Negotiation Questionnaire

In preparation for oral presentations and report writing the students evaluate their negotiations by filling in the Negotiation Questionnaire. After they have filled in the questionnaire they should compare their results with a classmate. This creates an opportunity to practice speaking and to reflect on and analyze the negotiation.

As an option students could be requested to write one paragraph in which they will describe their negotiation partner, supporting their statements with examples from their negotiations. You may wish to ask a student to give you permission to analyze his/her paragraph as a classroom activity (If this seems inappropriate, you can use a student model in the Writing Models section. To analyze the writing you have a choice of using photocopies, overhead projector or the board.)

Oral Presentation

Formal presentations at meetings and conferences are typical for the world of business and academia. Like any other language skill, oral presentations require certain amount of practice in which the speakers focus on clarity of communication. Clarity involves not only language skills such as grammatical accuracy and pronunciation but foremost organization and logical development of ideas. As one of the most successful American public speakers put it, the success of his speeches could be attributed to the following principle: first he told his audience what he was going to tell them, then he told them that, and finally, he told them what he had said he would tell them.

The negotiations experience of the students creates an excellent opportunity for practicing oral presentation skill. The following is an evaluation form that the students can also use as guidelines for preparing their presentations. The suggested time of the presentation is 7 minutes. Consider peer evaluation as well as teacher's evaluation.

The Presentation Evaluation Form in the Activities Section can be handed out as guidelines for preparing presentations.

Report

Having conducted the negotiations and having given oral presentations the students should be ready to write a report. Report Writing Guidelines and the Report Evaluation Form are in the Activities Section. You have a choice of 1) giving the students a very specific focus for the report (Report Guidelines #2), or leaving it up to the students to decide on the focus of their report (Report Guidelines #1).

In the Writing Models Section you will find a Student Model of a report. Asking the students to give comments and evaluate the model is a valuable language activity. This is how it can be done.

• make copies of the Student Model for half of the class (i.e. if you have 28 students, make 14 copies). (You may also choose to focus on only one section of the report, so photocopy only this section). Also make an overhead copy for yourself.
• make copies of Report Writing Guidelines for half of the class
• divide the class into pairs
• give each pair a copy of a Student Model and a copy of Report Writing Guidelines
• assign enough time for the students to read and evaluate the content and the organization of the report
• when the students have finished, using the overhead copy of the report discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the report as a class.

The above activity can be done after the students have written the first draft of their report (either in class or at home). It prepares them to give feedback on their classmate’s reports. So the next thing is to have the students work in pairs to read and evaluate each other's reports along the criteria in the Report Writing Guidelines. Then they should write the second draft which will incorporate revisions.

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