CONVERSATION (resource books for teachers OXFORD)

Foreign language teachers often tend to assume that conversation in the language classroom involves nothing more than putting into activities.. It is true that both tlese types of activi

Oxford Uoiveniry Press

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The publishers would like to thank the following for their

exract from The Palmistry WorhDoo& (1984); Charles Handy and

(April 1986); Gordon Wells and Cambridge Univenity Press for an

Look and speak

Elementary

and above

Elementary toIntermediate

Beginner toAdvanced

Beginner toIntermediateBeginner toElementaryElemenfarv

and above

Beginner toAdvanced

Upper

intermediate toAdvancedElementaryand above

about each other

model

Building up students'confidence-

is used for the same

l0-15

12 The phone game Elementary 10-15 Controlled practice of 34

and above telephone conversadons

13 Who said it? Intermediate 15-20 Inrerpredng and 35

and above attributing urterances

and above structure

Lower express the future

intermediate

16 Is thatright? Elementary 10-15 Recognizing gambits 40

and above

and above more than minimal

responses

l8 The besr years of Elementary I0-15 Practice in the simple 42

my life and above past forms

19 Experiences Elementary 15-20 practice in the present 42

and above perfect tense

20 Pet hates Elementary 10-15 Practice in forrns such as 43

and above I loae,I hate, etc

2l Theolddays Intermediare 15-20 Practice in uedro 44

and above

22 Ifonly Intermediate lO-15 Practice in hypothetical 44

and above zuould.

and above ztould

24 Cheat Intermediate 10-15 Pracdce in hyporhetical 46

and above u:ould

few questions, and above forms

please?

speaker to

rmpression offluency

28 Encouragement Intermediate 10-15 Expressions which 54

and above

Intermediate

and above

Upperintermediate

and above

Intermediate toAdvanced

Upperintermediate toAdvancedUpperintermediate toAdvanced

body language (videotask)

Extra-lingui stic clues tohelp students understand

and interpret what is beingsaid (video task)

Developing a feel forvoice quality (videotask)

Practice in followingextended conversation

(video task)

To raise sensitivity instudents to body

Making students aware

speakers try to be pol.ite

in social encounters

Social behaviour in the

I want a blue onel

I haven't got any ice!

45 Culture shock! Intermediate

and above

Problems people

have to live in a newcountry

25-30

f I

'

:

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II

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J't

I

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otier by askingquestions

in mixed nationalitygroups

Talking about personal

palmistry

Introducing students toranking activities

Promoting discussionabout inventions

Justifying and

their daily lives

to which punishments

fit the crime

Discussing priorities for

the future

79 83

62 The bridge Upper 30-35 Deciding on individual 102

Advanced tragedy

remember and above a simple memory

experiment

64 A dream classroom Elementary 30-35 Carrying out a design l(X

and above task

and above which students can learn

English outside the

classroom

56 My ideal phrase- Elementary 35-40 Working together to 106

book and above produce and evaluate

phrase-books

and above effectively students are

able to perform a giventask

68 I'll give you Elementary 2135 Students buy and sell 108

and above (2 lessons) things

69 Airport Upper 30-35 A conflict situation in 109

Advanced decide what to do

giving and above discussion about gifts

and giving

7l Ifho's the boss? Intermediate 35-40 Discussing the role of 112

and above secretaries at work

72 Gifts Elementary 2540 Talking about gifts I 14

and above

and above story as a stimulus for

Advanced

t17

Students look closely at 125

the language they use.

Elemenmry toAdvancedElementary toAdvancedElementary toAdvanced

Ways in which we seek

and give opinions

Students consider how I4l

I I

The authors and

series editor

Rob Nolasco has been involved in English as a foreign language

British Council managed ESP proiect at King Abdulaziz

in Angola, and wi*r The Cenre for British Teachers Ltd inMorocco (1933-85) He has also taught EFL to secondary and

adult srudents, at all levels, in the UK, Turkey, France, and

Lois Arthur started her career with the Centre for British

with The Centre for British Teachers Ltd in Morocco She is

currently Director of UK Schools and Young I-eamers for The

Bell Language Schools

Alan Maley worked for The British Council from 1962 to 1988'

