A Great Interview For A BUSINESS ENGLISH Course (Part 1/4)

If you're working with business or professional English, this interview is fantastic to work through in a series of lessons. 
I would probably go over a bit of who Chris Voss is and his background. This would interesting to learn about and make the interview more meaningful. 

Who and Why?

This would be perfect for adults or students looking for professional or business English. 

This could be used for many lessons that are more than just English. For example:

• negotiation
• business vocabulary and expressions
• listening to different accents
• listening comprehension
• crime vocabulary
• advertising and marketing
• entrepreneurs 

We learn best with things that are interesting to us.

Pre-Teach and Background

Background information about Chris Voss. Here is a link to his bio in his company's website The Black Swan Group. Knowing information about the author/speaker will give more meaning to the video to the students.

Information and Vocabulary to highlight and/or pre-teach:

Split the difference - 
High-stakes negotiations - 
The lead (adj) - 
Kidnapping - 
Prior to... - 
... on such cases as... - 
Hostage (n) -
Tenure (n) - 

Listen and Discuss

Listen and discuss what you heard in the video. I suggest you break it up in 3 or 4 different classes (or parts).

VIDEO PART ONE: 0:00-11:44
 
I. Comprehension Questions: Watch the video and then answer the following questions based on what you hear.
 

1. What does Chris Voss mean by “trapping people with yes”? (3:30)
   
   
2. Why is this a bad thing? (4:42) 
   
   
3. What cultures and countries are these tactics effective? (7:27)
   
   
4. What is the first step to talk people into doing things? (8:35)
   
   
5. Why is, “Have you given up on <something>?” such a powerful question to in persuasion? (9:05)
   
   
6. Why are “no” questions so powerful?

 
II. Vocabulary:Match the words with the meanings and then fill in the blanks for the sentences from the video.
 
____ 1. A follow-up                                                 a. a strong reaction based on emotion
____ 2. Jump into                                                    b. a specific warning before information
____ 3. Caveat                                                         c. instinctual
____ 4. Predicated                                                  d. founded or based on something
____ 5. To tap into something                              e. to reach something on a deeper level
____ 6. Innately                                                       f. to start something immediately
____ 7. Visceral                                                       g. something that comes after a thing
 

1. Know what their religion is, and __________________.
2. It’s almost ___________ of what we talked about last time.
3. One _________ is if you talk somebody into doing something they really don’t want to do, they’re not gonna do it.
4. Do we know this kind of thing _______________, or do we need to learn them.
5. With that all said, let’s __________ today’s episode.
6. Everything is kind of _______________ on you’re coming from a moral place.
7. That phrase causes a ________________ reaction by the reader.

 

Answers

ANSWERS I:Comprehension Questions

1. Manipulative questions that trap people into continuing to say yes to things. For example: Do you want to make more money? Would you like a nicer car? Etc.
2. Because the results won’t last and it’s not morally responsible.
3. All cultures because it’s human nature. 
4. Look at ‘no’ as a means instead of an obstacle. 
5. It triggers a fear of loss and empowers people to make decisions.
6. If I say ‘no’, I feel more protected and I’m open to listen more.

​ANSWERS II: Vocabulary
1.G  2.F  3. B  4.D  5.E  6.C  7.A
a.tap into itb. a follow up of c. caveat d.innately e.jump intof. predicated on g.visceral 

Worksheet

If you'd like a worksheet to bring to your students, I'll see you on Patreon. If not, feel free to copy and paste the information above onto a document.

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