Automated Phone Menu systems

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tomj - 24 Aug 2005 22:43 GMT

Very frequently when I call a business or organization I get an automated
phone message with several questioins to answer before I can talk to a
person.
"Press one for Sales" etc.

This is very frustrating to ESL learners. Does anyone know of any prepared
materials (with tapes or CDs) to help ESL learners practice deal with
automated phone menus? It is a kind of Listening skill.

Somebody must be making this kind of material. Where can I find it?

Thanks

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Django Cat - 28 Aug 2005 15:34 GMT

> Very frequently when I call a business or organization I get an
> automated phone message with several questioins to answer before I
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Somebody must be making this kind of material.

Why? As a product it sounds like it would have a very limited market.

>Where can I find it?

Not everything you can conceive of existing exists, even in the
wonderful world of ESOL. And it would be difficult to design materials
that covered the many different sorts of situations encountered when
phoning, banks, airlines, ticket agencies, surgical truss
manufacturers...

The difficulty for learners using the phone is that without being able
to see the other person's face you lose a great many of the non-lexical
clues that help communication. I work on this by having students sit
back to back when doing simulated phone conversations.

If you're going to classes, why not explain the problem to your teacher
and see if s/he can run through some situations with you and the class.

Mind you, native speakers hate those automated services too.

DC

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tomj - 29 Aug 2005 21:15 GMT

I am the teacher (and native speaker as well)

I assumed this was a newsgroup for ESL educators, place where teachers
could share what they have found.

Sorry you don't know of any resources available. If nobody has done
something like this, someone should. Its really in the same vein as other
listening comprehension exercises that practice basic skills through
examples. Actually the set of things to be covered is much more limited
than in a 'normal' conversation.

Do you know where a professional ESL group can be found. I used to belong
to TESL-L about a decade ago, that had the attention of thousands of
experienced teachers and would elicit multiple responses. Where is it now?

Tom

> > Very frequently when I call a business or organization I get an
> > automated phone message with several questioins to answer before I
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
> DC

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Django Cat - 03 Sep 2005 22:21 GMT

> I am the teacher (and native speaker as well)

Mmm. You have a creative approach to article use.

> I assumed this was a newsgroup for ESL educators, place where
> teachers could share what they have found.

Yes it is mostly.

> Sorry you don't know of any resources available. If nobody has done
> something like this, someone should.

Maybe you should give it a go it then. But do you really think this is
a skill area students are crying out for practice in? Would you expect
to make a profit selling such software? And just out of curiosity, are
you working with immigrant students in the US?

>Its really in the same vein as
> other listening comprehension exercises that practice basic skills
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> thousands of experienced teachers and would elicit multiple
> responses. Where is it now?

Where it's always been (& I'm a member)
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/

BTW, this group usually frowns on top posting.

DC

> Tom
>
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
> >
> > DC

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Chegu Tom - 06 Sep 2005 21:46 GMT

Strange attitude you have. Critizing my articles while dangling your
participles.

I geuss I am used to more professional responses. I will keep looking.
I'll let the group know if I find anything

Good Luck to you

Top posting usually refers to false posting dates on messages. Do you do
that?

> > I am the teacher (and native speaker as well)
>
[quoted text clipped - 68 lines]
> > >
> > > DC

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Jan - 09 Sep 2005 07:18 GMT

Hello Tom,

I live in a foreign country and have a poor grasp of the language here.
I have had to deal with banks, etc. with this kind of system and I
admit it can be frustrating. I vaguely remember seeing something like
this in a business English coursebook once: you should check the
business English courses.

Otherwise, why don't you make your own listening comp exercise? All you
need these days is a cheap microphone and either a home cassette
recorder or a PC. I remember doing some pronunciation recordings for a
class with a five dollar PC mike and a free trial sound editing
program. It didn't seem very difficult at the time.

Good luck!

Jan

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / September 2005

Automated Phone Menu systems