2. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Aims of this webinar
• Understand the underlying reasons for
students’ unwillingness to speak in class.
• Analyze patterns found in effective
conversations.
• Introduce a framework for L2 conversation
development.
• Help participants develop an action plan.
5. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
What is your problem?
• Which of these reasons applies to your context?
A. 1. Students are not interested in speaking in L2.
B. 2. Students are afraid of speaking in L2.
C. 3. Students make too many mistakes in L2.
D. 4. Discussion topics in the materials are not appealing
to students.
8. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Why don’t they speak?
• Unfamiliarity with the program or task.
• Lack of awareness of what it takes to speak in L2.
• Fear of ridicule.
• Lack of adequate preparation.
• Purpose of tasks.
• Lack of proper scaffolding.
9. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
A recurring problem
Are students Do students have
Have I provided
aware of what L1 a chance to apply
enough realistic
speakers do in the skills in a
practice activities?
conversation? realistic way?
10. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
So…having considered
• Why students do not
participate actively in
oral language
development classes
12. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Let’s consider
• Conversation is still assumed to be synonymous with
putting into play the grammar, vocabulary and
functions students have learnt.
• But, conversation should be defined as:
– “a time when two or more people have the right to talk
and listen without having to follow a fixed schedule. In
everyday life, we refer to conversation as ‘a chat.’” (Nolasco and
Arthur, 1987:12)
• Chatting is what students LOVE doing.
13. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Purposes of conversation
• Why do we speak?
– To exchange information.
– To create and maintain social relationships.
– To negotiate status and social roles.
– To decide on and carry out joint actions.
14. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
What do L1 speakers do?
• Usually one speaker speaks at a time;
• e speakers change;
• e length of each contribution varies;
• ere are techniques for following the other parties;
• Neither the content nor the amount of what we say
is specified in advance.
15. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Units of conversation
Turn 3 Turn 4
Turn 1
Solicit: request Acknowledge:
Solicit: call
thank
“Could I borrow
“Jane”
your bike?” “Thanks!”
Turn 4
Turn 2
Give: comply
Give: available
“Sure! It’s in the
“Yes?”
garage.”
16. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Adjacency
• Moves are related to each other through the use of
adjacency pairs. ese are utterances produced by
two successive speakers in which the second
utterance can be identified as being related to the
first.
• Let’s look at some examples
17. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Examples
A= Hello! A= Hello. How are you?
B= Oh, hi! B= Very well, thank you.
A= How’ve you been? And you.
B= Not bad. How about A= I’m fine, thanks.
you?
A= Great, actually!
18. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Turn taking
• In natural conversation, one has to be alert to signals
that a speaker is about to finish his/her turn so as to
be able to come in with a contribution which fits the
direction in which conversation is going.
• How often do we find these signals in textbooks?
19. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Openings and Closings
• Openings are not generally a problem. However,
closings are difficult for L2 speakers and they
sometimes appear rude because they are unable to
close the conversation properly. L1 speakers negotiate
the end of the conversation:
– Ok, then…
– Right,…
– Erm, I’m afraid…
– Anyway, I’ve got to go now, but…
– I’ll let you get back to…
20. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Stress and Intonation
Ok! / So… about to change subject
Really interest
Really irony
Wrong intonation can lead to misunderstandings.
21. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES A look at some “conversation
activities”
• Read short texts and discuss questions about them.
• Complete a survey and then discuss with a partner.
• Look at opinions about “x.” Add two more. en
choose the most important ones with your group.
• Look at pictures and discuss why they are relevant to
a certain theme.
• Choose items from a list and prioritize them for a
certain activity.
22. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Now we know…
• What is involved in
effective conversations
and what we lack in the
language classroom, so
let’s explore a model to
enhance oral language
development in class.
24. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
So, what do teachers need?
• Consider…
– Characteristics of L1 speaking performance.
– Which function of conversation is relevant for your
students:
• Giving and receiving information.
• Collaborating with others.
• Sharing personal experiences and opinions with a view to
building social relationships.
• Students will not be able to do this by being taught
about conversation so the stress should be put on
learning by doing
25. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Which purpose?
• It would be useful for us to know what main purpose
your students have in learning to speak…
A. Giving and receiving information.
B. Collaborating with others.
C. Sharing personal experiences and opinions with a view to
building social relationships.
29. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Using video
• Sound only.
• Picture only. Use checklist to point out features.
• Freeze frame What’s next?
• Watch once and then questions.
• Watch and replicate.
31. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Jazz Chants
• A jazz chant is the rhythmic expression of standard
English as it occurs in situational contexts.
