Материал: Unit 10

Audioscript

PRESENTER  Right, well we’re also joined by John Sutherland, a journalist from the magazine What Product. Let’s talk about the UK, then. It seems like it’s quite important to know how to complain in the UK, since we’re top of the list.

JOHN  Yes, I think so!

PSo, what advice do you have for someone who has to make a complaint?

JWell, the first thing is that you should be quick. Complain as soon as the problem happens – the same day if possible. And also, be polite, so choose your words carefully and don’t shout.

P OK.

JAnother thing is to be clear – give a good description of the problem. And … you should also always give a date – tell the company when you want them to do something by. So, you can say you want a decision in no more than ten days, something like that.

P Right.

JAlso – don’t be afraid to go to the top. Ask to speak to the manager or write to the director of the company. It can be the best way to get things done.

P And what’s best – a phone call or a letter?

JI think letters are usually the best way to complain. You can explain the problem in detail and avoid getting too angry. But remember though, you should always tell them how you felt. Say how the problem spoiled your enjoyment or made your life difficult. This makes your complaint stronger.

POK, well we have to leave it there. Thanks very much to all our guests.

  VOCABULARY SUPPORT

choose your words – be careful when you decide what to say go to the top – ask to speak to a superior

in detail (B1) – with all the facts spoil (B1) – to make something bad

g Students discuss the questions in pairs. Monitor and help with vocabulary as necessary. Take feedback as a class. Ask students if their partners had any interesting or original advice on how to complain.

4 VOCABULARY Noun formation

aTell students that in the last activity you asked them to discuss a question. Write the word discuss on the board. Then say: You had interesting discussions about the question and write discussion on the board, too. Ask students to say which word is a verb (discuss) and

which is a noun (discussion). Ask if they know any other common noun endings, e.g. -ation, -er, -ist, and write them on the board.

Students complete the table with a partner. Check answers as a class. Ask students if they can remember the contexts in which the words appeared in the lesson.

Answers

Verb: choose, explain, queue

Noun: complaint, delivery, decision, description, enjoyment

Answers

c 3.28 Tell students that although there are distinguishable patterns in verb to noun changes, there are lots of exceptions. For instance, sometimes the vowel sound changes, as in the example choose/choice. (The others which change are explain/explanation, decide/decision, describe/description.) Play the recording again for students to notice these changes. Play it again or model the words for students to repeat.

dStudents complete the sentences with the correct words from the table. Check answers as a class.

Answers

1  choice  2  complaint  3  queue

4  description  5  delivery  6  decision

e In pairs, students ask and answer the questions in 4d. Monitor and point out errors in pronunciation for students to self-correct. You can do this by echoing the incorrect pronunciation a student has given. Ask for examples during group feedback. Take feedback as a class on the most interesting item their partners talked about.

5 SPEAKING

In pairs, students discuss if they would complain in the situations, how they would complain, and what they would say. Take feedback and ask for examples. Write the best ones up on the board (or nominate a student to do so). Find the biggest complainer in the class.

  EXTRA ACTIVITY

In pairs, students write an email making a complaint. First, they must decide what they are complaining about and who they are writing to. Remind them to be polite, but they are allowed to complain about as many things as they wish. When they have finished, they can read their complaints to the class. Take a vote on the best, funniest and the one most likely / least likely to get a good response.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Workbook 10B

Photocopiable activities: Grammar p.223, Vocabulary p.247,

Pronunciation p.284

3 LISTENING

a 3.31 Ask students what they think will happen when Leo speaks to the manager. Play Part 2 of the video or play the audio recording for them to check their ideas.

Answer

Leo doesn’t get a refund, but the manager offers him an exchange.

LWell, I just … It was a present and I’m not a big football fan.

the questions. Check answers as a class. Ask students:

Why do you think Leo has decided to keep the clock?

Answers

1seems to be the problem; wrong with it; want a refund

2It was a present and he’s not a big football fan; it’s ugly; it’s not very adult / more for children.

3because it was a present

4He decides to keep the clock.

5He says, ‘It might be useful’

c In pairs, students tell their partner about the last time they took something back to the shop, why and what happened. If they can’t think of a time when they did this, ask them to talk about an article they wished they had returned (and why they didn’t). Take feedback as a class. Nominate students to tell the class their own on their partner’s story.

4 PRONUNCIATION Sentence stress

a 3.32 Play the recording for students to tell you which of the highlighted words are stressed. If students find this very challenging, pause the recording after each phrase and repeat it, exaggerating the stressed words. Check answers as a class.

