STAR (an impromptu speaking technique)

Task 1. Work in pairs. Ask your partner the following

question:

Tell me about a challenge that you or your team faced and

how you overcame it.

Task 2. You’re going to watch to an extract from a workshop in Stanford Graduate School of Business. https://youtu.be/-FMB6xtQdjM?t=3m1s

1. What was Sydney Larson’s problem during the interviews?

2. What format does she propose?

3. According to Sydney Larson, what’s the key element of

answering interview questions?

4. What was the example she gives?

______________ => _____________ => ______________=>_____________

Task 3: Vocabulary a. Fill the gaps from memory. Use the video to check https://youtu.be/-FMB6xtQdjM?t=3m1s

Okay, I had six weeks to get our company compliant with various consumer protections regulations

1____ meet an investor requirement, and what 2___________ was tens of millions of dollars.

Very brief and to the point. Next, the task. The task can also be brief.

My task was 3___________ we met that deadline that had been 4___________ by

investors, 5___________ we got the money that we needed.

End of story. And then action. This is where you wanna spend most of your time. You really wanna

help the interviewer understand what is your thought process, what did you do and why did you do

it. So in this case,

I started with a project plan and I talked to various people across the company to try to understand

how were they going to be 6___________ by these regulations and what did we need to change. I

7___________ the project plan and after getting buy in, I followed up really frequently

8___________ we were actually 9___________ because we 11__________________

deadline. And finally, the result. Again, the result can be very short and sweet.

So the result of the situation was that we met the deadline, because of my work, you wanna make

sure that you again give the interviewer a reason to, to believe that you were the one that made this

all happen, and we got the money that we needed.

are up against such a tight deadline impacted to

on track came up with to make sure that x2

set was at stake so

O l y a S e r g e e v a e l t g e e k . w o r d p r e s s . c o m P a g e 1 | 10

https://youtu.be/-FMB6xtQdjM?t=3m1s



b. Match the expressions with their meaning.

A We’re up against a tight deadline. 1 It had an effect on us.

B We’re on track. 2 They chose a date by which we needed to finish.

C We got impacted by this decision. 3 We have very little time to finish our work.

D They set a deadline for us. 4 We’re not behind schedule.

E What is at stake? 5 What will we lose if we fail?

c. What is the difference between so (or so that) and to? Read the examples and complete the rule.

I had six weeks to get our company compliant with various consumer protections regulations to

meet an investor requirement.

My task was to make sure that we met that deadline that had been set by investors, so (that) we

got the money that we needed.

The rule: We use to/so that before a verb. We use to/so that before subject + verb.

d. Discussion. Fill the gaps (you can use the same expression more than once). Then in pairs,

pick two questions that you’d like to discuss.

against a tight deadline impacted set

on track to make sure that was at stake

1. Are you __________ with your current project activities? Generally, do you find it easy to stay _________?2. When was the last time you did overtime? What ____________? 3. How do you ____________ you don’t get distracted when you’re working ________________________? 4. How do you keep track of the deadlines that you ____________ for yourself? 5. Can you remember a decision you made that ____________ other people?

Task 4. Tell your partner about a time when you or your team were up against a really tight

deadline. Use the grid to plan your answer.

Situation Task Action Result

Task 5. Look at these two sentences from Sydney Larson’s speech. The parts in bold aren’t what

she actually said. Can you predict what she in fact say (reformulate them)?

1. I couldn't understand what they had really added to that situation.

I couldn't understand what ____ _______ they had really added to that situation.

2. I had six weeks to get our company compliant with various consumer protections regulations to

meet an investor requirement, and tens of millions of dollars were at stake.


…..meet an investor requirement, and what ______________________________________.

Task 6. Sort these expressions into the table:

So what we did was [verb]

And so as a result I…

So the solution I came up with was to [verb]

So what I was trying to do was [verb]

We needed to make sure that… so that…

What was at stake was [noun]

So what I needed to make sure was that…

So what I decided to do was [verb]

Situation Task Action Result

Task 7. Reformulate these sentences:

1. We didn’t have much time so we decided to focus only on high priority issues.

We didn’t have much time so what______________________________________

2. We didn’t have much time so we focused on high priority issues.

We didn’t have much time so what______________________________________

3. When we identified the problem, we came up with a change to the process.

What______________________________________

4. Next, we let everyone know about the new process.

What ______________________________________

5. We needed to make sure that we stayed on track. We really couldn’t afford to miss that

deadline.

