Communication activities

Chapter 3

Communication Activities: Conversation and Role-Play
Conversation activities often involve exchanging information or ideas for social, employment, survival, or academic purposes. Role-plays are similar except that the speakers often assume a certain part in a designated situation to practice specific language. Role-plays tend to be somewhat more contrived than open conversations, but they are very useful for practicing certain language.

Speaking strategies
When communicating with others, speakers in real life make use of many different strategies in order to be understood. Among these are turn taking, rephrasing, providing feedback, and redirecting (Burns and Joyce, 1997). It is beneficial to include a strategy in each speaking activity.

It's often helpful to show examples of the language first in a dialogue. For example, the strategy of "interrupting" might include expressions such as "Excuse me…" and "Pardon, but can I just add something here?" This can be followed by a more controlled role-play exercise before expecting students to be able to incorporate the language in freer conversation.

TYPES OF SPEAKING STRATEGIES
agreeing and disagreeing asking for and giving an opinion clarifying hedging interrupting	negotiating / working toward a consensus providing feedback redirecting rephrasing turn taking

Fluency vs. accuracy in speaking activities
Speaking activities can be semi to very communicative. Unless grammar or pronunciation is the focus of the lesson or is included in the objective, accuracy should typically take a secondary role to fluency. Students who think too much about the language and monitor themselves too closely will have trouble communicating effectively and lack the confidence it takes to be understood.

Activity types
Variety is also essential and it is important to choose activities that will address different learning styles. It is especially good to design activities that will get students on their feet and encourage them to think. Below is a list of possible activity types that can be used to promote conversation or create a role-play.

Pair work	In pairs, students discuss issues or exchange information.
Group work	In groups, students discuss issues or exchange information.
1 Line	Students form a line in the classroom based on personal information. Practice or Application: Students are asked to form a line in the classroom based on the month and the day they were born, with the beginning of the line being January 1 and the end December 31. Students will have to ask one another for their birthdays so they see where they fit in the line.
Inside-outside circle	Students form two circles, one inside the other with an equal number inside and out. The circles face one another. Individuals carry on a conversation or a role-play with the student they are facing. The instructor will stop the conversation after a given time and ask one circle to move so new partnerships are created.
Situation Cards	In pairs or small groups, students perform role-plays based on given situations and roles assigned on the cards.
Unknown Partner	Students discuss an issue or to exchange information with someone they don't know or who they know little about.
Corners	Students go to different corners of the room based on a preference and then discuss their preferences in a group. They might be given questions to discuss. Practice or Application: Students are asked their preferences about what they might do in their free time. The instructor and students come up with four categories (for example, movies, sports, TV, family outings). Students are then instructed to go to the corner that best describes their preference. For the movie corner, for example, students could discuss the following questions and also practice turn-taking skills. How often do you go to or rent movies? What kind of movies do you like? What was the last movie you saw? Did you like it? Why?
Jigsaw	Students are asked to learn about one portion of a topic well and become an expert. Then they are asked to share with others who are experts about another portion of the topic. They continue speaking to students until they have learned about the entire topic.
Roundtable	In a group, students take turns sharing an idea, opinion, or a response until all the students have spoken.
Storytelling	One student starts a story by telling a portion to the group. Then the next student in the group adds to it. This goes on until all students have added to the story or until there is a natural ending. Sometimes, pictures can be used to stimulate ideas.

Chapter 4

Cooperative Learning and Problem-Solving Activities
In order to develop speaking skills, it's important to give students activities that allow them to concentrate on meaning and not on the language itself. Using language in this way mirrors speaking outside of the classroom. One of the most effective ways to do this is to pose an open-ended question that requires students to work together to resolve a problem.

When students work together to come up with a solution to a problem, they are working cooperatively. They use structures and vocabulary they've learned as well as many of the speaking strategies mentioned earlier.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING ACTIVITIES
Consensus	In groups, students come to a consensus about a problem or issue. During the course of the activity, they might have to rank data, resolve a problem, or state opinions about something related to the context of the lesson.
VENN Diagrams	In pairs, students discuss similarities and differences between two people, things, or ideas. The area where the circles connect is for similarities.
Johari Squares only Maria only John both John & Maria not John & not Maria	Johari squares are similar to VENN diagrams. However, there is a fourth section for noting that neither person, thing, nor idea shares the characteristic.
3-Step Interview	Students work in groups of four to interview their teammates about a given topic. Student 1 speaks to student 2 while student 3 speaks to 4. Next, students 1 and 2 speak to students 3 and 4. Finally students report what they have learned to the entire group or class.
Simulations (to be covered in a future lesson on application activities)	Simulations are extended role-plays in which students develop a skit or idea over an extended period of time, usually in a group. For example, students might take the role of a person who is on a hiring committee and develop interview criteria and questions. The project might culminate with a series of simulated real-life job interviews.
Projects (to be covered in detail in a future lesson on application activities)	Projects can be developed to solve a problem or to accomplish a task of some sort. The end result usually includes a product of some sort and students make a presentation.