India (Madras) From 1988-1993 he was Director-General of

the Bell Educational Trust, Cambndge He is currenrly Senior

Fellow in the Depanment of English I-anguage and Literature of

the National University of Singapore Among his publications

ll'ords, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words' Vaiations on o

Theme, Literature (in this series), and Drama Techniques in

Language Learning (all with Alan Dufi, The Mind's Eye (with

also Series Editor for the Oxford Supplementary Skills series

The distinction between accuracy and fluency is now a familiar one

Almost as familiar is the further distinction between fluency and

appropriacy To be accurate is not necessarily to be fluent And to

be fluent is not necessarily ro be appropriate in a given set of

circumstances

speaking skills and conversation skills They conrend thal there are

skills specific to conversation which make it easier for people to talk

to each other informally, and that these do not overlap a hundredper cent with the skills involved in fluent speaking Being able to

speak reasonably correct and even fluent English is one thing

conversation is anorher This is not to deny that speaking skills are necessary for conversation; simply that they are not alone sufficientfor successful conversation to take place

It is these specific conversational skills which the book sets out tocover In order to do so, the authors first examine in the

introduction what ir is that native speakers do when they 'makeconversation' They then use this inforrnation as the basis for the

tasks and activities in the remainder of the book

conversations, are that they involve at leasr rwo people, and that the

time Unless they agree to share the speaking time, listen, react,

and attend to each other, the conversation dies

This is in contrast to a view of speaking, which is often handled as if

without attending to the other, can only lead to surreal parallel

emphasis in tle sections on Az.ucreness actioities and Feedbach

actizities A series of tasks is developed here to sharpen the

to evaluate dreir own performance tboth in dre conversations and in

tieir own learning) is especially welcome

Conaersation is rnique in its insistence on the need to teach

sensitivity to fellow participants in conversarions is likewise highly

original Above all it offers a rich and varied selection ofactivities

and msks to draw upon

It will be welcomed by all teachers interested in developing further

the teaching of this important aspect of oral expression

Alan Maley

Foreign language teachers often tend to assume that conversation in

the language classroom involves nothing more than putting into

activities It is true that both tlese types of activity may, to some

extent at least, help students develop the skill of taking part in

conversation But, if we want to teach conversation well, we need to

section therefore, we shall be looking at the characteristics of

native-speaker conversation in order to provide a rationale for the

What is conversation?

People sometimes use the term 'conversation' to mean any spoken

refers to a dme when two or more people have the right to talk orlisten without having to follow a fixed schedule, such as an agenda

speak at any time In everyday l-ife we sometimes refer to

conversation as 'chat' and the focus of the book is on this type of

The functions of conversation

The purposes of conversation incllrde t}te exchange of information;

the creation and maintenalce of social relationships such as

friendship; the negotiation of starus and social roles, as well as

has many functions, although its prirnary purpose i-n our own

language is probably social

The units of conversation

The basic unit of conversation is an exchange An exchange consists

of two moves (an initiating move and a response) Each move can

also be called a turn, and a turn can be taken without using words,e.g by a nod of the head So for this dialogue the move and

exchange structure can be illustrated in the following way:

A Jane.

B Yes?

B Sure, it's in the garage

A

B

<l €xchange 1 Exchange 2 ->

{ €xchange 3

, -Figurc 1 Az illustration of moue and exchaflge structure

We can give a function to each move, e.g request, acknowledge.This may not be easy, and to do so we need to take account of

conversation occurs, as well as the position of the move in the

stream of speech

Notice that an exchange, or a series ofexchanges, are nol

necessarily tie same thing as a conversation The following is an

A Hi!

B HiI

The second example conlains lwo exchanges, but it is not a

as q'.'ickly as Possible'

A I'll have two, please

way It is possible that the second example could contain a

conversation if the speakers decided to ralk about the price of

oranges They may do riis in order to get a discount, or to develop a

social relationship, and the potential is always there in real life

Unfonunately, many students never have the confidence or

Tum 5 [Acknowledge: thankl 'Thanks very mrrch.'

Iu.r' 2 lcivet availabld 'Yes?'

Tum 4 lciue: conpvr'Sure, it's in the garage.'

