Елена Волкова - Steps in Speaking English (Шаги в разговорном английском)

A: I think you really hate listening to heavy metal.

B: No, you’re wrong. I absolutely love it, especially Rammstein early in the morning.

Exercise 10. How often..?

Exercise 11. Read these expressions, translate them, try to learn them by heart and complete your own dialogs using the same pattern.

Exercise 12. Please, play your role, using the expressions above.

Students B Role plays.

1 Making and taking calls

You are the receptionist at AIC computing. Answer the phone and ask for the caller’s name. Connect the caller to Louis.

Now you are Louis. Answer the phone. Say you don’t have time to talk. Ask the caller to call later.

2 Reasons for calling

You saw a job advert in the paper for the position of trainee manager. You’d like to apply for the job. Call the Human Resources Department and ask them to send you details. Give your name and address.

3 Leaving messages

Answer the phone. Rashid is out of the office today. You don’t know when he’ll be back. Take a message for him. Take the caller’s mobile number.

4 Taking messages

Answer the phone. Martha is out. Take a messages for her.

5 Asking the caller to wait

You work in Henri Reiser’s office. Answer the phone. Henri is talking on another line. Find out if the caller wants to wait.

6 Asking for repetition and clarifying

Your colleague calls about a visit by a client next week. Write down the information about the client’s arrival at the airport.

7 Ending the call

Answer the phone. It’s a colleague. You’re VERY busy today.

8 Booking hotels and restaurants

You are the manager of Renoir’s restaurant. Answer the phone and take a booking. Remember to ask for:

Customer’s name? number of guests? date and time

A contact number? smoking or non-smoking table?

9 Booking transport

10 Dealing with telephone problems

You’re waiting for you colleague’s to arrive. You have a meeting with him/her and you can’t meet later on. Answer your colleague’s call. It’s a really bad line.

11 Making appointments

You are Mr. Francone. Your colleague calls to arrange a meeting. You have a day off on Tuesday 25th. You are free at 3.15 on the next day. Find out where the meeting is.

12 Inviting people

Your friend calls and invites you to the theatre. Find out when it is. Accept or decline.

13 Confirming arrangements

You are organizing your Managing Director’s leaving party. Here is your current schedule. Your boss calls to confirm the arrangements.

14 A conference call

You are a sales manager. The company wants your staff to have English lessons. You have ten staff but they are very busy and some don’t want to stay late. Talk the training manager and try to find a solution.

15 Placing an order

Your work at Spyline. Take a customer’s order and complete the order form below:

16 Solving problems

You work for a delivery company. A regular customer calls with a problem. What action will you take?

17 Complaining and handing complaints

You work in a hotel. A customer calls you with some complains.

18 Selling on the phone 1

Answer a call from a company which design websites. You don’t have a website so you are interested. Arrange for the person to visit.

19 Selling on the phone 2

You work for the “Print Machine”. You have a special offer on printer cartridges at the moment. Take the customer’s details and offer to visit his/her company.

Vocabulary. Close people and things.

your best friend, your shoes, your teacher, your watch, your oldest friend, your mobile phone, your doctor, your pet, your relatives

Exercise 1. Choose three things/people from the list above. Tell the students how long you have know the people or had the things.

Vocabulary. Official relationship.

a colleague – someone you work with

an old school friend – someone you were at school with

get in touch – start having contact

go out (with someone) – have a romantic relationship

get on well (with someone) – have a good relationship

lose touch – have no more contact

ask someone out – invite someone to go on a date with you

grow apart – slowly stop having a good relationship

put up with – accept a bad situation without complaining

split up with – stop being someone’s partner

get over – stop feeling sad about an ex–partner

Exercise 2. Answer the questions.

1. Have you ever gone out with your colleague?

2. How often do you get in touch with your old school friends?

3. Do you get on well with your parents?

4. Do you usually lose touch with your ex–boyfriend/girlfriend?

5. Have you ever had a romantic relationship with your old friend?

6. Is it difficult for you to start having contact with new people? Why?

7. With whom have you no more contact? Why? Would you like to get in touch with these people again?

8. Do women ever ask men out in your country?

9. What do you think is the minimum time you should go out with someone before you get married?

10. Do you think couples who marry young often grow apart? Why/Why not?

11. If your partner never did housework, would you put up with it? Why/Why not?

12. For what reasons do people usually split up with their partner?

13. What different ways do people use to get over the end of a relationship?

Exercise 3. Read the text about smart agreements.