Conversations in Class

Week 5: Update on Conversation in Class -- weeks 7/8/9

2008-06-13T14:25:00.003+09:00

William Perry teaches oral communication at Kobe University, using CiC and the Immediate Method. He was kind enough to write down what he has been doing recently and to send it to us, together with the documents he used in class. Thanks a lot, Bill!
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Update on Conversation in Class -- weeks 7/8/9

I have finished the second round of conversation tests and will be doing two more by the end of the semester.

I wanted to let you know about the written conversation test that I gave my classes (attached Word file). I thought I could give the students a chance to show their conversation skills in writing once during the semester. They were to use the Golden Rules in answering the questions in a conversational style. There was also a vocabulary test in the form of a crossword puzzle (also attached). It took the students a little bit more than 30 minutes to complete the two tests and it took about an hour for me to correct the tests from one class. I think it was worth the time to do this kind of a test. The students in some classes had trouble with Golden Rule 2 -- I wrote "more" after each minimal exchange. In response to the question "Could you tell me a bit about your family?", some wrote "Yes" and that was all. "Do you like sports?" "Yes." It gave me yet another chance to emphasize the importance of long, rich answers. I think they got the point because when we did the next activity, they said a lot!

The grades for the semester will be based on 4 conversation tests (each worth 20 points), one written test (10 points) and a book-check (10 points) to make sure they have done all of the exercises from the units we have covered and have checked them with the answers on my website. The book-check 10 points also include attendance and participation.

The second test was so much better than the first one. I worked with my 40+ classes in groups of 3 this time and told them that they only had to come for their tests (10 minutes of class time). Of course they all had to practice, so nearly all of the students came on the two test days. The room was quieter, so I had no trouble hearing the students in the test, and using groups of 3 gave them a better chance to perform autonomously. Nearly everyone went up a point (14 to 15) and some went up two points. Clear leadership roles emerged, too, because they had to direct the conversation. If things got quiet, if I was interested in adding something or if I could tell that it was memorized stuff, I intervened. I didn't have to do it very often, though. We just finished preparing for 4a/4b and 5a/5b tests. They will have to be ready to do either topic -- a coin toss will decide. To prepare for these topics, we did interview practice on part-time jobs and schedules (each student had to do detailed interviews of four other students (applying GR #2). The first interview was set by same color, same number playing cards and then they could choose the other 3. Everything had to be done in English and written down. The activity worked well and certainly prepared them for the conversation test. We did information-gap drawing of people wearing different kinds of clothes and in different poses to prepare for 5a/5b. They used lots of expressions related to what people were wearing and seemed to have a lot of fun. I also gave them time in groups to practice the structures from 5a/5b.

Finally, for the last conversation test, they will work with the same group of three, again for 10 minutes. They can choose any two lessons that we haven't covered in class for the last test. They have to tell me a week ahead of time at the preparation session. Should be fun.
Bill

Link:
Mid-term%20written%20conv.doc
crossword-family.tiff
crossword-family_solution.tiff

Week 4: Teacher interview - David Latz

2008-05-30T15:27:00.003+09:00

David Latz started using CiC last year, at Shimonoseki University near Fukuoka. We had a late night interview, using the instant message function of Skype. I would be really happy to interview others about their teaching experiences, so if you are interested please e-mail me: brunovannieu at yahoo.com, and we’ll set up an online meeting.
As for the format of this blog, Stephen and I are thinking that we should alternate between teacher interviews such as this one, and shorter texts about how a given lesson was used practically in class. This way we can offer a much broader scope and many different perspectives.

David and I covered the following topics in this week’s talk:
- What’s new compared with the first year using CiC?
- How do you go about introducing the new material?
- Class timeline.
- Other activities.
- Pair practice and test management.

Bruno Vannieu
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The interview is here in PDF format, so that you can print it out and read it on the train or in your spare moments. Please scribble any thoughts or comments in the margins and let us know what you think!
You can also find here a Word file with a template for the “conversation loop” activity David has been using recently (idea taken from “Multiple Intelligences in EFL”, Puchta, H. and Rinvolucri, M., Cambridge University Press (2005), p. 94 'Interactive loops for groups').
CiC%20blog%204-%20PDF-2.pdf
conversation%20loop%20template.doc

Week 3: Effective pair practic

2008-05-23T10:48:00.003+09:00

Bruno: It's already almost the end of May! How are your classes going,
Stephen?

