Chapter 12: "Who's calling?"

• Teaching aims:
• Input:
• Telephone language
• Invitation language
• Agreeing/disagreeing
• Modals: "Would you ... ?"
• Recycle:
• Self-assessment sheet
• Free Talking:
• "Festivals"
• Comments:
• The final chapter continues with the theme of "Survival English", and introduces some new topics ("Invitations/Appointments", "Agreeing/Disagreeing"). It is also a general review and reworking of all that has gone before. Thus many functions are brought together and used in various telephone activities. Finally the Self-evaluation test reappears at the end of the chapter, giving students a chance to think about the present state of their English Conversation abilities.
• Students will by now hopefully be able to see an improvement in their oral abilities, and will be more self-confident when speaking English and interacting with foreigners. This last factor will be in itself a justification of the teachers' efforts, since confident students will continue to learn. If the activities and the attitude to learning epitomized by them have motivated the students to want to continue learning, then the course will have been successful!

1) "Who's calling?" Title Page Input

The input for this chapter gives various phone-call-related phrases. As mentioned before, students have an input-bank of vocabulary on the first page of the chapter, and can refer to it at will.

2) "Telephone words" Pairs/Groups (15 minutes)

Students have a good deal of input on thetitle page and on the page following this one ("Who is it?") If they are ready to try this activity without accessing those words however, they might find it interesting to discover how many words and phrases they already possess. When they have brainstormed in groups, and have produced a corpus of words and phrases, this is written on the board by one member of each group (peer dictation), and left there as a resource while other activities are performed.

3) "Who is it?" Pairs/Groups (20 minutes)

Students unscramble a model dialogue, practice the new version, and then design their own telephone dialogue/role-play (additional phrases supplied).

(....) Can I speak to Angela, please?
(....) I'm afraid she isn't here right now.
(....) Oh. When will she be back?
(....) About an hour. Who's calling?
(....) This is her friend, Tony.
(....) Do you want to leave a message?
(....) Yes. Please ask her to call me.
(....) O.K. I'll give her the message.
(....) Thanks.

4) "Can I take a message?" (plus Teachers' Resource) Whole class (20 minutes)

• 180t1.gif - "Can I take a message?" (1)
• 180t2.gif - "Can I take a message?" (2)
• 180t3.gif - "Can I take a message?" (3)
• 180t4.gif - "Can I take a message?" (4) - Bus Station, ...

The teacher gives each student a "Memo" card (Teachers' Resource) on which there is a memo about having to travel somewhere, or having to meet someone who is travelling. Students then have to find out the relevant information they need from the appropriate "Station", and write it on their worksheet (students' book). There are 18 "Memo" cards, and these can be put in a prominent place in the classroom, so that students can work through a number of them before the activity finishes.

5) "Would you like to ... ?" Pairs (15 minutes)

A frequent type of phone conversation involves inviting someone to meet somewhere, and making an appointment for that meeting. This dialogue presents a basic version of the "invitation".

6) "What would you like to do?" (plusTeachers' Resource) Whole class (15 minutes)

• 182t1.gif - "What would you like to do?" (1)
• 182t2.gif - "What would you like to do?" (2)
• 182t3.gif - "What would you like to do?" (3)
• 182t4.gif - "What would you like to do?" (4)

Before they do this however, they have first to memorize the four things on the card that they "want" to do, and give the card back to the teacher. They then ask people in the class "... if you would like to ... " and try to find someone who wants to do the same four things. This will also involve giving appropriate answers, such as "I'd love to", "Yes, that would be good", "No, thanks", and "No, I'd rather not".

7) "Call my bluff" (plus Teachers' Resource) Two teams of three members (25 minutes)

• 183t1.gif - "Call my bluff!" (c1)
• 183t2.gif - "Call my bluff!" (c2)
• 183t3.gif - "Call my bluff!" (c3)

As in Chapter 6, each team has three members, and each member has a "Call my bluff" sheet (Teachers' Resource). Each person in Team A then reads his/her definition for the first word, and Team B has to choose which one is correct. Team A will also have to check this by looking in their own dictionaries. The game proceeds with the different words being read in turn.

"Call my bluff" fits well into a "Quiz show" format and can be played with only two teams, a question master, and an audience. If this were combined with an end-of-session classroom party, it would be enjoyable indeed!

8) "What did she look like?" Pairs/Groups (15 minutes)

This activity combines descriptions of the face and of clothes, and can be performed as a "20 questions" game, or as pure description, perhaps leading to description of friends and family members (or of a blind date!).

9) "Can I have a word?" Pairs (15 minutes)

Students make up role-plays on suggested situations, and then perform them to the class.

Don't You Agree? Pairs/Others (20 minutes)

I Disagree. Pairs (15 minutes)

12) Free Talking "Festivals" Pairs/Groups (15 minutes)

The final Free Talking activity looks at festivals, and offers another chance to discuss aspects of Korean life - this time its holidays and celebration days.

13) "My English Ability" Individuals (10 minutes)

This activity is a repeat of the self-evaluation questionnaire in the Information (Study Skills) Section. Hopefully students will fell more confident by now, and will give themselves "better" scores. Such increased confidence will produce its own results, since shyness and concentration on grammatical errors can be a powerful block to developing oral skills. The students are asked to assess themselves. This should be natural for them by now. If the course has helped the students in any way to think about their learning methods and strategies, giving them some measure of confidence in developing their own ideas about learning, then it will have been beneficial.

14) Culture page 12 Pairs (15 minutes)