallife by improving how you interact with others.

Outside of the office, soft skills like communication is used to buildfriendship groups and meet potential partners You might be negotiating the price

of your new house renovation, or mentoring your neighbours’ children on theweekend Soft skills are useful both in our professional and personal lives

1.4 Advantages of teaching soft skills through English speaking clubs

By participating in the soft skills activities, students are more active, conscious and creative to explore the great variety of environments outside theclassroom

self-Life skills education activities have contributed to change students'perception and actions They know how to control their own behavior, have skills

in conflict resolution, are more confident in communication, and participate incollective activities with more enthusiasm and quality From that, they create anddevelop the values of living and necessary skills

These activities also help students grasp knowledge, strengthen solidarity,contribute to educating them about ethics, lifestyle, compassion, awareness ofenvironmental protection, nature, and behavior skills with friends, teachers especially contributing to promoting the activeness, initiative and creativity ofstudents Since then, it contributes to personality orientation, career futureorientation for students in the future

1.5 Disadvantages of teaching soft skills through English speaking clubs

Although being aware of the importance of soft skills education for students,

at present, the introduction of soft skills education in schools is still limited,proactively integrating soft skills education in just one number of teachers, has notyet become a requirement like some other integration content

- Soft skills training needs to be done through active and practical activities,while many students are still accustomed to passive learning Most of the students

of the school come from rural areas, so their ability to adapt to modern society isstill weak, and their understanding of soft skills is almost nonexistent

The above factors show that integrating education to educate soft skills for students

in current school hours is very important and necessary

- There is no doubt that learning English by using soft skills activities cantake more time to prepare for the lesson

- Disadvantaged and handicapped students generally have fewer opportunities

to learn academic content outside of school They cannot catch up with theirclassmates

- Students may be lack of detailed knowledge of the locality and lack of skills

2 Practical background

According to the research results, there are many reasons affecting thecurrent status of students' soft skills: from teachers, from students themselves, fromthe school and from the society

+ Teachers:

Despite the fact that soft skills activities have so many outstandingadvantages, some teachers feel it new and strange They hesitate to apply theseactivities because they are familiar with the traditional hard skills activities

+ Students:

Among the reasons from the students themselves, the most prominent one isthat students do not know how to choose a reliable "source" to learn the soft skillsand have not invested adequate time and effort to practice the soft skills

+ School:

On the school side, it is mainly not focused on training soft skills forstudents as a long-term activity

+ Society:

On the social side, communication on soft skills is still quite sporadic, with

no methodical and elaborate investment and there is no regular and continuoustraining program

II The solutions

1 Classification of soft skills activities.

Below are some typical soft skills activities teachers usually use in teachingEnglish

1 Ability to work under pressure and time management

2 Negotiation and conflict resolution

3 Communication

4 Self - motivation

5 Leadership

6 Responsibility

7 Problem solving

8 Flexibility

9 Decisiveness

10 Teamwork

2 Tips for a successful soft skills lesson.

We can teach soft skills in many ways such as organizing social activities,clubs, and charities Alternatively, stimulating the passion of reading, developingskills in sport activities In addition, it is possible to take courses for properawareness

So what determines the success of soft skills teaching? It is not because ofthe miracle from the skills learned through the courses, but the progressive attitude

in each person and personal perception of each individual

"Awareness" and changing perceptions of learning along with training skillsare the most important today Soft skills can be learned and practiced anytime,anywhere and are not confined to just that many standards

For each person, when the sense of wanting to be a good communicator withdetermination, there will definitely come a time when that person becomes a goodcommunicator Success is not achieved in a day or two Hard training, collisionlife, plus wisdom and luck There are lucky people who have the conditions to besuccessful overnight, but there are also people who struggle to make a living for alifetime

- To have an effective and successful English speaking club, teacher has toprepare the plan well, know abilities and characters of each member clearly so that

he can assign tasks reasonably

- Soft skills activities should be closely related to the learning theme, eachlesson content, time, place and it clearly shows the methods and measures toensure the safety of teachers and students

