Target Language:
Asking to meet
"Are you available/free…?","Can we meet…?" "How does… sound to you?", "Would …..suit you?", "Is….. convenient for you?", "What about….?"
Agreeing on a date
"Yes, …. is fine.",…..suits me.", "….. would be perfect."
Suggesting a different date
"I'm afraid I can't on... What about the 6th?""I'm sorry, I won't be able to make it... Could we meet on …instead?
Analysis: As you can see, there are many ways of fulfilling this function, and the level of formality depends on the situation. Asking even upper-intermediate learners to remember them all accurately would be too much, even though they would be familiar with some of the structures. The best thing to do is to get them on the board and provide situations for the learners to practise using them. When teaching a function, focus on the use of the language rather than its structure.
Lead in
Introduce students to a character and start telling them a bit about him/her, including where he/she works. Ask them to guess what his/her job is. Tell them a situation in that character’s life, and tell them he needs to make an appointment.
Elicit ways he can do this (phone/in person/email). Choose 1 way. Elicit the first turn of the conversation (eg. Good afternoon, My name is…and I’d like to).
Presentation
Use the appointment situation chosen to elicit the target language by asking for phrases to express ways of asking to meet.
Model and drill each structure as it arises, and then write it on the board. You may be given quite a variety of phrases other than your target language , so just ask for other ones and write up only your target language, you may need to tell them or give them hints.
Controlled practice
Hand out (or display) a dialogue with gaps in the conversation (the gaps should be the target language). Do one or two with the whole class, then get learners to work individually, completing the conversation.
Free practice
Give students more appointments to make! In pairs, Student 1 makes an appointment, Student 2 is the other worker, then change roles.
Feedback.
You could vary the free practice and make it more relevant to students own lies by assigning new characters, or let them be themselves, rather than keeping the same character. For more confident students, they could act their dialogue for everyone, after feedback.