Who is this for?

This leaflet is for anyone who wants to prepare for and practise using spoken English for common workplace situations.

The aim of this leaflet

This leaflet gives advice on using spoken English in three different workplace situations: 1) In business meetings; 2) On the telephone; and 3) Socialising with colleagues/clients etc. It directs you to useful resources in the SAC and on the WWW for preparing and practising for these situations.

Using English in business meetings

Business people spend quite a lot of time in meetings. These meetings range from formal committees to informal one-to-one meetings.

Preparing yourself for a meeting involves not only thinking about the purpose of the meeting and/or the topic to be discussed, but also the kind of language required for the meeting. In fact, these two matters are closely related.

• Preparing for meetings – thinking about purpose

When you are asked to participate in a meeting, you should begin your preparation for the meeting by completing the following sentence:

'The purpose of this meeting is to…’

Business meetings usually have one of three kinds of objectives (purposes): information exchange, problem solving or some combination of the two. The best results come out of a meeting when all participants focus on the meeting’s objectives instead of their own.

• Preparing for meetings – thinking about language

Speakers of English can use different styles of language to communicate the same idea. While thinking about the purpose of a meeting, you should also consider whether the language required of you during the meeting should be of a formal or informal style. Your choice of a formal or informal style of language will depend on a number of factors including: the topic of the meeting (the end-of-year party or the annual financial report); the place of the meeting (in the boardroom or in the coffee shop); the other people involved in the meeting (colleagues on the same level as you/ your superiors/ your subordinates).

In general, whether you decide on a formal or informal style of language, it is important to be polite in a meeting situation. It is often more effective to say things more indirectly than directly if you want to be polite. Do you know how to make your language less direct?

Next, you should consider whether you are equipped with a range of the language functions commonly used in a meeting. For example, how you interrupt another speaker, agree/disagree with another speaker, present your own opinions or suggestions and so on.

Useful materials in the SAC

• Textbooks

These books can be found in the Multimedia Area and will help you to practise the language and skills required for participating in meetings:

• CD-ROMs

The CD-ROM, Business English, contains practice exercises for listening and speaking in meetings.

• Videos

Videos allow you to hear the language but also see the behaviours (body language etc.) required for meetings.

The WWW

• The Virtual Meeting Assistant (http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vma/vms.htm) – this excellent site provides links to all kinds of advice on running and participating in meetings.
• Meeting Skills: Antidote for Bad Meetings
  (http://www.llrx.com/columns/guide25.htm#top) – this site provides good advice on ways of avoiding ineffective meetings and links to other useful sites.
• Taking Part in a Meeting (http://www.real-life.english-at-home.com/meetings1.php3) - useful expressions for taking part in meetings, chairing and taking the minutes of a meeting.

Using English on the telephone

Telephoning in English, and especially making a first-time call, is not easy. How you ‘sell’ yourself on the telephone may, however, be just as important as how you deal with people in person.

The following are some common causes of problems that occur on the telephone:

• Poor English
• Inappropriate telephone language
• Hesitation due to lack of confidence
• Hesitation due to lack of preparation
• Insufficient/unclear information provided by the caller/receiver

Some of these problems can be addressed relatively easily. One way of improving matters is to prepare for a call before making it.

To be effective on the phone, the caller must have:

1. clear objectives
2. the relevant information
3. a clear strategy and structure for the call.

The following is a suggested structure for a phone conversation. Listed are the caller’s steps.

Of course, a caller should also think about the language required for each stage of a call. All of the materials listed below will help you to learn and practise appropriate telephone language.

Finally, when problems arise, it’s important to have strategies for coping with these. See S3, Coping with Problems, for general tips on dealing with problems when using spoken English.

Some specific language functions that you can use for handling communication problems on the telephone include:

• Asking for repetition (‘I’m sorry. Could you say that again?’)
• Asking for clarification (‘Could you explain what you mean exactly?’)
• Asking for verification (‘Let me just check. Your number is…’)
• Asking for spelling (‘Could you spell that name, please?’)
• Correcting information (‘Sorry. That’s the 13th, not the 30th’)

Ask yourself whether you know a range of expressions for expressing the functions listed above.