- Soft skills activities must be meaningful, safe and thrifty,

- Teachers must be expected the time to organize soft skills activities at thebeginning of the school year as part of the plan to implement the tasks of theschool year, to ensure the systematic of the lesson

- Make full use of most of the existing facilities, use school space,classrooms that are all practical and useful, extend classroom space, enhanceclassrooms outside the school

- The subject of each soft skills activity must be derived from the interestand excitement of the students, must be closely linked or derived from the life and

experience of the students The subject must be appropriate to the level ofcognitive, psychological age, health of the students Themes must be reasonable inrelation to the season and the school's programming arrangements.

- Teachers need to light up the fire of passion and then burn their best tolight the way for students Because creative soft skills activities require us toreflect, consider carefully, instead of just paying attention to some periods insidethe class

- Encourage students to be active and confident in their soft skills lessonsbecause students are directly involved in such activities

- After each activity, appreciate the importance of the evaluation of thestudents themselves, the students know how to protect and explain the achievementthat they do, creating opportunities for students to evaluate each other

3 Samples of helping improve soft skills through some activities in English speaking clubs for the 10th graders

3.1 Ability to work under pressure and time management

Many jobs come with demanding deadlines and, sometimes, high stakes.Recruiters prize candidates who show a decisive attitude, an unfaltering ability tothink clearly, and a capacity to compartmentalize and set stress aside

Time management is closely related to the ability to work under pressure, aswell as within tight deadlines Employees who manage their time well canefficiently prioritize tasks and organize their diaries while adopting an attitudewhich allows them to take on new tasks and deadlines

Offline Time Management Games

Traditional offline time management games are best played in an Englishspeaking club They are designed for individual and team to play and involve lots

of human interaction – the more people, the more fun

These games are great for understanding how to boost daily productivity andmake better use of working time

Activity 1: Circadian rhythm

Objective: Teach students to synchronize their work with their body clock

with the “Circadian Rhythm” game

Number of participants: 20- 30 people

Tools needed: None

Rules: Ask each player to jot down their daily routine in hours Starting from

waking up to going to bed Each participant should label each block with the

following features: ‘on fire,’ ‘vibrant,’ ‘cruise control,’ ‘at 70%’, ‘distracted,’

‘slowing down,’ ‘tired,’ ‘hungry’ indicating how they felt during the activity they

were doing

- Ask the participants to connect their hourly blocks to time management atthe workplace and discuss the following points

Points to discuss:

+ What is the most active part of your day ‘on fire’?

+ What is the most ‘distracted’ part of the day?

+ During which part of the day is it better to complete the hardest/most manageable tasks?

+ When is it best to take a break?

+ Who has similar working/ relaxing rhythms in your team?

If the participants share their rhythms with each other, they could build anefficient working schedule for the whole team It’s also an excellent opportunity toget to know teammates better and boost communication skills at the same time

Activity 2: Time Squared

Objective: Show students how they allocate their time through the day by

playing the “Time Squared” game

Time limited: 15 - 30 minutes

Number of participants: All members of English speaking club

Tools needed: papers, pictures

Rules:

- Print 3 pages with 24 squares that represent the 24 hours of a day

- Share the 1st page with the participants

- Explain that each square represents one hour of a day

- Ask them to fill out the squares with their routine activities E.g eating 4hours = 4 squares, sleeping 7 hours = 7 squares, etc

Share the 2nd page with the participants

- Ask them to fill out the squares on the second page with the non-workingtime they spend at their workplace E.g, coffee-breaks, talk shops, calls to mom,checking social networks, etc

- Share the 3rd page with the participants

- Ask them to summarize the data from the 1st and 2nd pages on the 3rd page.Use different colors to tell them apart e.g., green for the 1st page, blue for the 2nd,red for the 3rd

- Explain to students that the uncolored squares = ‘productive time.’

