• They Don’t Want To Stop Talking During This Activity

Leave a reply

(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

The lights in the classroom are off, but many of the students in pairs continue talking—in the dark!

For most of this class time, students were engaged in a special conversation-skill activity. The class was almost over, so I wanted to get everyone’s attention, “We’ll need to stop in three minutes.” No one seemed to notice me. After three minutes I said that it was time to stop. But hardly anyone flinched. After another three minutes, I turned the lights on and off. Still most continued to talk. So finally, I turned the lights off. Even then in the dark, some pairs continued talking.

This same phenomenon occurs when I’ve presenting this activity at ESL teacher conferences—to NATIVE-ENGLISH SPEAKERS!! Like my ESL students, the teachers continue to talk IN THE DARK!!

One of them even told me after a session, “I wish I could get my husband and son to use this!”

This activity is not only engaging, but it is also developing one of the most important conversation skills. (Below, I’ll attach a link to the activity that you can use to download and use with your students.)

Continue reading →

• More Than Just Talking

Leave a reply

(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

I was so proud of myself (for a moment).  All the students in my conversation class were talking in pairs. Yes! My activity was working!  But then it wasn’t.

I noticed a similar pattern over the next few classes. I put them in pairs—Student A and B with different questions on their handouts. The energy and noise level in the class increase immediately. But then I noticed one pair briefly changing to a different language; another pair stopping and looking at one of their papers together; in another pair, one was doing most of the talking while the other just nodded their head. Soon a pair finished before the majority were still only half finished and just sat there.

These activities were missing the most important goal of any conversation activity: to help students develop specific techniques that they can use to keep communication flowing.

Beyond just talking

Since that realization, I’ve focused on building complete, ready-to-use activities that help students develop the ability to:

• Actively engage by reacting, asking follow-up questions, and responding with details.
• Keep a conversation going even when the topic is a challenge.
• Use simple signals to let others know how well they understand what is being said.
• Politely interrupt, correct others, or make requests and excuses.
• Participate fully in group discussions by sharing opinions and requesting details.

Continuing to Pay it Forward

Continue reading →

• I Stopped Trying to Catch AI Plagiarism. Here’s What I Do Instead.

Leave a reply

Dealing with students who plagiarize now seems like a piece of cake compared to ones who now use AI to write their papers. I could usually deter students from plagiarizing by demonstrating how easy it is for teachers to find it.

Early in a term, I would show this paragraph that may have been written by a student:

I’d ask them if they thought the writer had copied any of the sentences from a source. Unsurprisingly, they always spotted the last one. It was a clear signal: if a student can identify it, a teacher definitely can.

However, the rise of AI has shattered that approach.

Why the old technique doesn’t work anymore

Now, I can no long claim that it’s easy to find plagiarism using the sentence, “Aside from this caveat….” If a student plugged that into AI, it could come out as, “Even with this problem, I still think that learning the four skills together is the best way to study a foreign language.”

The vocabulary is simpler, the tone is conversational, and it is incredibly difficult to prove the student didn’t write it themselves.

According to reports from NPR and other outlets, many schools are spending thousands of dollars on AI-detection software. Yet, research shows these tools are far from reliable and frequently produce false positives. Few things are more discouraging for students than working hard on a paper and then being accused of not writing it themselves.

The “Incentive” Approach

Continue reading →

• Short, HIgh-Interest Articles for Extensive Reading: # 16: Self-Checkouts Are Not As Good As You Might Think

Leave a reply

(This posting includes a handout LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST which you are welcome to use with your students.) *

Some people thought that self-checkout machines were a great idea. The goal was to help customers save time because they wouldn’t have to wait in line for a cashier; they could scan their items and pay by themselves. Stores also hoped to save money by not having to pay as many cashiers. However, recent research shows that this system has many unexpected problems….(See complete article below.)

For background information about these articles and for suggestions for how to use them with your students, see  • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Readings”  Also, I’ll be adding more of these articles in the right-hand column: ESL Reading> Short, High Interest Articles for Extensive Readings

Here is the 16th article. You can download the article for your students by clicking on the link at the end. Also included are three optional exercises: True-False Questions; Paraphrasing Exercise; Reflection Exercise.

Continue reading →