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The Splendid Speaking Course

Volume 1 Unit 2 ‘Active Listening’
Splendid Expressions
‘Work’, ‘Health and Illness’

Unit 13: A Healthy Workforce

Task: Role Play (3-4 minutes)

Topic vocabulary 1. Introduction: Your boss has sent your team the following memo:
To have a sedentary job
To lead a sedentary lifestyle
To be desk-bound Memo
To be out of condition
To feel run down
As part of our staff development week we want to
To take time off sick promote health and wellbeing to our employees. I’d
To get into shape like you to come up with 3 or 4 suggestions to
To keep fit
To tone up your body encourage staff to adopt a healthier lifestyle. We’ll
Light/moderate/vigorous use them as the basis for an article in the company
exercise
To take a (short) break
newsletter.
To take up exercise
To take a brisk walk
To go jogging
2. Planning: Before joining your group, spend a minute or two making notes
To work out at the gym on any ideas you have to encourage staff to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
To hold/run drop-in sessions
Stress-related 3. Task Focus: In a role play like this where the objective is to reach a
Immune system decision, it’s a good idea to work together cooperatively rather than
To burn calories competing against each other to come up with the ‘best’ suggestion. One
To eat a balanced diet way to do this is to acknowledge what the other person has said, whether
To watch what you eat you agree or disagree. For example:
To go on a (low fat) diet ‘That’s a really good point because …’ ’I can see what you mean but …’
To lose weight
To have a sense of wellbeing This will help build trust and rapport and allow you to show off your
To feel full of beans interactive communication skills as you acknowledge, respond to and
To increase productivity develop points made by your group. Focus on this during the role-play.
To live a healthy lifestyle
To relieve stress 4. Language: Tick the vocabulary on the left you want to use.

Task: Presentation (1-2 minutes)

As a member of a debating society you’ve been asked to make a presentation
on the following statement:

‘A personal view of sport.’

Listen to Ana and Jonas
talking on this subject.
See the February
a r c h i ve s ( I n t e r vi e w 1 3 )
at:
s p l e n d i d- s p e a k i n g . c o m
Would you describe yourself as ‘sporty’ or more a couch potato? What is it
about sport that (doesn’t) interest(s) you.?
Try to give examples to back up statements. This will enable you to make
your points clearly and effectively. Use the following expressions:
‘A case in point is …’ ‘To give you an example … ’ ‘An example of this is …’