Online meetings discussion and brainstorming

Online meetings discussion and brainstorming with offers and requests for online meetings

 

Online meetings discussion

How often do you have online meetings?/ How many online meetings do you usually have each week?

How often do you have face-to-face meetings?

Do you like online meetings?

What are the good points of online meetings? What are the bad points?

Which do you prefer, online meetings or face-to-face meetings?/ Which do you like more, online meetings or face-to-face meetings?/ Which is better, online meetings or face-to-face meetings? (Why?)

What is the same in online meetings and face-to-face meetings?/ What is different between face-to-face and online meetings?

Brainstorming useful phrases for online meetings

Brainstorm 15 useful phrases to say in English online meetings, e.g. for starting and ending Zoom meetings. Then comment on someone else’s phrases with sentences like those in the box below. If possible, try to think of some phrases which are the same as face-to-face meetings and some which are different.

Useful phrases for discussing language for online meetings

• I agree. I think that is a common thing to say in online meetings./ Yes, I think that is a normal thing to say in online meetings too./ I chose that one too.
• I think that we can say that in online meetings (but it’s usually used in….)/ (but in online meetings we usually say…)
• I don’t think we usually say that in online meetings. (It’s usually used in…) (We usually say… in online meetings)

Look at some example phrases such as the requests and offers below and choose any which you think should be in your list of the 15 most useful phrases.

Offers and requests in online meetings

• Can you speak a little more loudly?/ Would you like me to speak a little more loudly?
• Shall I turn off my mic?/ Can you turn off your mic?
• Could you turn on your camera?/ Do you want me to turn on my camera?
• Shall I email that to you?/ Could you possibly email it to me?
• I’ll share the document. Does that help?/ It would be great if you could share that document.
• Can I give you a hand with hosting the meeting?/ Can you give me a hand with hosting the meeting?

On each of the lines above, underline the request (= asking someone to help you, like “Two cups of tea, please”) and change the offer to bold (= helping someone else, e.g. “Milk and sugar?”) (or circle it if you are working on paper).

Do the same with the responses below, underlining responses to requests and circling (or using bold) for responses to offers.

Of course. (Just a moment)./ Yes, please.

Sure./ That would be great.

That’s okay, thanks. I already know how to do that./ I’m sorry but I don’t know how to do that.