Conversation is such a natural part ofour lives that many people are

not conscious ofwhat happens within it However, conversadon

we look at norma.l conversation we notice that:

- usually only one person speaks at a rimel

- the speakers changel

- the length of any contriburion variesl

- there are techniques for allowing the other pany or panies tospeak;

- nei*rer the content nor the amount ofwhat we say is specified in

advance

ofthe secdons which follow is to make the readers sensitive to themain issues from a teaching point of view

The co-operative principle

Normal conversations proceed so smoothly because we co-op€rate

a Do not say what you believe to be false

b Do not say anything for which you lack adequate evidence

The.maxim of quantity

Make your contribution just as informative as required and nomore

Avoid obscurity and ambiguity

Readers will realize that these maxims are often broken and, when

A How did you fnd the play?

By choosing not to be as informative as required, B is probably

suggesting the plav is not worth commenting on A lot of the

material written for teaching English as a foreign language is

deliberatel-v free of such ambiguity This means that students have

problems later in conversational situations where the ma-.'<ims are

These maxims may also be observed differently in different

cultures, so we need to tell students ifthel'are saying too much or

too little without realizing it.

The making of meaning

threats, etc Some linguists refer to individual moves as speech acts'Each of the following are examples ofspeech acts and we can try to

allocate a specific function to each example:

- Tum left at the next slreet (Instruction?)

- Inoest in Crescent Ltfe (Advice?)

- Keep off the grass (Order?)

However, we need to know the context of the example to give it a

function pith anv certaintl', and it is eas-v to think ofsiruarions in

and the listener will have an important effect on how the listener

which we hear and respond to a statement such as 1'oe lost my

ztallet, may well depend on whether we think the person is trying toobtain money under false pretences or not! There is no room to

enter into a full discussion ofdiscourse analysis, but rhe following

issues are particularly relevant to the teaching of conversadon

a waitress, The music is rather lozl, rve are simultaneousll' reporting

leads students to equate one particular language form with one

able to interpret intended speech acts correctly There is also a need

panicular speech act, e.g by setting a listening usk which asks

as a challenge, a defence? etc

successive speakers in which the second utterance can be identified

as being related to the first Some examples ofadiacency pairs are:

In some cases we can predict the second part of a pair from t}re first

As in example l, a greeting is normally followed by a greeting In

otler cases there are a variely ofoptions For example, a complaintmight be followed by an apology or a justification Teachers need to

think about ways of developing appropriate second pans to

students to reply to yes/no questions with 'yes' or 'no', plus a

repetition of the verb We therefore get exchanges like:

A Are these cakes fresh?

What students do not often get are opportunities to practise otheroptions, such as:

A Are these cakes fresh?

Even worse is the tendency to encourage students to produce

isolated sentences containing a target sfucture, e.g If I had

either stimulus or response, students will always appear to be flat

As native speakers we find it relatively easy and natural to knowwho is to speak, when, and for how long But rhis skill is nor

have great difficulty in getring into a conversarion, knowing when

to give up their turn to others, and in bringing a conversation to a

close- In order for conversation to work smoothly, all participants

have to be alert to signals that a speaker is about to finish his or her

turn, and be able to come in witl a contribution which 6ts the

direction in which the conversation is moving We need to rrain

students to sense when someone is about to finish Falling

intonadon is ofien a signal for rhis

It would also be useful for students to realize that quesrions like,

Did anyone watch the football last nigit? funcdon as a general

invitation to someone Io develop a conversation Foreigners also

sometimes lose their turn because they hesirate in order to find rhe

right word Teaching our students expressions \ke,lVait, there's

mare, or That's not a/1, as well as fillers and hesitat.ion devices such

zs Enn ,Well .,so jou can gucss u:hat happercd ., erc will

help them to keep going Finally, ir is well worth looking ar wal s inwhich we initiate and build on what otlers have said such as ?n&cr's

lihe what happened to me and Dil I tell3tou about when .?, so

act.ivities can be found in Chapters 3 and 5.

Openings and closings

I A Have you got a light?

2 A Gosh it's hot in here today

B I'm used to it.

Openings such as these allow further talk once the other pcrson's

ofa conversation so that nobody is left talking, and you will hear

expressions like:

- OKthen

- Right .

- Erm, I'm afraid .