The challenges
There are challenges associated with using cooperative learning techniques in the classroom. Some students are uncomfortable working in groups and might resist participating. Those who tend to be more introverted might be intimidated by students who take control.

The best way to address these issues is to do the following:

• Provide students with strategies for working in teams. Make sure there are various responsibilities for team members. Assign a leader, a timekeeper, a reporter, and a secretary. Each should perform their responsibility to accomplish a given task. If it isn't possible to put students in groups of four, responsibilities will need to be adjusted.
• Be careful to establish groups that are equitable. This might involve grouping students who are similar together or ensuring that all groups are equally diverse.
• Establish a positive learning atmosphere in the classroom. Recognize the value of all answers/solutions provided by students, even if you personally disagree with them.

Chapter 5

Building Community

Students are more apt to speak and practice when they feel comfortable with in class. Student-centered activities and cooperative learning techniques help to build community. When students share personal information with their classmates, they build bonds and are often motivated to participate more in class. Instructors will find that they do less explaining and preparation for practice as students help one another to succeed.

Inviting interaction and building community
There are several ways to encourage interaction and community in the classroom.

1. Organize your classroom: Put desks in circles or group them in such a way that students face one another. Circular tables for four or five students are ideal for interaction.
2. Lower anxiety: Students should feel free to communicate. Overcorrecting or focusing attention on the negative instead of using positive reinforcement can intimidate students and inhibit performance. Offering encouragement can be done while continuing to challenge students.
3. Assign roles: The instructor can identify student roles clearly and give students and groups of students different responsibilities such as erasing the board, setting up technology, passing out papers etc. As mentioned in Chapter 4, students can also be assigned a role (leader, timekeeper, etc.) each time they work in groups to complete a task. Roles can change each time.

Summary
Speaking is an essential part of any ESL/EFL classroom. In this lesson, we discussed several ways to develop speaking in the classroom.

1. In the presentation and practice stages of a lesson, provide students with the language (structures, vocabulary, strategies, etc.) that they will need to participate in speaking activities. The language may be presented through drills and dialogues, especially at the lower levels.
2. Promote conversation and freer communication (in the practice and application stages of a lesson) by introducing a variety of activities.
3. Incorporate cooperative learning and problem-solving activities to foster fluency and encourage participation.
4. Establish a sense of community in the classroom by promoting student interaction, reducing anxiety and assigning classroom responsibilities.

Source: http://eltmedia.thomsonlearning.com

SPEAKING ACTIVITIES. CHAPTER 1 AND 2

 

An Introduction to Speaking Activities

Personal experience
Several years ago, I was having lunch with my administrator and several other instructors. My administrator asked me how I liked the book I was using in class. I told her my feelings about it, describing the things I liked and disliked. Another instructor chimed in and expressed her concern about the book. She went on to say that she really didn't like it because on the opening page of each lesson, students talked so much, that she couldn't get them to stop!

It is easy to lose sight of our objectives if we don't remind ourselves regularly what we are doing and why we are doing it. Nevertheless, one thing is certain: we want students to produce. In order to be able to communicate competently in English, learners need multiple opportunities to practice and use the language.

Speaking
Brown (1994) states that listening and speaking are the most common skills used in the classroom. However, all speaking in the classroom does not involve meaningful communication. Some is simply practice, especially at the lower levels, or in cases where focus is on suprasegmental elements or linguistic structures (grammar).

All opportunities to speak are important. And practice, even when it doesn't involve a free exchange of ideas, can still allow students to produce language in a way that is new for them.

Lesson planning
In this lesson, we will look at some interactive speaking techniques and discuss how they can be incorporated into a classroom lesson plan. First, though, let's identify elements that all speaking activities should include.

All speaking activities within a lesson plan should:

1. establish a context (introduction).
2. provide building blocks and skills (presentation).
3. provide meaningful tasks and make sure students have been successful (practice and evaluation).
4. allow students to be creative with the language (application). 

1. Establishing a context (introduction)
To establish a context, an instructor might tell a story, present some meaningful realia, or ask a question. At this stage, the activity is often instructor-centered, but it should allow for as much student input as possible. At the lowest levels, an instructor can elicit one-word answers from learners.

At the lower levels, for example, an instructor might ask all of the students to stand up. Then he or she might ask for all students with T-shirts to sit down. The instructor then writes T-shirt on the board and asks the students to repeat it. The instructor continues with other items of clothing until all are sitting. In doing this, the teacher has successfully established the context for the lesson.

At higher levels, the instructor can tell a story, ask questions, take a class poll, introduce a reading, or offer a current event. In each of these activities, the instructor is taking the lead to introduce the activity, but the students are providing input.

2. Providing building blocks and skills (presentation)
In the presentation stage of a lesson, the instructor should make sure all key language and information about the topic is introduced.

At the lowest levels, using drills and dialogues can be a good a way of providing students with this information so that they will be able to practice on their own in the next stage.

