Project 6.1 Internet Business Simulation
Teaching Plan
Teaching objectives:
1. To enable Ss to talk about something on information technology and online shopping
2. To practise listening and reading for specific information
3. To review and master some words and expressions on information technology and online
shopping
Teaching Strategies:
1.Use Communicative Language Teaching, Task-based Learning & Teaching and student-centered
teaching method to guide Ss in their learning; encourage Ss to think for themselves and
participates in class activities actively.
2. Develop students’ communicative ability by group work or role-play.
3. Encourage Ss to find related information through Internet or other references to foster their
self-regulated learning.
Teaching emphases:
●Listening
Listen to the news on online shopping and master some words and expressions about online
shopping.
●Role Play
●Reading
●Case Study
Time Allocation:
Listen and Talk 45min×3
Reading 45min×3
Case Study 45min ×1
Teaching Types:
Lecturing, Eliciting & Discussing
Teaching Procedures
Part I Listen and talk
1. Warm-up
2. Listening and listening typescripts analysis
3. Speaking Practice
4. Role Play
Part II
6. Reading
Part III
7. Case Study: Business ethics
8. Exercises
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Part One: Listen and Talk
Step I Warm-up
Discuss the following questions about internet and e-commerce.
1 .Do you use the internet as a source of information?
2. Do you buy goods and services over the telephone or the internet?
3. Have you ever had any problems with e-commerce (credit card debited but goods not delivered,
etc?)
4. Do you prefer shopping this way, or do you prefer to see goods in shops, and have face-to-face
contact with people in offices?
5. Do you think that, in the future, everyone will regularly use the internet for information or
e-commerce, or will there always be people who do not use it, either out of choice or for economic
reasons?
Step II Listen to the tape and answer the questions.
Online shopping
--- An Increasing Trend
With only two weeks to go before Christmas, buying presents is a high priority for a lot of
people. However, this year not so many people are leaving their homes to browse around the
shops. These days lots of people can do their shopping in the comfort of their own home with the
help of the internet.
Online shopping is becoming more and more popular for a number of reasons; prices are
often lower online, you don’t have to queue up in busy shops and you can buy almost any product
imaginable with just a few clicks of your mouse.
Computer trends are often male-dominated but this year women are expected to do more
shopping on the internet than men. It seems women are now more attracted to the convenience of
online shopping than they used to be.
Average spending online this Christmas by women will rise to £240 (3360 Yuan) compared to
the slightly lower average of £233 for men, while the average spend per person on the high street
is only £197. 70% of internet users, male and female, are now buying their Christmas gifts online.
In the past a lot of people were reluctant to shop online. Many were worried about the security of
entering their card details on the internet and the reliability of the internet but as shopping online
has become more widespread, these worries have begun to disappear. 45% of internet users still do
have security worries but it hasn’t slowed down the ever-increasing numbers of online shoppers.
One victim of the online shopping boom is the UK high street. Christmas trading can
represent up to 60% of turnover for some stores. Many companies are concerned that not enough
shoppers are coming through their doors in the run-up to Christmas. As a result there are lots of
special offers in the shops.
Most shops traditionally have sales after Christmas but this year the bargains have come early
in an attempt to lure consumers to spend. Bad news for the high street has become good news for
the bank balances of UK shoppers this Christmas!
Questions:
1. Why does online shopping become more and more popular?
2. Women are now more attracted to the convenience of online shopping than they used to be, yes
or no?
3. Why were people reluctant to shop online in the past?
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4. What does one victim mean in the passage?
Step III: Tapescript analysis
1. to browse around 浏览
2. to queue up 排队
3. a few clicks of your mouse 点击你的鼠标
4. the high street 主要商业街
5. entering their card details 填写银行卡资料
6.widespresd 流行广泛的
7.ever-increasing 不断增长的
8. turnover 营业额
9. special offers 特价
10. in the comfort of their own home 在家里舒舒服服的
11. any product imaginable 可以想象到的产品
12. male-dominated 由男性主宰的
13.reliability 可靠性
14. internet users 上网者
15. trading 交易
16. the run-up 即将到来之际
17. to lure 诱惑
Step I V Speaking
Work in pairs and talk about online shopping.
Step V Role play
The Palmtop Shop is a small store in the town centre selling handheld computers, Palmtops
and PDAs(personal digital assistants). It employs two full-time staff – the owner and a salesperson
– and an extra salesperson on Saturdays. The owner is thinking about opening a website and
setting up an e-commerce department.
The Saturday salesperson, a computer science student, thinks e-commerce is the future, and that
the store should be closed and turned into an online business.
The full-time salesperson is opposed, preferring to work with customers rather than process
electronic orders. A sales representative for a PDA manufacturer, who knows the shop and its staff
well, thinks the shop should expand into other products – laptop computers, mobile phones, etc. –
whether they sell them in the store or online. He/She would also like a job with the company.
These four people meet to discuss the future of the business.
Ask every student should have to prepare a role: what you will say if you are the student, owner,
full-time salesperson, etc.?
