Hello colleagues, Students often tell me that their most important goal is to improve their listening and speaking skills in English. Do you hear this, too?
I thought it would be extremely useful and fun for members to contribute a favorite conversation activity. What is one of your favorites? For what levels is the activity most appropriate?
Looking forward to learning about some great conversation strategies!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, AELL CoP
Comments
My advanced Vocational Reading group is currently reading Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. The students have made a lot of personal connections to the text which lends itself to rich conversations about discrimination and racism. My Intermediate class is reading Who is Gloria Steinem? by Sarah Fabiny. The class has discussed the role of women and work in their countries of origin as well as voting rights and educational opportunities. Each of these text has been presented as a teacher read aloud however each student has their own copy and they interact with the text in various ways including clarifying vocabulary, using stickees to make connections and reading aloud the Spanish in the Esperanza Rising novel. Scholastic was selling Esperanza Rising for the discounted price of $2 a copy.
Naomi
Hi Naomi, Thanks for telling us about how you are using books to generate conversations on deeply meaningful topics in your classes. This sounds amazing! I've shared previously about my hope to start a book group in my class, but it has not yet worked out. I expect to start after the holidays.
How did you decide on these particular texts? What do you see as the benefits of the teacher read aloud strategy? Are students discussing in small groups or is this mainly a whole group activity? Thanks for sharing more of the details!
Congrats on finding books at such a bargain price!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, AELL CoP
Hi Susan,
I had to hunt for your comment I hadn't checked in awhile. I use read aloud in addition to student reading. The books I choose are slightly above the student's reading level if they were to read it on their own. I've wanted to read Esperanza Rising for awhile because it is an immigrant's story. The Gloria Steinem book is apart of a unit on biography which we are completing. The first book is fiction and the second is nonfiction because I primarily focus on nonfiction in preparation for the skilled training classes I wanted to mix it up a bit. There are many benefits to read alouds one being the student hearing a dramatic, fluent reading and secondly a higher leveled text that stirs the imagination and higher order thinking which creates great discussions.
Take care,
Naomi
I just wanted to jump in here to relate my own experiences with teaching reading to beginning adult ESL students. In my classes everyone reads out loud from the first day. I usually begin my course with pronunciation practice, with an emphasis on problem areas (for example, G/J, short i, short u, Th). Here I use a lot of humor. Then for a few weeks, we focus on basic vocabulary (food, shopping, directions, etc.). In order to read English it is important to learn pronunciation, and usually students actually enjoy practicing pronunciation, especially on Pumarosa.
At a certain point I introduce Graded Readers, which are short stories that have been written using a basic vocabulary with an emphasis on cognates.
When students read out loud I encourage them to speak slowly and clearly, as well as they can. When a word is difficult, we break it into syllables, and say it very slowly at first, then faster and faster until ....success!
Many years ago, when I studied German in High School, the first expression I learned was: Sprechen Sie langsam und klar, bitte - speak slowly and clearly, please. When I studied Spanish I often had to say: Hable despacio, porfavor. When students get into the habit of speaking slowly, focusing on "good" pronunciation, they develop faster, I believe.
Apart from all this, I believe strongly that reading is essential in learning a language, and the earlier it is introduced into a class the better.
Paul Rogers
Hi Paul, I agree that reading aloud has its place in the classroom. Reading aloud can be a useful practice to develop English pronunciation. Of course, not all beginners are ready to read aloud, particularly those with limited formal schooling who are without a foundation in print literacy. For these learners, we need to support them to understand and speak some English and then help them to connect the spoken language they know to print. The Language Experience Approach is a useful approach to use with emergent readers.
Some members may be interested in this article Using Oral Language Skills to Build on the Emerging Literacy of Adult English Learners by Martha Bigelow and Patsy Vinogradov about building print literacy on an oral language foundation.
If we have the luxury of teaching print literacy in the primary language, so much the better!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, AELL CoP
Thanks for sharing how you are using read alouds with more advanced English learners, Naomi. I agree that it is important to bring meaningful nonfiction to the classroom. Fiction has its place, too.