What ______________________________________

Task 8. Which of the following situations have you experienced? Tick✓ them. Share with your partner. Tell me about a situation where

□ you had to work with a really difficult colleague

□ you or your team achieved something great

□ you needed to help someone

□ you had a difficult task

□ you decided to replace a tool/app that you were using

□ you came up with an effective/innovative solution to solve a problem

□ you decided to replace a gadget that you had

□ you needed to learn something

□ you received a good piece of advice

□ you gave someone a good piece of advice

□ you needed to decide how to spend a large sum of money

□ you bought something useful


□ you faced a communication difficulty with one of your customers or teammates

□ you bought something that turned out to be useless

Task 9. Watch Kristin George, the head of product at

TuneIn, talk about a challenge that her company overcome.

Analyze what she says according to the STAR format.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AzjJIRKHeA

Situation Task Action

Task 10. Cover the right column. Look at the left column and guess what’s wrong with the

transcript.

Over the last two years, we've been working

on increasing our overall retention of our

Android product.

In our first version of our app, we focused on

UI elements that we thought would

communicate to users how to move from

screen to screen, or navigate between tabs,

and use a mini player.

Over the last two years, we've been working on

increasing our overall retention of our Android

product.

In our first version of our app, we focused on UI

elements that we thought would communicate

to users how to move from screen to screen, or

navigate between tabs, and use a mini player.

We had our own way of doing this.

It really was this big bar across the screen.

It said swipe here.

We thought that this UI element was going to

be extremely successful.

So we had our own way of doing this.

And it really was this big bar across the screen.

And it said swipe here.

And we thought that this UI element was

going to be extremely successful.

We found people just weren't seeing it. And what we found is people just weren't

seeing it.

We moved over to a Google UI element that

really is being used in places like The Play

Store.

We didn't think that this UI element was as

prominent.

We found that when we released it and tested

it on our listeners-- we found that it was

actually much more successful than the feature

So we moved over to a Google UI element

that really is being used in places like The Play

Store.

And so at first, we didn't think that this UI

element was as prominent.

And what we found was-- when we released it

and tested it on our listeners-- we found that it

was actually much more successful than the



that we had in place. feature that we had in place.

People were discovering a new great content

that they wanted to listen to.

It ended up moving our most important

engagement metric, which is listening hours.

People were finding really great content that

they wanted to listen to on our platform.

They were finding more reasons to come back

and listen to TuneIn.

And as a result, people were discovering a

new great content that they wanted to listen to.

So it ended up moving our most important

engagement metric, which is listening hours.

And then as a result, people were finding

really great content that they wanted to listen to

on our platform.

And they were finding more reasons to come

back and listen to TuneIn.

Task 11. Add more expressions from this presentation to the table in Task 7:

At first we thought…So we moved over to…And what we found is…And so as a result…So it ended up [ing]


Transcript 1. Source: Stanford School of Business youtube channel


>> As Aditi mentioned, we are first going to talk about interviews, impromptu speaking in the context of interviews. Before coming to the GSB, I was at a company where I did a lot of interviews.And by the end of it, I often felt like this. The person I was talking to had been rambling, I couldn't get to the point, I couldn't understand what was it that they had really added to that situation. So, I wanna offer a format for you when you're in an interview that you can use to help structure your answers and help your interviewer understand why you are so awesome and perfect for the job. And that format is STAR, which stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.3:50So, I'll give you a little demonstration, starting with situation. And they key with the situation, is that you don't wanna give too much detail. The tendency is for people to get into a lot of detail, and the interviewer kind of gets lost in the situation itself. You wanna just offer enough information so that they understand the context and the stakes.4:13So if I were given the question, tell me about a time when you were up against a really tight deadline. I might say, okay, I had six weeks to get our company compliant with various consumer protections regulations to meet an investor requirement, and what was at stake was tens of millions of dollars. Very brief and to the point. Next, the task. The task can also be brief. My task was to make sure that we met that deadline that had been set by investors, so we got the money that we needed .End of story. And then action. This is where you wanna spend most of your time. You really wanna help the interviewer understand what is your thought process, what did you do and why did you do it. So in this case I started with a project plan and I talked to various people across the company to try to understand how were they going to be impacted by these regulations and what did we need to change. I came up with the project plan and after getting buy in, I followed up really frequently to make sure we were actually on track because we are up against such a tight deadline. And finally, the result. Again, the result can be very short and sweet. So the result of this situation was that we met the deadline, because of my work, you wanna make sure that you again give the interviewer a reason to, to believe that you were the one that made this all happen, and we got the money that we needed.5:43So hopefully that is a helpful example of how you can master interviewer, interviews, and help your interviewer see why you are so great for the job.

