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Coming Soon: An eBook of essentials from Compelling Conversations – Japan!
“No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly…and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.”
—Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973-1014), Japanese author, The Tale of Genji
Same book, new look!
Teachers and tutors of English: do you currently work with Japanese English language learners? Are you looking for engaging, fresh EFL conversation activities to guide your English students toward greater fluency?
We are pleased to announce the release of Compelling Conversations – Japan: Essential Speaking Activities and Popular Excerpts for High-Intermediate Japanese English Language Learners. An abridged edition of our culturally-specific 2015 conversation book, Essential Speaking Activities streamlines the communicative techniques used in prior Compelling Conversations books and provides easier access to new readers.
Redesigned with learners in mind
Organized within 12 thematic chapters, this revised text helps Japanese ELLs describe their lives, share experiences, and develop critical thinking skills in context. Great for small conversation classes and private tutoring, Essential Speaking Activities highlights six fundamental classroom exercises per chapter to promote authentic conversation.
- Sharing Experiences – A set of 15 topical pair conversation questions that introduce each chapter.
- Photographs to Start Conversations – A small group activity centered around visual analysis and discussion.
- Paraphrasing Proverbs – Deepen critical thinking and build paraphrasing skills using sets of proverbs from all over the world.
- Pronunciation Practice – Improve English pronunciation by focusing on common problem areas unique to Japanese learners of English.
- Discussing Quotations – Students form and express opinions by evaluating famous English quotations from a variety of cultural and political figures.
- Search and Share – Students learn to summarize and synthesize information with this topical, research-based internet activity.
Moving forward
Speaking fluent English is becoming increasingly important across Asia, including Japan. Therefore, while I confess myself surprised at the original textbook’s currently limited reach, I remain optimistic. Our book helps Japanese English language learners create authentic, positive experiences in our difficult, strange tongue. Perhaps this abbreviated collection will introduce new readers and inspire more compelling conversations.
Compelling Conversations – Japan: Essential Speaking Activities and Popular Excerpts for High-Intermediate Japanese English Language Learners will be released through Amazon this month. Stay tuned for further updates!
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Chimayo Press (www.ChimayoPress.com) is a Los Angeles-based publisher of niche books that create compelling conversations, deepen relationships, and celebrate the human spirit. The original Compelling Conversations ESL series has found audiences across the world in over 50 countries and established a niche for English teachers, online tutors, and conversational clubs.
Worksheet: Express Opinions and Improve Critical Thinking with Consumer Product Reviews
“A man’s most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.”
— Euripides (485-406 B.C.E.), ancient Greek playwright
Why use consumer product reviews as a teaching tool? How does this exercise benefit English language learners? Which skillsets are strengthened as a result?
The giving and receiving of gifts has become a central feature of Christmas, Hanukkah, winter solstice and New Year celebrations. We live – for worse or for better – in a consumer age, and English language learners around the world share in this winter shopping spree. Product reviews allow them to talk about their gift selections and holiday gifts. Plus, being a savvy consumer remains a critical adult life skill.
“You are what you have”
Teaching high school students possess many challenges, beginning with capturing and holding their interest. Personally, I have found teaching slightly older undergraduate students far more satisfying – and far easier. However, thanks to this practical exercise, I have had considerable success in university writing programs, college ESL programs, and even short term IEP summer programs. Product reviews have always been a hit!
Many ESL students, especially young, wealthy college students have also – literally – bought into the odd belief that “you are what you have”. Therefore, these experienced consumers often love to share their “insights” about consumer products; it speaks to their lifestyles, passions, and curiosity. Between Amazon reviews and the advent of apps like Yelp, it’s also never been easier for students to share their experiences and perceptions with authentic audiences beyond the English classroom.
As an ESL teacher, I use consumer product reviews to identify critical thinking skills and teach the difference between fact and opinion. The assignment lends itself to reviewing key concepts like “details matter” and “numbers add precision” while introducing hedging language. You can also review the grammar of comparatives and superlatives. Of course, engaging student interests also leads to better classroom discussions and more use of authentic language.
Try it out!
Here is both my short assignment sheet and a product review worksheet for ESL students.
Giving a Product Review
You have probably bought thousands of items as a consumer – and likely considered thousands more. You can’t buy everything, selecting only the products that best fit you and your lifestyle.
