Effective Techniques For English Conversation Groups [antikvár]

FOREWORDThe conversation class has long been the stepchild in programs of English for non-native speakers. Students invariably request such an activity, and so a class is hastily and haphazardly scheduled and assigned to the most willing member of the staff who, more often than not, is also the least experienced. Despite the expenditure of much energy and enthusiasm by all concerned, the conversation class just doesn't come off; it doesn't achieve its objective. The learners, even those at fairly advanced levels, simply do not converse spontaneously.Many reasons have been advanced for this failure to bridge the gap, to progress from classroom exercises to real communication. This is not the place to review the arguments for and against particular pedagogical theories. More important than placing the blame, it seems to me, is to suggest a remedy. Recent studies of language acquisition have uncovered the fact that hypothesis testingwhat we used to call trial and erroris an essential ingredient of the language learning process. This suggests that we must provide our students with opportunities to use their knowledge of the target language, however scanty, in creative ways, from the very beginning of their study.Our textbooks have not yet caught up with this new knowledge. Until they do, teachers will have to look in other places for help in planning ways to motivate their students to use language creatively. Julia Dobson has done the profession a great service by gathering the ideas and practices of many of our most talented teachers of English, together with her own original material, to form this well-organized synthesis which will serve as a ready reference for the leader of the conversation group, or for the forward-looking teacher who wishes to introduce some conversation into the daily lesson. Her chief assignment during ten years as a TEFLer in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America has been to find better ways of getting the job done. This manual is evidence of her enthusiastic and diligent accomplishment of that task. It will be welcomed not only by the untrained volunteer but also by the professional teacher of English as a second or foreign language.1Jean Praninskas