Transcript 2. Source: Android Developers youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AzjJIRKHeA

Hi, I'm Kristin George. And I head up product at TuneIn. We have 40 million monthly active users

from all over the world. And TuneIn brings you the world of live radio to your smartphone. So we're

here today to talk about the Android product and why we're so excited about our fastest growing

platform.





Over the last two years, we've been working on increasing our overall retention of our Android

product.

In our first version of our app, we focused on UI elements that we thought would communicate to

users how to move from screen to screen, or navigate between tabs, and use a mini player.

So we had our own way of doing this. And it really was this big bar across the screen. And it said

swipe here. And we thought that this UI element was going to be extremely successful. And what

we found is people just weren't seeing it.

So we moved over to a Google UI element that really is being used in places like The Play Store.

And so at first, we didn't think that this UI element was as prominent. And what we found was--

when we released it and tested it on our listeners-- we found that it was actually much more

successful than the feature that we had in place.

And as a result, people were discovering a new great content that they wanted to listen to. So it

ended up moving our most important engagement metric, which is listening hours. And then as a

result, people were finding really great content that they wanted to listen to on our platform. And

they were finding more reasons to come back and listen to TuneIn.

What we found was by implementing fragments, Google is helping us handle all these different

device sizes and resolutions, so that we were creating a really great user experience on different

platforms.

And so I'm going to show off a little bit about fragments. If I come in here, you can see that there

are three different fragments on the browsing side of this screen. So the first is here. The second is

here. And then the third is as you choose a particular genre of music to consume. There's another

fragment over here on the side. And so you'll see this with our little mini player. And this fragment

moves from the side of the screen during a tablet UI to the bottom of the screen during a phone UI.

And what we did is we invested once, and then Google is helping us-- through this process--

conform to all the different types of screen sizes that they have. We decided to make a very

content-first screen. So a user can come in here and they can say, these are all my favorites as far

as genres. And then we can show them the world of live content as it happens.

2:59

So this is our very content-rich experience that's made for tablets. I always shipping a new app

every two and a half to three months. So what that gives us the ability to do is lean in to the new

features that Google puts out into their releases. So an example of this is rich notifications. And

you'll see that we made it really easy for people to favorite stations and songs that they like, stop,

and play, and then also discover new content with our Jump button.

3:29

So you'll see that we have a full, rich notification, and our users, as a result, feel like we're

constantly improving our app, and making them feel like we're paying attention to them, and that

we're always building new things.

So I'm looking forward to continuing to improve our product. Always reaching for higher retention.

And I really appreciate your time. So thanks for listening.


Teacher’s notes & key

Overview. There is quite a lot of tasks in this set of materials for you to pick and choose from.

The core tasks are Task 2 (presentation of the STAR framework) and Tasks 4 and 8 (practice

using the framework).

Task 3 focuses on deadline-related vocabulary and on linkers of purpose and result (to make sure

that, so, to). Tasks 5 – 7 focus on cleft sentences. Task 9 provides an example of an authentic

video of a business person using a variation of the framework. Task 10 gives the students practice

of noticing linkers in fast speech (the variation on page 10 is grammar revision: past simple and

continuous, cleft sentences, verb patterns, the passive).

Timing

Task 1.

10’

Project the picture and tell the group that it was a result of a Google search. S/s guess

the search (‘Challenge’). If the group gets stuck, play Hangman.

https://eltgeek.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/challenge.png

Board the question: Tell me about a challenge that you or your team _________ and

how you ________ it. Elicit words in the gaps (faced/overcame a challenge).

S/s discuss in pairs.

Task 2.

15’

(25’)

First time the s/s watch for gist (no questions given) and share in pairs. Then they

check Task 2 to see what questions they can already answer. Play again.

With a weaker group, give extra support by getting the students to transcribe key

sentences in #4:

My task was to make sure that we met that deadline that had been set by investors.

I came up with the project plan.

Use interactive transcript feature on youtube to play these lines several time.

