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Ресурсы английского языка для Преподавателей и Учащихся

Wordmaster Topics (1) : Talk in Class

 Encouraging English Learners to Talk in Class, Part 1 and 2

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June 19, 2003 - Encouraging English Learners to Talk in Class, Part 1
Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 19, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- encouraging English learners to talk in class.

RS: We asked English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles how she gets conversation started among her students. The most important thing, she says, is that students must feel comfortable enough to talk.
   
BAKER: " ... where it's OK for them to take the risk of making a mistake, and nobody's going to laugh at them and nobody is going to criticize them. So the first thing that the teacher needs to do, from the very first day of the term, is to try to create a classroom atmosphere where students feel relaxed and unthreatened. And the way to do that, of course, is to give students lots of praise and lots of rewards for the efforts that they make, to not view errors in language as evidence that the student is lazy or stupid. The first and most important thing in getting students to talk is the atmosphere that the teacher is able to establish in the classroom."

RS: "And then, from there, you have to have something to talk about."

BAKER: "Yeah. And it's definitely helpful if what the students are given to talk about is interesting. It should be appropriate to their age level, their level in school, what they're interested in, what is relevant to them. You know, what's the most important thing to kids in the sixth or seventh or eighth grade?"

AA: "The opposite gender. (laughter)"

BAKER: "Yeah, and their friends. A smart teacher is going to capitalize on the things that are important to her students and bring those into the classroom as topics for discussion. So students have to have something interesting to talk about. Now, beyond that, they have to have the tools for talking about that interesting topic. They have to have the vocabulary, they have to have the grammar. OK, for example, if they're talking about things they like to do in their free time, they have to know how to talk about the things they like. They need the language for saying 'I like,' 'I enjoy,' 'it's fun' -- you know, expressions of that sort, what we call functional language."

RS: "Lida, let me ask you a question right here: What would be a good ice-breaker -- you walk into school on the first day, it's a conversation class, and nobody is talking."

AA: "Nobody is conversing. What would you do to start a conversation?"

BAKER: "Well, there are lots of techniques that you can use. Let me just tell you one activity that I like to use a lot. It's called 'find someone who....' This is one of the classics of the English language classroom. You make up a list of items pertaining to the students in the class, and then the students have to get up and mix around and find someone who matches each item on the list. So let me give you some examples: Find someone who has more than ten dollars in their wallet. Find someone who has an international driver's license. Find someone who didn't eat breakfast this morning. Find someone who has flown in a helicopter."

RS: "So they have to ask questions."

BAKER: "Right! And there are several advantages to an activity like this. First of all, well, from a teacher's point of view, you can modify it and use it at any level, from zero all the way up to the most proficient, any age group. It's a very flexible activity from the teacher's point of view. From the student's point of view, it has the advantage of the fact that everybody is standing up and moving around.

"Movement -- if students are not restrained to having to sit in their seats, they're going to naturally loosen up. Something about sitting in seats, especially if they're being required to sit in rows, is very intimidating, is very classroom-like. So if you can design an activity that doesn't have that aura of 'classroom,' the regimentation, then the students are going to be more comfortable about doing it. In this 'find someone who...' activity, they're up and out of their seats, they're moving, which naturally helps them to relax. They have the opportunity to communicate with one another, but it's a very unexposed kind of activity. Nobody has to speak in front of the whole group, you see."

RS: "It's informal."

BAKER: "They're talking one-on-one. It's informal, exactly. So the activity is finite, it has a purpose, it's fun, the students are up and moving around, and it's non-threatening. And, it helps them to learn each other's names. Because when they find someone who has flown in a helicopter, what they have to do on their handout is write the name of the person that has done that."

AA: Lida Baker writes English textbooks, when she's not teaching her own students in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. Next time she'll talk about how to get shy students to speak up.

RS: And that's all for Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

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June 26, 2003 - Encouraging English Learners to Talk in Class, Part 2

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 26, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we chat again with English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles about how to encourage English learners to speak up in class.

RS: This week Lida focuses on very shy students. This is one of the techniques she uses to engage those who are especially reluctant to say anything in class:

   
(VOA Photo - Bela Skopal)    
BAKER: "Probably the best activity for getting the students to talk is a paired activity or a small group activity where each person in the group has a different set of information and the students have to talk to each other, asking questions, to get the information that the other people have.

"So let's say, for instance, that we have three students. They have to work together to fill out a calendar of, let's say, their teacher's weekly schedule. So each of them has a calendar and certain activities are filled in. But the activities that are filled in are different for each of the three people in the group. So what they then have to do is ask each other something like, 'What is Miss Baker doing Friday at 3 p.m.?' Maybe Student A has that information, but Student A doesn't have the information on what Miss Baker is doing on Tuesday at 9 p.m., and so that student has to ask the other students in the group to fill in or provide that information."

RS: "So they're talking and getting the information at the same time."

BAKER: "Right. Now it feels like a game, but in fact what's happening in that activity [is this]: The students have to interact with one another. It's inherently built into the activity that they have to ask questions and provide each other with information, you see. So that is one of the best activities for getting students to talk."

AA: "You have another example?"

BAKER: "Oh, many more! Role plays are wonderful for getting students to talk, where you tell the students, let's see, you're in a bank, and you have gone into the bank to get some cash. And when the bank clerk gives you the cash that you asked for, you count it and you notice that she has given you ten dollars less than you asked for. Role play -- act out -- the scene in which you point out the error to the clerk, and try to resolve this situation."

RS: Now that's an activity she uses for small groups. When she's working with her whole class, and it's time for students to answer questions, Lida Baker uses a deck of index cards.

AA: Each card has a student's name written on it. She shuffles the deck, then pulls out one card after another.

BAKER: "I want to make sure that everybody in the class gets the opportunity to speak, and I also want to prevent what happens so often that students who are not shy call out or shout out the answers and drown out everybody else."

AA: "So you're calling on one person at a time."

RS: "It's a crowd-control kind of thing."

BAKER: "I call on the students -- when I take out that deck of cards, and I hold it up, and the students know it's card time, what that means is that this is not a time when you're allowed to shout out answers. You have to wait to be called on. But students have the option, if they don't want to answer the question or for whatever reason they don't want to respond, they're always allowed to pass. And I teach them the word 'pass,' and this is what makes the activity safe, that they know that they have the opportunity to be silent, if that's their choice. So it gives them a measure of control, you see, and that's why the activity is successful."

AA: "And then you have to come up with some other activity to draw out the ones who keep passing, right?"

BAKER: "That doesn't happen, because another technique that a smart teacher uses when you have people that are reticent to talk is that you -- first of all, the students don't see the names on those cards. So if an easy question comes up and I know that Jorge in the corner is feeling uncomfortable about talking in class, I might pretend that it's Jorge's name on the card -- "

RS: "Sneaky."

BAKER: " -- and give that easy question to Jorge, because I know --

RS: "He can answer it."

BAKER: " -- that he's going to get it right. So I want to -- again, it's all about creating opportunities for students to succeed."

AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, and she also writes textbooks for English learners.

RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Don't be shy about writing us! Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

MUSIC: "He's So Shy"/Pointer Sisters 1980 

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