Topic VII: Employment

In this unit students describe their past work and educational experiences and their present work in the Peace Corps. They learn the names of common jobs and what subject a person may have studied in school in order to enter a profession. They also learn to tell others where they work and to ask about their own duties and schedule. Since many Volunteers will be teachers, example sentences are given for education.

Also included in this unit for Volunteers working in classrooms are classroom commands to control a class and ways to ask for assistance in a school setting. Since Volunteers will be meeting lots of host country nationals at their work, this unit includes social language for conversing with co- workers.

7.1 Identify past and present (future) employment (self). Ask about others' jobs.

Situation: with host family; with colleagues at work

FUNCTIONS:	ENGLISH LANGUAGE SAMPLES:
- inquiring	What did you do in the U.S.
	(What was your job in the U.S.?)
- identifying	B: I was a (job).
	A: What is your job in (host country)?
	(What is your Peace Corps job?)
	B: I'm an English teacher.

Presentation:

- Listening: Spiel (see Listening Activities): Talk about your own job now and a job you had in the past. Have students listen. They can then ask you clarifying questions and you can ask questions to them to check their comprehension.

Professions: Show pictures of common professions, both past jobs of the Volunteers and common jobs in the host country. Have each student choose a picture (either of a job they have had or a job that they want to know the name for in the target language) Have students ask you, "What's his job?"

- Recitation: (see General Activities) Have students learn a short speech about what they did in the past and what they do in the Peace Corps. For example: "I was a (graduate student) in the U.S. I studied (English). Now I am an English teacher."

Practice:

- Depiction (see General Activities): Students draw a picture of themselves in their job in the U.S. They also draw a picture of themselves in their new role in (host country). Students share their drawings in pairs and explain them to each other. Or S I can ask S 2 about his past/present work.

- Action Guessing Game: What's My Line: (see General Activities) Have students mime the job they had last year. Other students guess using only yes/no question.

- Family Jobs: Have students bring to class a photo (or draw a picture) of their family and have them talk about the family members' past and present jobs.

- Chain Drill/Double Circle (see General Activities): Using the above questions (What was your job in the U.S.?; What do you do in (host country)?), have students ask and answer them in a chain or double circle drill.

- Action Guessing Game (see General Activities): Put the names (or pictures) of common jobs on index cards. Students form teams, Taking turns, a person from each team takes a card and mimes the occupation to get team members to guess it.

- Concentration: (see General Activities): Play concentration with pictures of professions on half of the cards and the names on the other half.

- Games: Other games (see General Activities) can be played to practice the names of professions.

- Information Gap (see Listening Activities): Have students listen to the following story about four people who have different jobs. Students must work together to figure out the answers to the questions at the end. You can put this story on tape and then students can listen to it as many times as they need to in order to get the answers to the questions.

Who Does What?

Four friends live in (host country). Their names are Bob, Bill, Max and Jack (substitute common host country names). They all have different jobs. One is a policeman. One is a teacher. One is a farmer. One is a doctor.

Bob's son broke his leg. He took him to the doctor. The doctor's sister is Max's wife. The farmer isn't married, but the farmer is getting married next week.

Bill buys eggs from the farmer. The policeman sees Max every morning.

Who is the policeman?
Who is the teacher?
Who is the farmer?
Who is the doctor?

Use:

- Interview: Host Family Occupations (see General Activities): Ask students to find out the occupations of their host family members. Have them report these occupations to the class. They can report orally, by drawing pictures and explaining the pictures or by miming the professions and having the other students guess.

7.2 Locate place of employment

Situation: with host family, friends

- inquiring	A: Where do you work?
- locating	B: I teach in (city)
- identifying	I teach at (City High School).
	A: Where is (City High School)?
	B: It's on (Main Street)
	It's at the corner of (Main and First
	Street).

(Note: students may not know their work sites during training so they should practice the language with an imaginary site)

Presentation:

- City Map: Use the city map developed in previous units. Pointing to the map and the place where you are holding class, say: "I'm a teacher. I teach at (name of school). (Name of school) is on (Second Avenue)." Point to a school on the map and ask students: 'Where do you work?" Students respond based on the place you point to.

Practice:

- Employment Sites: If students know where they will be working, have them practice the above in pairs. If they don't know where they'll be working, give student pairs an index card with the name of a work site/location on it. Have students practice the exchange in pairs.

7.3: Describe educational background

Situation: with host family, friends

- describing: I studied (subject) at the university.

Presentation:

- Picture Presentation: Show pictures of people in different jobs. Show the pictures, ask the name of the job, then present the subject the person may have studied to do his/her job. For example: He's an architect. He studied architecture. She's a doctor. She studied medicine.

Practice:

Pictures: (see General Activities): Students practice the phrase by matching a picture of person in a profession with the name of the subject he studied.