Members, please feel free to share the books, articles, videos, podcasts, etc. you are using with learners.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, AELL CoP
Hi Susan! Good to see you online and put a face to the name after taking your class at NMAEA two weeks ago.
I have two particular activities and conversations to mention. My multilevel adult ESL class has been focusing on Health Care, from making the phone call to schedule an appointment, to the receptionist desk and filling out forms, to having a summative simulation assessment with three guest doctors next week!
We took a break from all the doctor and symptoms talk last week and looked at health through food and diet. One of my favorite conversations and student's favorite as well was explaining what the term "Comfort Food" means and having students talk about their comfort foods. The connection to their lives, to the memories of food they had as children and adults, and the cultural connection (bringing their world into the classroom) was amazing, engaging and I had to eventually stop the conversations myself. With appropriate verb structures and sentence starters, this conversation was appropriate for every level, and while my low-beginning students couldn't sustain a long conversations, they were engaged with listening about their partner's comfort foods and could complete several series of questions and answers with some guidance from both myself or their partner.
The second activity is the hot seat activity (http://www.cal.org/adultspeak/pdfs/InstructionalActivityPacketDHotSeat.pdf) which we are using to review the phone conversation, receptionist scenario and visiting with the doctor simulations that students will have to do next week. Students have been in the hot seat, practicing answering any question that may be part of any of those three scenarios. As a review this works so well for both the hot seat participant and the students asking questions. Students asking questions use their sample dialogues to pull questions, and the randomness of the questions allows for the hot seat participant to really be on their toes and have to know what is being asked as well as how to respond appropriately. Students asking questions are also actively listening by taking notes, finding the section of dialogue other students are pulling questions from, and thinking silently about their own answers.
I look forward to hearing about other conversation activities!
Cheers,
Josán Perales
Hi Josan, It was good to meet you face-to-face in New Mexico, one of the most beautiful spots in the world and one of my favorites!
Thanks for sharing these conversation activities. I love Hot Seat, too. There are so many variations to this activity. This semester, students took turns in each class sitting on the hot seat. It was a way for everyone to get better acquainted, and students always looked forward to asking their classmates questions.
I think framing a conversation around "comfort food" is beautiful. We ALL have our favorite comfort foods, and food is always a popular topic. Lucky for us, we often get to sample these wonderful foods when our programs offer special potluck events, too!
I'm looking forward to hearing more ideas from our creative members for generating meaningful conversations.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, AELL CoP
Hello friends, I recently came across a blog by Jennifer Gonzalez with A Big List of Classroom Discussion Activities. These activities are not all designed for language learners, but most of them can easily be adapted for English learners at different levels. You may find some activities that are familiar, and I'm sure you'll find some new ones to try as well. Most of the activities require minimal prep.
One from Jennifer's list that has been a favorite of mine is called Concentric Circles -- what I've usually called Inside Outside Circles. I have found this activity to be excellent for learners at the intermediate level, but it can be adapted for beginners and advanced learners, too. Students form two concentric circles and face a partner. The teacher gives a conversation prompt, which can be anything at all. For example, talk about what you did on the weekend or talk about the work you did in your country or talk about how you celebrate weddings in your country, etc. Making the topic fit the theme you are working on is ideal.
The person on the inside will talk and the person on the outside will listen. Teachers should encourage the listeners to ask for clarification as needed. The way I learned to do this activity was to time the first conversation for three minutes, then have the inside students move to the left to next person. The inside students now have a new partner to tell the same story to, and this time, you will give them two minutes for the conversation. At the end of two minutes. the students move again to the left to a new partner and tell the same story in one minute.
Having the chance to tell the same story three times to different partners is great practice for intermediate level students. Each time they improve their fluency as they talk.
After the inside group tells their story three times, then the teacher gives a different prompt to the students on the outside.Before starting this activity, it's a good idea to tell everyone that the outside students will be getting a different conversation topic. That way the students will listen to their partners instead of planning what they want to say when it's their turn. The outside students will follow the same procedure and tell their story three times, too.
If you have tried this activity in your own classroom, please share your experience. What are your thoughts about adapting Inside Outside Circles for beginners or advanced students?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, AELL CoP