- I'oe got to go

ttou; I'll let you get bach to your writing

- So I'll see you next weeh.

saying nothing at all, but neither strategy is recommended for

students of English

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Different cultures talk about different things in their everyday

lives Nadve speakers are very aware of what they should and

language, but the rules may be different in a foreign language Both

teachers and students need to develop a sense of'taboo' subiects if

they are to avoid offence

Male and female differences in

conversauon

among native speakers Women, for example, are more Iikely to

show an interest in personal details than men They are also betterlsteners and more likely to help the person they are speaking to

there is a purpose for the conversation and they would rather talk

about outside topics, e.g games, hobbies, politics, cars, etc t}tan

Simplification in informal speech

sounds and words of English beautifu.lly but who still sound veryforeign The reason is that in English the sound quality of a word,

on whether the word is said in isolation or as pan ofa continuous

stream of words Some of this is a result of simplification of

informal speech One important reason for simplification is thatEnglish is a stress-dmed language rJ hen we speak, all the stressed

syllables in our sentences tend te come at roughly similar intervals

circumstances, would take the same amount of time to say, even

2 lt's a dogl bought.

3 But it's a dog thatl bought.

same number of suessed syllables ( dog and bought)- This means that

the unstressed syllables have to be squeezed il and the vowels,which are in unstressed syllables, very often become the neutral or

ll

t2 INTRODUCTION

weak vowel, or'schwa'which is represented by the symbol [:].

weak forms means a native speaker will tend to say:

- Itwas him /rt waz hrm/ not /rt woz hrm,/

- Giae it to me /grv rt te mi/ not /grv rt tu: mi/

Elision, which is the 'missing out' of a consonant or vowel, or both,

is also very common A native speaker would tend to say:

/'fs :s'0ri:/ not /'f: : st'Ori :/ for'first three'

a word the same value and this can have a wearying effect on thenative speaker listener, who will, as a result, be less likely to remain

Good conversationalists use stress and intonation to keepconversations going A fall on words like 'OK' or 'So', often serves

to show tttal we are about to change the subject A rise on 'really'is

a way ofshowing interest All ofthese are important signals and it is

start iistening for them A wide voice range is also more likely to

keep a listener interested than a monotone This can be difficult for

rhese students addirional sensidviry training may be needed

Students also need to realize that the wrong intonation can Iead to

ladies who were serving in the canteen of Heathrow often got a

hostile reacdon by pronouncing the word 'gravy' r.r.'ith a fallingintonation, rather tlan the rise wh.ich would be polite in British

English

Gesture and body language

Vh.ile it is uue that speakers of English do not use as much gesture

as people in some other cultures, e.g Italians, they do use their

hands to emphasize a point The positioning ofthe body also has aneffect on the listener Sitting on the edge ofa seat may be seen as

being aggressive Slumping in it is a sign of boredom, and even

where we do not mean it this may be how it comes across In some

cultures people also smnd very close to tiose they are talking to and

Middle-Easterners who tend to value proximity and touch Body language

is a complicated area but it is worth observing your students and

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Summary

Teachers need Io be aware of the characterisdcs of nadve-speaker

performance in conversation if they are to teach conversationeffectively They also need to consider which of the funcdons of

conversation are most relevant to the students These will vary

would want to use English to

- give and receive informarion;

- share personal experiences and opinions wirh a view to building

social relationships

Students will not be able ro do rhese things by ralking clozt

conversalion, and the stress in this book is lea rning by doing ldtro:ugh

activities which give students practice in a pattern of interactionthat is as close as possible to what competent nadve speakers do in

real life This is the purpose of the F lumcy actiztities in Chapter 4.

the early stages and this is the rationale behind rhe Controlled

actiz;ities in Chapter 2 We also believe that the performance of thestudents can be improved by increasing their sensitivity to the way

that conversation works, and the tasks in Chapter 3 are mostly

feedback Studenrs need to be able to assess *Ieir progress so that it

is possible to identify areas for further practice, and this issue is

Finally, the key to the smooth operation of task-based fluency work

is the effecrive managemenr of the materials, of rhe students, and of

the classroom environment The crv from rnan,'- students'I justwant conversation Iessons" or'I iust want to practise ralking; I

somehow easier to prepare and teach, are inferior in sutus to 'thegrammar lesson', and so on Yet many teachers will know to therr

cost how often the conversation lesson just does not quite work In

Chapter I we look at how the activities in the book can be used and

all we hope that users of the book will find the approach suggested

pracdcal, useful, and interesting enough to develop ideas alongsimilar lines

English is to be able to speak it, many students will not talk readily

in class, and the'discussion lesson' in which rhe teacher does most

of the talking is still too prevalent Ifyou 6nd that this is happenirgconsistently then you should pause and ask yourself the following

questions:

