Digital Literacy: Technology Part 2

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rowan: My name’s Rowan

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: This week’s podcast is connected to something called digital literacy. Over the course of the season, some of our podcasts are going to focus on different areas of digital literacy.

Jack: You may have heard the word literacy before. Literacy is basically the ability to read and write. If you can read and write you are literate.

Rowan: But it has another slightly different meaning. Literacy can also be used to describe skills or knowledge in other areas; not just reading and writing.

Rich: Yes, we might talk about financial literacy which is the ability to manage your money or finances. We might also hear the term computer literacy which is connected to your technical ability and knowledge of computers.

Jack: Computer literacy includes things like your ability to use computer programmes like Microsoft Office or Excel, Google Docs or other computer programmes as well as knowledge of computer hardware and software.

Rowan: Digital literacy is much broader - much wider than computer literacy. As well as technical ability, digital literacy includes your ability to find and evaluate online information and also your ability to collaborate online and create your own online information.

Rich: So this is our first podcast that focuses on digital literacy. There is a separate podcast section on the Premier Skills English website where you’ll be able to find all these podcasts and the transcripts and extra activities that go with them.

Jack: We know that most of you, our listeners, will be very familiar with technology and the online world. The reason for our roleplays is that there is a lot of language which we think is very useful to explore and which may be less familiar to you.

Rowan: We decided that a good starting point for our series of podcasts on digital literacy is functional skills. When we talk about functional skills within digital literacy we are talking about the actual ability to use different technologies.

Rich: We’ve decided to talk about mobile phones in this week’s podcast and some possible problems some people may have when using them.

Jack: You will hear this week’s podcast in three different parts, we will have a task for you to do after each part which will give you a chance to talk about what we have discussed and the language which we will introduce.

Rowan: If you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any other podcast platform, you should also check out our website.

Rich: On the Premier Skills English website, you’ll find the transcript, examples and activities to help you understand the language, and a task for you to complete with other listeners.

Jack: And don’t forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess!

Introduction to Roleplay

Rowan: As we said earlier, this week’s roleplay is about technology and how good we are with it.

Rich: Jack has a problem with his mobile phone and asks Rowan for some help. As you already know, Rowan is a technical whizz and is the go-to person for any problems with technology.

Jack: After the roleplay, we’ll look at some language we can use to clarify and check instructions and also some words and phrases connected to technology.

Rowan: But while you listen we want you to answer a question.

Rich: The question is: What can’t Jack do on his phone?

Roleplay

Jack: Hey, Rowan. Would you mind helping me for a minute?

Rowan: What’s up?

Jack: It’s this phone of mine. I can’t take any photos.

Rowan: The SD card is probably full.

Jack: No, it’s new - well I bought it second hand - I haven’t even used it yet.

Rowan: Oh, right, and the SD card was already in it - you probably need to format it then.

Jack: Right, yes, of course - format the SD card …

Rowan: Do you know how to do that? You should really always format a new SD card before you start using it.

Jack: Yep, sure. Do you think you might be able to help me with that?

Rowan: Yeah, it’s quite straightforward really. It’s an Android phone, isn’t it?

Jack: Yep.

Rowan: Well, open the settings on your phone and then you want to tap on device care, storage, advanced and then you’ll see portable storage and you’ll be able to find your SD card there.

Jack: Yeah err … settings and then … sorry can you back up a little. Can you tell me that again? I’m looking for storage but I can’t see it anywhere.

Rowan: You’ve missed a step. You need to tap on device care first and then you’ll see it.

Jack: Right, got it and now I’m looking for something that says format?

Rowan: Hang on. You’ve skipped a bit again. You can’t do that until you’ve tapped on the advanced settings and then you’ll see portable storage. Have you go that?

Jack: Yes, I can see it now and I’ve just clicked on SD card.

Rowan: You should see an option that says format.

Jack: Yep, I’ve just tapped it. Hold on a second … say cheese.

Rowan: Cheese!

Jack: Perfect.

Language Focus

Rich: Before we move on to the answer to our question can we just explain to everyone why we were talking about cheese at the end of the roleplay.

Rowan: I imagine everyone knows this but just in case when English speakers take a photo they often say: ‘Say Cheese’ to the people in the photo.

Jack: When you say ‘cheese’ you naturally smile so you get lots of smiling people in the photo.

