The Cambridge Preliminary and First exams are split into two groups – students and adults. Today, I’m focusing on the adult side and putting together a lesson where students can chat about different job options and career paths, just like in PET Speaking Part 3. This lesson is great because it lets everyone discuss the ups and downs of various choices and can easily work for Business English classes, too.
I believe any topic can be tweaked for Cambridge prep classes. This time I picked work as the theme for my adult PET students who are in full swing preparing for their December exams. Since they really enjoy chatting and it can get a bit chaotic during the speaking section, I planned a lesson that clearly shows them how to have a successful discussion for that part of the exam.
You’ll find the presentation and the worksheet with the teacher’s notes at the end of the post, so it’ll save you time prepping for class!
The class begins with a casual chat about what everyone does in their jobs. To get them ready for discussing the pros and cons, students share what they enjoy and what they find tough about their current roles. If you’re teaching a Business English group from the same company, though, it might be a good idea to split them up or totally skip this question!
Since this class is all about refreshing our memory on the rules for the PET Speaking Part 3, I thought it’d be helpful to share what this part is all about and how it should go down. A lot of students feel like they have to talk as much as possible, but that’s not really the point here. There aren’t any prizes for who talks the longest, so it’s important to remind everyone to listen to each other, share thoughts on what others say, and definitely ask questions. Ideally, the conversation should end with everyone agreeing on something, but this time I wanted to put more focus on giving short answers and talking about the pros and cons of each option.
Now, here is a task that’s a bit more interesting than the usual exam stuff. Start by checking out the question in the middle of the page along with five different options. This time, the focus is on weighing the pros and cons of various job choices. We’re looking at working remotely, being part of a small or large company, freelancing, and starting your own business. As an example, kick things off with the ups and downs of working remotely. Think about flexibility – like setting your own hours – and then there’s isolation, which can be a bit of a downside. These two points are explored in the later part of the class. Students pair up and come up with one good and one thing for each job option. Then, bring everyone together to share their thoughts and see how they compare!
For this lesson plan, I decided to try out an AI voice generator called ElevenLabs that I discovered through Blog de Cristina. I went with the free version, which lets you generate 5 minutes of voice every month. So far, I’ve only used 18 seconds of that time for this plan, so I think I’m good with sticking to what I have for now.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsCan it get any better? Now, you can design your voice to be unique! https://t.co/w83PY97hIZ
— Blog de Cristina (@blogdecristina) October 23, 2024
Before jumping into the example answer, students listen to a quick chat between the exam candidates and write down some phrases they used to share their opinions, point out pros and cons, ask for thoughts, and show agreement or disagreement. This is where ElevenLabs comes in. Check out the recording below and let me know what you think about this tech and if you’d use it in your classroom.
Once you’ve listened, take a look at the example answer transcript to spot the phrases we talked about earlier and how they’re used. Wrap up the exercise by getting students to share other expressions that could work for this section of the speaking exam.
Now that students know how to interact with each other, they can pull up their old notes on the pros and cons of each option and chat about them with their partners. If you feel like your students could use a bit more help, you could have them do this task in front of the whole class, and then give them feedback after each pair has spoken.
Wrap up this class with a quick exam task for PET speaking part 3. First, have everyone read through the task and take a good 30 seconds to check out the options in silence. Just a reminder – they’ll have around 15 seconds in the real exam to look at the task before they start talking. This task focuses on developing the skills needed to advance in students’ jobs. Once you finish, ask each pair to go ahead with the task and try to come to a decision by the end of it.
If you’re on the hunt for a fun lesson to do with your adult PET candidates or just Business English students looking to chat about the ups and downs of various jobs, you’ve come to the right place! Check out the files by clicking the links below.
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