I Do I make an effon to prepare students for the discussion or

Preparation is a vital ingredient for success Students need to be

orientated to the topic, and an instruction like'Let's talk abouteuthanasia' rarely works Some of the fluency tasks in Chapter 4have pre-tasks built in but some students may need more

orientation to a topic than others for cultural or linguisdc reasons

Some simple techniques which can be used to prepare students for a

particular topic include:

- The use of audio visual ards to atouse inleresl

- A general orientation to the topic by means of a shon text,

questionnaire, series of statemenls for discussion and

modification, a video extract, etc The only rule is that the

pre-task should never be too long

- Exercises to build up the vocabulary ne€ded for a task This can

Students may need to be orientated to the task itselfso that they

'discuss' a topic may be meaningless to many students who do not

come from a culture where such discussion is a norma.l part of theeducational process In some cases students may need training, andthis is discussed briefly later in this chapter The general rule is to

TO!O{/ARDS A CLASSROOM APPRoACH

that the instructions are clear In giving instructions we should

always:

- Think through instrucdons from the point of view of the studenr

- Stage the instructions carefully and make sure the students

'yes/no' answer to Do you understand.) is not pardcularlyrevealing If the task is very complex it might be advisable to set

up a rehearsal before asking students to start

- Make sure that instructions are given clearly Insist on silence

where possible

interest, they may be reluclant or unwilling to talk about it in

English because they lack the linguisdc resources to give a subject

the treatment it deserves This would certainly be true ofissues like'euthanasia' As teachers we should also remember that it is not

always natural to enter into prolonged discussion on controversial

tasks built around the following sorts of areas usually generate a lot

of discussion when they are used with adult students:

at the end of the lesson

4 Is there any fol.low-up to the discussion?

Adult students will always be reluctant to take part in a discussion if

they feel it has no educational value A clear explanarion ofthe

rationale of the tasks, as well as the use of feedback tasks or report

back sessions (see Chapter 5), are important ways ofcounteractingthis In short a successful conversation programme involves a lot

can now see how the tasks in this book can be put together to form a

TO'JflARDS A CLASSROOM

Classes of activity

There are four basic types ofacdvities in this book:

- ControLled activities to give students confidence and support

- Awareness activities to increase sensitivity in students to whatthey are aiming at (Chapter 3)

- Fluency activities to give students the practice they need to zse

have to improve (Chapter 5)

of these activities from the start, geared to the needs of the

considerations apply:

I It may be necessary to introduce fluency activities gradually

Students who are used to highly controlled patterns of interaction,where it is the teacher who initiates all the language exchanges andjudges whether they are coffect or not, may find that fluencyactivities pose a considerable dreat because they are nor used to the

students gradually to freer act.ivities as the timetable (on the next

page) from an ani cle in English Language Teaching J ouaal

indicates

Obviously students will varv in rerms of their prior learning

experience, so it is always worth seeing what they are used to

because rhey may need a period of adjustment to new ways of

process Students who are used to pair and group work may need to

be introduced to project work, for instance Having said this, if

students are con-fident and not tireatened there is no reason whyfluency-type activities should nor be used from the earliest suges

2 It is also unlil<ely that any one lesson will consist entirely of one

type of activity It is always best to aim for variety of msk type

3 Different types of activities u'ill be used in different proportions

relatively few controlled activities and the narrow focus of these

tasks would be replaced by awareness tasks For beginners thesituation is reversed and while it is always worth poindng out

features such as hesitation devices, full-blown awareness tasks

would be the exception rather than tie rule, and tlere would tend

to be a higher proportion of controlled activities

TOWARDS A CLASSR(X)M APPROACH

Tablc I: A t.n-Lot,k plan for introductng stud.nlr to and karmng lh.n in th, uu oJ pair and grout u'orkl

To extend responsibility for

initiat-ing short responses to the learner.

Teacher-controlled open and

adla-cent pair work on

quesrion-and-answer excrctsfs.

Consolidarion plus introduction of

dialogue exchange in pairs.

Dialogue reading: learner rakcs one

part Move from Teacher reading A

adjacent pairs to whole class uork rn

closed pairs.

