Packaging is a huge international industry that is at the forefront of many important topics like the three Rs and food security. However, there are few materials available on how to teach packaging company staff the English they need to communicate about such topics with customers, subsidiaries, the press, etc. This article gives some suitable ideas, including activities which should also be interesting for people in related areas like manufacturing and engineering.
What packaging industry staff need to know
Packaging companies obviously have staff who need more language related to their job functions like HR staff, but specific lessons on packaging industry English are likely to be useful for sales staff, R&D and other engineering staff, and possibly the PR and marketing departments. Such students are most likely to need to:
- talk about numbers (dimensions, weight, strength, price, etc)
- talk about materials (chemical compositions, what acronyms stand for and mean, etc)
- talk about processes (how the packaging is made, how the product is packaged, the R&D process, how the packaging is customised for particular goods, etc)
- compare different things (different kinds of packaging, different materials for making packaging, packaging in different locations, etc)
- explain things that non-specialists don’t understand and/ or ask specialists to explain, using checking and clarifying language like “In other words,…”
- use passive voice (“It is made from…”, “It was invented…”, etc)
- use trends language (“Demand has dipped but…”, etc)
The vocabulary they need tends to include lots of abbreviations and compound nouns, so lessons on these may also be useful.
How to present English for the packaging industry
Although there are few materials available for teaching English specific to this topic, there are loads of interesting articles, videos, podcasts, etc on topics like how packaging is made, innovations in packaging, and the history of packaging. Articles can be edited or rewritten to include more of the useful language listed above. Before analysing the article for such useful language, students can:
- put a mixed text into chronological order (by when particular things were invented, by the steps of the process, etc)
- add missing words (the names of the kinds of packaging, the countries where particular things happened, the years from a mixed list, etc)
- discuss how well the things are described (accurately, clearly, of interest for particular audiences, etc)
How to practise English for the packaging industry
Packaging vocabulary guessing game/ definitions game
Students describe something on the list of useful vocabulary such as “bubble wrap” until someone guesses what it is, then they can discuss how good the explanation was.
Packaging data warmer cooler guessing game
Find amazing data about how thin some kinds of packaging are, how many tons of some kinds of packaging are used each year, what percentage of some kinds of packaging are recycled, when a particular kind of packaging was first used, etc. Then split that data between at least two worksheets. Each student turns the data on their worksheet into “How much/ many/ thick/ long/ heavy/…?” questions, asks those questions to someone who has different data, then gives them hints like “Much longer” and “Slightly later” until they get to exactly the right number.
Packaging innovations game
Students try to come up with new kinds of packaging such as a Tetra Brik made from tree bark, and get a point if a quick Google search can’t find any evidence of someone else coming up with the same idea.
Packaging bluffing games
Complete packaging bluff
Packaging is such as a specialised but ubiquitous industry that any class is bound to include a mix of levels of knowledge of any terms you bring into class. You can use this to your advantage with a game where students and the teacher pick terms like "PET” and “VMI” at random, and then have to explain something about them with their knowledge or just their imaginations. Perhaps after asking for more details, the person listening then guesses if the speaker knew something about the topic or not.
Mixed packaging bluff
This is similar to the game above, but with students who know about the topic also adding one imaginary detail, and students who know nothing about it just making everything up. The other person then just has to identify one false feature (in both situations).
Packaging abbreviations bluff
Make a list of abbreviations that they know but might not know the long version of (“cc”), longer phrases that they might not know more informal and shorter ways of talking about (“POS”), and vocabulary that they need to know how to pronounce which doesn’t have common shorter forms (“polystyrene”). The teacher or a student explains an abbreviation (or other shorter more informal term) and its longer more technical version, including a made-up version of the former if it doesn’t exist, then others try to guess if it is all true or not.
Describing packaging processes games
Fun activities about describing processes include:
- one student describing a process in as much detail as they can, then other students getting points for adding more details such as alternative steps
- students taking turns adding the next step to the process
- one student describing a process without saying what it is for the other students to guess
Packaging language collocations pairwork
Make a list of useful words and expressions for your students that can be split into two like “bottle + cap”, “shrink + wrap”, “to be + precise” and “de+celeration”. Put those expressions in an example sentence with those parts in bold, then split the sentences between two worksheets at the place where the two parts go together, e.g. “You then screw on the bottle” on the Student A worksheet and “cap until it is tight” on the Student B one. Students try to put the two halves together without showing their worksheets to each other, first by just reading the parts in bold, then reading the whole sentence to help and check.
Packaging industry board games
Students who know a lot about the whole industry and/ or have to use English in lots of different situations such as different kinds of meetings could do a board game where each square is a step in an imaginary project from first talking to a potential new client to packaging up their products, via negotiations, internal R&D meetings, etc. They can then progress around the board by how well their partners think they dealt with each situation, e.g. six squares for dealing with a negotiation perfectly.
Students who are not involved in so many meetings can just be given topics like “the future of packaging” in each square to talk about on their own, progressing around the board by how long they talk (e.g. 2 minutes after time taken off for silence = 4 squares).