💻 LESSON 12 — Meetings & Calls

 

💻 LESSON 12 — Meetings & Calls

🧠 Grammar: Should / Shouldn't

🎯 Topic: Professional Online Meetings

🗣️ Skills: Speaking • Reading • Vocabulary • Role-play

Level: A2–B1 (QA / IT English)
Duration: 60 minutes

🎯 LESSON GOALS

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

✅ participate confidently in online meetings

✅ discuss technical problems during calls

✅ give polite advice using should / shouldn't

✅ describe common meeting situations

✅ explain your opinion professionally

🔥 1. WARM-UP

😂 "The Zoom Disaster"

Choose your answer and explain.

1.

What's worse?

🎤 Forgetting to unmute yourself

OR

📹 Forgetting your camera is ON?

2.

Have you ever spoken for a minute before realizing you were muted?

3.

What's the funniest thing you've seen during an online meeting?

4.

If you could remove ONE thing from online meetings forever, what would it be?

  • cameras

  • presentations

  • long introductions

  • technical problems

  • saying "Can you hear me?"

5.

Would you rather...

📹 always have your camera on

OR

🎤 always have your microphone on?

Why?

6.

How long should an ideal meeting last?

📚 2. VOCABULARY

WordMeaningExample
agenda    list of meeting topics    Let's start with today's agenda.
discussion    talking about a topic    We had an interesting discussion.
conference call    online meeting    We have a conference call at 10.
microphone    device for speaking    Your microphone isn't working.
camera    video device    Please turn on your camera.
mute    turn the microphone off    Don't forget to mute yourself.
connection    internet connection    My connection is unstable today.
presentation    talk with slides    Sarah is giving the presentation.
participant    person in a meeting    Every participant asked questions.
record    save the meeting    Can someone record this meeting?

🎮 Vocabulary Challenge

Guess the word.

1.

What do we call the list of topics before a meeting?

→ __________

2.

What button stops other people from hearing you?

→ __________

3.

What do we call an online meeting with several people?

→ __________

4.

Who is every person attending the meeting?

→ __________

5.

What do we call a talk that usually includes slides?

→ __________

📖 3. READING

😂 The Meeting That Nobody Could Hear

Monday morning. 9:00 a.m. The whole QA team joined the weekly conference call.

The manager smiled.

"Good morning, everyone!"


Nobody answered. He smiled again. Still silence. He started talking about the new release.

He explained the testing plan. He showed beautiful presentation slides. He spent almost five minutes speaking.


Finally, Emma typed in the chat:

"David..." "We can't hear you."


David looked confused. Then he noticed... His microphone had been muted the whole time.

Everyone started laughing. David laughed too.


"Well..." "At least my presentation was very peaceful." A few minutes later, another problem appeared.

Alex's camera suddenly switched on. Instead of sitting at his desk... he was standing in his kitchen making pancakes.


He didn't know the camera was on. The team watched him flip a pancake perfectly.

Nobody wanted to interrupt. Finally, Alex looked at the screen.

"Oh..."

"I guess this meeting has become a cooking show."


The manager smiled.

"You should share the recipe after the meeting."

Since then, every Monday meeting has started with the same question:

"Is everyone ready?"

"And more importantly..."

"Is everyone unmuted?"

📖 Reading Questions

  1. Why couldn't the team hear David?
  1. How long did he speak before noticing?
  1. What was Alex doing?
  1. Why did everyone laugh?
  1. What advice did the manager give?
  1. Have you ever experienced something embarrassing during an online meeting?

💻 Irregular Verbs for IT Testers 

Base Form            Past Simple    Past Participle    🇺🇦 Ukrainian Translation
build            built    builtбудувати, створювати
understand            understood    understoodрозуміти
draw            drew    drawnмалювати, креслити
break            broke    brokenламати, зламати
spend            spent    spentвитрачати (час, гроші)
cut            cut    cutрізати, скорочувати
rise            rose    risenпідніматися, зростати
drive            drove    drivenкерувати, приводити в рух
buy            bought    boughtкупувати
wear            wore    wornносити (одяг)

💻 Example Sentences (IT Testing Context)

build → built → built

  • The developers built a new version of the application yesterday.

  • We have built an automated testing framework.

understand → understood → understood

  • I understood the testing requirements after the meeting.

  • She has understood how the API works.

draw → drew → drawn

  • The tester drew a diagram of the application architecture.

  • We have drawn a flowchart for the login process.

break → broke → broken

  • The latest update broke the payment feature.

  • Several automated tests have broken after the deployment.

spend → spent → spent

  • I spent three hours testing the new feature.

  • We have spent a lot of time investigating this bug.

cut → cut → cut

  • The team cut unnecessary test cases before the release.

  • We have cut the execution time by 30%.

rise → rose → risen

  • The number of bugs rose after the deployment.

  • Customer complaints have risen this week.

drive → drove → driven

  • Better documentation drove faster bug resolution.

  • Customer feedback has driven many product improvements.

buy → bought → bought

  • The company bought a new testing tool last month.

  • We have bought additional licenses for the QA team.

wear → wore → worn

  • During usability testing, every participant wore a VR headset.

  • The VR headsets have been worn by hundreds of testers during the project.

🧠 4. GRAMMAR

SHOULD / SHOULDN'T

We use should to:

✔ give advice

✔ make recommendations

✔ express opinions politely

Examples

You should mute your microphone.

You should check your connection before the meeting.

Participants should arrive on time.

SHOULDN'T

You shouldn't interrupt people.

You shouldn't leave your microphone on.

You shouldn't eat loudly during meetings.

📝 Grammar Practice

🧩 5. WHAT'S WRONG?

Look at each situation and give advice.

Situation 1

The participant's microphone is making noise.


Situation 2

The presenter forgot to share the screen.


Situation 3

The internet keeps disconnecting.



Situation 4

Someone is speaking while muted.



Situation 5

Nobody knows today's agenda.



Situation 6

The camera is pointing at the ceiling.



🎯 6. MINI DEBATE

Choose one side.

Cameras should always be ON during online meetings.

OR

Cameras should be optional.

Explain your opinion.

🤔 7. SPEAKING

Discuss.

1. Why do some meetings waste so much time?

2. Should every meeting have an agenda?

3. How can online meetings become more productive?

4. What's the biggest difference between online and face-to-face meetings?

5. Would you rather write emails or attend meetings? Why?

6. Should companies record every meeting?

7. If you were a team leader, what rules would you introduce?

✍️ HOMEWORK

Write 120–150 words

"How to Have a Successful Online Meeting"

Requirements:

  • Use all 10 vocabulary words.

  • Include at least 6 sentences with should or shouldn't.

  • Give practical advice for both meeting hosts and participants.





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