Tag: First Certificate FCE

Career Coach Finds Your Dream Job

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Just about everyone faces a moment in their professional life when they question the job that they do, when it doesn’t challenge them anymore or simply having that feeling that they should be somewhere else. However, some time after the outbreak of the pandemic, it appears that there has been a significant increase in the number of people reconsidering their career opportunities.

A vast career coaching industry has sprung up in recent years, with the goal of sustaining and enhancing a different approach in professionals’ careers, as well as gaining the skills for them to be established and eventually being able to reach their dreams.

Let’s take a look at the article below to find out how a career coach can help you find your dream job.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220103-can-a-career-coach-find-you-your–dream-job

Discussion Questions:

  1. Would you ever consider having a career coach? Why or why not?
  2. How would you go about it when the moment comes and you feel you aren’t where you want to be professionally?
  3. What are some of the worst and best jobs you can think of and why do you consider them as such?
  4. What kinds of jobs interest you the most and the least?
  5. Talk about your dream job and how you intend to land it.

Social Loafing

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Generally, when a greater number of people work on a group task, the less effort any one member of the group will work towards accomplishing the goal. This phenomenon is called social loafing. It has been widely studied and identified to know what causes it and to find solutions to its negative effects.

Watch the video to know more about social loafing and how to prevent it and be able to answer the questions below.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the causes and effects of social loafing?
  2. Have you been engaged in social loafing before? What happened? Share some of your experiences.
  3. What are some ways on how to avoid this in the workplace?
  4. In which setup do you work better, working alone or with a team? Explain why.

How Does the Stock Market Work?

B2 – Upper Intermediate

In a nutshell, the stock market helps companies raise money to fund operations by selling shares of stock. It creates and sustains wealth for individual investors.

Watch the video to know more about how the stock market works.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is your investing strategy?
  2. Do you invest in the stock market? How has your portfolio performed in the last five years?
  3. How can you prevent losses while trading in stock markets?
  4. When is the right time to invest? Why?

Time Management Skills

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Managing how to accomplish tasks is one of the best tools in becoming successful in one’s career or endeavor. However, most of us are wondering why it feels like we just can’t to accomplish all the tasks we should on a daily basis. Maybe, we lack the skills to organize and plan allocating our time to different activities that we need to pull off. Time management is the key.

Here are some tips on how to manage our time to make it more productive and effective.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/essential-time-management-skills/

Discussion Questions:

  1. Which of the tips do you apply in your daily life?
  2. Do you have additional tips on how to effectively manage your time?
  3. How do you block out distractions?
  4. What is your stance on multitasking?
  5. What are your thoughts about getting some down time to rest?

Passion Exploitation

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Most likely, you have heard that once you have found the job you are most passionate about, “you will never have to work a day in your life”. But what if your passion for what you do gives people you work with the idea that they can take advantage of you?

Read the article about passion exploitation.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190719-passion-exploitation

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think about this being practiced/done by some in certain industries?
  2. Do you think passion exploitation is more likely to happen if you work in particular industries? Explain your stand.Why do you think workers in artistic and creative industries are more susceptible to this kind of exploitation?
  3. Talk about an instance when you were asked to work more, on unrelated tasks, or for free. How did that make you feel?
  4. What is the best way to refuse paying the “passion tax”?
  5. What are your thoughts on this, “Doing what you love a double-edged sword.“?
  6. In general, how can some exploitative actions of managers be prevented?

The First Supervised Illegal Drug Injection Site

B2 – Upper Intermediate

In the fight against opioid addiction in the country, the first supervised drug injection center of America has just been opened in New York. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of the establishment of many more centers such as this to help curb the record overdoses in the country.

Watch the video and read the article about the first supervised illegal drug injection site in New York.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/22/amid-the-ongoing-opioid-crisis-america-s-first-safe-injection-site-has-just-opened-in-new-

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think of injection centers such as this?
  2. Do you think that the centre will attract more drug users to the area? Explain your opinion.
  3. How does substance abuse impact a person’s life?
  4. How big is the problem of addition in your city/country? Why do you think this is?
  5. What else can be done to help address the problem with addiction?

Stem Cell Transplant Using Umbilical Cord Blood as HIV Cure

B2 – Upper Intermediate

A female patient who’s been living with HIV was cured using a new approach in which stem cells are taken from umbilical cord blood. The goal is for other patients with HIV to undergo the said stem cell transplant in hopes of curing cancer and other serious conditions.

Read the article about the first stem cell transplant using umbilical cord blood for curing HIV.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/16/woman-reportedly-cured-of-hiv-after-first-stem-cell-transplant-using-umblical-cord-blood

Discussion Questions:

  1. Describe the treatment and the most important element to its success.
  2. What are your thoughts on this new treatment approach to possibly curing HIV and other serious diseases?
  3. What do you think are its pros and cons?
  4. What else do you know about stem cells and stem cell transplants?
  5. Would you be willing to undergo such a new approach if you were inflicted with a very serious condition?

Anti-Ageing Vaccine

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Ageing is a biological life process that is inevitable. It is also the biggest factor that increases the risk of developing diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. However, Japanese researchers are developing a new approach to slowing down or reversing the ageing process.

Let’s read the article below about this new anti-ageing vaccine.

https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/12/14/can-we-live-forever-new-anti-ageing-vaccine-could-bring-immortality-one-step-closer

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on this new anti-ageing vaccine?
  2. Do you want to live forever? If yes, what are you going to do while you live eternally? If not, how long do you want to live and why?
  3. What is a disadvantage of immortality? How would it change our lives?
  4. Who is the oldest person you know? How is their view of the world different from yours?
  5. “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” Do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

Working from Home Tips to Stay Motivated and Productive

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Due to the pandemic, a lot of people were constrained from going to the office and obligated to start doing work remotely.

Surely, there a lot of pros in working from home but there are cons as well. But regardless of these things, the question is, are we making the most out of this new work setup?

Here are some tips which could help ensure we get the best results while working in our homes.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the tips to stay motivated while working from home according to the video?
  2. Which among the tips do you apply personally?
  3. What are the pros and cons of working remotely?
  4. Do you prefer working in the office or at home? Why?
  5. How long have you been working from home? How did you adjust to this work style at first?
  6. Give your personal tips on how to be productive while working remotely.

Middle Ground Fallacy

B2 – Upper Intermediate

We have grown to believe that moderation in all things is the key to a good life. We tend to think that when we are in between two seemingly equal choices, we have to compromise and choose the middle ground. This way of thinking, however, has resulted to countless injustices in the world.

Let’s watch the video and learn more about the middle ground fallacy.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is the middle ground fallacy? Share your thoughts on it.
  2. Aside from slavery, can you give other historical events wherein it was used?
  3. Do you agree that a compromise between one action/idea that is morally indefensible and one that is not is still wrong? Explain your stand.
  4. Have you fallen prey to this fallacy? Share that instance.