Answers

1  have  2  help  3  speak  4  Why, want  5  What, like  6  How, help

bIn pairs, students choose the correct options to describe the rules for sentence stress. Check answers as a class. Remind students that the words that are most important for getting the message across that are more heavily stressed.

Answers

auxiliary verbs, pronouns

c 3.32 Play the recording again for students to repeat the questions. Focus on sentence stress.

5 CONVERSATION SKILLS Sounding polite

aAsk students to choose the more polite options. Elicit or tell the class that the option a sentences ‘soften’ the negative impression of the b variant by using a modifying adverb (a bit, not very) and/or the opposite positive adjective.

Answers

1a  2a

Leo used the more polite sentences.

bAs a class, students choose the correct words to complete the rule. Explain that this kind of ‘softening’ is important in Anglophone culture if you want to sound polite.

Answers

a bit + negative adjective

not very + opposite positive adjective

c Students do the task in pairs. Check answers as a class.

Answers

1  dirty, clean  2  quick, slow  3  polite, rude  4  cold, hot/warm

d Ask students if they can remember the complaints they wrote in the last lesson. Put some of them on the board. Can they change these complaints to something more polite? e.g. The water was too cold. – The water wasn’t very hot. Give students a minute or two to make four or five polite sentences and take feedback as a class.

6 SPEAKING

aPut students in pairs and tell them that they are going to role play a situation where one of them

complains to the other. Read through the task and give students time to prepare and then a few minutes to role play the situation.

bStudents swap roles and find a different thing

to complain about. Monitor and correct students’ pronunciation as appropriate.

LOA TIP MONITORING

Monitoring a role play gives you the chance to stretch the faster students and prompt slower ones. To stretch faster learners, you can enter the role play as a manager or another customer with the same complaint. With slower learners, you can prompt by supplying language items or by giving simple definitions to help elicit forgotten items.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Workbook 10C

Unit Progress Test

Personalised online practice

UNIT 10  Values  143

10DSkills for Writing

We’re really sorry we missed it

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• understand people talking about complaining

• read and understand apology emails

• use formal and informal language in apology emails

• write an apology email

OPTIONAL LEAD-IN

Books closed. Write some or all of the following on the board: waiter, barista, shop assistant, railway booking clerk

(someone who sells train tickets), bus driver, customer service advisor, salesperson. In pairs, ask students to say which of these people they meet/talk to regularly and how they would describe the attitude of the people in these roles. Elicit useful adjectives, e.g. very/really (un)helpful, (un) friendly, rude, polite, bored, kind. Ask one or two students to share any interesting stories with the class.

1 LISTENING AND SPEAKING

aRead through the situations with the class. Individually, students think about how they would react. Encourage them to note down what they would say in each case.

bStudents tell their partner what they would do and say. Take feedback as a class. Elicit phrases that students could say to the shop assistants/people who hadn’t replied to the invitation – e.g. Excuse me, I’m waiting to be served, I sent you an invitation X weeks ago. Did you get it?

c 3.33 Tell the class that they are going to listen to three people talking about and their task is to match the speakers with situations in 1a. Point out that one talks about a diff erent situation. Play the recording for students to do the matching and identify the third situation. Check answers as a class.

Answers

Tim: 2

Vicki: (complaining about) buying something online

Rebecca: 1

Audioscript

TIM I went to buy a new pair of jeans the other day. I was the only customer in the shop and there were two shop assistants. They were chatting about what they did at the weekend and, when I asked for assistance, they just carried on talking. It was so rude. All I wanted to know was the price of some jeans. In the end, I decided to just leave the shop. I don’t think they even noticed I was there. I felt like writing an email to the shop manager to complain, but then I forgot to.

VICKI One thing that I think is rude is when shops or companies don’t reply when someone makes a complaint. I remember once I bought an MP3 player online. It took ages to arrive – like, about a month. So, I wrote an email to complain, but I didn’t hear anything from them. I mean, is it too hard just to send an email saying sorry? If I were the manager of a company, I’d make sure I replied to every customer.

I know it’s not easy to run a business. But if you want to keep your customers happy, you should answer their emails. Well, I won’t use that company again. I’ll go to a local shop instead.

REBECCA Look, if I invited you to my party, you’d let me know if you could come or not, wouldn’t you? You’d think so. But last month I had a party and invited about 40 people and about half of them didn’t say if they were coming or not. Most of them didn’t come in

the end and, in my invitation, I did ask them to let me know. I think that kind of behaviour is incredibly rude, don’t you? I mean, I needed to know how many people were coming, so I had enough food and drink. But then I made too much food and it was embarrassing.

