Language Knowledge Lesson 1 Vocabulary/Reading Description A series of activities to introduce, understand and practise reading longer texts (approximately 150 words); learners also practise choosing the correct vocabulary item to answer multiple-choice questions to fill gaps. The topic is customer service. Teacher s Notes Aims of the lesson Time required Level Materials required to provide practice for the Reading and Language Knowledge, or fill the gap, part of the BULATS test to raise awareness of multiple-choice type vocabulary questions and help students understand how these questions are used to test knowledge of vocabulary to develop a number of strategies for this type of task based on practice of sample tasks to present and practise some key vocabulary (collocation) related to the topic of customer service 45 60 minutes This lesson is suitable for B1-level students or above. Student s Worksheets 1 3 (one copy of each per student) Note: More sample questions are available on the BULATS website. Procedure 1. Explain that the lesson will be about customer service and will prepare students for the BULATS Reading and Language Knowledge test. 2. Divide students into groups and ask them to discuss these questions for a few minutes: What do they understand by the expression customer service? Have they ever worked in customer service? What aspects of customer service might be stressful? 3. Now give out Student s Worksheet 1 and ask students to look at the vocabulary items in Question 1a and match them into pairs to make complete phrases. 1
Key to Student s Worksheet 1 Question 1a a stressful refer a customer take something associated have result ensure situation to another department personally with the authority to do something in that 4. Once you have checked the answers to Question 1a, ask the students to look at Question 1b and to explain why the words should be matched in this way. This will help them to identify what they should be looking for when answering the multiple-choice questions. Suggested key to Student s Worksheet 1 Question 1b (Note that students may see other connections which helped them to answer Question 1.) a stressful situation these two words collocate well; you could ask the students for examples of stressful situations they have been in refer a customer to normally, the word refer is used with the word to take something personally this is a fixed phrase associated with the adjective associated is used with the preposition with have the authority to do something this is a fixed phrase result in result is often followed by the preposition in when followed by a noun/gerund ensure that ensure is often followed by that when followed by a clause 5. Now ask students to look at Question 2. They have to fill each of the gaps in the text with one of the six answers. Key to Student s Worksheet 1 Question 2 1. authority (fixed phrase have the authority to do something) 2. refer (to refer somebody to somebody note use of preposition to) 3. associated (to be associated with note use of preposition with) 4. ensure (to ensure that synonymous with to make sure that) 5. result (to result in note use of preposition in) 2
6. Now ask students to look at Question 3. Here they have all four multiplechoice options for each question. They should already be able to spot the correct answer, but it is important that they should also be able to identify why the other answers are incorrect. Encourage the students to think carefully about this, and discuss with other students. This will help them to be much better prepared for this type of exercise in the test. Make sure that students understand the idea of collocation, for example, the word restore collocates with confidence. Key to Student s Worksheet 1 Question 3 1. The correct answer is B. The fixed phrase is have the authority to do something. Have the charge/direction/rule to do something are all incorrect as the collocations do not work. 2. The correct answer is A. The expression is to refer somebody to somebody. The other possibilities are not correct collocations. 3. The correct answer is D associated with. Note that all the other adjectives can be followed by with but none of them have exactly the correct meaning in this context. 4. The correct answer is D ensure. None of the other answers could be followed by that. 5. The correct answer is B result. None of the other answers could be followed by in. 7. Now give out Student s Worksheet 2 and ask them to complete the whole exercise. Encourage them to talk to each other about why they have chosen their answers, and why they think the other answers are incorrect. Key to Student s Worksheet 2 1. The correct answer is A price. This is the only word which can be combined with share to make a fixed expression. 2. The correct answer is D announcing. This word has the most appropriate meaning in the context of a company releasing news. Also, the other options cannot be correct because telling and informing require an indirect object, and saying would need to be followed by the word that. 3. The correct answer is B join. The other words do not have the correct meaning for this context. 4. The correct answer is B confidence. This collocates with the verb restore. 5. The correct answer is A responsible. The others could not be followed by the proposition for. 3