Key: 1. Interviewees talked too much and without structure (were rambling)

2. STAR (situation, task, action, result)

3. Be brief – don’t give too much information.

4. See transcript 1 at the end.

Task 3.

a: 10’

b: 5’

c: 5’

d: 10-

15’

a Ask the s/s to cover the expressions at the bottom and try to fill the gaps. Monitor

and give support. 3 minutes later, s/s uncover the expressions and finish the task. Play

the video to check (stop after each answer).

Key:

a. 1) to 2) was at stake 3) to make sure that 4) set 5) so that 6) impacted 7) came up

with 8) to make sure that 9) on track 10) up against such a tight

b. A3 B3 C1 D2 E5

c. 1 on track / on track 2 at stake 3 make sure / up against a tight deadline 4 set 5

impacted

Task 4

15’

Allow 4 minutes to prepare.

Option: Monitor for mistakes in target language (deadlines-related lexis), give

feedback, then let the students repeat the task in new pairs.

Option: If you’re running out of time and you need to cover this material in one lesson,


https://eltgeek.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/challenge.png

skip tasks 6 and 7 (focus on cleft sentences) and proceed to task 8 (communication).

If you want to do cover this material in two lessons, either proceed to task 8 or do Task

4 twice and leave task 8 for production stage of the second lesson.

Task 5

5’

Play the sentences for the students to check:

Key: I couldn’t understand what was it they had really added to that situation.


and what was at stake was tens of millions of dollars.


Task 6.

5’

Key (variations possible)

Situation: x

Task: We needed to make sure that… so that… /So what I needed to make sure was

that…/What was at stake was…

Action:

So what I decided to do was / So what we did was /So the solution I came up with was

to

Result: So as a result I…

Task 7

15’

Key:

1) what we decided to do was focus on high priority issues

or what we decided to focus on was high priority issues

2) what we focused on was high priority issues

3) What we did when we identified the problem was, we came up with...

4) What we did next was (we) let everyone know…

5) What we needed to make sure was (that) we stayed on track.

Task 8:

10-30’

The students tick the situations they have experienced and then ask their partners

about the situations their partner ticked.

Model this task to ensure that the students are using the STAR framework.

Tasks

9-11

Task 9:

10’

Task

10: 15’

Task

11: 5’

Option 1: Assign these tasks for homework

Option 2: Do these tasks in the next lesson and then repeat task 8 in new pairs.

Option 3: focus on grammar (past forms, clefts) instead of listening and linkers (see

the alternative to task 10 below).

Task 9 Key:

NB: the speaker first mentions the task and then goes on to describe the situation

Task: Increase overall retention on our Android products

Situation: The existing UI (user interface) element didn’t communicate to the users how

to move from screen to screen, because the users weren’t seeing it.

Action: They moved over to UI element provided by Google.

Result: This new UI element was a lot more successful. It enabled people to find

content, improved their most important engagement metric (listening hours) and

ensured that more users come back.

Task 10: Fill the gap with the right form of the verb. Then listen and check.




Over the last two years, we 1) __________________ (work) on 2) __________________ (increase) our overall retention of our Android product.

In our first version of our app, we 3) __________________ (focus) on UI elements that we 4) _________________ (think/will) communicate to users how to move from screen to screen, or navigate between tabs, and use a mini player.

So we 5) ________________ (have) our own way of doing this.

And it really was this big bar across the screen. And it said swipe here.

And we 6) _______________ (think) that this UI element 7) __________________ (be) extremely successful.

And what 8) __________________________________ (we / find / people / not see it).

So we 9) __________________ (move over to) a Google UI element that really 10) __________________ (use) in places like The Play Store.

And so at first, we 11) __________________ (not think) that this UI element was as prominent.

And what 12) __________________ (we / find) -- when we 13) __________________ (release) it and 14) __________________ (test) it on our listeners-- we 15) __________________ (find) that it was actually much more successful than the feature that we had in place.

And as a result, people (16) __________________ (discover) a new great content that they wanted to listen to.

So it (17) __________________ (end up / move) our most important engagement metric, which is listening hours.

And then as a result, people (18) __________________ (find) really great content that they (19) __________________ (want) to listen to on our platform.

And they (20) __________________ (find) more reasons to come back and listen to TuneIn.

Task 11. Now look through the transcript and underline the expressions that Kristin George uses to link her ideas (Example: So we had our own way of doing this). How many linkers did you find?


STAR (an impromptu speaking technique)

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