International Negotiations

Resources

A key part of this course is the extensive Key and commentary, which is much fuller than 

in traditional coursebooks. Some suggestions have been made in the Trainer’s Notes for 

exploiting the Key and commentary as, say, a reading comprehension or discussion, but it is a 

good idea to make sure both you and your trainees read and discuss the Key and commentary 

for every exercise.

Note also the two CDs included with the course. Encourage trainees to listen to the 

recordings again at home and to practise the techniques they demonstrate. However, make 

sure they realise that by listening to recordings before they are covered in class, they may 

undermine the effectiveness of the lessons. For example, some sections may start with a 

brainstorm activity and then trainees listen to compare with their own ideas. If they have 

already listened at home, it may make them less creative in the brainstorm – they will 

produce the ‘correct’ answers, but not necessarily the most creative answers that they could 

otherwise come up with.

The same is true of the audio scripts, which should be analysed in class and re-read at home 

(perhaps while listening to the CDs), but which should not be read ahead of lessons.

The course website (

www.cambridge.org/elt/internationalnegotiations

) contains the final 

negotiation role play (The East Africa Tender), along with full-size versions of the game boards 

and feedback forms for each module that are provided in the coursebook.

Technology

The course will work best if you have access to some or all of the following:

•  a video camera, to record the role play negotiations. If you don’t have access to video 

facilities, a cassette recorder or MP3 recorder would be useful. Recordings allow you to 

draw attention to very specific or subtle problems (or strengths) that you might otherwise 

miss. Seeing or hearing yourself negotiate can be much more vivid and useful than simply 

receiving feedback. If you keep recordings from the beginning of the course, it will be 

possible to demonstrate clear progress, which can be hugely motivating for trainees.

•  a means of playing back your recordings (e.g. a TV or data projector). Failing that, you could 

make copies of your recordings for trainees to watch at home.

Feedback

This is a crucial part of the course. It can be difficult to give feedback, especially to weaker 

negotiators, but trainers need to get this part of the course right. If feedback is too positive, 

it doesn’t help trainees improve. If it is too negative, it can be demotivating and may add to 

trainees’ stress levels. For this reason, the feedback forms from the website (

www.cambridge.

org/elt/internationalnegotiations

) should always be used, as they allow you to focus on the 

target language and techniques as objectively as possible.

A simple but effective way of giving feedback is to ‘sandwich’ the criticism between positive 

feedback (e.g. The presentation of your proposal was very effective – you really made sure 

everything was clear. You were a bit too active during the counter-proposal, though – don’t 

forget, it’s better to sit back and listen carefully, rather than interrupting at this stage. 

But overall, I think you’re really improving and I’m looking forward to seeing your next 

negotiation.) Criticism always needs to be constructive: discuss with the trainee (and perhaps 

the whole class) how they can overcome the problem in future.