Everyone struggles what to say at parties: on becoming a master of small talk in a language class4/29/2020 While small talk may be considered second best conversation, its function is very important socially. However, for young adults - higher education students - establishing initial contact with strangers can pose problems: they are often shy and self-conscious. Interestingly, approaching unknown people and striking conversations with them can be challenging for all of us, as humorously revealed by Ellen DeGeneresin in “The Ellen Show”, when she said "everyone struggles what to say at parties". That is why, teaching students how to create and maintain contact with other people through small talk can't be neglected when developing speaking skills in a language class. Yeah, easier said than done... I was inspired how to teach small talk in my speaking class when I came across the ARE method. The video below published on the Art of Manliness blog explains how anyone can become a master of small talk using this method. In essence, this is a strategy that consists of three parts: 1) Anchor, 2) Reveal and 3) Encourage. In any conversation, “Anchor” involves making an observation on the reality that we share with the other person. In the next step, “Reveal” we say something that is related to our anchor, we say something more to help the other person find connection with us. Finally, at the “Encourage” stage we ask a question to allow them to take the initiative and keep the conversation going. I thought my students would benefit from being familiar with this strategy: they could use it to communicate, both in Polish and English, at parties, university or work. In this post I explain how I adopted this strategy in my speaking class (practical English programme) for English Studies students at a Polish university. Teaching sequence. First, following genre-based instruction (see chapter 10 in THIS book), I created all content and activities on Moodle. Then, I used these online materials in a face-to-face class. (Today students can do all these class activities via Microsoft Teams.) The teaching sequence includes five steps. Step 1. Students answer the following questions: 1. Describe your last conversation: context, audience, language (English/L1), aim of the conversation, and outcomes. 2. Which is easier: face to face on online conversation? 3. What problems do you encounter when you engage in conversations with strangers? 4. What do you lose on when you are too shy to engage in a conversation with a stranger? 5. What would be the best way to start a conversation with a stranger? Step 2. Students watch “How to make small talk with strangers” and answer the questions:
Step 3. Practice. Using the ARE method, in pairs or small groups, students do the following: Situation 1. You are going by train. In the same compartment, there is a well-known actor. You want to strike a conversation with him. What would your first question / sentence be in this conversation? How would you continue? Situation 2. Role-play a situation in which you engage in a conversation with a shop assistant. Situation 3. You are sitting in a dentist waiting room. There is a nice-looking boy / girl sitting next to you. You really want to talk to him / her. How would you start a conversation? How would you continue? Step 4. Coming up with the ideas on what to say in these situation may be very difficult for some students. In a feedback session I invited pairs to share their ideas with the rest of the group. Additionally, I offered what I would say in Situation 1, if I were one of them: Anchor: “I really admire the tone of your voice” Reveal: “At the moment I am attending a speaking course at my university in which I learn how to permanently make my voice sound deeper. It is hard but I am determined to get this right” Engage: “How did you find the tone of your voice”? Step 5. At home, students can explore other online resources to learn more:
We ALL enjoyed this class a lot and the students seemed empowered leaving my classroom :)
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Higher education students regularly engage in discussions with others as part of their coursework so the ability to effectively do so is central to their academic success. What is important, when they participate in discussions, they do not only formulate their own views; they also need to respond to what other speakers have said before them. But this can be challenging for some students, regardless of the language they use to communicate, and they may need instruction to be better able to interact with others’ ideas.
