Business English-3032 Transcripts of the Listening Activities

TRANSCRIPTS OF THE LISTENING ACTIVITIES IN TELEPHONING, HOLDING MEETINGS, PRESENTATIONS

Role –play the following conversations with your partner and do the relevant quizes in the coursebook.

1.    TELEPHONING: CONNECTING

In the first conversation Richard Davies is calling the marketing department of a company and wants to be put through to Rosalind Wilson. In the second conversation Mike Andrews wants to talk to Jason Roberts in the marketing department.

Michelle: Hello, you’ve reached the marketing department. How can I help?

Male: Yes, can I speak to Rosalind Wilson, please?

Michelle: Who’s calling, please?

Male: It’s Richard Davies here.

Michelle: Certainly. Please hold and I’ll put you through.

Male: Thank you.

 Michelle: Hello, marketing. How can I help?

Male: Could I speak to Jason Roberts, please?

Michelle: Certainly. Who shall I say is calling?

Male: My name’s Mike Andrews.

 Michelle: Just a second - I’ll see if he’s in.

Hello, Jason, I’ve got Mike Andrews on the phone for you …

Okay - I’ll put him through. Hang on a moment, I’m just putting you through.

2.    TELEPHONING: MESSAGES

This conversation is between the finance department of a company and Jennifer McAndrews. Jennifer wants to talk to Adrian Hopwood but he's not available so she has to leave a message.

Claire:	Hello, finance department
Female:	Hello, can I speak to Adrian Hopwood, please?
Claire:	I’m afraid he’s in a meeting at the moment. Can I help?
Female:	No I need to talk to Mr Hopwood, I think. What time will he be out of the meeting?
Claire:	In about an hour. Can you call back later?
Female:	Okay, I’ll do that.
Claire:	Or can I take a message?
Female:	Actually, would you mind? Could you tell him that Jennifer McAndrews called and that I’m in the office all day if he could call me back.
Claire:	Can I take your number, please?
Female:	Yes, it’s 5556872.
Claire:	5556872.  Okay, I’ll make sure he gets the message.
Female:	Thanks very much for your help, bye!
Claire:	Goodbye! 3.    TELEPHONING: WRONG NUMBER Male: Hello, this is the press office. Michelle: Rachel Allsop please. Male: I’m sorry, you must have the wrong number. There’s no-one of that name here. Michelle: Oh. Can I check the number I’ve got…. is that not  5568790? Male: No, it’s 5558790. Michelle: Oh sorry about that.  I must have dialled the wrong number. Male: No problem!  Bye! Male: Hello, press office, can I help you? Ruth: Hello. Paul Richards, please. Male: I’m sorry, you’ve got the wrong number, but he does work here.  I’ll try and put you through.  In future his direct number is 5558770. Ruth: Did I not dial that? Male: No you rang 5558790. Ruth: Oh, sorry to have troubled you. Male: No problem.  Hang on a moment and I’ll put you through to Paul’s extension. Ruth: Thanks. 4.    TELEPHONING: APPOINTMENTS Michelle: Mr Hibberd’s office! Peter: Hello, can I speak to Brian Hibberd, please? Michelle: I’m afraid he’s in a meeting until lunchtime. Can I take a message? Peter: Well, I’d like to arrange an appointment to see him, please.   It’s Peter Jefferson here. Michelle: Could you hold on for a minute, Mr Jefferson. I’ll just look in the diary. So when’s convenient for you? Peter: Some time next week if possible. I gather he’s away the following week. Michelle: Yes, that’s right, he’s on holiday for a fortnight. Peter: Well, I need to see him before he goes away. So would next Wednesday be okay? Michelle: Wednesday . let me see . he's out of the office all morning. But he's free in the afternoon, after about three. Peter: Three o'clock is difficult. But I could make it after four. Michelle: So shall we say 4.15 next Wednesday, in Mr Hibberd's office? Peter: Yes, that sounds fine. Thanks very much. Michelle: Okay, then. Bye. MEETINGS: AGENDA SETTING Clip 1 Sarah: Right then, Alex, let's get down to business. On the agenda today for our public relations meeting are the research project, the launch of the website, the timeline for press releases, and the executary of the year award. Are you quite happy with those points? Alex: Yeah, that's fine. If you could go through them in order, that'd be great. Clip 2 Alex: OK everybody, thanks for coming. Let's keep this meeting fairly brief, really just a couple of things on the agenda. First of all, as you can see, the news on the book re-launch; and secondly, the office move; and finally, we'll have a little bit of time for any other business. MEETINGS: INTERRUPTIONS Sean: First of all, the book re-launch. I just wanted to remind everybody that we will be re-launching the fairy-tales range with new modern covers, and that this is going to happen at the beginning of next month. It's important that we get this right and there have been quite a few… John: Actually Sean, can I just ask you – sorry to hold the meeting up – can I ask you about those dates, because I thought that this was going to be published the month after next, and I understand that everybody has got their dates, but I do feel quite stronglythat we’re bringing this out too soon. Sean: Well, any other thoughts before I comment on that? Carrie: I don’t think we’ve got any choice at all about it. If the radio programmes are going out at the beginning of next month, we’ve got to launch the book at the same time if we’re going to have any sales impact. MEETINGS:AGREEING DISAGREEING Sean: The office move, as you know, the plans have been up by the main exit for a week now. I just wanted to see what kind of feedback you’ve got. Tim: Yeah, Sean, I’m sorry, but I really strongly disagree with the new floor plan. I think it's divisive to separate the secretaries and the assistants out from the editors and managers. I’d be much happier if we could be located in teams. Carrie: Actually, I think Sean is right. I’ve been chatting to some of the secretaries and they’re quite keen to all be sitting in the same area, and, speaking as an editor, I think I’d like to be with other editors so that we can bounce ideas off each other and things. So I think Sean’s floor plan is right.

