Category Archives: • Lower & Intermediate Levels

• Introduction to Teaching ESL Conversation: Effective Pair/Group Activities

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How to teach ESL conversation

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

One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching a conversation class is that when you teach your ESL students conversation techniques, you get to hear them talk about their culture, their experiences, opinions and dreams.

A student-centered approach doesn’t mean the teacher just puts students in groups, gives them a topic and tells them to talk about it.  It doesn’t even mean that the students are put in pairs (Student A/Student B), given two different “information gap” papers and told to complete the exercise by talking.

A student-centered approach to conversation-skill development is much more than that.

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• ESL Conversation Class: What If They Make Mistakes In Pairs? Myths About Pair Work.

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A teacher once said that she avoided pair work during conversation lessons because she wouldn’t be able to monitor all the students to catch their grammar mistakes.  Is this a legitimate reason?  Researchers have studied what, in fact, happens when students work in pairs with other students and when they work with non-native speakers which can dispel some of the mis-assumptions about the drawbacks to pair work.

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