Requesting Information Over the Phone: Teaching Notes

Requesting Information Over the Phone: Teacher's Notes

Activity type	Pair activity
Number of students	Minimum of 2 (or one plus a teacher).
Functions:	Asking for and providing information over the phone.
Lexical area	Common requests for information that people make over the phone.
Grammar:	wh-questions
Syllabus:	I.1.4 asking (subcategory of "imparting and seeking factual information") (EU Threshhold Level Syllabus) 1.1 Asking for Information. 1.2 Asking if someone knows something. 1.3 Saying you know about something. 1.4 Saying you do not know. (Function in English, Blundell et al.)
Target phrases:	I'm calling to find out... I'd like to ask... I'd like to know... Could you tell me... I'm calling about... I'd like to speak to someone about... May I talk to someone about...? You want to speak to...., They're not in at the moment. Can I take a message?, No, that's ok. I'll call back later. When do you expect them back? Sorry, I can't help you. Try... I'm sorry, we don't handle that, try... You'll have to try... Could you connect me? Do you have their number? Could you check your records? Do you know what I have to do? I need to know... Is there someone you could connect me to? (who could answer the question) Who should I contact for this information? I just called them and they told me to call you.
Essential vocabulary:	the overnight bus to..., register for classes, in stock, the new edition of, cookbook, poodle, throw up, the vet, it's time for..., annual, teeth cleaning.

Game idea

To practice requesting information over the phone and when they don't have the information you need requesting that you be connected to someone who does or asking for the phone number of someone who does. There's also practice for the infamous 'they told me to call you and now you're telling me to call them?" sort of problem.

Playing the game

Have the students in the class get in pairs.
Photocopy one set of cards.
Assign an order to the pairs. It would be nice if the pairs were arranged in a circle.
Hand out one card to each pair.
Have one student of each pair pretend they are phoning up someplace and asking for the information on the card.
The other student can either pretend to have the answer to the question or not. If they don't have the answer the second student should ask if they can be connected to someone who knows the answer or given the number of someone who does.
When the pair is done with the card they pass it to the next pair clockwise to the left, and receive another card from their right. Note that if some pairs are slow they can create a traffic jam with the cards. You might want to have a couple of spare cards to throw in just in case.
Repeat the question asking and answering process switching roles, i.e. questioner becomes answerer, answerer becomes questioner.
The cards can go around the circle two times since each card can be used twice by a pair with each partner taking on each of the two roles.
Sometime during the activity you should get all the students to stop so you can practice what they should do if they get the 'they told me to call you and now you're telling me to call them?" sort of problem. Explain the problem to the class and ask for suggestions about what to do, write them up on the board and then have them roleplay their own solution to the problem in pairs.

Talking over the phone is more difficult than talking face to face to someone, so it's a good idea to write down exactly what you're going to ask before you dial (or in this case pretend to dial).

The inquiries or questions on the cards are not in grammatical sentences. The student should make requests in grammatical sentences, not just read what's on the card. A little improvisation wouldn't hurt either. Have the students elaborate on their question or add new questions.

Source This game is based on "To Ask Someone (by Phone)" in Eric Keller and Sylvia Taba Warner (1976) Gambits 1 p. 7.

Game Components

Cards

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