Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

if i may ask for some assistance here:

we're at a point in the text where the senior 1 students need to create their own dialogue. the essence is that they need help with something (they're lost, something was stolen, they're ill.... etc). they all know what a dialogue is and so far this week my classes have done well with it. i simply introduce the concept of a dialogue, maybe act a quick one out with one of the kids, give the rest of the class about 10 minutes to prepare their own with their partner (while i walk around and monitor), and spend the final 20 minutes of class acting them out.

is there anything else i should be doing to make it more interesting/engaging? the students seem to enjoy it overall, but i have the "leader(s)" of the school coming to class tomorrow, and usually when these jokers show up (past experience), they always seem to find many pockets of inactivity, that i should be busy rectifying. or should i just keep doing what i'm doing?

[China Dim Drone]

There must be a purpose to the 'dialogue' over and above that of simply 'having a dialogue'. If I were you I would create an information gap-type exercise with dual directionality and have them run through such a scenario as a means of securing the information required. This would be vastly more 'authentic' and would promote and foster greater learning on the part of the students (and thus more rewarding for you and for them).

[7969]

can you give me an example of such an exercise please? if i understand you correctly, i should give the students a situation (or variety of) and tell them that there's a goal that needs to be achieved during the dialogue, that is, eliciting some sort of information from their dialogue partner.

but in the classroom, is there anything authentic? if i took the class out to the streets of my hometown and told them they had to get from A to B by asking for information, that's one thing. but here, they know there's no (immediate) practical application in our dialogue exercise.

this is the first time i've had students create dialogues, and they're good students, so this type of exercise is new to me.

[millie]

China Dim Drone suggests an information gap exercise. Great too - but that is quite different to the dialogue creation and practice you are doing.

At this late stage, DO NOT change what you are doing esp. if you are not aware of what an information gap exercise is and the dudes are arriving tomorrow

(It requires the appropriate material too and if you are attempting to create same, it takes some time)

Guided dialogue creation and practice is really very useful and most suitable for lower level Ss.
One thing you could do it to change the pairings so that Ss get a chance to speak with others. Perhaps you are already doing that.

Walk around and monitor and encourage. Why not select a few (good) pairs near the end of the lesson to do a whole class demo.

Perhaps the information gap exercise at a later stage?
M

[7969]

thanks millie.... yes, i have no plan to change what i'm doing at this point. it seems to work, however i'm always trying to think of ways to shake things up a bit. perhaps that's because i run thru the same (more or less) exercise/lesson with 13 classes per week. maybe its only me that actually sees it as repetitive after the first 6-7 classes.....

at any rate, maybe next time i do dialogues, i can incorporate some different methods.

[oprah]

I would like to do dialogue with my students but have not started yet, any further advice or information would be helpful. Could you explain what is meant by directionality??

[millie]

Hello oprah,

Directionality : hmmm… the property or existence of direction I guess.
Meaning in this case that the information goes in both directions.

I wouldn’t get too distracted by the word or even the concern about then need for “authentic” situations in this situation.
I would put the point that the classroom is an authentic experience for students as much as a teacher. If it isnot real life, how come I can just imagine my time there?
More seriously, the term ‘authentic’ probably has more meaning in regard to listening and reading materials where these are from life outside the classroom. However, it can be very troublesome to provide such material for lower level users since that material is most likely too difficult.

The dialogue practice mentioned above has variations but for intermediate and below students could be outlined in this way:

Begins with a presentation where the teacher introduces and presents model dialogue material (likely an emphasis on meaning and perhaps grammar points if need be)
Teacher does Pron either via choral drills of students of model material -or specific and troublesome words there-in
Students can now practice model dialogue (usually in pairs)
Then now prepare (write) own dialogue according to template of model, substituting various words as they wish.
Practice again. Change pairs or grouping as need be.
Teacher to monitor for error, feed-back to class.

The great advantage of this is that it really is maximum participation time for students and can be done in relatively largish groups.
If not overdone, lower level students really benefit from this modelling and practice.
It can be very structured of course but do allow better students to innovate.

Happy teaching
M

[Ben H Nevis Jnr.]

After reading this thread yesterday I decided to have a go at creating dialogues with my fresher class today. We generally work from the New Interchange 2 textbook. Those who are familiar with this book will know that each unit follows a similar structure, with listening conversations generally being used to present new language. I normally write the focus questions on the board and they listen a few times to the audio tape, books closed at first then with books open, then they take turns reading the conversation to each other before I home in on the grammar point. I'm a fairly recent CELTA graduate so maybe those with more experience will disagree, but I don't find parrot fashion recital of these conversations particularly communicative. The books suggestion of using a "look up and say technique" seems contrived and unrealistic. I also find the writing activities a little uninspired and purposeless. So this time, I skipped the conversation recital and writing task and rounded the unit off by giving them half an hour to write and memorise dialogues which they would then perform in front of the class.