Stephen: Six weeks into term and I've already covered a quarter of the
material in the textbook with most of my first year classes. Of course,
there has been the disruption of the Golden Week holidays, but by now
most classes have settled into the Immediate Method really well. I still
quickly review the Three Golden Rules (Don't remain silent when asked a
question, Give long and rich answers, and Vary your speech) in most
classes, but the students have picked up on them enough to see how they
make classroom participation and conversation so much smoother. It's now
more a case of setting small tasks for them, such as 'use three
different patterns of speech – open questions, closed questions and
speaking in statements about yourself in today's pair practice'.

Of course, as the students become more accustomed to the method the time
which I usually spent explaining what do to has gradually dropped off,
and yet everyone still understands their role and goals for each class
clearly. The two halves of each class group, yellow and green,
understand that even if they are not being tested this week, the same
questions and topics will crop up the next week, so they need to know
it. Another important step that most students have passed is receiving a
high mark, for example, 9 out of 10, for a polished and natural
performance. Once a student realizes that all he has to do to get a
great mark is to practice seriously, his motivation begins to pick up.
As more and more of the students in each class realize this, the
atmosphere changes, and the positive mood towards practice and testing
picks up steam. I can definitely say that most of my students have much
more confidence in speaking English one-on-one with me now than they did
just a few weeks ago. It's an incredible change, and really makes
everything easier and easier for the teacher.

One thing that constantly stumps me is how to guide pair practice. I
want students to mix with as many different students as possible, but of
course most of them will talk to the same few partners every week. This
is fine, but I find that sometimes students, who are not being tested
and have finished practicing with their four different partners, tend to
start chatting loudly in Japanese. Students seem to practice more
seriously when I pair them with someone they don't usually talk with,
probably because they feel less inclined to chat when they are finished.
Has anyone else noticed this? I'm working on ways to rotate partners and
have students meeting new people every class, but it's a difficult
prospect.

One idea I came up with was to randomly group the students into 4s or 6s
(depending on class size) and have them practice with all other members
of their group in turn. This also saves them having to move around the
room once they are all seated together. Does anyone else have any ideas
on how to keep pair practice fresh?

Week 2: Looking back on the first class

2008-04-21T16:41:00.004+09:00

Bruno: Hi Stephen, how was the start of school for you?

Stephen: Well, I've just finished my first week of classes, and it was tiring to be back in the classroom after a few months. But the first class of every year is all about explaining how the class will work, and running students through a few important basics like the progress sheet and the first of the Golden Rules, so I find that I do more talking in front of the class in the first class than any other. From next week we'll be starting lots of intensive pair practice and weekly conversation tests, and after a few weeks students get the hang of how the class works and I will find myself speaking less and less, as the natural dynamics of the class take over.

Still, this year's students seem quite bright and ready, and once I showed them the Immediate Method video and explained the simple rules of the class (bring your Progress Sheet to every class, don't remain silent when you are asked a question, etc) they were keen to do some conversation practice. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to do anything more than 10-15 minutes of pair practice in most classes, and in some we didn't manage to do any. Something to look forward to next week, I suppose.

Bruno: How big are your classes?
Stephen: They are on average a lot larger than last year. I still have six classes of first-years, but while last year I had between 20 and 30 in each class (average of about 25) , this year every single class has either 30 or 31 students. It's a full house every single period, which means I'll see about 180 students per week. But I'm not really daunted by this anymore. The IM was designed to allow every student in large classes like this to practice and use English every single class. However, in order for every student to get the most out of the class, things have to run smoothly. This is why I find 'setting the scene' in the first class is so important. They have to know that the class will be a) quite different to anything they have done before, b) challenging and c) a lot of fun. But they also have to know what is required of them, and that is where showing the video and explaining the points of the method comes in.

In four out of the six classes I'm using the CiC textbook, but in the other two I'm trialling new material, which will be used in the new edition of CiC, coming out later this year. The most dramatic change in the new material is trying to integrate some of the basic metacommunication skills (asking for repetition, asking what a word or phrase means, or showing that you don't understand the question) into conversation practice.

It's difficult for students to do focused practice using these skills unless there is a concrete topic, so we used the topic of names: What is your (first, family, nick)name? and What does that mean? Students don't always know how to 'translate' their names into English, so they can practice using, immediately and without embarrassment, the phrases I don't know/I'm not sure and I don't understand (the question).

