Working remotely

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are to:

• – Build remote work vocabulary including “telecommuting,” “digital nomad,” and phrasal verbs with “get” while understanding business terminology in this upper intermediate ESL lesson plan.
• – Compare advantages and disadvantages through video comprehension about working remotely versus onsite plus reading activities about project management for business English lessons.
• – Express professional opinions by discussing remote work challenges, completing IT project visuals, and engaging in workplace conversations using these English teaching materials for adult English lessons.

In this Upper-Intermediate ESL lesson, students learn how to talk about remote work. They will acquire language to express the advantages and disadvantages of a general topic.

Introduction

The student reads a paragraph about remote work and identifies new topic-related expressions (telecommuting, digital nomad, keep track of, etc.). Then, they learn the meanings of these expressions by matching them with their definitions/synonyms.

Phrasal verbs to talk about remote work

The student is introduced to phrasal verbs with get and some others, which are useful when discussing remote work (get through, get ahead, run through, etc.). The student practices using the new vocabulary by completing the sentences. 

Reading: How to work well remotely 

After reading five tips on how to work remotely, the student summarizes the basic ideas of the text by filling in the gaps with the missing words (accomplishment, participate, objective, etc.).

Video: Pros and cons of working remotely

The student watches a video in which remote work and working onsite are compared and contrasted.  The student learns and matches some new expressions with the explanations, and later on completes the video comprehension exercise.

Next, they discuss pros and cons in their own words.

Reading: Managing a project remotely

By reading a short paragraph about managing a project remotely, the student gains knowledge of some useful words and phrases commonly used in a business environment (obstacle, milestone, timeline, etc.).

Based on what they learned, they complete an IT project management visual using phrases in the box.

Finally, they read about the risks of remote work and complete a reading comprehension exercise by choosing the correct answers.