Varsity Tutors Handling Challenging Conversations
Varsity Tutors Handling Challenging Conversations sets out the language of difficult workplace conversations for advanced learners, published in the adult ESL section of the Varsity Tutors practice library. It covers five principles, four language mechanisms, a six-phase conversation cycle, five types of difficult conversation with sample phrases, a worked feedback scenario and five practice problems with answers.
100% Free (unlimited): The whole lesson is open on the page to any visitor, with no account and no sign-up: the explanations, the diagrams, the comparison tables and the worked example are all there, and each of the five practice problems shows its answer when you ask for it.
How It Helps Your Business English
The lesson opens with the research behind workplace communication, then gives five principles such as separating the person from the problem and focusing on interests. Four mechanisms follow: hedging, I statements, paraphrasing and collaborative proposals, each with a direct and a collaborative version side by side. A table sorts five conversation types by the tools they need.
You start with the four mechanisms and the examples that set a direct sentence beside a collaborative one, so you hear the difference your wording makes. The table of conversation types tells you which tools suit feedback, a conflict or a negotiation, and gives you the phrases. The worked scenario takes you through one conversation step by step, and the practice problems let you write your own answers and compare them.
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