Working as a Volunteer in a Charity Shop
Overview
‘Working as a Volunteer in a Charity Shop’ is aimed primarily at learners who are already working as volunteers in charity shops or who want to find out more about working in the sector. The resource uses authentic sound recordings as a springboard for practice in all four skills within this context.
The resource is linked to ‘Voluntary work’, a resource which provides a minimum of three hours learning. Both resources were designed to complement each other and give learners a clear picture of working in this type of environment.
Note that the recordings were made in situ using a small, portable recording device to make sure the language was as authentic as possible. The quality may be ‘grainy’ in places, and there may be background noise.
Level
ESOL Entry 3 – Level 1 / SQA ESOL Intermediate 1 - Intermediate 2 in Scotland / B1 – B2 CEFR Framework
Learning hours and delivery context:
The resource provides a minimum of three hours of learning in a classroom or workplace context through a series of linked worksheets. It is flexible in terms of timing and differentiation. The worksheets can be grouped into units as follows:
- Unit 1: (Worksheet 1) Lead-in to the subject and pre-teaching of some key vocabulary.
- Unit 2: (Worksheets 2-4) Listening skills focussing on job roles in a charity shop. Can be delivered as a stand alone unit.
- Unit 3: (Worksheets 5 and 6) Follow-up writing practice.
- Unit 4: Worksheets 7-10 Listening skills and language analysis focussing on customer interactions. Can also be delivered as a stand alone unit.
- Unit 5: (Worksheets 11-12) Follow-up language analysis, reading and speaking activities.
The resources have been produced in two different formats:
- a self-access resource for learners with online activities
- a resource for teachers to use in the classroom with teachers’ notes and worksheets to download
The teachers’ notes include an answer key, tapescripts and suggestions on exploiting the materials, but the worksheets are self-explanatory and teachers are encouraged to adapt them to meet group/individual needs.
Teacher notes - Unit 4
Aims:
- To listen to an interaction between native speakers of English for gist and detail.
- To encourage learners to think about the range of functions ‘conditional’ sentences have in real-life situations, in particular making offers (‘We can, if you like, send them for recycling’) and suggestions (‘If it can be used, you might not want to have it recycled’)
Objectives
Learners will be able to:
- Understand the gist and detail of an interaction between native speakers of English in a charity shop setting.
- Make offers in a friendly and polite manner.
Materials
Recording ‘3 Customer with donations’; Worksheets 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Recording ‘3 Customer with donations’; Worksheets 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Approximate timing
45 minutes
45 minutes
Suggested procedure
Lead-in
Ask learners to discuss in groups; ‘What do you have at home that you could take to a charity shop?’ Ask the learners to write a list of their items, as we will be returning to this in Unit 5 (Worksheets 11 and 12). Each learner could write their own list, or you could appoint one ‘secretary’ for each group.
The topic of ‘Gift Aid’ comes up and you should mention this briefly, but don’t give away too much detail as one of the questions in Worksheet 9 focuses on this.
Listening Task 4
Listening Task 4
In this task learners listen for gist pick out some key vocabulary.
More confident learners should be able to complete question 2 without the worksheet, in which case you should write questions 1 and 2 on the board.
If they have access to computers, learners should go to online activity 1 below and follow the instructions online. Alternatively hand out the paper version: Worksheet 7
Link to online activity 1
Listening Task 5
This task encourages the learners to listen more closely to the recording to develop more accurate listening skills. Give them the worksheet before playing the recording again- they may be able to complete it from memory. They can then check their answers while listening.
If they have access to computers, learners should go to online activity 2 below and follow the instructions online. Alternatively hand out the paper version: Worksheet 8
Link to online activity 2
Listening Task 6
In this task learners listen for detail. They can probably complete some of the questions from memory, so get them to discuss the questions in pairs or groups before playing the recording for them to check their answers.
If they have access to computers, learners should go to online activity 3 below and follow the instructions online. Alternatively hand out the paper version: Worksheet 9
Link to online activity 3
Language focus
The aim of this section is to help learners notice the way we often use ‘if’ clauses when making offers and suggestions. Before starting the worksheet you might want to brainstorm and board a range of expressions used for making offers and making suggestions, to highlight the fact that there is no 1-1 correspondence between these language functions and particular forms.
Instead of handing out the worksheet you could enlarge it to A3 size, cut up the sentence halves of the matching exercise and get the learners to mingle and match them together. Then put 3 columns on the board (‘making an offer, ‘making a suggestion’ and ‘giving information’) and invite learners to attach the sentences in the right column.
If they have access to computers, learners should go to online activity 4 below and follow the instructions online. Alternatively hand out the paper version: Worksheet 10
Follow-up activities
Focus on making offers; this can be dealt with as ‘lexical chunks’ which learners can use easily:
- Making offers; ‘I/we can … if you like/want’
Less confident learners might feel more comfortable writing example sentences, while more confident learners could approach this as a role play.
Suggested scenarios:
- A colleague is extremely busy when you arrive at the shop. Offer to help out (eg. making them a cup of tea, sorting the donations, putting things on the shop floor).
- A customer finds it difficult to get around the shop. Offer to help out (eg. getting things down from the shelves, letting them leave their bags behind the counter).
Downloadable Material