• English stretches, shortens, blends and often drops
sounds. ese subtle features of the language are
extremely difficult for a student to comprehend unless
his or her ear has been properly trained to comprehend
the language of an educated native speaker in natural
conversation. e sound of «Jeet yet?» is meaningless
unless one has acquired the listening comprehension
skills necessary to make the connection with «Did you
eat yet?»
• Graham, 1986: vi – vii.
32. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Money talks
How much does it cost? Why don’t you buy it?
It costs a lot. I can’t afford it.
How much does it cost? It’s too expensive.
It costs a lot. I can’t afford it.
I can’t believe how much it costs.
It costs a lot, an awful lot. Why don’t you buy it?
I don’t have the money.
It costs a lot to live in the city. It’s not worth it.
How much does it cost? I can’t afford it.
It costs a lot.
It costs a lot to eat out these days.
How much does it cost?
It costs a lot!
33. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Shadowed reading
• Prepare a suitable master track of a dialog.
• Ask your students to listen to it once or twice.
• Once they are ready the objective is to maintain the
same rhythm, intonation, stress and pronunciation as
the original by repeating with the master track.
• Make sure students work with the same track until
they are ready to record their own version, or they
can ask you to listen to them.
34. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Who said it?
Provide a list of possible utterances.
Students guess who said what.
E.g.
• I told you not to wear a suit.
• …, and the doctor says I’m pregnant.
• Are you a friend of Jim’s?
en get students to add more.
Nolasco and Arthur, 1987
35. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
«Canned» language
• Asking for information • Surprises
– I´d like to know… – Prepare your aducience:
• Guess what!
– I´m interested in… • I´ve got news for you!
– Could you tell me…? • You’d better sit down.
• You won’t believe this, but…
– Do you know…?
– Give the news:
– Could you find out…? • Do you realize that…?
– Could I ask…? • You may not believe it, but…
• It may sound weird, but…
– Do you happen to – End with:
know…? • Normally,…
• Usually,…
• On the whole…
36. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Consider canned language in…
• Sharing a confidence (e.g. «Just between you and me…»)
• Showing interest («Yes?», «And then?», «Really?»)
• Hidden truths (e.g. «Frankly, I doubt that…)
• Reasons (e.g. «e reason why…»»Because of that…»«For this reason»)
• Counter arguing (e.g. «Yes, but…» «Even so…»)
• Biding time («Well, let me see…», «Mm... at’s a difficult question. Let me
see..»)
• inking ahead («If I ever…», «Whenever…», «Unless….»)
• Changing the subject («Talking of…»)
37. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Find your dialog partner
• Write the first few lines of a number of exchanges.
– E.g.
• A= Dr. Jones?
• B= No, I’m Dr. Smith.
• A= Sorry, I’m looking for Dr. Jones.
• Have enough exchanges so that there is one per pair of
students in the class.
• Cut out the lines for A and the lines for B and distribute
them randomly around the group.
• Students have to find their dialog partner and then
complete the dialog.
38. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Outrageous CVs
• Go over the contents of a regular CV with students.
• Get students to write their CV not on their academic
or work life, but on something unexpected (e.g. a
student is skilled at fishing). ey should not write
their names on the CV.
• Distribute CVs. Students go around the class
interviewing their peers until they find the owner of
the CV.
39. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Get real!
• Select a dialog from the textbook students are
currently using.
• Go over the dialog with them and encourage the
group to tell you what can be done to make the
dialog more realistic.
• Students work in groups rewriting and rehearsing the
dialog in groups.
• Groups perform their dialogs to the rest of the class.
41. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Set up
Task presentation Process
• Instructions • Strategy
• Functionaries • Discussion skills
• Rules and timing
Feedback
• Content
• Process
• Language
42. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
e sky’s the limit
• Brainstorming activities
– Guessing games
– Finding connections
– Ideas from a central theme
– Implications and interpretations
• Organizing activities
– Comparing
– Detecting differences
– Putting in order
– Priorities
– Choosing candidates
– Layout problems
– Combining versions
• Compound activities
– Debates
– Publicity campaigns
Ur, 1991
– Surveys
44. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Modern marvels
• Modem • 1965
• Personal computer • 1972
• Laptop • 1981
• MP3 player • 1985
• Tablet • 1989
45. ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Answers
• 1965 – Robert Lucky invented the automatic adaptive
equalizer (modem)at Bell laboratories.
• 1972 – Xerox PARC developed the ALTO, the first truly
personal computer.
• 1981 – Adam Osborne invents the first portable
computer (laptop).
• 1985 – Pencept creates the first pen computer (tablet).
• 1989 – Fraunhofer Lab obtains the patent for MPEG.