Useful materials in the SAC

• Textbooks

The following books are all available on the shelves in the audio area:

Telephoning
Telephoning in English
Business Objectives Unit 2

• CD-ROMs

CD-ROMS allow you to ‘rehearse’ telephone conversations.

• Videos

These videos show ‘real-life’ business situations and people using the telephone.

Putting you Through
Effective Telephoning

The WWW

• Telephoning Skills (http://www.real-life.english-at-home.com/telephoning1.php3) – provides language and strategies for effective telephoning.
• Telephoning (http://ec.hku.hk/epc/telephoning/) - this is a section of the English for Professional Communication Website created at the English Centre, University of Hong Kong.
• The English Channel – Telephoning (http://www.hio.ft.hanze.nl/thar/telephon.htm) – this is part of a site for English learners and includes the ‘telephone alphabet’ as well as frequently used expressions.

Using English for socialising in the workplace

In some cultures, before any real business is done, a certain amount of ‘socialising’ is required. In most English-speaking workplaces, it is very usual for colleagues to make ‘small talk’ when they meet (in a lift; at the photocopier etc.).

Since making ‘small talk’ is not common across all cultures, the first question that a lot of learners of English ask is ‘Well, what should I talk about?’ There is no simple answer to this question. However, we could say that we usually start a conversation with a question, talk about what we have in common with the other person (even if it’s simply that we both just attended the same meeting), or comment on the weather, sports or current events (very general topics). The following could be used as conversation openers:

That was interesting, wasn’t it? (after a meeting)
Great day, isn’t it?(talking about the weather)
The food’s really good here, isn’t it?(in a restaurant/café etc.)

You will notice that these ‘openers’ are tag questions. If you’re not sure about how to phrase such questions, consult a grammar text. The Collins Cobuild Student’s Grammar (Units 52 and 53) is one such text available in the SAC.

For more on opening/initiating conversations, see the materials listed below.

Of course, you need to be able to more than just start a conversation, so think also about how you will keep a conversation going and, finally, how you will conclude a conversation. Again, the materials listed below will help you with this.

Useful materials in the SAC

• Textbooks

These books (available in the Audio Area) will give you some ideas for initiating, maintaining and concluding social conversations in the workplace:

Socializing
Making Contact
Business Objectives Units 1 and 6

• CD-ROMs

Practise chatting about very general topics with these CD-ROMs.

Small Talk 1,2,3
Business English

• Videos

This video focuses on various social situations that might arise in your workday.

Effective Socialising

The WWW

Unfortunately we have not yet found sites on the web that allow you to actually ‘chat’ (speak) with others. Chat rooms and discussion boards are, however, a way of activating your thinking about general topics of interest and how you might ‘chat’ about these with people you don’t know very well.

The ESL Discussion Center (http://www.eslcafe.com/discussion/#student) This is at Dave's ESL Cafe. It's not really speaking but written chat is somewhere between spoken conversation and writing.

Make Small Talk (http://homearts.com/gh/betterw/12bwmib4.htm) is a short site with tips on ‘mingling’ at a social occasion.

Conversation Questions (http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/questions) – this site lists hundreds of useful questions for starting and maintaining conversations about all kinds of topics.

And Now...

If you would like to discuss any of the matters introduced in this advice sheet, or if you simply want to have a chat about your language learning, please use the SAC advisers - we are here to support your learning! To contact us:

• see an Adviser, on duty at the SAC Advice Desk (for details of advisers and their availability, please go to http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/sacadviser.html)
• e-mail lcsac (lccommons@ust.hk) with your query;
• ask at the reception counter of the SAC — if the receptionist cannot help you directly, s/he will pass your query on to one of the SAC advisers

Note
This is part of a series of introductory leaflets supporting independent language learning produced by the HKUST Language Center SAC team. This leaflet was re-written by Melissa Megan, 2001. If you copy from this leaflet, please acknowledge the source. Thanks.