Rich: In Spain, people often say ‘patatas’. I wonder what people say in other countries?

Rowan: So, before the roleplay, we asked you a question. The question was: What can’t Jack do on his phone?

Jack: And the answer was I couldn’t take photos. The reason was that my memory card was full or not working and I asked Rowan for some help to format it on my phone.

Rich: Rowan gave lots of instructions in the roleplay. Sometimes these were a bit too quick for Jack and he asked Rowan to repeat or he missed an instruction.

Rowan: Let’s look at some language that can help us when we need some clarification or we want someone to repeat or go a bit slower. Let’s listen to one part of the roleplay again:

Jack: Yeah err … settings and then … sorry can you back up a little. Can you tell me that again? I’m looking for storage but I can’t see it anywhere.

Rich: When you want someone to repeat an instruction the easiest thing to say is: Can you repeat that, please? Or as Jack said, Can you tell me that again?

Rowan: There are other phrases we can use when we want someone to repeat something. We can be more polite and say something like Would you mind repeating that, please?

Jack: Yes, we looked at this structure in the last lesson: Would you mind plus the - ing form. A more advanced phrase with a similar meaning is: Would you mind running that past me again?

Rich: Or you could say something like: I didn’t quite catch that. Can you say that again? When we say we didn’t catch something it can mean I didn’t hear or understand well.

Rowan: Instructions can sometimes be too fast and we might miss them all. Jack asked Rowan to back up a bit because he hadn’t heard everything - another way of asking me to repeat something.

Jack: Because the instructions were so fast I missed some instructions. Listen to this part again. What phrases does Rowan use to go back or slow down?

Rowan: You’ve missed a step. You need to tap on device care first and then you’ll see it.

Jack: Right, got it and now I’m looking for something that says format?

Rowan: Hang on. You’ve skipped a bit again. You can’t do that until you’ve tapped on the advanced settings and then you’ll see portable storage. Have you go that?

Rich: One nice short phrase we can use when we want someone to wait or slow down is ‘hang on’. We can also use ‘hold on’ in a similar way.

Jack: We often add times to these phrases: Hold on a second will you? If you hang on a minute I’ll be right with you.

Rowan: I used a couple of phrases to tell Jack that he hadn’t followed my instructions correctly. These were ‘you’ve missed a step’ and ‘you’ve skipped a bit’.

Rich: These types of phrases can be useful when giving someone instructions.

Jack: You can look at this vocabulary and more on the Premier Skills English website. You’ll also find free activities, the transcript and a quiz to help you understand.

TASK

Jack: In the podcast, we have looked at ways to give instructions and ask for clarification.

Rowan: It can be difficult when you have a tech problem and someone gives you a list of instructions to follow - especially if it’s on the phone.

Rich: Your task is to tell us about a tech problem you have had asking for help on the phone or online.

Jack: Tell us what the problem was and how difficult it was to follow the instructions. Did you have to ask the person on the other end of the call to repeat instructions? Did you have to ask for some clarification?

Rowan: What are your experiences of calling tech support either at work or from your home? Can you imagine having to do this in English? Have you ever had to do this in English?

Rich: Write all your answers in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website or on Apple podcasts if that’s where you listen to us.

Football Phrase

Rich: OK, it’s time for our football phrase. If you’ve not listened to the podcast before, every week we set our listeners a challenge. We explain a football phrase or word and you have to guess what it is.

Rowan: You will hear this football phrase in every podcast we release this week.

Jack: When you know the answer, go to the podcast page on the Premier Skills English website or the review section on Apple Podcasts and write the word or phrase in the comments. If you’re correct we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast.

Rich: So what is this week’s football phrase, Rowan?

Rowan: This week’s football phrase is ****** *******. This phrase is used when a club pays more money for a player transfer than they ever have before. Jack Grealish is Manchester City’s ****** ******* and Romelu Lukaku is Chelsea’s ****** *******.

Jack: Maybe Lukaku won’t play against Arsenal this weekend. I’d be quite happy about that!

Rich: If you have a football phrase that you would like us to use in the podcast, just get in touch and let us know.

Rowan: Right, that’s all we have time for but we will be back soon with the next part of this Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: Before we finish we just wanted to say that we hope you found this lesson useful and we hope all of you stay fit and healthy.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.