Group Work: B2+. Patrick McMahon

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      A skills audit (see Exercise 3) is a useful way of finding out about the strengths and weaknesses of the various group members. It is very useful to exchange this information with your group so that you can decide who is best suited to each task.

       Glossary

      skills audit A skills audit is a thorough check or examination of a person’s skills and abilities.

      

Exercise 3

      Read the skills audit form below and rate your skills. Write 1 if you think your skills need improvement, 2 if they are adequate and 3 if they are good.

Skills audit
Skills	Rate your skills 1 / 2 / 3
1 Written communication skills in English: able to write fluently in English without making serious grammar mistakes
2 Spoken communication skills in English: able to discuss things in English, give points of view and justify opinions
3 Pronunciation skills: having good enough pronunciation so that people can easily understand you when you speak
4 Presentation skills: able to give an adequate formal presentation in English in front of others
5 IT skills: able to carry out a range of practical tasks using a variety of computer programmes such as word processing, digital presentations and making posters
6 Numeracy skills: good with numbers when carrying out tasks such as costing, budgeting and keeping accounts
7 Teamwork skills: able to work together with other students, negotiate compromise and share ideas
8 Reading and note-taking skills: able to read long texts quickly and easily, understand them and take useful notes that can be understood later

       Now check the key for comments on this exercise.

      Ice-breakers (see Exercise 4) are a useful type of activity to use when a group meets for the first time as they will help to make all the group members feel at ease with each other. In other words, they help to break the ice.

      

Exercise 4

      Look at the ice-breaker activity on page 20 and answer the questions.

      1 How easy would it be to complete?

      2 How interesting would it be to use?

      3 How useful would it be in terms of getting to know others?

Sharing experiences

      1 Think about something you learned to do recently, e.g. driving or speaking another language.Was it a good learning experience, or not?What made it a good or a bad learning experience?

      2 Think about a really good teacher that you had when you were at school.What made this teacher special?How did this affect the way you worked?

      3 Think about a subject that you did not like at school.What made you dislike the subject?Could anything have been done to make it better?

      4 Have you ever worked in a group before? If so:What made it a good experience?What did you learn from it?

      5 Think about something you have done that needed courage and took you out of your comfort zone, for example, doing something for the first time, or doing something you did not like or did not want to do.How did you face your fear of doing it?What did you learn from it?

       Now check the key for comments on this exercise.

      It is important to make use of the various information you gather about the members of your group during any ice-breaking activities. It would therefore be useful to complete a table similar to the one below.

       Glossary

      distribute If you distribute things, you hand them or deliver them to a number of people.

       For example:

Group skills overview
Group member’s name	Has particular skills in …	Has experience of …

      After sharing the information, you can ask one group member to type it up and distribute it to the rest of the group. The group can then use the information to help allocate roles and tasks that need to be covered in your group work.

       Team-building activities

      Even when students already know each other, it is important to improve communication skills and build trust within a group. In professional life, many companies organize team-building activities for their staff. These activities can be simple ones, for example:

       having a meeting or a conference

       having a meal

       going on a day trip.

       Glossary

      emphasis Emphasis is special or extra importance that is given to an activity or to part or aspect of something.

      The importance of team-building in profession life can be seen by the large amount of money some companies spend on team-building activities. These are often not connected with work in any way and include such things as:

       adventure sports (e.g. climbing, walking, boating)

       raft building

       cooking classes.

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