Dialogues for Kids?

flowerfreshgirl · Post by **flowerfreshgirl** » Mon May 31, 2004 8:08 am

Scenario: I've been teaching English for 9 months in Japan. The past two I've been living just outside of Tokyo teaching English in an elementary school. I teach grades 1-6.

Quandry: The other night I was having pizza with a fellow teacher and when I told her I usually play 2 games per 45 minute class, she expressed some disbelief. She said she prefers using dialogue situations (eg. A: Can you play baseball? B: Yes, I can. A: Okay, see you!) to games. She said she her students perform these dialogues in pairs or one on one with her, every lesson.

Our students have little experience speaking English. For some, these past two months have been the first opportunity they've had to learn another language.

The Japanese Ministry of Education has said it wants "kids to have fun while learning English." Are role play/ dialogue scenarios fun for kids? If so, how do you keep control of the class while said dialogues go down (& how can you monitor students as they practice)? Finally, how long should the dialogues last & for what grades?

I know the importance of using the language being acquired in a "real-life" situation, but as a previous poster has noted, anytime you enter a classroom anything you do is "classroom" and not necessarily "real-life" learning.

crow · Post by **crow** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:35 am

I don't think dialogues and games are mutually exclusive... you can do something like, see who can have the dialogue with the most different people, or something like that. I like to play hot potato with two balls, one big and one small. Then, when the music stops, one of the kids has to ask the question (i.e. do you like pizza?) and the other one has to answer. I also use games like go fish, where the kids have to ask 'Do you have a ...' and the other kid has to answer. I think thats more real life than a memorized dialogue because the kids are actually asking for something they want. I usually only use longer dialogues in JHS, honestly to keep the elmentary kids interested, games are the way to go (in my opinion.)

sorry about the comma abuse, I'm writing fast!