Choose a single product and prepare to give a brief product review. Your product review should include:
- a description of the product
- the way the product is used
- the cost of the product
- a comparison with other, similar products
- a recommendation to buy or not buy the product
- a reason for your recommendation
- a rating on a scale of 1-5
Product Review Worksheet
PRODUCT:
PURPOSE:
AUDIENCE:
USE:
COST:
COMPETITORS:
RECOMMENDATION:
REASON:
RATING:
Additional tips
You can also design a very simple presentation form so everyone can provide peer feedback. This way, students receive written feedback on their product reviews from both you (the teacher) and their classmates. If possible, I also suggest videotaping the student reviews and posting them on a class website for both self and peer reviews.
Finally, I also encourage students to visit Consumer Reports and other websites to collect product information for reviews– and consider submitting their own on Amazon listings of their favorite products. Seeing their reviews circulated online or in print – in English – often gives students additional motivation to give a quality consumer review!
Do you let your English students write and deliver product reviews in class? How has it impacted their critical thinking skills? Which products had the best reviews? Worst? Share with us!
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Worksheet: Reviewing TED Talks to Create Compelling Conversations
“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”
—Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), American entrepreneur and publisher
How can you encourage your advanced ESL students to develop their speaking skills and tap into their interest in our rapidly changing world? By creating compelling classroom assignments that respect their intelligence, engage their curiosity, and model great speaking skills. Adding a homework assignment that requires ESL students to go the “ideas worth sharing” website at TED.com accomplishes all these goals.
Ideas worth sharing
For several years now, I have asked both college and international graduate students in my advanced oral skills classes to select a short video from the site, watch it, and prepare to share their impressions in class. The more they explore the variety of available lecture topics, the more engaged they become. Often students will watch several TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) videos before choosing a favorite. Since many of the students’ English language skills are constantly evolving, they just take notes.
The next day, students discuss the video that they selected in small groups of four. Afterwards, I ask for “brave volunteers” to share their impressions – i.e., review – with the class. Usually everyone wants to present so we extend the lesson to a second class where I sometimes videotape the presentations.
These class sessions are always illuminating, engaging, and surprising as I learn more about students, their interests, our evolving world, and their English language speaking skills. This democratic speaking skills activity creates an atmosphere where “everybody is a student, and everybody is a teacher.” Result: the entire class creates compelling classroom conversations!
Try it out!
As the old American cereal commercial used to say, “try it – you’ll like it” – at least with more advanced English students. Let your students be hunters, gathers, and presenters of new information to their classmates!
For ESL teachers who want a more formal assignment, you can also use this more detailed worksheet.
TED Worksheet #1
Find a short video on a topic of particular interest to you. Although lectures can be seen as a one-way conversation, the best TED talks show us how to share specialized information in a comfortable, effective, and friendly manner. You will probably want to watch and listen to the talk two times before answering these questions. Finally, be prepared to review the TED talk for your classmates in a series of one to one online conversations. Please answer the following questions to start preparing your review:
1. What is the title of the talk?
2. Who is the speaker? What is the speaker’s background?
3. Where and when was the TED talk given?
4. How did the speaker begin the presentation?
5. What is the theme of the talk?
6. Does it match the title? How?
7. What was a memorable part of this TED talk? What made it memorable?
8. How did the speaker connect to his audience? (Humor, visual aids, etc)
9. What did the speaker want to accomplish? Do you think the speaker achieved their goals?
10. Did the speaker convince you? Why?
11. Why did you choose this TED talk?
12. How would you rate this TED talk on a scale of 1-5? Why?
Check out our follow-up worksheet, Deconstructing a TED Talk, for further discussion. You can also find other worksheets and assorted supplementary classroom materials here!
Have you begun using TED Talks in your English classroom yet? What are some of your favorite video lectures from the site? Which ones did your students find the most interesting?
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Sharing is Caring: Substituting Connectivity for Communication
“Technology is a word that describes something that doesn’t work yet.”
–Douglas Adams (1952-2001), English author and satirist
Is the cult of oversharing online preventing us from establishing genuine connections? Do we expect more from our phones than our neighbors? Is this natural or healthy?
“I share, therefore I am”
Many believe relying on instant messaging to maintain relationships is a crutch at best – but one that affords us an intoxicating degree of control over our relationships. As esteemed MIT professor and psychologist Sherry Turkle explains in a classic 2012 TED Talk titled “Connected, but Alone?” social networking is human connection on ideal terms: just within reach, but not too close. Dubbed “The Goldilocks Effect,” we crave connection over conversation because it’s safer to maintain “the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.”
