Eltam journal no 2 8th eltam iatefl tesol international biannual conference managing teaching and learning

Evaluating Learners Needs 

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Learners need to have some theoretical knowledge to handle the questions and challenges in 
the case study. Teachers should assess learners’ needs, interests, and previous knowledge in 
order to choose an appropriate case study especially when it comes to the EFL classroom. For 
language learning aims, teachers should choose simpler case studies unless it is a group of 
learners with homogenous and thorough professional background and experience. 
Class Delivery Guidelines
Once the teacher evaluates the students’ needs and chooses an appropriate case study as outlined 
in the previous section, the class delivery of the case study should take place. Many case studies 
come with teacher’s notes which are very useful and help teachers in the class delivery. 
However, having in mind that the case studies that we are proposing for the EFL classroom do 
not have language learning as a primary goal, we hope that with these short class delivery 
guidelines we will help EFL teachers in using the case studies in the EFL classroom.
As to any other activity, a suitable warm-up to the subject matter in the case study should be 
provided. Our experience has shown that the most useful warm-up is a class or group discussion 
or a brainstorming activity on the general topic covered in the case study. A related video is 
also a nice way to introduce the topic and stir the students. Through these warm-up activities 
the teacher introduces the necessary vocabulary students need in grasping the case study. 
Furthermore, the warm-up prepares the students to think about the topic and anticipate the 
problem further developed in the case study. It also provides the students with the indispensable 
background information (on the industry, country, event, time period etc.) in order to 
understand the setting of the case study and successfully find a solution to the problem or deal 
with the tasks.
The following activity is actually a reading assignment. Students should carefully read the case 
study and its annexes. Very often case studies should be read more than once since they usually 
contain many facts and a lot of information. Students should be familiar with the content of the 
case study in order to decide later which facts and pieces of information are relevant for the 
assigned tasks and can be useful for solving the problem. Bigger case studies can be assigned 
as homework. Shorter case studies can be read in class silently or out loud depending on the 
students’ needs. Some parts like charts, statistics, pies, tables, photos inscriptions should be 
gone through and discussed either in groups or as a whole-class activity since they provide the 
students with additional input for addressing the issues in the case study. Depending on the time 
teachers have at their disposal, students’ needs and level, the case studies can be read in groups 
since they are divided in meaningful units and then share the information they have read. This 
procedure is time saving and useful when covering longer case studies but it can also be done 
with shorter ones since it adds up to the aims of the class helping students develop oral 
presentation skills. When students are presenting their part of the case study to their fellow 
students, the teacher 
can check students’ understanding of the content and can clarify certain 
ambiguous aspects. Thus, the comprehension part that comes after the reading activity is joined 
with the actual presentation. If the reading of the case study is assigned as homework or done 
in class as a whole-class activity, teachers should prepare a follow-up reading comprehension 
activity which can actually consist of several key questions that students answer through a class 

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discussion which can ensure the teacher that students are on the right track and will be able to 
solve the problem(s) in the following activity. Once the reading comprehension part is done, 
the new vocabulary should be covered. This can be done through a preparation of a glossary of 
terms done in groups, as a whole-class activity, or as a home-work assignment.
Next comes the part with the Key issues which is at the heart of the whole class and should be 
allocated the biggest chunk of time. The Key issues part of the case study can consist of 
questions for discussion, problem(s) to solve, and/or tasks to perform. This part is usually done 
in groups. Once the groups are ready, they share their work, compare and contrast their 
solutions, discuss, and conclude.
The follow-
up activity is actually comparing students’ solution(s) or their way of addressing 
the issue(s) with what actually happened with a particular person, company, project or industry. 
The information what actually happened can be found in the teacher’s notes and the teacher 
decides when and if he/she provides that piece of information to the students. Other or 
additional follow-
ups are possible depending on the case study, students’ needs and level, and 
time. These usually include a writing activity like various letters, minutes, reports or summaries.
Lesson Plan
In order to further help and encourage teachers to use case studies in the EFL classroom, we 
suggest one lesson plan. The case study that this lesson plan covers is entitled Nissan Motor 
Company Ltd.: Building OperationalResiliency 
by William Schmidt and David Simchi-Levi 
from the LearningEdge, a free learning resource from MIT Sloan School of Management. Even 
though this learning resource is designed for management educators and students, the materials 
it offers can be easily adapted and used by EFL teachers. The resource provides free access to 
various case studies and other interesting business related materials and activities. The topics 
of the case studies vary from operations management, entrepreneurship, leadership, strategy, 
ethics, sustainability, and system dynamics. They are meant to facilitate class discussion and 
do not promote a specific point of view. Some case studies focus on the decision-making 
process; others are more descriptive elaborating what has happened in a specific business 
environment, thus suitable to be used in an EFL classroom.
This particular case study falls under the heading of Operation management and reviews the 
organizational structure of a famous company Nissan Motor and examines its operational 
decisions aft
er the Japan’s Great earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 aimed at 
recovering from this natural disaster sooner than its competition.