Students with a higher level of English may be given important information about speaking strategies (for example, clarification skills, rephrasing, turn-taking etc.). They will then practice using this language during the practice phase of the activity.

3. Providing meaningful tasks (practice and evaluation)
Practice is less directed and more guided and communicative in this phase of the activity. Here the tasks are meaningful but are still provided by the instructor.

They might include using simple dialogues at the lower levels. At the higher levels, learners might engage in information gathering or open-ended projects and simulations.

4. Allowing students to be creative (application)
In the application stage, the instructor no longer guides students to the extent done in the prior stage. Now students personalize and apply what they've learned to a new situation. Tasks are typically more open-ended and range from group interaction, student-created role-plays and skits, to discussions or special presentations or class projects.



Chapter 2

Drills and Dialogues

Why use drills and dialogues?
The Audio-Lingual Method stressed mimicry and included in its methodology drills and dialogues. For a number of years, both were commonly used in many language learning classrooms. More recently, though, many instructors have come to think of drills and dialogues less favorably, claiming that both are rather mechanical and uncommunicative. Nevertheless, drills and dialogues do have a place in language learning in that they can be used to prepare students for more communicative practice.

Every instructor has had the experience of giving students a communicative task only to find that they couldn't adequately do it. Often this happens because we don't give our learners the tools and skills they need to achieve the task. Drills and dialogues can help us do this (though over drilling or repeated dialogue practice is not encouraged).

Drills and dialogues are especially useful at the lower levels where students are attempting to form sounds and produce utterances for the first time. Drills shouldn't dominate a lesson. Instead, they should be used in the presentation stage where guided practice is applied.

Drills and dialogues may be used for the purpose of developing vocabulary, skills, grammar, or pronunciation skills. In this chapter we will only address vocabulary and skill development.

Drills
Drills are typically used with single words, phrases, and sentences. They give students the first experience producing and manipulating language. They are most effective when the instructor is conducting the activity.

The following tables list different drill types:

Drills for Vocabulary Development
Choral repetition	The teacher models certain language and the students repeat in unison.
Substitution	Students are given a sentence and a cue word. They are asked to substitute these cue words in the appropriate place in the sentence. Teacher: I buy apples at the store. ... Pear Student: I buy pears at the store.
Completion	Students are given a sentence and respond by repeating the sentence and adding more information (for example, a tag word(s)). Teacher: He loves baseball. Student: He loves baseball or is it soccer?

Although drills are mechanical, they do not need to be dry and lifeless. They can be fun if the instructor orchestrates them creatively. The following table illustrates some variations.

Drill Variations
Backward buildup	Sentences that are too long are easier to manipulate if broken up into smaller units. With backward buildup drills, the instructor has the students repeat the last word and then adds more starting from the word before the last word until the entire sentence is repeated. For example: things; some things; need some things; We need some things.
Split-word technique	Sections of the class are given different parts of a word or a sentence to produce. The instructor conducts the production by pointing to the different sections of the class.
Competition	The class is split up to see which group(s) can produce the word, phrase or statement clearer or louder.
Volume	The teacher says "louder" or "softer." Students must be able to repeat a given word, phrase, or sentence properly.
Buildup technique	First, an individual repeats a given word, phrase, or sentence followed one small group, then another, and another until the entire class has repeated the item together.

Dialogues
Dialogues are extended drills with added context. They are exchanges between two individuals and consist of at least two lines. Since they are typically used for initial practice and not intended to be communicative, they should not be overly long. At the lowest level, 2-8 lines are sufficient. If these dialogues are to be used for practice, the instructor should provide students with all key language in the presentation stage of the lesson.

The following table describes different types of dialogues.

Dialogue Types for Practice
Repetition	Students read the dialogue to one another. This kind of dialogue is usually used for intonation and pronunciation practice.
Substitution	Within the dialogue are places where other information is substituted for the current information. See the example below.
Completion or Information Gap	This type of dialogue/speaking exercise includes blanks that can only be completed by working with a partner to ask questions. See the example below.
Completion/Personal Information	This type of dialogue/speaking exercise includes questions that can only be answered with personal information from someone else.

Substitution dialogues
The following example shows how a substitution dialogue works.

toothache          fever                  runny nose headache          sore throat         cold earache            rash                   cough

Student A: What's the matter?
Student B: I have a stomachache.

1. Students are asked to act out the ailments when doing the dialogue above with a partner.
2. Students perform the dialogue with five different students and substitute a different ailment for the underlined word each time.

Information (Info) Gap
Information gap activities are very common in ESL/EFL. They usually contain two pages. Student A looks at one page while Student B looks at the other. Each has different information. Through dialogue, they get information from the other student, as in the simple example below.

Student A Soccer superstar David Beckham was born on          in the city of Leytonstone, England. At age         , he won his first soccer award...

Student B Soccer superstar David Beckham was born on May 2, 1975 in the city of         , England. At age 11, he won his first soccer award...