            MEETINGS: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Sean:	Okay - any other business?
Will:	Yes, I would like to say something. An illustrator came in last week, and I think she's very good and it would be wise to put her on our books.
Sean:	… okay …
Will:	I would like to be able to show her drawings and her portfolio in the next couple of days. If that’s all right...
All:	That sounds good…
Sean:	Yes, I'll look forward to seeing those. Right, I think that’s probably about it, but anybody got anything else that they desperately want to raise before we wrap up?
All:	Nope.
Sean:	No? Okay. We'll be having another meeting, but there are a couple of conflicts in the diary so I think the best thing is if I email the date of the next meeting. PRESENTATIONS-OPENING: “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming along here today. I hope my presentation isn’t going to take too long and that you will find it interesting. The purpose of today’s presentation is to discuss how we can improve internal communications within our company. Now let me begin by explaining that I’d like to talk about the business case for better communication; secondly, I want to cover different styles and methods; and finally I would like to finish off by talking about some of the basics we need to have in place to deliver good quality, consistent communications across the company. I’d be very happy to invite you to ask questions at the end of the session and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time for us to discuss some of the points that have been raised.” Clip 2 “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for finding the time to come and join me for this presentation this afternoon. My name is Tim Mason, I‘m a retail consultant, and many of you will have seen me shadowing you in your jobs and looking through the accounts and so on in the company over the last week. I’ve invited you here today to have a look at my findings. First, I’d like to have a look at the performance of the company, the sales of the company over the last three years; then I’d like to have a look at our market share in the womenswear market and look at our competitors; and thirdly, I’d like to suggest some improvements in our range of womenswear. At the end I’d be happy to answer any of your questions.” PRESENTATIONS-BODY: Clip 1 “If you have a look at this first graph, you can see that our sales topped 50 million the year before last. Then last year sales dropped to 40 million, with a slight recovery at the end of the financial year. However, this year sales have continued to drop to an all time low of 30 million. Now let’s look at our market share. As you can see, we have 25% of the market share, 10% down on last year.” Clip 2 “A good example of how important internal communications are is shown by some findings from research that we have recently undertaken. Good communications is a very key factor in staff motivation. If you look at this slide, you will see how important it is to get the basics in place. You need to identify your communication requirement, agree your objectives and success criteria, identify your target audiences, define the content of your message and determine the style of delivery. A good illustration of the communication process is when all those basics fall into place naturally.” PRESENTATIONS-QUESTIONS: Tim: Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them now. Carrie: Yeah, can I just ask, graph number 3, that last one you showed us, can you explain to me where you’re intending to find the extra income to increase the designer range in the maternity wear? Tim: Yes, a very good question. I’ve looked at the office wear range and it’s quite heavy on material, holiday wear tends to be much lighter, much smaller amounts of material involved and I ...