Tag Archives: small-group activity

• 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 →

• Developing Paraphrasing Skills: Oral Paraphrasing Before Written. (Revisited)

Leave a reply

Cover paraphrasing shot

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

YouTube I discuss this posting in this video: Developing ESL Paraphrasing Skills Naturally: Start with Oral Paraphrasing Exercise

A good paraphrase can demonstrate to the teacher that the student truly understood the source. And if it is clearly written in the student’s normal style and level of vocabulary, the teachers can feel reassured that the writer wasn’t plagiarizing.

Paraphrasing may be a new concept for many of our ESL student. However, we can help them understand how to do it in a way that will let them “experience” what a good paraphrase is through a very natural process.

Continue reading →

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

Leave a reply

Myths pair work cover shot

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.

Continue reading →

• Approaching Grammar with Generation 1.5 Students and Other Ear-Learners (REVISITED)

Leave a reply

Cover Gen 1.5

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

In our college, there was a category of ESL students who stymied the instructors.  They were fluent speakers but continually struggled with basic the grammar on writing tasks.  Any ESL program that has immigrant students will probably have these types of students described as “ear-learners” or Generation 1.5.

Gen 1.5 students are sort of between first generation and second generation immigrant.  They immigrated with their family when they were elementary or high school age.

A growing number of these students indicate a goal of obtaining a college degree.  However, unfortunately, many of them struggle to make the transition from studying basic English skills in ESL courses to taking academic ESL and mainstream academic courses.

Among those who do apply to colleges, a considerable number do not meet the minimum standards for writing and are thus not accepted.

I, along with two colleagues, were able to get a grant a few years ago to study these students and to develop an approach to helping them learn grammar for writing by taking into consideration their special learning styles.

In this posting,

  1. I’ll describe these students and their learning styles.
  2. I’ll also explain the type of materials and include examples that we used with them.
  3. And finally, I’ll summarize the very positive results that we got from the study.

Continue reading →