The task can be done throughout the day, so that your co-workers have moreprecise results on their papers, allowing them to evaluate time efficiently.Points to discuss:

 How could you re-evaluate your time?

 Would you change anything in your statistics?

 Are there any steps you could take to increase your productive time?

 How would you rearrange your time to have some extra time for rest?

This game is a convenient way to actually see on paper how time is spentthroughout the day Afterward, ask students to find new ways to improve their timemanagement

Activity 3: The Mayo Jar Lesson

Objective: Help students be aware of the importance of doing the most

important tasks first so that they know how to rearrange their work

Time limited: 20 - 30 minutes

Number of participants: 10-20 people

Tools needed: a jar, pebbles, sand, beer

Rules: As the story goes, an instructor stands before his philosophy class with

an empty jar, fills it to the top with golf balls and asks if it’s full The group says “yes.” Yet he still manages to fill the jar with more stuff: first pebbles, then sand, even a beer

It is a powerful lesson Depending on which objects you put in firstdetermines how much of the other items you can put in afterward If you put sand

in first, nothing else will fit (except some water), but if you start with the big rocks(our most important tasks) and go down, you can fit some of everything in

This jar represents your life The rocks are the important things – your family,your partner, your health, your work – things that if everything else was lost and onlythey remained, your life would still be full The pebbles are the other things thatmatter – your house, your car The sand is everything else, the small stuff

How will you manage your time jar?

If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or therocks The same goes for your life If you spend all your time and energy on thesmall stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you Payattention to the things that are critical to your happiness such as studying, helpingyour parents…

Activity 4: $86,400

Objective: Emphasize the importance of time and the way that you are in

control of how you spend it Time is about making the right choices

Time limited: 20 - 30 minutes

Number of participants: 10-20 people

Rules:

- Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morningwith $86,400 It carries over no balance from day to day Every evening the bankdeletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day What wouldyou do? Draw out every cent, of course?

The Bank of TIME

Each of us has such a bank Its name is TIME Every morning, it credits youwith 86,400 seconds Every night it writes off as lost, whatever of this you havefailed to invest It carries over no balance from the day before It allows nooverdrafts Each day it opens a new account for you Each night it burns whatremains of the day

Wrap-up:

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to apremature baby

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who just missed a train

To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask someone who narrowly avoided

an accident

Activity 5: Ribbon of Life

Objective: To help students realise the importance of time that they are using Time limited: 20 - 30 minutes

Tools needed: a ribbon with a length of 100cm (1 meter) and a pair of scissors Rules: Ask your team: What is the estimated lifespan of an individual?

1 If the life span of an individual is 100 years, each cm is one year The response will be no only 70 to 75 years, then cut 25 cms of the ribbon and throw away say its 75 years

2 The age of the participants sitting here is 15, in that case cut another 15

cm of the ribbon say that is gone you cannot do anything

3 You have 60 years left

4 Every year we have 52 weeks, that is 52 Sundays If we multiply that by

50 years, it comes to 8,54 years Reduce the ribbon by another 8,54 cm

5 We also usually have Saturdays off, so reduce another 7cm

6 Public/National holidays are 10 multiple with 60 years That comes to another 1.6 years Reduce ribbon by another 1.6 cm.

7 Your casual leave, sick leave and annual holidays approx 40 days a year, multiplied by 60 Cut off another 6 cm Now you are left with about 36 years

8 You sleep average 8 hour daily multiple with 365 days an again by 60 years (almost 18 years) Cut off another 18 cm

9 You spend time eating lunch, breakfast, snacks and dinner total 2 hours daily (i.e 30 days a year X 60 years= 5 years or so) Cut off another 5 cm

10 Last, let’s figure we spend about 1 hour a day traveling from place to place for activities and such (that’s about 2 more years) We’re down to 6 years of life to make it or break it

Wrap-up:

Our life is too short, therefore we should use every minute meaningfully

3.2 Negotiation and conflict resolution:

"Conflict" that sounds formidable, but there are ways to resolve it, that isequalizing interests and creating community connections.