However, these heavily-edited exchanges often prevent us from establishing the level of connection that we crave; try as we might, instant messaging can’t convey the nuance of real conversation. Things like eye contact, body language and tone of voice are often lost in translation, and in turn our messages become watered-down – easier to digest but lacking substance. For, as Turkle says, “it’s when we stumble, or hesitate, or lose our words that we reveal ourselves to each other.” The more we depend on our devices to facilitate friendships, the less human our interactions become.
Social Solutions
We spend so much time using technology to manage our relationships that it invariably inevitably manages us. Luckily however, Turkle emphasizes in her hugely popular TED Talk that a healthier relationship with technology – and ourselves – is possible.
How? To quote a popular English-language saying – and ancient Greek proverb – “everything in moderation.” We can start by creating more conversation-friendly spaces around us, and by taking opportunities throughout the day to unplug. Make the family dinner table a tech-free zone. Take solitary walks during breaks in your schedule. Grab coffee with friends and coworkers. Turkle continues this theme in her book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age (a highly-recommended read).
When we set aside time and space in our lives for real, compelling conversation, we create stronger and more authentic connections. For teachers of English like myself, that starts in the classroom – and continues in student-professor conferences. When we ask more, we know more, and when we know more, we share more. By promoting a more communicative, fluency-focused curriculum, we train not only skilled English speakers, but confident conversationalists.
Where do you have your most compelling conversations – over the phone, online or in person? How do you maintain healthy relationships with your friends, students and neighbors?
For more on creating a conversation-friendly classroom, check out these previous posts: 1, 2.
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Teaching Matters: Correcting Error in the Classroom
“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”
-Socrates (c. 470-399 BCE), Ancient Greek philosopher
What are “good mistakes?” How can we – as teachers of English – encourage students to make more of them? When can we use error as an opportunity to increase students’ confidence in their speech?
Recently, we’ve stumbled onto an excellent resource titled You, The Super Teacher: How-to Guides, Lesson Ideas, Print and Go Activities and More. Available from the online, teacher-centric resource library BusyTeacher.org, You, The Super Teacher offers many pieces of practical advice for teachers of English as a foreign or second language.
One of our favorite segments, “Being Wrong is the Best Thing: 8 Methods for Error Correction,” highlights several strategies English teachers can use to create an atmosphere where students “learn by doing.” Here are my favorite talking points/suggestions.
“It’s not a mistake…it’s a learning opportunity.”
Fluency “is so closely tied to confidence” for learners of English – or anyone studying a second or foreign language for that matter. Far too many ESL students, especially in countries that heavily rely on – and sometimes worship – standardized exams, are reluctant in experimenting with English. That said, when addressing error in the classroom you may find that singling out individual students increases this aversion to participating and prevent others from speaking up.
Instead, as Super Teacher recommends, use individual error as a class-wide teaching opportunity. This approach not only promotes topical discussion in-class, but can also be used as an impromptu listening/speaking combination activity. Summarize ‘good mistakes’ after the discussion in a general grammar review. You can return to previously overlooked, almost inevitable errors such as article errors and countable/uncountable in a general wrap up. Gently remind students that words like ‘homework’, ‘advice’, ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ remain uncountable.
“Ask, Don’t Tell”
As I’ve mentioned many times, my personal educational philosophy has been that the more you ask, the more you know, and the more you know, the more you share.
Likewise, when pointing out speaking mistakes it’s often better to frame the correction as a question. The article recommends repeating the error back to the student, changing your inflection to indicate an ask. The student, by retracing their steps, self-corrects and is less likely to make the same mistake again. This technique can often work. If the student makes several mistakes at once, address each according to priority.
That said, it is crucial to let the student finish speaking FIRST. Correcting an in-progress speech may decrease confidence and make way for further error.
Blame the sentence, not the student
Similar to using “I feel” statements when addressing conflict, placing blame is best avoided by using passive voice. For example, “The sentence was missing a particle” is a much gentler critique than “You missed a particle.” It allows students to reflect on the issue without feeling at fault.
Remember, communication matters more than grammar. Keeping focused on the clear meaning of the student’s statement can also mean temporarily overlooking a minor error like confusing “much” and “many,” or a wrong article use. Meaning matters most. Keep the discussion or conversation moving forward.
How do you address grammatical errors in the English classroom? Which methods have had the most positive response from your students? Let us know!
Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