Use:

- Interview: Homestay: (see General Activities): Ask members of your homestay family what they studied in school. Also ask host country nationals what a person who wants to be a (profession) needs to study. Have students share their findings in class.

7.4 Ask for information about duties, hours, schedule

Situation: at the work site with administrators

- asking for information	What are my duties?
	What time are my classes?
	days
	levels

Presentation:

- Spiel: (see General Activities) Give a spiel about your own teaching including in a description of your duties, your hours, and your schedule. For example: "I teach (language). I have two classes every day. My students are beginners.

They study in the morning. I teach from 8:00- 12:00. I teach Monday -

Thursday." Have students listen to the spiel. Then ask them questions about what you said. Then have students ask each other about your duties, hours, schedule.

Practice:

- Time/Days of the Week: Review time/days of the week (see Topic 2, time activities).

- Information cards: (If students know their working schedule, you can work with their real schedules. If they don't yet know their schedules, use imaginary ones) Divide students into pairs. Give S 1 in each pair a card with information about a class on it. Have S 2 ask S 1 about his teaching duties, hours, schedule. Then switch cards within the classroom and have S 1 ask S 2. Sample card:

- 3 EFL classes: beginning, intermediate, advanced
- secondary school
- 9:00-3:00
- Monday- Thursday

- Information Gap: Working Schedule - (see Listening Activities): Give students a schedule with some information filled in, some missing. Read information to the students. Have them fill in the blanks:

Sample Chart:

SCHOOL	LEVEL	TIME	DAYS
elementary		7:00-12:00
intermediate			Monday-Friday
college			Tuesday-Saturday

Sample text:

- I work at an elementary school. I teach beginners. I work from 7:00- 12:00 on Monday through Saturday
- I teach from Monday to Friday. I teach at a secondary school. I have classes from noon until 4:00. I have intermediate students.
- etc.

7.5 Give classroom commands.

- Situation: in the classroom

- instructing others to do something	Sit down.
	Raise your hand.
	Don't talk.
	Hand in your papers.
	Go to the board.
	Listen.

Presentation:

- Daily Classroom Commands: Students have learned to understand and follow the classroom commands that you give daily. Continue using the commands and add additional ones as appropriate.

Practice:

- TPR Drills: (see General Activities) Review the classroom commands using TPR. Then have students take the role of teacher and practice giving the commands (they may have already practiced giving the commands during Topic II, Classroom Orientation).

- Simon Says (see General Activities): Review classroom commands by having students take turns being Simon and giving commands to others in the class.

- Role Play: (see General Activities): Give a few students roles by whispering to them or giving them a task card. For example:

- You need to go to the bathroom.
- You want to tell your best friend something.
- You refuse to do anything that the American teacher tells you to do.

Have students perform these roles while a student is playing the teacher role. Have all students discuss how a teacher should respond to these students.

7.6. Ask for assistance

Situation: at the workplace

- asking for help	Can you help me?
- asking for clarification	I'm sorry. I don't understand.
	Can you explain again.

Presentation/Practice:

- The language in this section will depend on the culturally appropriate way to ask for assistance in a work setting. Help students by means of a role play situation to know who they should go to for help, and how they should request assistance. Also, if the country's educational system requires specific paper work, this is a good time to practice asking for help in filling out forms.

7.7 Converse with Co- Workers

Situation: at work

- greeting people	- Hi. How are you?
	- How's your family?
- asking	- How's the weather?
	What are you doing this weekend?
- inviting	- Would you like to come for dinner?
- inquiring about (dis)pleasure	- Do you like it here?
- inquiring	What do you like to do in your free
	time?
- inquiring about (in)capability	- Can you play tennis?

(Note: Social language varies from one culture to another. Substitute appropriate small talk for the samples above and teach students to answer these questions appropriately.)

Presentation:

- Conversation with a Native Speaker (see Listening Activities): Invite a colleague to come into your classroom. Ask students to listen while you chat. Include in your conversation common topics (weather, weekend plans, hobbies, sports). Then make a list of the areas you talked about and some of the phrases you used.

Practice:

- Review: Have students practice the social language from Topic 3.

- Weather Report (see Listening Activities): Tape a small segment of the weather report from the radio. Preview new vocabulary with the students. Then have them listen to the weather report. Ask questions or give students questions on a worksheet to find the answers for.

- Class Interview: (see General Activities): Give each student a grid with places for the names of 5 students. Have each student interview 5 of his classmates and find out their favorite leisure activities. After all students have finished their surveys, compile the results and find out which activity is the most popular among the Volunteers. Then compare these activities with those of host country family members (see Use activity below).

- Cocktail Party (see General Activities): Give each student a card that describes his role. For example: Your name is Bob Jones. Your hobby is tennis. You are looking for someone to play tennis with.; Your name is Susan Smith. You hate tennis, but you want to meet Bob Jones. Your favorite sport is swimming.

Use:

- Interview (see General Activities): Have students ask their host families about their favorite leisure activities.