Part II Reading
Step V Reading
1. Explain the reading.
Battle stations
We are at the threshold of a new age of communication, and many observers appear to be
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feeling optimistic about it. Information technology will bring knowledge and power to the
dispossessed, they predict, making life easier for everyone. For them, the internet is the ultimate
democracy. Are they right? I doubt it. The optimists are ignoring the likelihood that the new
information technology will disenfranchise large sections of society. The certainties of the 20th
century- in politics, economics, business and society – are evaporating. Everything is changing,
and anyone who does not embrace the change will go under.
So just how will the changes affect you and me, the governments we elect and the countries
we live in? To begin with, as electronic commerce grows, governments will find it harder to raise
taxes. Every day, trillions of dollars move around the global electronic money markets as
corporations carry out their transactions in low-tax jurisdictions. As products and services that
have traditionally been delivered physically are transferred electronically, the tax deficit will grow.
l People are increasingly buying goods and service via the internet from places where sales taxes
are lowest.
Another example is the regulation of large organizations. Governments will find it more and
more difficult to keep track of the activities of corporations and non-governmental organizations
that operate simultaneously all over the world. Now that better communications are increasing the
globalization of business, how can governments control companies that produce and sell in several
different countries?
As with most new technologies, rich countries will be among the first to benefit. It won’t be so
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rosy if you’ poor. India is rapidly being wired up with mobile telecommunications networks. So,
in theory, a small farmer from USA will be able to exchange email notes with his counterpart in
India. But this is likely to remain a ‘theoretical’ possibility. How many India small farmers do you
know who are ready to use the internet? Like traditional networks, the internet will attract wealth
along its highways. Those living off the beaten track will be cast into obscurity.
In this way, information technology will accelerate inequality. As this change is bound to
alienate and dispossess many people, civil unrest is inevitable. Information warfare will be
commonplace between individuals, pressure groups, companies and the state. The dispossessed
will hit the capitalists where they are the most vulnerable: in their computer and
telecommunications infrastructure. Criminals will be able to exploit people in the same way. The
internet makes it very difficult to police rogue traders because buyer and seller do not live in the
same jurisdiction. It’s clear what all this means: the underlying order of life is breaking up. Most
of us are blind to the change. Drugs, crime and terrorism, once localized problems, are now
organized globally. Unemployment among the semi-skilled will increase as more production jobs
are automated.
Natural selection will decide which parts of societies will degenerate and which mutate into
stable survivors in the new environment of the Information Age. People with computer skills are
likely to end up winners. Those without are likely to emerge as losers. The power of the nation
state will weaken. Communities that invest substantially in communication technologies will
thrive. Those that don’t, or those whose citizens are isolated from the new ways to communicate,
will suffer. Change is inevitable. The Information Age will be kindest to those who adapt.
2.Read this article and write a brief heading for each paragraph, summarizing its content.
Possible headings:
a. A new age of communication and the optimists
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b. The internet and tax avoidance
c. Globalization and regulation
d. Rich and poor countries and the internet
e. Unrest, crime, and terrorism
f. Thee survival of the fittest
3. Reading Comprehension
Which of the following things does the author of the article believe?
a. A new age of communication is beginning.
b. Consumers attempt to avoid paying taxes.
c. Corporations attempt to avoid paying taxes.
d. Drug smuggling and terrorism are local problems.
e. Everyone has to adapt to the current political, economic and social changes.
f. Governments can control multinational corporations.
g. Governments will find themselves without enough tax revenue.
h8. Indian and US farmers will soon be exchanging emails.
i. Information technology will be available to everyone.
j. Information technology will lead to increased unemployment.
Answers:
a. Yes (We are at the threshold of a new age of communication.)
b. Yes (People are increasingly buying goods and services via the internet from places where sales
taxes are lowest.)
c. Yes (… corporations carry out their transactions in low-tax jurisdictions.)
d. No. e. Yes. f. No.
7. Yes.
g. No(… this is likely to remain a ‘theoretical’ possibility)
h. No (…the new information technology will disenfranchise large sections of society.)
i Yes.
Part III Case Study
Step VI Case Study
Business ethics
Some people argue that the objective of business, and consequently the role of managers, is
to make as much money as possible for themselves. Other people argue that companies have to be
careful never to cheat customers. Still other people insist that companies have social and ethical
responsibilities to their customers, their staff, their business partners, etc. Discuss what
responsibilities should a company have
Step VII Exercises:
Translate the sentences into English.
1. 好吧，我给你一个特别优惠价。
2. 除非你们减价 5%，否则我们无法接受报盘。
3. 我们现在可以报茶叶现货。
4. 货款支付后，我们将按发票金额的 5%汇给
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你方佣金。
Answers:
1. Let me make you a special offer.
2. We can’t accept your offer unless the price is reduced by 5%.
3. We are in a position to offer tea from stock.
4. We shall remit you a 5% commission of invoice value after payment is effected.
5) I have no idea what will be a good souvenir from a ski trip.
Step VIII Additional Information
the reliability on the part of the sellers 商家的信誉
after-sales service 售后服务
（product) of good quality (产品）质量好
receive a special offer for free 收到一份免费赠品
mix the dough 搅拌面团
box the baguettes 面包装箱
shopping charges 运费
weight of the parcel sent 需要投递的包裹的重量
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