Complaining Politely
Aims
Goal: complain about food politely — a soft start, the problem in one clear sentence, and a clear request — so it actually gets fixed.
The lesson, stage by stage
- Warm up5 min
Warm-up: Something's wrong with my food
2 warm-up questions
- Reading10 min
Reading: A Problem With the Food
Read a 160-word text about A Problem With the Food
- Vocabulary8 min
Vocabulary: Complaint Words
7 items
- Practice7 min
Practice: Making Complaints
Gap-fill exercise, 5 items
- Practice7 min
Practice: Fix the Complaints
Error-correction exercise, 5 items
- Dialogue10 min
Dialogue: Make a Polite Complaint
Role-play: Your food order has a problem. Complain politely to the waiter. (7 lines)
- Discussion10 min
Discussion: Your mission: send it back nicely
3 discussion questions
Open the full lesson
The remaining 6 stages of this lesson, with the procedure, the examples and the exercises, are included with Starter, along with the interactive version you can teach from. Lesson 1 of this course is free: the full plan is on this site, and a free account opens it in the interactive player.
Target vocabulary
In a Tuton account these words become your student's vocabulary deck, so they come back in practice between lessons.
This plan comes from the Restaurants & Food course in the Tuton library. Browse all free lesson plans.