8. Finally, give out Student s Worksheet 3 and give students the opportunity to reflect on the best way to approach multiple-choice exercises like this. Ask them to read the text in Question 1 and choose the correct word in each of the marked pairs. Then, in Question 2, ask them whether they agree with the ideas in the text in Question 1. Also, ask students to share any other ideas or tips for how to approach this type of question. Key to Student s Worksheet 3 Question 1 1. one 2. answer 3. general 4. guess 5. before 6. prepositions 7. for 8. differences 9. For homework, or for a further classroom activity, you could provide students with other short texts, and ask them to write their own multiple-choice questions, using some of the ideas from the text on Student s Worksheet 3. 4
Student s Worksheet 1 Question 1 a) You are going to read a short text about customer service. Look at the words in the table. Match the pairs to make phrases. The first one is done for you. a stressful refer a customer take something associated have result ensure personally the authority to do something situation to another department with that in b) Talk to another student about your answers to 1a. Question 2 Now read the text and fill each gap with one word from the box below. associated authority result refer ensure Tips for managing stressful situations with customers Know your options. Stress comes from the feeling that you lack control. To counter this, know your options for every situation that may occur. For example, do you have the (1).. to give the customer a refund or discount? Alternatively, is there another member of staff or department you can (2).. the customer to? Don t take it personally. If someone has a problem with a product or service and gets angry with you, remember that this person s anger is directed at the product or service you are (3).. with, and not with you. Network. The best way to increase control over what happens around you is to (4).. that you have a back-up team around you. A good rapport with your co-workers should (5).. in your having extra resources that can help you reduce stressful situations. 5
Question 3 In the BULATS test, you will have four options for each gap. Only one is correct. Here are four options for each of the gaps in the text in Question 2. Talk to another student about why the alternative answers are wrong. 1 A charge B authority C direction D rule 2 A refer B consult C apply D concern 3 A joined B related C combined D associated 4 A achieve B empower C gain D ensure 5 A entail B result C produce D involve 6
Student s Worksheet 2 Now look at another multiple-choice gap-fill test. Choose the correct answer for each gap, and talk to another student about why the other answers are incorrect. A NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE Bowden, the truck manufacturer, has appointed Louise Cawley as chief executive. She will replace Tony Bridge, who has been chief executive for the past three years. During this period the company has seen its share (1).. fall by almost 25 per cent and has recently had to forecast lower profits since (2).. a 25 million plan to restructure its business in Europe. Ms Cawley will (3).. the company on 5 th April after the company s annual general meeting. Her main aim will be to restore the (4).. of investors in the company. Ms Cawley returns to Bowden after 11 years at TNG, the specialist car manufacturer. Before this she worked for Bowden for three years and was (5).. for the company s operations in France and Germany. 1 A price B charge C fee D cost 2 A telling B informing C saying D announcing 3 A attend B join C work D become 4 A guarantee B confidence C assurance D certainty 5 A responsible B effective C reliable D positive 7
Student s Worksheet 3 Question 1 Read the following advice about completing multiple-choice vocabulary questions. Cross out one word in each of the brackets. The first one is done for you. BULATS multiple-choice vocabulary questions have several different answers you have to choose from. Only (1) (one/two) option(s) is(are) correct. A number of different skills are needed to find the correct (2) (answer/question). Firstly, you should read the text as a whole, to get a (3) (general/specific) idea about what it is about. This will help you to understand some of the vocabulary, because you will see it in sentences and understand it in context. Then you should look at each of the gaps carefully. It is a good idea to try to (4) (know/guess) which word would be correct in the gaps, (5) (after/before) you look at the options below the text. Then you can look at the four options and see if one of them is the same as your guess. In order to do well in this kind of test, you have to be able to recognise certain common patterns with words. For example, some adjectives are often used with certain (6) (prepositions/adverbs) for example, the adjective responsible is often followed by (7) (for/from). Also, you have to know certain expressions where words that collocate are found together, for example, we can say share price but not share cost, and we say restore confidence but not restore guarantee. Finally, you need to be able to spot the subtle (8) (differences/similarities) in meaning between words. For example, joined with and associated with mean something similar, but not exactly the same. Question 2 Do you agree with the advice in the text in Question 1? 8