| Activity type | Matching and roleplay |
| Number of students | Minimum of 2. |
| Functions: | Looking for someone, making and canceling appointments, suggesting times, inviting, accepting and declining invitations, politely declining invitations, apologizing, inquiring whether invitation is accepted or declined, inquiring about and expressing preference, expressing regret. |
| Lexical area | Circumstances and situations that would normally call for a business meeting. |
| Grammar: | Demonstrative pronouns, relative clauses (this, someone, who, which) use of gerunds (-ing verbs) to denote activities (see Yule, 1998, pp. 76-77, ) |
| Syllabus: | I.2.4 accepting an offer or an invitation I.2.5 declining an offer or an invitation I.2.6 inquiring whether offer or invitation is accepted or declined I.4.7 expressing regret I.3.13 expressing preference I.3.14 inquiring about preference (EU Threshhold Level Syllabus) |
| Target phrases: | I'm looking for... Would you like to meet on..(day)..at..(time) ? Are you free on..? What about...? How about...? Will you be able to make it on..? Let me have a look at my schedule/calendar. I'd love to. I'm sorry,... I'm busy on... I'm afraid I can't meet (make it) on... I'm sorry, I'll be ..-ing on... I'm sorry, I'm ..-ing on... Which would you prefer? Could we change the day (time) of the meeting? (Change) Would you mind if we changed the day (time) of the meeting? (Change) I have to cancel (postpone) our meeting. (Change) |
| Essential vocabulary: | R&D labs, area of research, field of research, attending a conference on..., schedule some time to..., hard to reach, find some time for..., busy schedule, cyclotron, influential, close a sale, get him in the right mood, play a round of golf, country club, he's been hounding you, meet over..., ...doesn't seem too bad to you, ...feel that..., ...ideas about..., where the company should be heading, taken into account by..., major stockholder, try to get..., his vision of the future for the company, compatible with..., it's judicious to..., hear him out, tech support, sales reps, a startup company, ...heard that..., an opening, landing a job, an adventure, talk him into..., customer support, meet over lunch, exhibit at a trade show, bumped into an old friend, haven't seen for years, went bankrupt, for old times sake, get together'with a friend, reminisce about..., the old days, run a business, a successful business, a franchise/an affiliate, investment banker, merger and acquisition, deals, an insider story, corporate reorganizations, taking place, in the wake of, the Asian financial crisis, a friend of a friend, what's going on, MIS (management information systems) manager, in town for..., exchange notes, your counterpart in..., share in common, corporate-wide, everyone chips in, takes turns, showing them around town, making them feel comfortable during their stay, it's your turn, get together to..., an Australian rules football match, thought you might be interested since..., it's so different from..., corporate headquarters, a progress report, sales leads, things are going well. |
The idea of the activity is for students to get practice scheduling (making appointments for, making arrangements for) meetings, resolving any conflicts that arise when there are scheduling conflicts between the people who are going to attend the meeting, rescheduling a meeting when a conflict arises after an appointment has been made, and politely canceling or avoiding a meeting.
1. Matching cards are handed out along with a schedule. There are two different schedules. Each pair of students holding matching cards should receive a different schedule.
2. The students mix and search for the person they are to set up a meeting with.
3. After they've met their partner they schedule a meeting.
4. One of the partners now pretends that they have a conflict and that they have to reschedule the meeting. They reschedule the meeting.
Source This activity is based on the the activities "Business Appointments" in Business Communication Games (Oxford, 1996), "Finding a Date" in Elementary Communication Games, Yule's observation that schedules and inquiries about schedules provide a good context to practice the present progressive tense (gerunds, -ing form verbs). (Yule, George (1998) Explaining English Grammar, Oxford, pp. 76-77) (Longman, 1984).