Do you often have problems with computers or other technology? Are you good with technology, and fixing problems? In this free Oxford Online English listening lesson, you can learn some useful words and phrases to discuss technology and computer problems. This lesson is for intermediate to upper intermediate learners.
Listen to the dialogue at normal speed here:
or listen to a slower version here:
Man: What can I do for you?
Woman: Yes, hello, my computer … there’s a problem.
Man: Right, OK. What exactly is wrong with it?
Woman: It’s just terribly slow. It used to be fast, but now I can hardly use it.
Man: I see. Do you have antivirus and anti-malware programs installed?
Woman: Yes.
Man: And do you use them regularly?
Woman: Well, actually, I turned them off. Warnings kept popping up when I was surfing the Internet, and it was a bit annoying.
Man: Hmm … you know those warnings might have been important?
Woman: Yeah, well, do you think you can fix it?
Man: I’ll take a look. If your computer has been infected with something, we can try to get rid of it.
Woman: Is that easy?
Man: It depends. Some things you can just delete. Others are more difficult—we might have to reformat your hard drive.
Woman: And how much will you charge to fix it?
Man: £100 if it’s simple, £200 if we have to reformat and reinstall your operating system.
Woman: £200?! That’s a good racket you’ve got going on here!
Man: Would you like to think it over?
Woman: No, no, I need it fixed. So, when can I pick it up?
Man: We’ll call you in the next couple of days.
Computer Problems – exercise 1
Vocabulary: customer service expressions
This conversation features a number of common expressions from the world of customer service.
Find an expression in the dialogue which means the same as each sentence shown.
Computer Problems – exercise 2
Vocabulary: computer collocations
The dialogue includes nouns for hardware and software, verbs to use with these nouns, and adjectives to describe things related to computers.
Choose the word that completes each collocation (that is, word combinations).
Computer Problems – exercise 3
Grammar: verb forms
This dialogue refers to the past, present and future, so there are a lot of different verb forms. Use this exercise to check how well you know a range of tenses.
Listen to five excerpts from the dialogue and write the correct form of the verb shown in brackets.
Computer Problems – exercise 4
Listening comprehension: understanding details
Now that you have studied aspects of the language, can you identify details in the dialogue?
Write one word or a number from the recording in each gap.
