Language of Telephoning

This is a downloadable ESL matching activity to practise the language of telephoning.

Activity to practise phrases used on the telephone

Download this activity for free!

Here’s some more info about the activity:

Aim To present/practise common phrases used on the telephone.
Activity Students match phrases/words.
Organisation Pairs or groups
Preparation Make anough copies of the activity for the number of students in your class.
What do I do?
  1. Cut up and mix phrases/words before your lesson.
  2. Ask students to match phrases/words with similar meaning.
  3. Turn all of the cards face down and play a memory game: The first student turns over 2 cards. If they match, the student keeps the pair and tries again. If not, play passes to the next student. The student with the most pairs is the winner.

The line’s busy | The line’s engaged
I’ll put you through | I’ll connect you
Hold on | One moment
Go ahead | I’m ready
Could I have your name? | Who’s calling please?
Is that all? | Anything else?
A country or area number | A code
Can you wait? | Will you hold?
The reason I’m phoning is… | I’m calling to…

Keith Taylor
Keith is the co-founder of Eslbase. He has been a teacher and teacher trainer for over 20 years, in Indonesia, Australia, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Poland, France and now in the UK.

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