Summary
This downloadable PDF lesson plan for business English classes analyzes Sephora's market strategy. This class material uses a video and engaging activities to explore how the company revolutionized the beauty industry, making it perfect for an ESL lesson.
This comprehensive ESL lesson plan delves into the business strategies that made Sephora a global leader. Through a series of structured activities, students will watch a video about the company's history, practice key business vocabulary, and analyze the use of the passive voice in a corporate context. The lesson culminates in a creative discussion, allowing students to apply their learning to new scenarios and practice useful phrases for discussing business strategy, making it a well-rounded and practical class material.
Activities
- Students begin with a warm-up discussion about their personal shopping experiences and the concept of "assisted self-service," setting the stage for the lesson's core topic.
- The lesson features a video about Sephora's business model, with comprehension questions that guide students through the key elements of the company's success and its market disruption.
- A grammar exercise focuses on the passive voice, a common structure in formal business English. Students practice by rewriting active sentences about the company into the passive form.
- The final activity is a creative group discussion where students brainstorm how to apply Sephora's revolutionary retail strategies to other industries, like bookstores or car dealerships.
Vocabulary focus
This lesson introduces essential business vocabulary such as 'dominate,' 'conglomerate,' 'leverage,' and 'conundrum.' It also covers retail-specific terms like 'brand agnostic,' 'exclusive,' 'loyal,' 'inclusivity,' and 'tier,' helping students discuss market strategy and customer relations with greater precision.
Grammar focus
The grammar section concentrates on the use of the passive voice in a business context. Students learn why this structure is often used for formality and to shift focus from the actor to the action or result. They then practice transforming active sentences into passive ones, reinforcing their understanding of this key grammatical form.
