ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASS

Lesson : Asking and Giving Suggestions

Level : Beginner
Allocated time : 60 minutes plus

Asking and giving suggestion

After this session, students will be able to use appropriate words and structures to:
 Making suggestions rather than telling someone what to do
 Offering help
 Taking care of someone’s feelings when asking them to change something or act
differently
Part 1: Dialogue
Read and understand the dialogue below. Identify the bold expressions and guess the meaning
and function of those expressions.
Johannes has an important presentation to make at a meeting with an important client the following
week. He is very stressed about it and his senior colleague, George, offers to help him. Let us see
what expressions Johannes and George use to offer help, give suggestions, ask for help and respond
to offers of help or suggestions)

Johannes : Good morning, George…

George : Hi, Johannes. Come on in! What can I do for you?
Johannes : I’m having trouble putting together my presentation for next week’s
meeting. I have done some work on it, but I’m not happy with the result.
George : Would you like me to have a look at it?
Johannes : Would you, please? I’d be very grateful if you could do that.
George : Hmm, let’s see….the introduction looks good, but I think it could use a little
more detail. Why don’t you add more information on what you’re going to
talk about? Take the client through the introduction step by step. That way,
there’ll be no surprises.
Johannes : That’s a good idea. Do you think it might be a good idea to put in a flow
chart here?
George : A flow chart would be a little too much detail for an introduction. Perhaps
you could use bullet points, and display the flow chart later.
Johannes : You’re right. I think I’ll do that…
George : Good. Let’s have a look at the rest of your presentation…OK, this bit
needs to be more clearly explained. One way would be to use a flow chart
here…
Johannes : You’re absolutely right! Why didn’t I think of that?
George : If I were you, I’d make sure that your work has a lot of visuals. It makes it
much easier to capture and hold your audience’s interest. Have you thought
about using graphics and perhaps animation for the main body of your
presentation?
 Johannes : No, I haven’t, but it’s a really good idea. The only problem is, I’m not very
good with either graphics or animation.
George : I would suggest that you get one of our techies to help you. This
presentation is important and, in my opinion, we should pull out all stops to
ensure it is effective. Do you need me to ask someone from the tech team to
help?
Johannes : That would be great, thanks. I could use all the help I can get!
George : No problem!

(Dialogue is taken from NIIT® English for Success Level 5, page 18)

Part 2: Review
The expressions in bold above are the examples of asking and giving suggestion
expressions. You can use them to ask for or giving a suggestion to someone. Below is a link
to some other expressions of asking and giving suggestions you can use and its meaning in
bahasa:
https://englishclas.com/penjelasan-dan-contoh-asking-and-giving-suggestion-beserta-terjemahanya/
Here are the list of asking and giving suggestions expressions and its meaning in Bahasa from the
link.

1. Asking Suggestion (Meminta Saran)

 What should I do? (Aku seharusnya melakukan apa?)

 Do you have any ideas? (Apa kau punya ide untukku?)
 Do you have any suggestions for me? (Apa kau punya saran untukku?)
 Can you tell me what I should do? (Bisakah kau katakana apa yang harus aku lakukan)
 Do you have any advice for me? (Apa kau punya nasihat untukku?)
 Will you give me some suggestion, please? (Maukah kamu memberikanku beberapa
saran?)
 Any idea? (ada ide?)
 Can you give me some advice about…? (Dapatkah kamu memberiku beberapa nasihat
tentang…)
 What do you recommend………? (Apa yang dapat kamu rekomendasikan?)
 Please tell me what should I do? (Kumohon katakan padaku apa yang harus aku lakukan?)

2. Giving Suggestion (Memberi Saran)

 You should… (Kamu harus....)

 You need/ought to… (Kamu perlu untuk....)
 You had better…(Sebaiknya anda...)
 You ought to…(Anda seharusnya ...)
 I think you should….(Menurut saya, anda seharusnya...)
 I advise you to…(Saya menasehati anda untuk...)
 I suggest you to… (Saya menyarankan anda untuk...)
 I suggest that you…. (Saya menyarankan bahwa anda sebaiknya....)
 I recommend you to…(Saya merekomendasikan anda untuk....)
 Maybe you should….(Sebaiknya anda...)

Here are some of the expressions you can use to respond to asking and giving
suggestions and it’s meaning in Bahasa.

a. Agreeing (Ungkapan setuju dengan saran diberikan)

• I agree with you. (saya setuju denganmu)

• I think you’re right. (Aku piker kamu benar)
• I think so. (saya sependapat)
• That’s a good idea. (itu ide yang bagus)
• That’s right. (ya itu benar)
• Thanks. I’ll ttr your advice. (Terima kasih. Saya akan mencoba saran kamu)
• That sounds great. (kedengaranya ide bagus)

b. Disagreeing (ungkapan tidak/kurang seuju dengan saran yang diberikan)

• No, I don’t think so. (Tidak, Saya tidak sependapat tentang itu)
• I disagree with you. (Sata tidak setuju denganmu)
• That’s not a good idea. (Itu tidak ide yang baik)
• I understand your point, but I think…. (Saya mengerti pendapatmu, tapi menurutku…)

Part 3 : Exercise using Quizlet

The teachers has made a quiz on Quizlet. Please use the app (you can download it on Play
Store or via web) to learn the expressions further as well as its context. You can listen and
repeat the expressions for a better fluency. The quiz is divided into two parts:

Part 1 : Understanding the Meaning.

This part requires you to understand the meaning of each expressions since English is not
your native language. Understanding the meaning will help you to understand the context as
well. Please do the learning part and then try out the test and other features in the app.

Here’s the link for Part 1: https://quizlet.com/_4m526w

Part 2 : Understanding the Context

After understanding the meaning, you need to do the second quiz which emphasizes more on
the context: formal/informal. The drill is suppossed to train you to be more flexible in using
various expressions in different contexts.

Here’s the link for Part 2 : https://quizlet.com/_4m552q

Part 4: Practice
Please make a simple dialogue with your friend using the expressions of your choice. Choose
the following topic, pay attention on the context:

a. Your friend has a stomach ache. She needs your help. Give her a suggestion to see a
doctor.
b. Your computer doesn’t want to turn on. Ask for a suggestion from a technician in a
technician in a computer shop.
c. Your friend is asking you a suggestion for fixing her power point presentation. Give
her a suggestion to use simple sentence and avoid using paragraphs.
d. You have a problem with your report. Ask for a suggestion from your lecturer on how
to fix it.

Practice the dialogue in front of the class.

References:
Admin, 2016, “Penjelasan dan contoh Asking and Giving Suggestion – beserta Terjemahanya”,
accessed from https://englishclas.com/penjelasan-dan-contoh-asking-and-giving-suggestion-beserta-
terjemahanya/ on 22 February 2018.
NIIT Team, 2017, English for Success, Level 5, New Delhi: NIIT® Ltd., p. 18-15

Created by :
Nafisatul Lutfi (Nafie Nevan, gmail account: nafienevan@gmail.com)
Quizlet Link:
Quiz 1: https://quizlet.com/_4m526w
Quiz 2 : https://quizlet.com/_4m552q