This unit looked at phrasal verbs, polite requests and apologies. They were told to use the existing conversations as templates from which they could deviate as much as they wished provided they still incorporated at least one example of each language point. I told them to make it as funny as possible. Sure enough, the dialogues themselves were well written and in a couple of cases shot through with a surreal humour but the recital was a let down. Though I had told them to stop writing and pay attention, most of the groups chattered through each other's performances, no doubt due to a combination of rehearsing their lines before they took the floor themselves and stealing bits from the others to put in their own. With the background noise and the shy, timid nature of my students, I myself could barely hear what they were saying. It dawned on me that I should treat these dialogues no different from the ones in the book they were modelled on and so I wrote general focus questions ("What is their complaint ?", "What type of apology do they give ?" etc.) on the board for the other groups to answer as they hopefully listened. It's maybe not an information gap in the strictest sense, but nonetheless the transformation was incredible. As the first students took to the floor for the second time you could hear a pin drop. Some of the class actually interrupted one of the dialogues to complain that the students weren't talking loudly or clearly enough. All in all, a successful and enjoyable lesson. Maybe they'll also be a bit more forgiving of my own accent in the future too after having to decipher each other.

[ChinaEFLteacher]

7969, i'd like to reply to your apparent apprehension about the school "leaders" coming. do they monitor you often and give feedback? do they know english? i'm only curious because i've been at a U. here in central china for over 2 1/2 yrs and never had any 'leader' or other come to my class. i'm wondering why you're worried about what those guys will think and any ramifications resulting from their observations. if anyone else has any similar experiences i'd be happy to hear them, as i'll be changing schools soon and want to know what to do if this happens.

[Nauczyciel]

Well, I guess the school's authorities or their representatives SHOULD from time to time take a closer look at the way the classes are run. Maybe it's not very pleasant from the teachers' point of view, but if there is never anybody to show up to check their way of teaching, this may imply that the school doesn't really care about the competence of the staff. I remember the headmaster of the school where I taught coming sometimes for a few minutes to watch the teachers working. It made me feel my work was appreciated, uncomfortable as it was at first. But this due and legitimate interest doesn't include meddling with what the teachers are responsible for, and that is what I believe the teachers fear and hate most.

[Brian Caulfield]

It's kind of interesting when the hounds from hell are in the back . Have you noticed how quiet things get ? Their just interested . Make em part of the show and have them say something . What I do with the dialogues is have a raffle and each pair of students has a number and if their number is drawn they come up . So have the person monitoring you draw the numbers .

[Roger]

[oprah]

This thread is getting off topic..creating dialogue. I have some classes who have a dialogue book, yes they can read the dialogue.. but my class is about speaking not reading.. Does reading this dialogue help with speaking ??Comments on this please..

[millie]

hello oprah,
First they read the model as a practice.
Make sure they attempt to use native like intonation, not just a flat monotonous speech.

As they become more confident with practice, they can speak it with less reference to the book.
Better students will innovate more and use the book less.
M

[dajiang]

How did your lesson go 7969?
I found that when I had someone from school looking in my lesson, my students actually really tried harder than usual to be good students and it went well every time. Fortunately, it wasn't often, 'cuz it does get on my nerves.
Anyway, for dialogues really information-gap exercises are perfect. It's simply about pairs not knowing certain information of each other that they have to find out using a conversation. You can make them in any level. You can use cards giving instructions, or with pictures, and ss should try to make dialogues.
Fun one is 'Lost and found', when ss pretend they're in London or something and they've lost something. They're in the copshop, trying to explain what it was they lost (using lots of adjectives, obviously can't just say 'my bankcard') and the police-officer has to figure out what it is. This can actually prove to be useful too, some of them might go abroad after all.
Another one in a different form completely is 'alibi's' (an activity thats also described in the idea cookbook btw). there's been a robbery the day before and you send a group of ss out (3/4 depending on class size) to make up an alibi. The other ss also form groups and interrogate the students in rounds, to find discrepancies in their statements.

About the dialogues in the book, I went through most of them, but obviously changed some of the information to make it funnier, or more authentic, or more useful to the students. Basically the first step in dialogues in a certain topic is to see the example, as a model. Then you just leave more and more spaces to fill in, until they can produce the dialogue by themselves, in a way. So change some specific info, and after that, some information gap activities, and in the end they should be able to logically put coherent sentences together by themselves.

Oh another good one, which isn't information-gap, but it's funny anyway, and makes for a great couple of minutes. I also got it from the cookbook, there's some excellent stuff on it eh. It's the interview with already-set-answers'. So groups choose some famous person and then you give them 'the answers', like: 'yeah, every morning'. Students then make up the questions together. When they get the hang of it, it's hilarious.

And don't forget maps. For information-gap stuff, maps are ideal. Here you can get authentic stuff from cities they want to go to.

Good luck,
Da Jiang