Consolidation plus introduction of

lcarners to the habit of choosing the

work

Longer read dialogues, follor'ed bv

the introductron of cued draloques

the idea of working togcther

English

of

in

Introduce discourse chains to

get learners to work on sion exercises in Enelish

play, as well as simple problem

Longer quidcd role plavs; practice rn

moving qLrickly into pair rn'ork cises; inlormation sap in \ahich halfthe class sees the picture: teacher

exer-controls questions and ans* ers.

Consolidation and extension. Inlormation gap similar to (6), but

done in closed pairs;jigsaw reading.

Consolidation and extension. Inrroduce free role-play activities rn

pairs, then threes and fours: small

group essav preparation for the final

stage of guided composition lesson.

Consolidation and extension. Introducc ranking activities

l0 Consolidation and extcnsion. Group preparation of ideas and

structure for essay.

To\vARDS A CLASSROOM APPROACH

depend on the intensity of the programme as well as its emphasis

is to give general advice which will need to be interpreted locally If

a group meets for one and a halfhours a week, then it is conceivable

that conversational competence would be its sole objective In thissituation it is recommended tlat students get a balance ofthe four

differenr rypes ofactivities mendoned in the previous secdon each

on activities will vary according to the level of the students, their

following within the dme available The 'Dialogue frll-in' activity(Chapter 2 page 4l) would be completed as a preparation for one of

the activities which involve t}te sharing of personal information,

pages 12617) Clearly the range of options is infinite , and the

awareness/controlled activiry does not have to be related to thefluency activity for that week This allows for recycling and

building It would however always be wise to point our the aim of

the activities at all stages.

obviously spend a lot more time on conversational work, but thekrnd of mix outlined above applies just as well, a.lthough it may be

possible to spend a little more rime on each acrivity In their case

teaching of grammar and a lot of the work on areas such as

whole the aim should be for 'little and often' rather than long

sessions devoted entirely to one particu.lar area.

Persuading the learner

As we have said, student-resistance is a problem teachers

encounter The most likely cause is unfamiliariry with the way in

which a programme is organized The solution is to tell them zr.rlry.

self-justificatory argument or discussion, and ir is imponant to find

a way of presenting a clear and simple rationale of the approachfrom the outset This may simply be a quick outline of the nature of

the different types of activities used and their relationship to each

other- It may also be appropriate to poim out the way in which theactivides serve to meet the students' obiectives In this way

students will perceive that the programme has purpose and

direction

20 TO!fARDS A CLASSROOA{ APPROAC}I

Students may also need information on iotr.' to go about the

- A staged and gradual introduction for students from verytraditional backgrounds

students, for example, may not be familiar with the role of anobserver and may need to be shown what to do

work the same starus as sessions in which the teacher ii up iront

and expressions because they feel these can only corne from tle

teacher

Some students may never have been asked to work independently

of the teacher in a classroom setting before To help thij situation

some useful pre-course work could include orientation talks by

more advanced students from a similar socio-cultural background,

as well as a discussion of films or photographs of students tiking

t}te students perceive the course

A sense ofprogress

The emphasis on recording and feedback tasks of the sort outlined

tlat they are making progress Often students do nor realize just

reason may be that as they improve, the listener makes fewer

concessions and, as conversation is a two way process, students donot feel they are making progress because lhey may understand less

and llerefore not be in a position to respond This is particularly

t.rue for students studying in an environment where English is

may rarely get the opportunity to take a leading role in

conversation, and it is well worth trying to programme sessions in

conversation with those at a lower level, in order to give them tlre

experience of being the driving force in a conversadon Getdngstudents to compare tieir current efforts with recordings made in

tlte earliest stages of the course is another way of boostingconfidence-

a u

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TO\X'ARDS A CLASSROOM APPROACII

In many cases students will have exrernal objectives such as the oral

ways in which this can be set up but the following represenrs a

possible approach

of the activities on pages 54/5 and 12617, to show srudenrs howinrerviewers tend to use a sign al llke, Hm: interesting, to

encourage students to say more

- An idendfication of areas which are critical for a good

- Students should also be given practice in exam conditions

There is no room to give assessment ofconversation the treatment it

deserves There may be a need to give students a grade for the work

particularlv suited to assessing conversational performance, there is

a need to keep good records Whe*rer the results are expressed in

terms of letter grades or numbers mav be a matter of preference or

rhe dictates of the system There is however an interest in being

able to describe the students' per{ormance in behavioural terms andteachers are encouraged to look at rhe scales developed by The

