Listen to the conversation. Then practice with a partner

The topic for this blog was taken from a commercially-produced textbook called Talk Time: Everyday English Conversation –Student Book 2 by Susan Stempleski (2007) published by the Oxford University Press. Talk Time series contains 3 books beginning from false beginner to low intermediate level learners of English and it comes with a pack of teacher’s book, student book with CD, and a test-booklet with CD.

The description that appears on the back cover of Talk Time suggests that every lesson builds confidence, starting with vocabulary presentation and gradually building up to free-speaking practice. However, a careful scrutiny of the book indicates that all the scripted conversations included in the book as well in the CD provided with book are not contextualized. For example, the first conversation (p. 2) which is based on meeting people for the first time (the conversation takes place between a boy and a girl) just starts with no information as to when, where, and why the boy and the girl want to introduce to each other. In other words, the context in which this conversation occurs cannot be figured out even by the teacher who may tend to use this textbook with a group of EFL learners. Therefore, my personal opinion is that such textbooks are not appropriate to be used as class texts in FEL classrooms because of the reasons stated below:

(Extracted form Talk Time: Everyday Conversation by Susan Stempleski (2007) p. 2)

1.      The purpose of the communication is not clear.

2.      The role-relationship between the speakers is not stated.

3.      The context in which it occurs in not explained.

Due to lack of the features mentioned above, an EFL learner may find it hard to appropriate such conversations to their real-world where they find real people speak to fulfill their communicative purposes.

Given the issues in teaching oral English to learners, from my point of view, I think that EFL teachers should be knowledgeable and skilled enough to teach their students some basic functions such as introducing oneself, introducing someone, doing shopping, asking for directions and so on in the class without sticking to any scripted conversations found in commercially-produced English textbooks because the language written in books are mostly book language and they are not spoken language. Getting learners to practice those carefully scripted conversations cannot be thought as useful activity because it is unlikely that learners will get opportunities to use scripted conversation in their real-world situations. Therefore, EFL teachers should not pursue their learners to rote-memorize such scripted conversations instead they should begin to think of producing their materials which are suitable for their own learners because it is the teachers who know better what their learners linguistic needs than the commercial textbook writers who compose materials for no target group.  

Watch the video below and see how learners use scripted conversations in the classroom.

Students practice a scripted conversation from a commercially-produced English textbook

The role of interpersonal communication

Interpersonal interaction is regarded as a fundamental requirement of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Researchers have asserted that language instruction requires the development of interactional competence and interaction is the key to language teaching for communication (Kramsch, 1986; Ellis, 1988). The interactionist perspectives in SLA place considerable attention on the role of interaction in general, and meaning negotiation in particular, with respect to the conditions considered theoretically important for SLA. In particular, Pica (1994) claims that meaning negotiation, as a particular way of modifying interaction, can accomplish a great deal for SLA by helping learners make input comprehensible and modifying their own output, and by providing opportunities for them to access second language form and meaning. In other words, when a proficient speaker is engaged in oral communication with a non-proficient speaker, a proficient speaker asks questions from the non-proficient speaker to see if he/she understood the message (comprehension checks), if the non-proficient speaker has not understood the message or finds difficulty in understanding, he/she can request the proficient speaker to clarify the message (clarification requests). In most cases, the proficient speaker repeats the message for the learner either partially or completely (self-repetitions).

      Students are not passive recipients of the instructors’ knowledge rather, they take an active part in their learning. In highlighting the active participation of learners, Poorman (2002) observes that true learning cannot take place when students are passive observers of the teaching process. Making learners interact in the class by using pair or group work not only helps learners acquire language skills but also it helps learners become empathetic and understandable of different socio-cultural and religious values so that making learners of different race and religions can help reduce racial prejudice (McGregor, 1993). The idea of reducing racial prejudice has become very important and relevant to my teaching context because in my classes I find Muslim students who come from three provinces in the Southern part of Thailand (Yala, Patani, and Naratiwas) where there has been an ongoing ethnic conflict between Malay Muslim insurgents and the Thai government for the past few years. International Crisis Group (2010) reports the aforesaid conflict as follows:

The conflict in the Deep South remains on the margins of Thai politics and

unresolved. A paradigm shift is needed to acknowledge that assimilation of

Malay Muslims has failed and that recognition of their distinct ethnoreligious

identity is essential.

(Stalemate in Southern Thailand, Asia Briefing N°113 3 Nov 2010.

(http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-east-asia/thailand/B113)

Please watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gKXCZgFUEM&feature=youtube_gdata to see how learners of different religions do a role-playing activity in the class.