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Reading Pleasures and Conversation Starters
A new semester begins, new students enter our classes, and returning colleagues greet us. What can talk about that will go beyond the work-related activities?
Books.
Teachers, especially English teachers, love to talk about their summer reading. Reading remains a cheap pleasure and an excellent conversation starter.
* Can you recommend a good book?
* What did you this summer?
* What are reading these days – besides student papers?
Books and ideas still matter in our 21st century global culture of blogs, especially for starting conversations. Discussing books, sharing ideas, and exchanging tips helps elevate casual office chit-chat into more satisfying verbal exchanges.
In the past few weeks, I’ve enjoyed several satisfying conversations with my teaching colleagues – and a few more memorable conversations with strangers about books. How?
I looked around, noted the reading choices of folks, and asked a friendly question.
• Is that a good book?
• How did you choose that book?
• Can you recommend a good book?
Likewise, talking about books and reading pleasures gives us new information about our world – and insights into our friends and students. For longer, better conversations, you can ask the following questions:
• What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
• Who is your favorite author, anyway?
* How have your reading habits changed?
• Are you still reading Alain de Botton?
* What are you reading these days?
If you have time to listen, the answers might surprise you.
Our English students also enjoy talking about their favorite books and reading experiences. Here’s a link to a conversation lesson that I’ve had success with in high intermediate and advanced ESL/EFL classes.
http://compellingconversations.com/wp/2009/09/11/reading-pleasures-and-conversation-starters/
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Conversation Tip #4: Ask Questions and Take Turns
Why state the obvious? Why take turns asking questions? Why ask follow up questions?
Common sense and social skills don’t seem to be universal. Conversation skills remain a vital soft skill that many scientists, engineers, shy people, and English language learners struggle to master. A key technique is just asking simple questions to keep a conversation moving forward.
Asking follow up questions can provide clarity and allow our conversation partners to elaborate on details. English teachers, especially when reviewing fluency skills, can introduce common phrases to help ESL and EFL students improve their fluency. Use these simple phrases to go beyond hello and create better conversations.
And?
So?
Where?
When?
How?
Why?
Meaning?
You can also encourage your conversation partner with simple phrases.
Go on!
Tell me more!
Sounds interesting.
Smiling and nodding your head also indicate interest and encourage your conversation partner. Yet asking follow up questions and turn taking remain key elements of a natural, satisfying conversation. Everyone in a conversation should both be and feel included, and asking questions remains essential in both superficial and deep conversations. English teachers can gently remind their ESL students of this technique as part of fluency.
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Making Accurate, Sound Comparisions in ESL/EFL Conversation Classes
ESL teachers, especially working with oral skills and pronunciation, face a difficult task. Is there a single, correct form of English that should be taught? Should all English speakers sound like Americans or British? What if EFL students plan to study in Australia or Canada? The question is far more complicated than many English pronunciation instructors admit.
How do you say that again? Which is correct? What is a sound comparison?
English teachers and linguists might also find website www.soundcomparisions.com worth a visit. Focusing on the many different dialects of English across the world, it implicitly challenges the notion of a “correct” or “accurate” pronunciation of English. The sound files come from
Of course, context matters. If international students plan to study at an American university, it behooves them to listen to North American dialects – and make sure that their pronunciation is clear and comprehensible to American listeners. If they hope to attend a Scottish university, students might want to try out that accent as the target sound. Being audience focused, after all, is part of effective communication and good manners.
That is also why I focus less on “correct” pronunciation if I can understand the students and friends. I certainly note the gap between what I heard and standard American pronunciation when giving feedback, but I try to avoid using judgmental words like “wrong” if the word is comprehensible. This issue, as one would expect, often comes up with Indian speakers of English with their fast tempo and sometimes sing-song patterns. Perspectives differ, but I prefer to focus on comprehensibility.
Among international friends and if asked, I will also gladly observe the standard “American” pronunciation and repeat what I heard. Yet focusing, perhaps even obsessing, on “correct” pronunciation can often block English language learners from communicating ideas and being themselves in English. Let’s keep the focus on comprehensibility and ideas – and remember the wide, wonderful world of English accents!
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
What is Your American Dream?
What is your American Dream? This remains one of my favorite questions to ask new immigrants and American citizens.
I asked that question, followed by, “why” in a regular column for Easy English Times this month. I gave the last words to Toni Morrison, the Nobel-Prize winning author. “The function of freedom is to free somebody else.”
Easy English Times, published in California, ran an ESL conversation activity that concluded with that question, is a monthly newspaper written in simple English for these immigrants and future citizens. My co-author Toni Aberson and I have contributed a monthly column called “Instant Activity: Conversation” for the last 16 months. The editor adapts materials from our book Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics for beginning and intermediate students.
While the Easy English Times website remains a work in progress, it contains a number of fine features for English teachers and tutors in adult education programs, including literacy and ESL. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t include a summary of the previous Conversation Activity columns yet).
You can check out the collection of free crossword puzzles and reading comprehension activities for each back issue of Easy English Times:
http://www.easyenglishtimes.com/monthly.html
The Easy English Times editors have also put together a solid EET recommends list of selective ESL resources (including Compelling Conversations):
http://www.easyenglishtimes.com/links.html
While Easy English Times remains relatively unknown outside California, the paper has earned an excellent reputation among CATESOL members, many California adult learners, and literacy instructors nationwide. (The editor and publisher of Easy English Times always give popular workshops at CATESOL regional and state conferences.)
Finally, subscription is $10 per year for each student per classroom inside the United States, and $15 per year for international English language learning students. Details here:
https://easyengl.securesites.com/subscribe.html?Category=newspapers
This thin, quality newspaper focuses on a vital niche in the newspaper world: America’s often overlooked and sometimes demonized new immigrants and adult education students. I’m proud to have been working with Easy English Times for over a year. Check it out!
Ask more. Know more. Share more. Speak more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Where Do English Language Learners Live in the U.S.A?
Sometimes a picture, or in this case, an interactive map is worth a thousand words.
The United States continues to attract more legal immigrants and refugees each year than any other nation in the world. We also have an estimated 10 million immigrants who have crossed the borders without waiting for their official invitations. People travel thousands of miles to start new lives here, and join the long history of our immigrant nation built on ideas rather than bloodlines. Each immigrant has an idea, a hope, and a dream of what their life could become somewhere in our vast nation.
Where are immigrants building their new lives? You might be surprised. The consequences for our public school are quite significant with dramatic increases in the need for English as a Second Language (ESL) – or third or fourth – language classes for both adults and children.
Check out this New York Times’ Interactive Map of English Language Learners across the United States that documents their growth since 1996 – and the side chart on the continuing achievement gap. Personally, I was surprised by the depth and width of new immigrants across the United States, including such places as Indiana and North Carolina.
New to English: New York Times' Interactive Map
Ask more. Know more. Share more. Speak more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com Compelling Conversations
