Teacher Discussion Forums

My boss says I need to do this in my higher level classes. I suspect it's also a problem with my lower level classes. But, I'm in Taiwan. I think the younger students are more easily entertained.

I don't believe I'm referring to any specific activity, like dialogues-I do plenty of them.

I think I'm referring to conversation throughout the lesson. I was able to do it in a couple of classes after my boss told me this. But, those are easy classes anyway, with more outgoing students. But, I've completely failed on the harder classes, where the students don't want to talk.

I asked her about it, and she said something about "creating an atmosphere". But, it was difficult to explain, and couldn't give any more details.

I teach at a buxiban. Mostly elementary school. Some middle school. A few high school students. However, I'm bad enough that my boss doesn't give me the "Advanced" classes. I think these would be classified as "intermediate", really.

As it is, the upper level students are really bored. I also think that getting them to do ACTUAL conversation during class would help their language skills.

We talked about this a bit at http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... t=mongolia

Students talk when they have something to talk about so doing an activity like learning a game will produce an authentic reason for them to ask questions to clarify rules and find out how to play.

Working in small groups really helps too with at least one student in the group with good English abilities. At first they will use a great deal of their own language but with encouragement will gradually use more and more English.

I love the Jazz chants too to get them going and singing lots of pop songs.

This reply is maybe a bit late to help Spitzig, but for all those who have been looking at this post here is an example of an activity that gives students a reason to talk, because as Sally Olsen points out, they won't talk unless there is a reason to communicate.

If students are reluctant to talk in a lesson it may be that they do not want to give their opinions or talk about themselves. To get around this students can be given roles to fill, so they are acting rather than revealing things about themselves.

Take a situation that appeals to the students. If they are in high school this could be the organisation of the school summer ball, or electing a class leader. It's very important to pick something that your students relate to, so after you have done the activity once, get students to prepare a scenario for homework to use in a future lesson. If they prepare the scenario themselves you have three advantages: they will be motivated to see how their scenario goes down in class, they will pick something that they find interesting and you don't have to do any prep!

Let's say you are discussing the summer ball. Give out characters to each student and you'll have to put students in small groups if you have a big class. Appoint a group chairman who controls who speaks and kicks off the discussion, maintaining order where necessary. Characters could be the school accountant, who has a fixed budget in mind for the ball and wants to cut it significantly compared to the previous year, then there's the social secretary, who really wants an amazing party this time, with a band coming in from outside and a DJ, special lighting, free drinks and a sit-down dinner, then from the student committee you could have a student who cooks and suggests doing the catering so you discuss the menu and the pricing, discuss the dress code for the event, the school pastor is present at the meeting and is in favour of a no-flesh-visible policy and an alcohol-free event...

The task is for the group to discuss and vote on each issue because they MUST reach an agreement at the meeting and they MUST be within the negotiated budget. When most groups have finished, but not all let each group present it's summer ball to the class, then let the class vote on whose party they want to go to and that group wins!

If you try it let me know how it goes!

Talking activities for teens and adults here:
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm


Shelley

Think-pair-share is a great activity that can be used with any topic or content being learned. Group students in pairs, pose a question to the class, students ponder then discuss the answer in English with their partner, and then one or both partners share their answer with the class. Model what you expect them to do, teacher and a student can be a pair, so that you know they fully understand the activity. http://www.readingquest.org/strat/tps.html

You can also have the class create a survey or questionnaire, ask each other or outsiders the questions, and present their data in a chart or graph. The questions can be about something they are learning or something they are interested in outside of school. To finish the activity, students can explain their findings in English to the class. Using the graph as a visual aid would probably make them feel more comfortable when speaking. Maybe you would like the audience to ask the presenter about the graph or about whom they interviewed and why.

Good luck!

I also struggle with getting my ESL students to participate in group or individual lessons. There are many pieces of advice out there on the internet. I am in the field of early childhood education and a great website is: http://www.pre-kpages.com/esl/. Some of these strategies can be modified for older students. I have used the idea for the “Word Wacker Wall” that is listed on this site. It encourages social skills, fine motor skills, and also teaches vocabulary. It is also important to remember that many ESL students will go through a silent period of six weeks to three months.