Level: B1 to B2
Practising English phone calls when you cannot see the other person
“I am fine in person. On the phone I panic.”
People who are comfortable speaking English face to face often struggle badly on the phone, and then conclude their English is worse than they thought. It is not. The phone removes about half of the information you were using without noticing: mouth shapes, expressions, the small nods that tell you to keep going, whether the other person is confused. What is left is audio, often compressed and slightly delayed.
So the difficulty is real and it is not a language deficiency. Native speakers mishear each other on the phone constantly. The difference is that they ask immediately and without embarrassment, and they narrate what they are doing so a pause never turns into dead air.
Voice only practice is the direct way to build this, because it removes the same information the phone does. Ten minutes of it is worth considerably more than an hour of practice where you can see the other person's face.
10 prompts for this topic
Work through these out loud. Reading them silently does almost nothing, which is the whole difficulty.
- 01Call to book an appointment. You need a specific day and time.
- 02Call to cancel something and ask for a refund.
- 03Call a colleague to explain a problem you cannot fix alone.
- 04Take a message for someone who is not there.
- 05Call to ask about the status of an application.
- 06Handle a call where the line is bad and you keep missing words.
- 07Call to complain about something, calmly.
- 08Give someone directions or an address over the phone.
- 09Spell your name and email address out loud.
- 10End a call politely when the other person will not stop talking.
Reading these is the easy half.
The prompts are free and they are all here. What they cannot do is answer back. Ten minutes, voice only, with someone who is practising too.
What it sounds like
One way this can go. Not a script to memorise, just proof that it is shorter and more ordinary than it feels beforehand.
Partner
Hello, this is the clinic, how can I help?
You
Hi, I would like to reschedule an appointment. It is under Reyes, on Thursday morning.
Partner
Sorry, could you say the name again?
You
Reyes. R for Romeo, E, Y, E, S.
Partner
Got it. And you wanted to move it to when?
You
Any time next week, ideally in the afternoon. Sorry, the line is a bit unclear, did you say next Tuesday?
Partner
I said Tuesday or Thursday.
You
Thursday afternoon, then. Just to confirm, that is Thursday the twelfth, in the afternoon.
Phrases worth having ready
Say each one out loud a few times. The goal is that they arrive without being summoned, because under pressure nothing else will.
- “Sorry, the line is a bit unclear.”
- Blames the connection, not your listening. Buys you a repeat immediately.
- “Could you say that again a bit slower?”
- Direct, and almost always granted without any fuss.
- “Let me read that back to you.”
- Catches errors in numbers and addresses before they become a problem.
- “R for Romeo, E, Y, E, S.”
- Spelling with words is standard on the phone. Nobody thinks it is odd.
- “Just to confirm, that is ...”
- Closes a call cleanly and prevents the whole thing being wasted.
- “Bear with me, I am writing this down.”
- Turns silence into visible activity.
- “Can I put you on hold for a moment?”
- Better than an unexplained pause.
- “I am still here.”
- For when a pause has gone on long enough to worry them.
- “Sorry, you go ahead.”
- Resolves the both-talking-at-once collision that phones cause constantly.
- “Before we finish, can I check one thing?”
- Reopens a call that is closing too fast.
- “Thanks for your help, have a good day.”
- The standard close. Say it and hang up.
Three things to stop doing
Pretending you understood.
Sorry, the line is a bit unclear.
Guessing on a phone call compounds. Two minutes later you are agreeing to something you did not hear, and unpicking it is far more embarrassing than asking was.
Silence while you write something down.
Bear with me, I am writing this down.
The other person cannot see you. Unexplained silence on a phone sounds like the call has dropped.
Hanging up without confirming.
Just to confirm, that is Thursday the twelfth, in the afternoon.
Numbers and dates are the most commonly misheard things on a phone, and the most expensive to get wrong.
The first one is the hardest. It is also free.
Ten minutes, voice only, no camera. Your partner is practising too, which is the part that makes it bearable.