All they needed to do was send a text or email – which is not very difficult. There are some people I invited to that party who I’ll never get in touch with again.

LANGUAGE NOTES

There are several useful collocations in the script – you might wish to point these out to students:

chat about – talk about something that is not very serious ask for assistance – ask for help (formal)

feel like – want to, e.g. I felt like shouting

run a business – organise everything for a business make sure that – be certain that

let someone know – tell someone

Practise the collocations by asking questions, e.g. What were you chatting about before the lesson started? When did you last ask for assistance in a shop? What do you feel like doing now? When did you last hear from an old friend? Do you know anyone who runs their own business? What must you make sure that you do this evening?Do you need to let anyone know something soon? Ask students to answer with full sentences so they use the collocations.

the recording again for students to answer. Encourage students to compare their ideas with a partner before checking answers as a class.

5so she’d have enough food and drink

6she made too much food

eAsk students to think about an experience where someone was rude and make notes individually. They can use the questions to help them give details. Monitor and help with vocabulary as necessary.

fStudents tell a partner about their experience. Take feedback as a class and fi nd out whose situation was the worst.

2 READING

aAsk students how they would apologise if they arrived late for a class or an appointment. Write these examples on the board and ask which is more formal (the second).

I’m sorry I’m late. / I’m really sorry I’m late. I got held up.

Ask the class to read the salutation and the subject line of the three apology emails and elicit guesses from the class as to which topic they match with. Then give students some more time to read through in detail and see if they were right. Check answers with the class.

Answers

1 b 2 c 3 a

bStudents read the emails again to answer the questions. Check answers as a class.

Answers

1 a  leaving early  b  long delivery time c  rearranging tomorrow’s meeting

2a  come round (to our house) for dinner

b  offering 10% discount (on next book she buys) c  meet next Monday afternoon

cDiscuss the questions as a class. Elicit that email b is the most formal and ask students to tell you what they think makes it formal than the others (writer doesn’t use the first name of the person he’s writing to, use of apologise for rather than say sorry, the ending is formal – Yours sincerely). Ask students if they think the apology emails would have the desired effect on the readers i.e. make them feel better, less angry, etc. and why / why not.

Suggested answers

1  friends  2  customer/company (customer services manager) 3  colleagues

The relationship in email b is the most formal.

3 WRITING SKILLS 

Formal and informal language

aIndividually, students look at the sentences from the emails and match them with their functions a–d. Check answers as a class.

Answers

a  2  b  4  c  1  d  3

b Discuss the question as a class.

Answer

The third column (from email b) because not using contractions is a formal style.

cIn pairs, students try to rewrite the email so that it is more informal. Monitor and give help as necessary.

Encourage students to look at the other two emails to find examples of less formal expressions that they could use or adapt.

Suggested answer

Dear Hi Mark,

I hope you’re well. I am writing you a A quick message to say we got the invitation to your party. We apologise, I’m really sorry, but we can’t come. We’re going to a wedding that day. We’ll be in touch soon.

Yours sincerely All the best, Paul

dGive the students a few minutes to read through the emails again and look at how they are organised. Then take feedback as a class.

Answers

1  apologise then explain

They apologise in two separate sentences.

  EXTRA ACTIVITY

Divide students into pairs. Read out one of the emails but leave out some of the words. Indicate where the missing words are by clapping your hands. You can use this activity to focus on in/formal language, grammar or vocabulary. The students complete the gaps with a suitable word. Check the answers as a class. Be prepared to accept answers which are different from the original email but which are correct and make sense. Which pair has the most correct answers?

4 WRITING

aTell students that they are going to write an apology email to Rebecca in 1a. Read through her situation again with the class. and elicit ideas for possible explanations/excuses as to why students didn’t respond to her invitation – e.g. they were away/ill/had lots of problems/lost the message, etc. Then give them some time to plan and structure their email using the notes to help them. Monitor and help as necessary.

bStudents write their emails. Remind them to use informal language. Monitor and encourage selfcorrection by pointing out errors for students to self- correct.

cStudents swap emails with other students in the class to read and evaluate by answering the questions. Ask students if they think their partner’s apology would make Rebecca feel better. If not, what improvements they would suggest? Take feedback and ask for comments and opinions.

  FAST FINISHERS

Fast finishers can write a reply to their apology email.

LOA TIP REVIEW AND REFLECT

Ask students to compare the emails they have just written with the writing task they did at the end of Unit 1 of this course. Can they see what they have improved on? Discuss ideas as a class.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Workbook 10D