English for logistics needs analysis and instant personalised practice

English for logistics needs analysis and instant personalised practice

Ask questions to fill the boxes below with as much detail about your partner as possible, including things like:

• where/ situation
• who with (position, nationality, 1^st language, English level, new or known, etc)
• way of communicating (telephone, online chat, email, face to face, etc)
• functions/ actions (apologising, negotiating, enquiring, following up, etc)
• topics (deadlines, delays, payment, etc)
• levels of formality (very formal, medium formality, fairly casual, etc)
• difficult aspects of that thing (and maybe less difficult parts)

Partner’s name:
Topic	Present	Past	Future
Work
Using English at work
Using English outside work (travel, friends, movies, etc)

 

 

Topic	Present	Past	Future
English classes
Other English studies (self-study, exams, etc)
English priorities/ goals/ weak points/ difficulties

Use these topics to add more to the forms above, asking your partner for more details and telling them more about yourself (“I forgot to say…”, “I didn’t mention…”, “I also have to…”, etc). 

Way of communicating

• Telephone
• Email
• Online chat/ Instant messaging
• Teleconference/ Video conference/ Skype
• Face to face meeting
• More informal face to face conversation, e.g. going to someone’s desk or office to speak face to face (without arranging it), a business lunch or meeting in the elevator

Who you are communicating with

• (New/ Regular/ Possible future) customer
• Officials (customs officials, etc)
• Staff in a subsidiary/ group company/ foreign branch
• Other freight companies

Topics

• Admin/ Documents/ Paperwork (invoice, etc)
• Advantages and/ or disadvantages of…
• Borders/ Customs
• Capacity
• Collection
• Cost
• Delays
• Delivery/ Drop off
• Dimensions (height, width, length, etc)
• Duties/ Tax/ Charges
• (Fragile/ Dangerous/ Heavy) goods
• Handling
• Inspection
• Insurance
• Labelling (barcode, etc)
• Laws/ Regulations/ Rules
• (Un)loading (time)
• Means of transportation (train, sea/ ship, air, etc)
• Packaging (pallet, container, etc)
• Payment
• Problems (breakdown, industrial action, backlog, traffic, political instability, terrorism, smuggling, piracy, etc)
• Technology
• (GPS) tracking
• Urgency
• Warehouse/ Warehousing
• (Extreme) weather/ Natural disasters (cyclone, earthquake, flooding, etc)
• Weight/ Weighing

Functions/ What you or the other person has to do

• Advice/ Feedback/ Recommendations/ Suggestions
• Announcements/ (Good or bad) news
• Apologising
• Asking people to wait
• Booking/ Making reservations
• Changing/ Cancelling
• Checking progress/ Chasing up
• Checking/ Clarifying/ Confirming
• Chit chat/ Small talk
• Commands/ Instructions/ Demanding action (= Telling someone to do something)
• Comparing/ Explaining (different) options/ Weighing up (different) options
• Complaints
• Contacting people/ Meeting people (for the first time/ again)
• Correcting (mistakes, wrong information, etc)
• Dealing with conflict/ Dealing with disagreements
• Dealing with problems (IT problems, etc)/ Troubleshooting
• Describing (products/ services, company, job, figures/ trends, etc)
• Enquiries (= Inquiries)/ Asking and answering questions/ Giving information
• Forecasting/ Predicting
• Giving reasons
• Introducing yourself
• Mentioning other people
• Negotiating/ Persuading
• Offers (offering help etc)
• Permission/ (Official) approval
• Purchasing/ Ordering
• Quotations/ Estimates
• Requests (asking for help, etc)
• Sales/ Selling (cold calling, sales presentations, etc)
• (Re)scheduling/ Rescheduling
• Talking about documents
• Talking about figures (= data = numbers)
• Thanking (e.g. acknowledging receipt of something)
• Updates

Other things to talk about:

• Level of formality (very formal, fairly formal, medium formality, very casual, etc)
• Possible problems (negative reactions, communication problems, etc)

 

Describe one situation where you have to use English such as one of the situations you mentioned before, e.g. “A formal phone call from a client complaining about a late delivery”. Roleplay that situation with you as yourself and your partner as the other person. If it is written communication, say what you would write (e.g. dictate whole emails, without writing anything). Include everything you would say or write (names, greetings, small talk, etc) from the very beginning of the interaction to the very end of the exchange. Discuss how you could have communicated better, then switch roles and do the same. Continue taking turns roleplaying your own situations until your teacher stops you.