Compelling Conversations

In this blog Eric Roth, a longtime English teacher, university lecturer, and co-author of Compelling Conversations:Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics, shares tips on teaching conversation classes, giving oral presentations, book reviews,  conversation starters, language politics, and news of interest to ESL/EFL teachers, tutors, and administrators.





Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom

A project of the Internet TESL Journal, this site provides hundreds of questions, sorted by topic, that can be used at all levels of instruction. There is also a Teacher's Guide suggesting ways to use them in the classroom.


Teaching Pronunciation
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Thanks to Linda Grant for directing us to this comprehensive, detailed, illustrated online booklet on how to teach the melody of speech. Written by Judy B. Gilbert, author of the highly successful and innovative pronunciation text Clear Speech, this basic primer is a "must read" for anyone interested in becoming more efficient at teaching pronunciation. It defines and explains the most important elements of pronunciation and provides various teaching strategies and techniques.

Learn how to use a kazoo to help students focus on pitch patterns!


Innovative Uses of Digital Technology for Teaching Oral Skills

Kristi Reyes, ESL Instructor at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, CA, shares her PowerPoint slides from the TESOL 2009 Convention. She provides information about video sharing sites, slideshow sharing, blogs, wikis, podcasting, voice thread, and glogster. Her website offers an array of examples of her use of various Web 2.0 technologies.





Some Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation

David F. Dalton writes in the Internet TESL Journal: "There is...a tendency for us to focus on production as the main problem affecting our learners. Most research however, shows clearly that the problem is more likely to be reception - what you don't hear, you can't say. Given this reality, it would seem logical to place a heavy emphasis on listening (reception) as a way into releasing appropriate pronunciation (production)."

He goes on to discuss the usefulness of contrastive analysis and offers some classroom exercises. He concludes: "Such activities should be an integral part of any language teaching programme as they make pronunciation an active element of the learning process and focus learners on the language they are producing."


Developing Oral Skills for a Changing World: the potential of Open Space facilitation

For those looking for innovative ways to jumpstart oral communication among higher education students, this "case study" offers an intriguing method which may be suitable for some ESL classes.

The author of the study describes an attempt to adapt the facilitation technique known in the business world as "Open Space" to higher education.

Focusing on topics which are characterized by complex issues, a diversity of participants and high levels of conflict, this methodology offers the potential for all students to gain skills in co-operative and respectful oral interaction, something that is becoming increasingly important in addressing the overarching issues of the 21st century.


How to Teach Pronunciation

This site maintained by Susan Ryan, who teaches American English pronunciation and accent reduction in Washington DC, includes her Confident Voice blog with frequent posts about various aspects of teaching pronunciation. It also provides links to other useful sites.