Doing Business Around the World

In the 21st century it is possible, that you might get a job, where you have to know how to behave, when doing business with partners from other cultures. So you may need to know which differences there is in their part of the world and how to operate in them. The exercises are devoted to help you gain knowledge and skills in doing business around the world.

The webquest is designed to help you gain more knowledge of different cultures. With this webquest you will:

• Learn to avoid cultural mistakes
• Learn to use appropriate choices in an unfamiliar cultural context. (I en ukendt situation)
• Gain knowledge about differences and similarities in business cultures in other countries.
• Gain knowledge of rules and values in other countries. 
• Practice your oral English.
• Practice your written English.

For this Webquest there will be several tasks for you to do. Below you can see the different tasks step-by-step.

• STEP #1 Brainstorm:
  You have now chosen a country, which you should brainstorm on. What do you think of and associate the country with? Write it down on a paper. You must do this task one and one. Compare your notes in your group and add your groupmembers notes to your notes.
  Duration: 15 min.

• STEP #2 Research about your country:
  The next step for you is to read about your country. Use the link with your chosen country.
  • http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/china.htm
  • http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/united_kingdom.htm
  • http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/india.htm
  • http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/russia.htm
  • http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/saudi-arabia.htm
  • http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/us.htm

Focus your reading about: appearance, behavior and communication.

Afterwards you have to fill in this worksheet about your country - one and one, and then compare with the members of the group.

http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/lkamhis/tesl565_sp05/cindy_winnie/webqq2myculture.htm

Duration: 90 min.

• STEP #3 Roleplay:
  For this part you have to write a roleplay about your chosen country.
  
  For inspiration, look at these prewritten roleplays;

http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/lkamhis/tesl565_sp05/cindy_winnie/webqq5sugtopics.htm

The play has to do with people doing business around the world, meaning with people from different cultures and with different lifestyles. As an example: An Englishman is doing business with a man from Tyrkey. The Englishman should know, that he has to be formal in his use of language.

Choose another country which your chosen country are doing bussiness with in your roleplay. Focus on how you appear, behave and communicate in the meeting. The roleplay must content as many mainpoints of your chosen country, as possible.

The roleplay is to be handed in, and performed later.

Duration: 90 min.

• STEP #4 Interviewing a different country:

This task must be made one-and-one.
In this task, you have to interview a member from another group (another country). Use the worksheet “Were are you from?”

http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/lkamhis/tesl565_sp05/cindy_winnie/webqq3yourculture.htm

Compare your worksheet with your groupmembers, and write a short article with the headline “How To Do Business In.

The article is to be handed in, and your teacher will give you respond on this article.

Duration: 90 min.

Your work with this webquest is now compleded. As an evaluation on the workprocess, please answer this questionnaire (one-and-one), and hand it in to your teacher.

Questionnaire:

1. Did your group work well together?

2. Why / why not?

3. Did you find the texts easy to read?

4. Was there enough time to do the tasks?

5. If no! How much time did you need?

6. Did you find the topic relevant to you?

7. Why / why not?

8. Were the goals for this webquest achieved? (Read the goals again)?

9. If no. Which goals dig you not achieve?

Congratulations! You now know much more about doing business around the world, and you are now ready to perform and show good business manners.

Teaching goals

The goals of this webquest are for the pupils to gain knowledge about business cultures in other countries, as well as practicing both oral and written English.

We live in a globalized world were knowledge about other countries is an important skill to have. We do business all over the world, and therefore we must be able to adjust our behavior, according to the people we meet[1]. English is a “lingua franca”[2] in most parts of the world. The focus of this webquest is mainly the context. By doing the written and oral tasks, the pupils will practice these skills, without the pressure of doing it correctly. Kan vi finde en henvisning I vores tekster til dette?

The final product of this webquest is a roleplay (a business meeting between two countries) and an article. In the roleplay, the pupils must use their achieved knowledge about the business culture of their own chosen country. They must also use their imagination (stereotypes) and pretend to know, how business culture in another country is. 

This webquest meet these common goals of English[3] for 7th grade:

Culture and society:

• Skills:
  • The pupil can give examples of cultural and social differences and similarities between their own country and English speaking societies.
  • The pupil can tell about cultural differences and similarities in simple cultural meetings.
  • The pupil can participate in simple prepared cultural meetings.
  • Knowledge:
    • The pupil has knowledge of simple cultural and social conditions in English speaking societies.
    • The pupil has knowledge of chosen cultural and community groups.
    • The pupil has knowledge of linguistic rules, standards and values within chosen groups.

Written communication:

• Skills:
  • The student can write simple informing texts.
  • The student can write coherent and understandably in English.
  • Knowledge:
    • The student has knowledge of use of language in simple informing texts.
    • The student has knowledge of text structure and paragraphing.

Oral communication:

• Skills:
  • The student can do short coherent presentations, on the basis of handed information.
  • Knowledge:
    • The student has knowledge of techniques to work up informations.

Organization

The webquest can be part of a feature week about about cultural differences. Before the webquest the class is divided in groups of 4 pupils. The pupils choose a country from a list we have made. The groups are guided to choose different countries. 

The webquest will guide the pupils through these steps:

STEP #1 Brainstorm
We want the pupils to brainstorm about all they can think of and associate the country with, to be aware of their preknowledge of the culture. Their preknowledge should be noted, so they can compare later in a discussion about stereotypes. (kan vi finde en henvisning til det at bruge deres “preknowledge” – Piaget, Karina Fast(litteracy))

STEP #2 Research about your country:
Afterwards the pupils are researching the culture in their country trough links.  Next task is to individual fill in a premade schedule of their country. They are then to compare their notes in the group.

STEP #3 Roleplay
The schedules and a prewritten role play are to be used as inspiration for the next task, which is to write a roleplay, that shows how to act when doing business with their country.  This task is a group task.

Roleplay: the pupils have to write a roleplay. We hand them a written roleplay as an inspiration to how it is made. The play has to do with people doing some kind of business around the world, meaning with people from different cultures.

STEP #4 Interviewing a different country
The groups interview other groups, with the worksheet where are you from? The interview is done in order to exchange information and gain cultural understanding. From the information from their worksheet, they write a short article about the other countries culture. In the article the students should summarize the main characteristics of the culture and point out main points on how to behave in that culture.

After the webquest the groups present their country by performing the role play. Summary skills and problem solving skills should be emphasized in this task.  After the roleplay, the pupils compare their preknowledge with the new gained knowledge. This should be reflected on in a class discussion about stereotypes. (også en snak om at andre har forestillinger om os (danskerne) – og hvad med de “kasser” vi nu har sat de andre kulturer ind i?)

Evaluation

The written article is corrected by following the advice from the text points to consider (hvor har Solveig det fra??) when giving feedback on pupils written work. When correcting the text the focus will be on the context of the article, did the pupils manage to point out the main characteristics of the culture and did they give main points on how to behave in that culture.

In the presentation the pupils’ summary and problem solving skills will be evaluated. The class discussion will also be part of the teacher’s evaluation, and the students’ awareness of stereotypes can be checked.

View of culture

Stereotypes:

Behavior, oral and written competences.

Hjemmeopgave til Mette (og vi andreJ)