British Council, or the Foreign Service Institute to see if rhe scales

Performance b,v Brendan Carroll ( 1982), is a summary of the early

2 Controlled activities

Introduction

there is an argument for the use ofcontrolled activities which helpstudents develop confidence as well as the ability to panicipate in

are prepared to speak in the foreign language Some students find

speaking in the classroom situation a threat because tiere is always

the language outside class A few prefer not to speak at all, and are

classroom a major source of threat is the individual's perception of

himself or herself and the otier students Threat reduction is

possible by building up personal security through the use of

'getdng ro know you' activities which promore trust, as well as

'articulation' activities which give students the opportunity to use

The other main group ofactivities i.n this chapter aim to help

students develop their ability to take part in sustained conversarionthrough acuvities which give controlled practice in the building

cloze dialogues, by paying attention to exchange suucture, and t}re

practice

Studenrs are a lot happier to speak or make mistakes if there is a

positive atmosphere oftrust within a group This is unlikely todevelop quickly unless the group begins by getting to know each

following selection ofactivities are designed to do this

I Ask the studenrs to sit in a semi-circle, and nominate one student

to introduce himself or herself

2 The person next to him or her must then repeat his or her name,and then introduce himself or herself

A I'm Rob

Rome

2 You should always take a turn ro show you arc learning loo

CONTROLLED ACTIVITIES

as possible during the next pracdce phase.

3 Continue the practice, making sure you ask every student at leastonce

4 Give out a blank seating plan of the class to each student and ask

should take four to five minutes, and cheating is not serious as long

as it is not disrupdve)

5 The obiect of the next stage is for one student in the class ro nameall the others with the aid ofhis or her plan, and using, //r's

name's .,Hnname's Ask a student who feels he or she has

most or all of the names to staft As soon as he or she makes a

mistake he or she has to sit down and either you nominate another

5 Tell the students that they may add names to their plans during

this phase

7 The winner is the student who gets tluough the whole class

should feel able to name everyone The game can continue as long

as the students are motivated They can also try to name everyone

without the help ofthe plan

8 Take a turn in the middle yourself to motivate the more rericentstudents

group interacdon and cannot be used in a secondary school

large classes, but it can also be used wit! smaller classes if students

are asked to work from memory after the initial stages.

Cammunicatizte Engljsl by Jane Revell, (1979)

3 Find someone who

Elementary and above15-20 minutes

To enable students to fnd out more about each other

Prepare task sheets for the students to complete, like the one over

the page Go through your students' application forms, in.itialinterview notes, etc to get an interesting piece of information about

each of your students to incorporate into the task sheets.

CONTROI-I -F]I) ACTIVITIES

Find someone in the class

I Give out a task sheet to each student and give them about l0

minutes to try and complete it Encourage them to mill around

go through the rask sheers by asking quesrio ns bke, Who plays the

piano? Vho usas born in Australia? etc Allow any of rhe srudents ro

answer

course Consequently students may be reluctant to move iround if

are a number of published versions of this activity, but rhese are not

sensitive to individuals in the group, and therefore do not

necessarilv perform the inrroductory funcrion as well Although

this acdvity is linguistically very simple, it has been used

successfully at all levels

Acknowledgement

We first encountered a version of this acrivitv at a workshop run by'

Have available enough small pieces ofpaper for rhe whole class.

I Give each of your srudents a piece of paper and ask rhem to write

e.g I was born in February, I m:n a bicycle, I like Beethoxm, etc as

long as the statement is lrue

REMABKS

{ { { { { (

CONTROLLED ACTIVITIES

2 Tell the students to fold their pieces ofpaper and pass themanonymously to the front of the class.

3 Collect them together and then redistribute them so that each

4 Once the students have had a chance ro look at the personal

information, tell them that they will have to find our whose

information thev have by turmng the sutements into questions,and t}ten asking other students those questions You can exercise

control over the activitv in a vatiety of ways:

questions to the class, such as Wfto zlas Dom in February? orquestions to individuals, such as Were 2ou bom in F ebruary?

