Phone & Video Calls
Communicate confidently in professional calls
Who it's for
Written for B1 (intermediate) students who handle everyday English and are ready for longer answers.
Meetings, emails, calls, negotiation and finance for students who use English at work. More Business English lesson plans
Skills it practises
- Speaking: discussion questionsevery lesson
- Vocabulary: a target word listevery lesson
- Reading: a text or news storyevery lesson
- Controlled practice: gap-fills, matching, sorting and moreevery lesson
- Role-play: a dialogue to act outevery lesson
- An answer framework to structure what they say2 of 8 lessons
Lessons
- Starting and Ending CallsGoal: open a professional call in fifteen seconds and close it with a clear next step — model openings and closings, then live practice.1 hr 17 minFree
- Taking & Leaving MessagesGoal: leave a 30-second voicemail that gets a callback, and take a message your colleague can act on — model voicemails, then live practice.1 hr 17 minOutline
- Virtual Meeting EssentialsGoal: run the first five minutes of a video call — audio check, latecomers, screen share — calmly and in control, with rescue phrases for when the tech fails.1 hr 17 minOutline
- Conference Call EtiquetteGoal: lead a conference call from roll call to recap with the CLEAR framework — no crosstalk, no silent passengers, every task with an owner and a deadline.1 hr 6 minOutline
- Handling Call ChallengesGoal: rescue a call when you don't understand — slow the speaker down, get spellings, confirm every detail — and never guess again.1 hr 17 minOutline
- Delivering Bad News by PhoneGoal: deliver bad news to a client by phone in under two minutes — Buffer, News, Support — so they're disappointed in the situation, not in you.1 hr 6 minOutline
- Sales & Client CallsGoal: run a sales call that earns the next meeting — open with a reason, turn an objection into a question, and close with a date in the calendar.1 hr 17 minOutline
- Cross-Cultural Phone EtiquetteGoal: adapt the same business call to two very different cultures — formal and indirect, direct and efficient — and hear the difference in your own voice.1 hr 17 minOutline
How to use it in a lesson
- Lessons run 66 to 77 minutes, with a timing on every stage, so you can see before you start what fits your slot.
- Start with "Starting and Ending Calls": its whole plan is on this site, stage by stage, with the target vocabulary, free to read and to teach from on any video call.
- For a shorter slot, skip a practice stage or cut the discussion short: the stages are a guide, not a script.
Teach Phone & Video Calls with your student
Lesson 1 of this course is free. A free account opens it in the interactive player, and the rest of the course is included with Starter. Teaching it live with your student in the Tuton classroom starts with a 7-day free trial.
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