Meaningful Learning:  Language and Enterprise

Pupils in year 9 are required to make subject choices in preparation for their learning at Key Stage 4. This is the first time they are faced with making choices which will affect their career paths and work-related opportunities once they leave school.

Having a more informed understanding of the world of work, the jobs people do and the structure of companies can help pupils make more informed choices about their study and career avenues.

Language teaching is an excellent vehicule for teaching about the workplace because pupils are able to develop a more international outlook with regard to their future career prospects. It can help to broaden horizons and raise a pupils’ aspirations if they become more aware of the opportunities they have on a global scale.

Teaching business through languages has proven to engage and motivate pupils because it enhances the value and usefulness of language learning.  Pupils start to recognise that opportunities for job prospects and income levels can be significantly enhanced through language skills.

Suggested activities

Start off with discussing in English all the jobs that pupils know of in a company and then look at those that are generic to most businesses. Discuss what each of these jobs entail and what key skills are necessary or desirable.

Pupils can match the jobs titles in English to the target language using the attached IWB files and use cognates as clues.  

Ask pupils why people carry business cards and show them the examples and the key details in the attached powerpoints.  Discuss the power of branding and logos.

Pupils could then create their own business card and logo in an ICT suite and browse websites for inspiration e.g  www.google.fr, www.google.de or www.google.es

These resources have been extracted from materials specifically developed for teaching NVQ business languages in secondary schools. Contact us at hello@ilanguages.co.uk for  a CD of free lesson plans and resources.

Relevance to the New Curriculum:

Key Concepts:

Linguistic Competence: Developing the skills of scanning and looking for key details.

Knowledge about language: Recognising the patterns in formulating job titles with the word ‘Manager’.

Creativity: Design own business card using own logos, names, job of their choice.

Intercultural Understanding: Developing an international outlook from an business and career angle.
 
Key Processes:

Develop Language Learning Strategies: Identifying key patterns in formulating of job titles and use of cognates and context to aid understanding.

Developing Language Skills: Scanning for key details.