Getting Them to Talk: Five Fundamentals for Leading a Conversation Class
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The document outlines five fundamentals for leading an effective conversation class, focusing on the learner's needs, relevant topics, language use, activities, and literacy connection. It emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate tasks and topics based on learners' goals and proficiency levels, as well as the role of language structure in fostering conversation. Additionally, it discusses the integration of speaking practice with literacy skills through related reading and writing tasks.
Getting Them to Talk: Five Fundamentals for Leading a Conversation Class
- 1. Getting Them to Talk: Five Fundamentals for Leading a Conversation Class Melanie Gonzalez ([email protected]) 3/13/13
- 2. Best Practices What happens in class 1) The learner 2) The topic 3) The languages 4) The activity 5) The literacy connection
- 3. Best Practices What happens in class 1) The learner 2) The topic 3) The languages 4) The activity 5) The literacy connection
- 4. 1. The learner Consider your learners’ needs. Conduct a formal/informal needs analysis. Look at: age, proficiency level, goals for English, etc. Examples: o Learners have children in public school. o Learners need English to advance at work.
- 5. Preproduction • often involves a ‘silent period’ • Vocabulary of approx. 500 words • 10 hours – 6 mos Early Production • Vocabulary at approx. 1,000 words • Limited oral language • Can answer yes/no, short simple questions • 6 mos – 1 year Speech Emergence • Vocabulary of 3,000 words • Errors prevalent but able to communicate orally • 1-3 years Intermediate Fluency • 6,000 word vocabulary • Able to speak and write at length, difficulty with academic language • 3-5 years Advanced Fluency • 5-7 years of English exposure • Near native-like • Academic language but still need reading/writing support (From Krashen & Terrell, 1983)
- 6. Best Practices What happens in class 1) The learner 2) The topic 3) The languages 4) The activity 5) The literacy connection
- 7. 2. The topic What is a relevant topic to discuss? Use their needs to form the basis for what topics would benefit them the most. Use the topic to decide what the best activities elicit conversation. Example: o Learner need: Learners have children in public school. o Topic: Parent-teacher conferences. o Possible activities: Role-play parent-teacher conferences; Rank-order student behaviors requiring conferences.
- 8. Best Practices What happens in class 1) The learner 2) The topic 3) The languages 4) The activity 5) The literacy connection
- 9. 3. The languages What is the language in the activity? What is the language for the activity? There are two task languages to consider; the linguistic form to practice and the language that learners use to complete the activity. Example: o Topic: Rank-order student behaviors requiring conferences. o Language in the activity: tardy, attention-seeking, gifted o Language for the activity: comparatives and superlatives (worse, better, most, least, )
- 10. Beginner/high -beginner • Present tense of be • Present tense regular verbs • Demonstratives (this/that) • Possessive adjectives • Past tense of be • Count & non-count nouns • Past tense of regular and irregular verbs • Wh- questions • Basic word order • Present progressive • Prepositions High- beginner/low- intermediate • Articles • Be going to + VERBS • Irregular past tense • How questions • Adverbs of frequency • Object pronouns • One and other • Possessives • Comparative & superlatives • modals Low- intermediate/i ntermediate • Phrasal verbs • Past progressive • Present perfect • Adverbs of manner (- ly/by/with) • Verb/adjectives + prepositions • Passive voice • Relative clauses • Infinitives & gerunds Intermediate/ low-advanced • Past perfect • Word forms • Conditionals: if clauses & wish • Subject-verb agreement • Adverb clauses • Noun clauses • Reduction of clauses • Past modals (From Folse, 2006)
- 11. Best Practices What happens in class 1) The learner 2) The topic 3) The languages 4) The activity 5) The literacy connection
- 12. 4. The activity The task serves as the vehicle for conversation. Specific, assigned tasks are ALWAYS better than vague tasks such as “class discussion about x” In a good task, the teacher has almost NO speaking role. Examples: o Poor tasks: Simon says; “What do you think about gun control?”, one-way tasks o Good tasks: information gap, odd-one out, “if you were the judge”, finish the story, ranking, group problem-solving
- 13. Best Practices What happens in class 1) The learner 2) The topic 3) The languages 4) The activity 5) The literacy connection
- 14. 5. The literacy connection Use the oral practice to form the foundation for literacy skills. Find authentic readings and assign a writing task that allows learners to use what they practiced in speaking in their reading/writing. Examples: o Speaking activity: Role-play parent-teacher conferences. o Reading/writing activity: Write an email to a teacher requesting a parent-teacher conference. Read a progress report.
- 15. Activity: You Be the Judge Case: Smith vs. The City of Orlando Orlando installed red light cameras at road intersections to enhance safety and capture cars that run red lights in the city. When a vehicle passes through the intersection after a traffic light has changed to red, the car’s license plate is photographed and a traffic citation is mailed to the car’s owner. Harold Smith received a citation in the mail along with a photograph of his car turning right during a red light. In Florida, a driver is permitted to turn right on red. Smith refused to pay the fine, stating he did not break the law. Law enforcement insisted that he pay. Smith filed a lawsuit. He said that the red light camera needed to be reprogrammed to allow for the lawful right turn on red. If you were the judge, you rule in favor of Mr. Smith or the City of Orlando? Why? Write 2-3 reasons for your decision.
- 16. Putting It All Together o Fluency vs. accuracy o Comprehensible input o Enunciate; monitor vocabulary use o Do not choose an activity with complicated instructions – takes away from task o 3 main design factors: 1. One-way vs. two-way task 2. Time for planning 3. Task solution is open-ended or restricted
- 17. References • Folse, K. (2006). The Art of Teaching Speaking. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan University Press. • Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. San Francisco: The Alemany Press.
Editor's Notes
- #6: All new learners of English seem to go though the same developmental stages in their acquisition of English. They differ in the amount of time they need to go through these stages, but their progress in acquiring English is predictable. Krashen and Terrell (1983) first explored these developmental stages as part of their second language teaching approach. An integral part of their approach was the creation of a second language acquisition model containing the predictive stages second language learners go through when they acquire an L2. The L2 stages are listed:1.Preproduction: As the implied by its name, this stage often involves a ‘silent period’ when ELLs are not producing oral language. They might not speak, but they can show language comprehension by pointing, performing, gesturing, nodding. In terms of time, this stage may last anywhere from 10 hours to six months. As they progress through this level, ELLs might have a vocabulary of up to 500 words they can understand, but do not necessarily use due to their lack of confidence. 2. Early Production: At this stage, which may last an additional six months after preproduction, ELLs’ vocabulary contains approximately 1,000 words they are able to understand and use. They are able to produce oral language, albeit limited to one- or two-word phrases or short answers to simple questions, such as yes/no questions, or who/what/where ones.3. Speech Emergence: ELLs at this stage, which may last another year after early production, have a vocabulary of around 3,000 words and can use short phrases and simple sentences to communicate. They are able to ask and answer simple questions. However, when trying to produce longer sentences, their language contains grammatical errors obscuring meaning.4. Intermediate Fluency: At this stage that might last another year after speech emergence, ELLs have a vocabulary close to 6,000 words. They are able to construct complex statements, state their opinions, and speak at length. However, they are still in the process of learning academic English and they still language support what they experience difficulty with academic tasks at grade level.5. Advanced Fluency: At this stage, which may occur after 5 to 7 years of English language exposure, ELLs have adequate content area vocabulary and are near-native in their ability to communicate in English socially and academically. It is important to remember that at the beginning of this stage they will still need support in content areas such as history or social studies and in writing.
- #17: One way – exchange is optional