Any English teacher knows the value of using an occasional game in an English classroom. The game is often a welcome change from grammar lessons, short reads, writing practice, and contrived conversation situations. Students feel more comfortable and focus more on the challenge of the game than on English. But the practice of conversation in English to solve those challenges, whether it is learning the rules of the game or playing the game, is the most important thing for these students. They are practicing English while they have something else to think about (ie the game).
“Risk & Reward” is a business game for students of business and technical English. The class is divided into teams of two to four students each. Teams will compete against each other to see who can best manage business risk.
Each team receives an initial capital to start investing. Each turn, the team is given four possible investments, each with its own risk and reward profile. Some investments are quite safe but have low returns. Other investments are very profitable but are risky. Some investments are a good balance between profit and safety. And some investments are not good investments at all. The team will use their English to discuss their four investments and choose the best one.
The team then calls the instructor and draws from a set of random number cards. The card determines whether the investment is successful or not. If not, the team goes to the next turn and receives another set of four inversions.
If successful, the team enters the awarded cash flow on their ledger sheet. This ledger keeps track of your investments throughout the game. For most businessmen, this ledger will be fairly easy to understand – the English that explains it will be your challenge. The instructor manual has a very comprehensive explanation for the instructor to learn how to use this ledger.
Entering the numbers must be done under the supervision of the instructor or designated assistant. The team and the assistant will use their English to reconcile the amount that corresponds to the team according to the rules and the profile of the successful investment.
Some students will already have had some financial training and will understandably want to do some financial math to make their decision. When the instructor hears words like “discount rate” and “present value,” she should pull out the financial analysis sheet from a page that already has all the appropriate financial calculations on it. With this sheet, students can focus on their English conversation, not business calculations.
The game is designed so that the teams do not have to all be on the same turn. Some discussions will be long; some will be short; successful investments will take longer to process than failed investments. In other words, each team goes at its own pace. Also, working with this formula provides another unique opportunity to practice “number English.”
Learning “Risk & Reward” is enhanced by its complementary online activity: “Risk & Reward Online”. By listening to the actors play this game before they come to class, students will better understand the rules of the game. Therefore, the learning curve, which can be a somewhat frustrating experience in an English classroom, has been reduced by having students do the listening activity online first. Some students may even get some useful strategy to help them win the game!
But the dialogue has another innovative didactic feature: it was done totally improvised! The actors used the language they would normally use. And like most native speakers, his English was far from perfect. To help explain the imperfect English of native speakers, “Risk & Reward Online” identified over 300 trouble spots and provided emergent explanations. For those English learners who find it difficult to understand native speakers, “Risk & Reward Online” should be used to its fullest.
“Risk & Reward” and “Risk & Reward Online” provide a unique business English training experience. Here’s a rundown of benefits not found in established BE editors:
- Business game to generate conversation in the classroom
- Ledger to generate accounting English conversation
- Online activity to support classroom activity
- Online activity to analyze imperfect English spoken by native speakers
- Both the game and the online activity are free for the instructor and students.
The downside to Risk & Reward is the additional preparation time for the instructor. You don’t have to show up ten minutes before class for this BE activity to work well. However, the enhanced student engagement and unique learning experience should make the instructor’s time investment worthwhile. And the BE instructors who put in the extra time will be recognized as the masters of their profession!
