1. Crossword.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. A foreign visitor.

A photo of a man and woman greeting a visitor in the street.

If you have to receive a foreign visitor, you can use the locality as an ice-breaker.
If you are welcoming someone to your town, you can use conversation openers, like those below.

Put the words in order to complete these conversation openers.

Now listen and repeat the sentences.

1.4.
2.5.
3.6.

3. Visiting a place for the first time.

A photo of a large square in a European city.

If you are visiting people in a foreign country, you can ask them about their town. Here are some example questions. Match them to the answers. This exercise is in two parts. Scroll down to see Part 2.

Part 1

Now complete Part 2.

Part 2

4. Using the news to make small talk.

Typical small talk conversation topics often include things like world events, the weather, sport and local customs.

Choose the correct way to complete these openers.

5. Making small talk about work.

A photo of colleagues discussing data that they are looking at.

You work for a company which is having a lot of problems at the moment. You are visiting a potential client. Listen to these three answers to the same question. Which is the best answer and why?

6. Opening and closing meetings.

When you find yourself in front of a group of people before a meeting begins, it's important to know how to get things underway. It's also important to know how to close a meeting at the end so that people go away with a good impression of the meeting.

Decide if these phrases are used to open or close a meeting.

Now listen to these phrases.

7. Taking part in meetings.

The following phrases are useful in meetings to:

  • show you understand what somebody is saying
  • agree with somebody
  • argue your case
  • encourage somebody to talk

Look at the phrases and put them into the corresponding category.

Now listen and repeat the phrases.

8. Speaking Tutorial preparation.

You are going to have a meeting with your tutor on the phone. First listen to an example of a similar conversation. In this example the student was given the following task:

You have recently opened a small restaurant in the centre of the city. The restaurant is going well, but there are a number of things you think could be changed. However, before you change anything, you would like to know the opinion of your chief waiter on these matters. You have drawn up the following agenda for the meeting:

Agenda
More lighting?
Take on more waiters?
There have been a few complaints that the food doesn't arrive hot to the tables.

Listen to the conversation and decide if the following statements are true or false.

9. A meeting about a restaurant.

Choose the correct options to complete the conversation.

Listen to the conversation again as you read.

10. Speaking Tutorial 2.

During the speaking tutorial you will have a meeting with your tutor about office behaviour.

An online meeting.
Imagine you are the director of a small company. You have received a number of complaints from members of staff about general behaviour in the office. You decide to talk to the most senior person in the office (your tutor) to get his/her opinion on the subject. The following is the agenda for the meeting that you have prepared. You are going to open, lead and close the meeting.

Agenda:
1. Punctuality of employees – not good
2. Appearance – employees not always suitably dressed
3. Telephone manner – not good
4. Tidiness of the office – not good

Look carefully at the language you will need to use to structure the meeting.

Showing that you understand
I see.
I see what you mean.
I follow you.
I know what you mean.

Agreeing
Absolutely.
That sounds fine.
I couldn't agree more.
I can't see any problem with this.

Arguing your case
In all fairness, I think ...
With respect, I think the issue ...
Wouldn't it be an idea to ...
Look at it this way ...

Encouraging somebody to talk
Please go on.
Give me the full picture.
Could you elaborate on that?
Would you mind going into that?

Remember, you can also ask your tutor any questions you have about what you have studied in this module.

Useful phrases for the speaking tutorial:
Hello, this is ....
Can I speak to ..., please?
Hello ..., this is .... I'm calling to do Speaking Tutorial  2 of the Meetings module.