Conflicts occur in all ages, genders, and professions, but most often occuramong young people Because many young people are impatient, want to provethemselves and often cannot control themselves We must always think and have apositive outlook in all our social relationships Even when we are facing the worstsituations, it requires being very calm and in control of our behavior

Activity 1: Game: Step on the paper

Objective: To help students know how to come up with solution together Time limited: 20 - 30 minutes

Tools needed: papers.

Rules: “With two sheets of A4 size paper, divided equally among two

teams, one sheet for each team, how can we stand on that sheet of paper as manypeople as possible Remember, don't fall to the ground” As soon as the gamemanager gave instructions on how to play, the young people rushed up They didnot know each other, never talked to each other, but did not hesitate to hug eachother to stand on the same foot on the paper The classroom momentarily becamebustling with cheers and calls to each other: "Come in quickly, hold hands"; "Hugtightly, don't fall now" Two groups, each with nearly 20 friends, hugged eachother Someone even clung to each other's shoulders, holding each other in a block.The jury asked two teams to stand one foot for 15 minutes After that, they had

to create many different poses The team whose feet fall out of the paper will lose.But the two teams still resisted

Wrap up: We should identify common interest If we find the same ideas,

we can easily resolve the conflict we are facing

Objective: To help students practise making negotiation in a special situation Time limited: 10 minutes

Tools needed: an orange, a basket.

Rules: Imagine that the weather is so hot and you are all really thirsty.

However, there is only one orange left in the basket What should you do to havethe orange?

Each team receives a scenario explaing why they must buy this special fruit

Wrap up: If we just concern our own benefit without thinking of the others,

we will lose our friendship forever

Activity 3: Punching

Teacher asks students to:

Action 1: Fist their hands punch with two hands

Teacher: Are you painful?

Students: Yes, of course!

Action 2: One hand fists, the other hand releases then two hands punch each other.

Teacher: Is it still painful?

Students: a little bit

Action 3: Two hands release and clap

Teacher: How do you feel? Are you painful?

Students: Not at all, we are happy now

3.3 Communication

A The importance of communication

Effective communication shows respect and value of the other person Ithelps us to better understand each other; not all communication is aboutunderstanding, some are intended to fight, dismiss, invalidate, undermine, etc.but itshould be!

It makes us feel more comfortable with each other and encourages evenmore healthy and effective communication (Abass, n.d.).

B Tips for good communication

Teacher provides some tips for good communication

- Set aside time to talk without interruption from other people or

distractions like phones, computers or television

- Think about what you want to say

- Be clear about what you want to communicate

- Make your message clear so that your partner hears it accurately andunderstands what you mean

- Talk about what is happening and how it affects you

- Talk about what you want, need and feel, use ‘I’ statements such as ‘Ineed’, ‘I want’ and ‘I feel’

- Accept responsibility for your own feelings

- Listen to your partner Put aside your own thoughts for the time being andtry to understand their intentions, feelings, needs and wants

- Share positive feelings with your partner, such as what you appreciate andadmire about them, and how important they are to you

- Be aware of your tone of voice

- Don’t jump to conclusions Find out all the facts rather than guessing atmotives

- Discuss what actually happened Do not judge

- Learn to understand each other, not to defeat each other

- Concentrate on the major problem, and do not get distracted by other minorproblems

To improve students’ communication skills, teacher should design some ofthe following activities:

Activities 1: Verbal communication activities

Verbal communication activities do help students develop leadership skills,build a cohesive team foundation and develop critical thinking skills These skillsare not just useful for communication among colleagues, but they are also put touse in interactions with customers, with vendors and distributors and withrepresentatives of outside organizations collaborating with a company

