Work in twos or threes. Act out roleplays from below, roleplaying the whole conversation each time from the opening greeting to saying goodbye at the end. You can choose the roleplays by:
- rolling a dice and doing the roleplay which matches those numbers
- choosing random numbers without looking below and doing the roleplay which matches those numbers
- choosing any you like
as your teacher tells you.
| First roll of the dice – who you are communicating with | Second roll of the dice – situations |
| 1. Friend 2. Classmate 3. Ex-classmate 4. Member of the same club/ the same society 5. Relative 6. Relative of a friend/ of a classmate/ of your partner | 1. Met recently 2. Spoke on the phone recently 3. Haven’t spoken for a long time 4. Have heard news about the other person/ Have heard news which will affect the other person 5. Have big news 6. Nothing big or exciting has happened to either of you |
Do the same, but this time also rolling the dice a third time to decide what complication you have to deal with during the call.
- You don’t have much time to speak
- One of you wants to chat for a while but the other is in a rush
- The receiver is in the middle of doing something
- It’s difficult to hear the other person
- Some surprising or shocking news
- One person wants to meet face to face but the other is busy
Do the same, but this time pretending that you are using email or chat/ instant messenger. You can do this by passing pieces of paper backwards and forwards, or just by saying what you would write each time (as your teacher says). Continue until the end of the (written) exchange, then choose another situation above and do the same.
Do the same, but this time rolling the dice to decide if you will communicate by telephone or by email/ chat. 1, 2 or 3 = telephone and 4, 5 or 6 = email or chat.
Without the dice, roleplay some more realistic telephone or email social situations for you, for example:
- With an online contact who you’ve never actually spoken to
- With someone you met while travelling
- With someone who you used to work with
- With someone who you met in a bar
- With an ex-colleague
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Related pages
Teaching Telephoning: Interactive Classroom Activities
