Complaints: Explanation

Complaints

• Details

Name of Item	Complaints
Activity Type	Vocabulary matching / Discussion
Student Level	Lower Intermediate - Intermediate
Time Allowance	10 - 15 minutes
Preparation Required	Checking sheet for any words you might need to explain
Other Items Needed	none
Vocabulary	cabin crew / reception desk / customer complaints department
Grammar	nothing special

• Instructions

I've used this sheet a few times to introduce the general topic of complaints and apologies at the beginning of a lesson (epecially if I knew some of the attendees were going to be a few minutes late).

As instructed on the sheet itself, students match the people in the "italic" list with the complaint / apology situations in the grid below.This should probably be fairly uncontentious, but you might want to run through it briefly before going on to the discussion phase.

Before actually talking about the different situations, students put a tick alongside any that they think they would complain about. You might also suggest that they try to think of a reason why at the same time.

To maximize discussion, you might want to discretely look over the students' shoulders as they make their choices and then pair up people with (radically) different answers. The length of any discussion that ensues depends largely on how many situations they disagree about.