Telephoning & Teleconferencing- Personalised Practice

Telephoning and teleconferences discussion and personalised practice

Part One: Discussion

Discuss the questions below in the order given, writing your partner’s answers if your teacher asks you to.

When was your last telephone conversation in English? What was it like?

 

 

 

How often do you telephone in English? What is your typical telephone call in English like (topic, nationality you are speaking to, length, purpose, whether you know the person or not, formality, etc)?

 

 

 

How often do you telephone in your own language? What is your typical telephone call like (topic, nationality you are speaking to, length, purpose, whether you know the person or not, formality, etc)?

 

 

 

What are the general differences between telephone calls in your own language and telephone calls in English?

 

 

 

What are the difficulties of telephoning in English? What makes it not as difficult as it could be?

 

 

 

What can you do to make telephoning easier?

 

 

 

What can you do to prepare for a telephone call?

 

 

 

Part Two: Personalised practice

Choose one telephone conversation you’ve had in English (or are likely to have in the future). Describe it to your partner, then roleplay it with them as the other person or people. Discuss how realistic that conversation was and how you could have improved the phone call, then roleplay the same conversation twice more – the second time changing roles.

Then discuss the same questions and do the same personalised practice of teleconferences/ video conferences/ online meetings.