them free choice

5 Once you have decided on the rules for rhe acdvity you can ser ir

in motion The activity ends when everybody has found out whose

If the initial statemenrs were collected il the previous lesson, or

set of information Io each student This would be needed ro make a

mingling activity more successful

\7hen students come to speak il a foreign language *rey often findthemselves inhibited b1' the prospect of having to make what tothem are strange and even comic sounds In severe cases students

can become so tongue-tied that *rey refuse to speak at all One way

of alleviating this problem is to give students the opponunity toexperiment with sounds, as well as talk in a secure environment

from the start Often this involves allowing them to experiment

individually or in a relaxed group situarion

5 Sounds English

Any level

l(Ll5 minutes

An imitation exercise to get srudents used to getting their tongues

round English sounds

Make a list of items for practice These could include individual

sounds such as the vowels (a-e-i-o-u), as well as short utterancessuch as lfllrari, You're where?, A big black booh, erc

LEVEL

TIME

AIM

PREPARATION

PROCEDURE

I]ONTROLLED ACTIVIl'IES

I Explain to the students that they are going to have some fun so as

!o'sound English' (Explain the rationale ifnecessary.)

2 All ofthis has to be conducted with a light touch and vou should

be seen to be making a fool of yourself, too

thing to do is to exaggerate Students who do not usually go quire as

far as they need to will be trying to imitate you and 'sound English'

4 I alk around the class correcdng the students and give rhem a

chance to rehearse in pairs, ifnecessary

Making a joke ofa real problem releases tension and prepares the

however, an acdvit]- to try with a class who have not had a chance to

get to know each orher a little It is also not suitable for large

classes.

Acknowledgement

'We

learnt this activity from Tim Johns.

6 Look and speak

as a prompter at any stage ofthe activity

2 Ifthe dialogue is a short one you can give the participants a fewminutes to try and learn it by heart

3 After that ask two ofthe students to close their books and try to

repeat the dialogue as best they can The prompter's role is to helpthem

4 If the dialogue is longer t ell rhe student who is to stan to take in

as much ofa line as possiblc, and then making eye contact with theother 'speaker', ask him or her to deliver the Iine

5 Continue this with each of the 'speakers' mking a line of dialogue

until the reading is complete

roles each time This technique gives a simple practice without the

disastrous effect ofa reading

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To give students the chance to get simple oral practice by repeating

a dialogue they hear for the first time

I Divide the students into groups of three and ask them to sit

2 Ask them to select a piece of listening material from a coursebook

dialogue in class, but weaker students may prefer this

3 Ask one student to act as the prompter who is allowed to consultthe tapescript, if necessary.

4 The other two students take a part each and try to repeat whatthev hear on t}re tape Tell them that they should stan b,v doing this

on a line-byJine basis and try to progress through Io repeating the

rhl thm intonation and pronunciation

This technique was used with some success with beginners in

repetition was higher than that encountered in a lab Students also

derive great benefit from using their ears rather than their eyes, and

the prompter stops them from cheating

8 Listen and record

Elementary and above

PBOCEDURE

CONTROLLED ACTIVITIES

Ask the srudents ro lisren to dle tape and to repear any of rhe

acdvity rs self-directed, but you should be avaiiable for

evaluation

The acunty is self-regularory This is important ifsrudenrs are nor

about This activiry also fosrers the notion ofriheaising what we

are about ro say, something many people do in ,t

"i o*.'n trngr"g.,

anyway

9 Shadow reading

Any level

Prepare a suitable master tape of dialogue or text being read aloud,

lor use in a language laboratorv

I Ask your students to fisten to the master track once or twice

2 Once they are readv the oblecdve is to maintain the same

rhythm inronation srress and pronuncration a5 the original b).

3 Make sure the students work with the same tape until they are

ready to record rheir ou'n version, or rhe]- can asi you to l.isten ro

them

The advantage ofthis use ofa language laboratory is that it is a safe

at their own pace.

Dialogue building

activities can.range from being highly controlleJ to uery fre"e.

Dialogue building is not a substitute for fluency work, 6ut used

sparingly it allows the possibility ofgiving weaier stuients a chance

to say something It can also allow teacheis to focus on appropriacy

so that-stud-ents get a chance to widen their repertoir fi.r r

examples of just a few of the types of activitiej availab.le

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