In this post I share how I help English Studies students in Poland to become more active participants in academic discussions in my speaking course, which is part of the “practical English” programme at my University. I taught this class before the pandemic and we met face to face. Now, Microsoft Teams makes it possible to meet students online to allow them to understand the rhetoric moves that discussion involves and to let them practice in pairs or small groups. How I teach. To develop my students' academic discussion skills, I make them familiar with this spoken genre, I show them video examples of skilled speakers and then I put their knowledge into systematic and frequent practice. Technology is indispensable here: it enables students to observe the models of spoken text they are to imitate and to have access to instructional materials “anytime, anywhere”. Specifically, I teach one class with the focus on this genre. First, I set up a Moodle module in which I create tasks and curate reference materials. All activities are based on the principles of genre-based instruction (see chapter 10 in THIS book), conducted in 6 steps. Step 1. Introduction. Students work in pairs or small groups and answer the following questions: 1. What is a discussion? 2. Describe your last discussion: context, audience, language (English/native), aim of the discussion, outcomes. 3. Do you listen to/watch discussions on TV/radio? If so, describe the last discussion you watched/listened to: context, audience, language (English/native), aim of the discussion, outcomes. 4. What is your role as a discussant? How would you describe your relationship with other discussants? Step 2. Discussion. In groups of three, students are asked to hold a 10-minute discussion. Topic: Is digital media good for democracy? Students watch the introduction to THIS discussion and then continue in groups. Step 3. Effective speaking. Students are presented with the structure of a turn in a discussion. What to say? Type of turns:
Part 1 – Opening
Students also read THESE discussion guidelines. Step 4. Model analysis. Students watch THIS video and note their answers. 1. How does each discussant open his/her turn? 2. What points does each discussant make in the main body of the turn? 3. How do the discussants conclude their turns? Students watch the video again and note useful expressions. Step 5. Practice. Students are asked to have another 10-minute discussion. This time they apply the rhetoric moves presented in this class. Topic: Is the Internet safe for adults? They can include content about:
Step 6. In this final activity students relate discussion to other spoken genres previously covered in my course. 1. How is discussing similar/different from debating (discussed last class)? 2. How is discussing similar/different from interviewing (to be discussed next class)? The students I have taught really appreciate mastering these techniques. They found them immensely helpful, applied them in other university courses, as well as their lives outside of academia. As mentioned in my last post here, some higher education students use L2 (foreign/second language) to communicate with their instructors and peers and are also expected to improve that language. When it comes to speaking, if one wants to develop this skill, it is necessary to speak as much and as often as possible. Some students, such as English Studies students in Poland, study L2 in a country in which English is not an official language and it is more difficult for them to have opportunities to speak. For this reason, such students are often offered so-called “practical language” classes. When in class, however, many students do not speak much, which is because they do not have much to say. As a result, they do not profit from this class as much as they could. Given this, language instructors need to ensure the conditions that will allow these students to broaden their general knowledge. Specifically, apart from “communicative language competences” (encompassing grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.), their students will benefit from the opportunities to develop “general competences” (that is knowledge of the world, socio-cultural competence, etc.) (see CEFR chapter 2). In this post I share how I have developed English Studies students’ general knowledge in a face-to-face speaking class but these activities can be conducted fully online, too. Two learning activities. In my class I arrange two speaking activities: 1) taking about current affairs and 2) talking about the issues of students’ choosing. I make three key assumptions here:
Before class. The students have to prepare before each class and a reminder is posted in each Moodle module. First, to be able to talk about current affairs, the students follow news. At the beginning of the course I suggest some websites if they are not sure where to start looking for information, such as The Warsaw Voice or BBC News. Secondly, to be able to talk about the topics of their choice, the students are asked to select and read an online article (not too short) and to be ready to summarise it in 5-7 points in English. Again, at the beginning of the course I recommend some websites, such Nature, New Scientist, Scientific American, making it clear that they are asked to read only free articles published there. They are also asked to evidence reading by pasting a link into a Padlet page.
In class. Each class starts with conversations in pairs. First, I instruct the students to work with a partner, talk about what is going on in Poland, in Europe, around the world and comment on these issues. They have 5-7 minutes for this activity. Next, they continue in pairs to give summaries of the article on the topic of their choice. Each partner has 5 minutes to summarise his/her article and then to ask questions to engage the partner in a conversation on the issues raised in the text. This activity takes 10 minutes – 5 minutes for each partner. Submission and credit. Reading online articles is obligatory in this course and it is crucial that the students observe the deadlines that are provided in assignment description. The students paste links into a designated Padlet page before class. If they do not submit links in due time, they receive a penalty point and three penalty points result in a penalty assignment (in this class it is one extra 3-minute podcast). These two activities have proven effective and attractive for my students. They have “more to say” now, not only in class, but also outside. They use this knowledge in conversations with friends, family members, with clients, etc., also in their native language, which is an immense boost to their self-confidence. The idea of making reading obligatory drives some less systematic students to read, sometimes “last minute” on their mobile phone, just before class. |
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