Are you a bit nervous about calling up your friend and speaking in English? Many learners get a bit toey before they make the call, but today’s activity just might help lessen those nerves.
- Image Mark Fischer licence [CC by 2.0]
One of my students made a comment last week about how nervous they felt when having to speak on the phone in English. For some reason people do get nervous about calling someone up in a foreign language, and yet it has nothing to do with their linguistic level.
I’ve had people with a lower level of English enthusiastically phone up about having English lessons or perhaps they were answering an advert regarding our flat. I’ve also known friends in Prague who were advanced (C1) yet wouldn’t dare call someone up or even answer the phone! They’d text back instead.
Is this you?
There are two ways to approach this. First, it will give you some confidence to know some phrases and vocabulary we use to make social calls. Check out the ‘further reading’ below for more on this.
Beyond this, however, the only way to get better at something which you find difficult or which makes you nervous is simply to do it.
You need real-world practice. How will you know you can do it until you do it for real?
With the internet and Skype we can practise this in class, and this is something I’d like to do this week.
Today’s homework
- Download the ‘Telephone Bingo’ reference sheet below and use it to call up a friend to organise a meeting
- If you’re a student of mine, you can start by calling me up to set up our next lesson. If I’m busy, I’ll call you back. No texts
Telephone Bingo
The idea of this worksheet is like bingo, a game where you have words or numbers on a sheet of paper, and when someone calls out a word or number on your paper you cross it off, like getting a point.
In our case the idea is to try to use as many of the phrases as you can. Each time you use a phrase in context, tick it off your list and give yourself a point
Extension
After you speak with your friend or English teacher, call them back to tell them your plans have changed and that you want to change the time of the meeting!
Report how you felt
How did you feel before you made the call? What about afterwards? Make a few notes on this and report back to your teacher. Feel free to leave a comment below about your experience.
Practice – again and again
If you get nervous by telephoning in English, one call won’t cut it. Make it a regular habit! We feel more confident about doing difficult things by doing them again and again, so add calling me up once a week to list of things to do.
If you’ve paid for 10 lessons and you have a ‘bonus’ lesson to come, why not consider this 90 minutes to be used for a few Skype calls?
For the classroom
Students can get some practice in a supportive environment by arranging a meeting in a class role play. The same principle applies – they try it a few times, ticking off the phrases as they use them. If students are in groups of 3 one can be an umpire to make notes and give feedback.
Activity: organise a meeting
Or get it here -> Telephone bingo
What else can you do?
Why not write your own story of a phone call. Add some spice to it – it could be a guy calling up a girl he just met to set up a date. Use your imagination. Writing the story can help keep some of those phrases fresh in your mind for your next call. Here’s an example written today by Marcelo, check it out here.
The final word
Today can be the first step in getting better at telephoning in English. It can also be a new step in feeling more confident in using English in the real-world. Start dialling!
David Sweetnam
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David Sweetnam
English Teacher and Trainer
Engage s.r.o.
david [at] GetIntoEnglish [dot] com
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello, David,
Just downloaded the worksheet, your idea was brilliant, not to mention, lots of useful words and expressions on the pdf, there is no doubt that I will take advantage of it.
I would like to thank you for mentioning my blog and simple lesson that my teacher asked me to do, thank you very much, you’re awesome!
Hi Marcelo
And thank you for the good words!
I think I said I want to do something similar for myself in Czech. I’m working on it – this week am meeting up with a tutor to help with my Czech, and I still want to post on the other, new site for my own journey of learning languages.
Oh, so much to do, lol.
David
Hi, David,
I’m pretty sure that you are going to do a great job in Czech
Bye!
Hi again!
I’m getting better at Czech but man I still have a way to go. I know it’s mostly about setting aside some time for it, and to get out there and interact more. That’s why I’ve had to make some decisions – do I teach more students here or do I keep some time for Czech and zouk..? I’m happy with what I decided
Have a great evening
David
Interesting post. I’m not afraid of talking on the phone (although it’s a bit more difficult to understand your interlocutor than in a face-to-face conversation). I’m afraid of the phone bill !
David, you could make a lot of progress if you dated a native Czech !
Hi Francisco
Yeah, tell me about it! I’m at least getting some more Czech sessions in, that’s a start.
Re: dating, these days in Prague texting is normal, people seem to call less (they do say that the internet and mobiles and so on have created a ‘disconnect’ among people).
David
Hi
I think calling someone often gets a bit uncomfortable, even in your mother tongue. The thing is, you are expected to communicate efficiently but you are not really getting the full context such as facial expression and body language, eye contact etc., so you don’t know, whether the person you are talking to is smiling, or disagreeing or even paying attention to you…
Now combine this isolation with a foreign language, perhaps a bad connection that makes it even harder to understand the person you are callin and you can imagine how easy it is to begin to stress.
I got over this by working as a telephone operator – nothing like one hundred people hanging up on you to get over any stress – after a while you just stop caring. So I guess a lot of practice is the answer to any ‘phonebia’
Hanka
Hi Hanka
That’s interesting, and great you got over your ‘phonebia’!
Btw it would be cool for me to know the phrases above in Czech, any ideas?
Hezky svatek
David
Ps how’s your textbia going..? ; )