Word description activity

To do this activity, the team breaks into pairs Then, one partner from eachpair is given a word to describe to his partner He cannot say the word to hispartner, and in some variations of this activity, he is also given a set of wordscommonly paired with it Without using the words he is prohibited from saying,

he must communicate the word to his partner

For example, a participant might be given the word “tree.” He then useswords associated with trees, like “leaf,” “bark,” “ring” and “growth” to try topush his partner to answer “tree.” Often, this activity is timed, so the guessingpartner has to try to guess the correct word within the allotted time limit

Activities 2: The Guessing Game

Objective: This game can boost communication skills and improve

students’ ability of prediction to solve many problems in their lives

Rules:

1 Separate the group into two teams of equal size

2 One player from each team writes name of anyone in the class in a piece

of paper

3 Their teammates will try to guess what the name of the person is by

asking only five “Yes or No” questions For example: Is that a boy?/ Does he wear glasses?/ Does she sit next to the window?/…

Wrap-up:

Obviously it took a long time and effort for us to find out the person in each round, but what if we didn’t have time and only had one question to ask to find outthe person, what would that question be?

The question would be “What is he wearing?” which is an open-endedquestion Open-ended questions are an excellent way to save time and energy andhelp you get to the information you need fast, however, closed questions can also

be very useful in some instances to confirm your understanding or to help youcontrol the conversation with an overly talkative person/customer

The game misunderstanding helps drive creative communication

What you will need: Two or more people, chairs, various objects

How to play:

Have two people sit back-to-back Person A has an object and must describe

it (without explicitly saying what the object is) to person B Person B must thendraw it based on person A’s description

This game is effective for finding new ways to communicate aroundbarriers It also helps build problem-solving skills and effective communicationstrategies

For larger groups, make it a competition by deciding which team created themost accurate drawing in a set amount of time

Activities 4: Stand Up for Fillers

Bich Huong is speaking

How many people use “like” or “um,” or “uh” or “so,” or “right” to fill asilent space? It is a nervous habit that is often rooted in the perceived discomfort ofsilence This activity helps eliminate these fillers in conversation or in publicspeaking

Each student is given a topic that they will speak about for 1-3 minutes(topic is not important; it should be simple) During their speaking time, theremainder of the class will stand when they hear any of these fillers occur in thespeech

The class is listening and the speaker is hyper aware of the words that theyuse It is a deliberate shock to the speaker to see the entire class stand when theyhear these fillers and helps to be mindful about using precise vocabulary

Activities 5: Emotion Awareness

Objective: To help students recognize their emotion so that they can control

it in communicative activities and communicate with their friends better Beingattuned to our own emotional needs is the foundation of understanding why we arehappy or frustrated with others

Time limited: 20 minutes

Tools needed:

Rules: Guess the Emotion

1 Divide the group into two teams

2 Place on a table (or put in a box) a packet of cards, each of which has a particular emotion typed on it

3 Have a participant from Group A take the top card from the table and act out (pantomime) the emotion for his/her group This is to be done in a fixed time limit (such as a minute or two).

4 If the emotion is guessed correctly by Group A, they receive ten points

5 Now have a participant from Group B act out an emotion; award points asappropriate

6 Rotate the acting opportunities between the two groups

7 After 20 to 30 minutes of acting and guessing, call time and announce the winning team based on its point total

Wrap-up:

This helps all participants practice empathy and better understand their coworkers or group members’ reactions

Activities 6: Telephone Exercise

Objective: This exercise illustrates why listening is such an important skill

in communication, and why we should not ignore any opportunities to improve it

Time limited: 20 minutes

2 While participants are busy passing the message along to the next person

in line, play music or engage them in conversation to create some white noise Thiswill make it a bit more difficult but it will mimic real-life conditions, wheredistractions abound

3 When the messages have made it to the end of each line, have the lastperson to receive the message in each line report out on what they heard Next,have the first person to receive the message in each line report the original messageand compare it to the final message received

Activities 7: Making an excuse (ball- bearing technique)

Students stand in two circles, smaller circle makes pairs, faces to face with larger circle Each pair says sorry in many different ways to each other without repeating

By doing this, students can learn how to make an excuse when

communicating