Business English Conversation Lessons: Consumer Protection In this conversation lesson, students learn vocabulary about consumer protection laws and discuss the topic. Teach the vocabulary and then have students do the conversation questions. This lesson will be divided into 2 parts (30 min. each) Vocabulary Recommended terms to teach: consumer protection laws legislation regulatory agencies product safety safety standards, inspections, audits, product testing, product certification, labeling laws, product warnings, hazardous products, recall, banned products anti-trust laws/competition law (British) monopolies, monopolization, cartel, price gouging, price fixing laws against misrepresentation whistle-blower laws privacy laws banking laws debt collection laws, lending laws Conversation Questions 1. What regulatory agencies are there in your country? What are their objectives? 2. What types of products are banned in your country? Why are they banned? Are any unusual products banned? Why? Which product bans do you agree with? Which product bans do you disagree with? Tell your group about it. 3. Think of the company you currently work for. What type of consumer protection laws does your company have to be aware of? How do these laws affect your company? Explain to your group. 4. Does your country have anti-trust laws? Can you think of any well-known examples of companies violating anti-trust laws? In general, how do you feel about anti-trust laws? Do you think they are in the people’s best interest? Discuss with your group. 5. What type of products do you know that have product warnings? What do they product warnings say? Do you think these product warnings are necessary? What type of products do you think should have warnings? Do you think some product warnings are unnecessary? Which ones? Discuss with your group. 6. Does your country have whistle-blower laws? 7. Can you think of any companies that had to issue a recall for a product? What happened? What are some things a company should do if they have to recall a product? What are some things that companies should avoid doing if they have to recall a product? 8. Does your country have any lending laws in place (such as maximum levels of interest on credit cards and loans)? Talk about them. Consumer rights are important for both the customer and the business. Customers need protecting from unethical business practices and businesses need to know that they are operating on a fair and competitive playing field. In this Business English lesson plan on consumer rights, students will have the opportunity discuss and express their opinions on issues such as why consumer rights are necessary, what knowledge they have about their rights as a customer and how these laws affect businesses. Reading activity To save time in class, the English teacher can ask the students to read the article below at home. Ask your student to read the following article while making a list of any new vocabulary or phrases they find (explain any the students don’t understand in the class): Link to the article: https://theconversation.com/research-shows-most-online-consumer-contracts-are-incomprehensible-but-still-legally-binding-110793 (The Conversation | “Research shows most online consumer contracts are incomprehensible, but still legally binding”) The article talks about the contracts customers enter in to when they make a purchase even if they haven’t read the terms and conditions. Hold a brief discussion about what the students thought about the article. What do they think about the issues raised in the article? Do they agree with what was written? Can they think of any ways they might disagree with the content of the article? Video activity To save time in class, the English teacher can ask the students to watch the video below at home. In the class, the students will answer a number of conversation questions directly or indirectly related to the content of the video. Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDgT-w2qhuE&t=1s The video for this class is called “A Guide To Your Consumer Rights” by The Guardian and explains the consumer rights that customers have in the UK. IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES The focus in the class is on conversation in order to help improve students’ fluency and confidence when speaking in English as well as boosting their vocabulary. This lesson opens with a short discussion about the article the students read before the class. Next, the students can give their opinion on the quote at the beginning of the lesson plan – what they think the quote means and if they agree with it. This is followed by an initial discussion on the topic including what consumer rights are and what consumer protection exists in the students’ countries. After this, students will learn some vocabulary connected with consumer rights such as overcharge, recall and proof of purchase. The vocabulary is accompanied by a cloze activity and a speaking activity to test the students’ comprehension of these words. If the students didn’t watch the video before the class, they can watch it after the vocabulary section and answer the conversation questions. Before the conversation, ask the students to give a brief summary of the video and what they thought about the content. Finally, there is a more in-depth conversation about consumer protection. In this speaking activity, students will talk about issues such as the customer protection offered by their companies, unethical practices consumers need protecting from and how the laws and regulations affect businesses. HOMEWORK After the class, students will write a guide for the customers of their company explaining what their consumer rights are. The writing activity is designed to allow students to practise business-style writing as well as improving their grammar with the feedback from their teacher. Consumer rights Being a European Union citizen means you benefit from certain rights in all EU countries, like the protection of workers, the promotion of social equality and the right to free movement. But it also means all the small, everyday things that make a real and daily difference. For example, being able to send back a faulty item you ordered online, low roaming costs or compensation for cancelled flights. In the selection below, you will find publications about your rights, as a consumer. Discuss the EU consumer policy from the ´Consumers´ PDF Discuss the ´Know your rights´ pdf: ask the student to give an example of situation for every instance and discuss if the students have already claimed their consumer rights before What are the ´dispute resolution tools?´. Explain and discuss. Use the following documents to illustrate the procedure of claiming one´s consumer rights: Five key consumer rights 14-day right of return Faulty goods Misleading advertising Unfair clauses Procedural infographic Then choose one or two documents and ask your student to describe the entire process (you may invent a situation and then do a role-play to illustrate the porecess of claiming one´s right, ex.: I bought this computer, but it has a different color than clained in the ad, it is not working, the package did not include charger, I do not like it, etc.) What are your rights when SHOPPING ONLINE WITHIN THE EU? Discuss the document. What are your rights when it comes to flight delays and cancellations? (use the picture to explain and then do a role-play to illustrate the porecess of claiming one´s right, ex.: my flight from Germany is delayed 3 hours, my flight from Bratislava to Madrid has been cancelled, ...)