Listen to Dave and Sean speaking about the World Cup and do the activities. You can do them on your own. If you listen and discuss the questions and answers in English with one or more people you can learn more.

Activity 1

Download the MP3 audio file to listen to the conversation and then decide if statements are true or false.

Learning tip: don’t look at the transcript of the conversation yet

Activity 2

Don’t look at the transcript yet. In conversation the speakers contract some of the words, e.g. they say “y’know” instead of ‘you know’. Listen again and match words as they are written to the way they are spoken.

Now it’s time to look at the transcript, but before you do, think about the following explanation.

• Like other languages there are plenty of differences between written and spoken English.
• Written English is normally structured in sentences and paragraphs with punctuation marks, spelling and grammar helping to make the meaning clearer.
• Spoken English is a stream of sounds and silences; you can’t see a tapescript so punctuation marks and spelling play no part; the grammar is often very different and the way things are said (pronunciation) helps to make the meaning clearer.
• It’s more useful if the transcript of the conversation shows more or less what you actually hear so there are no punctuation marks and spelling rules are sometimes compromised
• Three dots are used usually to show were there is a pause but sometimes to mark where a speaker decided to change, without pausing, what they started to say.

Now look at the transcript and check your answers to the two activities you’ve done so far.

Activity 3

Each speaking ‘turn’ in the conversation is numbered (1 – 49)

Look again at the transcript and do an activity about keeping a conversation going.

Activity 4:

We don't always finish what we are saying, and it can be necessary to infer things to make sense of what has (not) been said. Listen again if you wish and work out what’s not said in some of the utterances.

Activity 5

Sometimes we say something, but then change our mind. Listen again if you wish and decide if the speaker changes his mind.

Activity 6:

Look at the transcript once more and match words and expressions to their meanings.

Grammar fact

Did you notice that when we talk (and write) about football teams we can use either singular or plural?

e.g. ‘Brazil is’, ‘Germany have’, ‘Argentina have’, ‘Holland has’, ‘England are’, etc.

Both are correct, it just depends on what you’re thinking about.

Any kind of team (football, government, etc) can be thought of as one thing – e.g. the country, the institution, or as a number of things – e.g. the players, the players together with everyone else involved, the government ministers.

Your turn

Write a transcript of a conversation between yourself and a friend (or any two characters) that uses what you’ve learned about spoken English.

If you’ve practised your spoken English by doing these activities together with someone else try recording a similar conversation either about football or any topic that allows you to disagree and reach agreement in a way that sounds just as natural as your conversations in your own language.

Once you’ve done this, record the same conversation in your own language and then listen to what you’ve said and how it sounds.

Then record the conversation again in English. Listen for what’s improved since the first recording.

Your feedback

If you have any questions or comments about the conversation and the activities or if you have any suggestions for future spoken English ideas, send them to us.