Bruno: How did it go?
Stephen: It went pretty well. Most students saw that by using these phrases, the conversation keeps flowing, and they can get on with what they wanted to say, rather than sitting in silence sheepishly looking at each other or reverting to Japanese.

Bruno: I also spent the first class speaking more than usual, to explain the Progress Sheet, how to do pair practice, and survival ”metacommunication” strategies. I am using “Conversation et Grammaire”, our most recent French conversation IM textbook. The first lessons are centered on What does YYY mean? and How do you say ZZZ in English / French?, without any “speak about each other” content. So I asked students to practice these two phrases in quiz style, stressing that they are the two most important elements of this whole year, and that I expect students to be able to use them in a real conversation setting (without having to think) from now on. They were doing this oral practice pretty seriously, maybe I am finding better and better words to tell them how important it is.

Any other practical tips?

Stephen: I came up with an idea to help organise testing. I gave half of the class Progress Sheets printed on yellow cardboard, while the other half received green Progress Sheets. Now we had two groups, (which I jokingly named 'himari-gumi' and 'konbu-gumi') and every student understood clearly which group was theirs. Each week, either the green or yellow group will be tested. The aim is to make it easier to give all students an equal number of possible tests, not counting the weeks they are absent. I think it will work well, because all the way through their schooling (from kindergarten up), Japanese students are familiar with the idea of groups (kumi).

Bruno: that's a good idea, I'll try it. Personally, I didn't prepare anything special as far as Progress Sheets are concerned. During the beginning of class 2, I am planning to circulate a test registration paper for that day and the following week (see last week's post: “Lesson plan for Week 1”). I will start testing half of each class every week, regardless of class size. Apart from smaller classes, I have 4 classes with over 30 students, culminating at 39.

For me, the challenges of week 2 are:
- to give students some content they will be able to use in their first conversation with me; I want that first conversation to bring them a feeling of accomplishment, even if it's very short (4 min. for two students is quite short);
- to get testing started without delay. I know I will have to start circulating the test registration paper about 10 minutes after the beginning of class, and go around urging students to decide quickly (they tend to agonize over big questions such as “Today or next week?” and “At the beginning, in the middle or at the end?”). To encourage enough of them to choose sitting for a test during week 2, I just tell them that since the program of tests is cumulative (“What we have studied until now”), today's test will naturally be easier than next week's.

A few things to keep in mind:
(1) whatever your method for organizing tests is, get started on that early in the class; (2) stop “teaching” early enough in the class to get to testing. If you have calculated that to test half of your class you need 40 minutes, then stop the first part of the class 45 minutes before the end time and get into testing, otherwise you will inevitably get late;
(3) Stick to the length you have decided. If it's 4 minutes per pair, be ready to tell students “OK, thank you, I'll see you next time” after 3'50”. Keep an eye on your watch. If you don't use a registration paper like me (on which precise times can be written in advance), then write down the start and finish times on a piece of paper as students are sitting down (for example, “10:17 – 10: 21”)
(4) Tell the whole class beforehand: “Time is short, so please be ready to come quickly when I call you”. You want to keep the “dead time” between tests to a minimum. This is one of the reasons why I usually use the “pre-registration system”: even if I don't write beforehand the times for each test (10:00 – 10:04, 10:05 – 10:09, etc.) on the registration paper, students know in what order they will be tested, so they get to the testing area faster after I called their names. I actually call two pairs at a time (“Yumi Kumamoto and Kenji Kitamura ,AND AFTER THAT Emiko Taniguchi and Yohei Tanaka”).

Week 1: First class with CiC and the Immediate Method

2008-04-02T09:48:00.002+09:00

Welcome to the first issue of the CiC e-zine.
Conversations in Class is a conversation textbook written especially for Japanese university students, but it can also be used in any group of low intermediate to intermediate-level Japanese learners. It is based on the Immediate Method - a class management system developed to streamline and improve conversation classes in Japan.

We will post regular items here about using the textbook, the extension activities, and tips on running a class.
This first post is a possible lesson plan for the first class of an IM conversation course.
We welcome all comments, questions and suggestions.

Stephen, what do you do in the first class of the term?
Stephen : For me, the first class of term has two main objectives. The first is to introduce students with the method that the class will be using each week, so that they know exactly what they need to do. The second it to start on some focussed speaking practice, and familiarise the students with how a class will run. Since this style of class is quite different to their other lectures, it’s important to set the tone early.

How do you go about this?
Well, every teacher has their own way, and even amongst IM teachers there are many different teaching styles. This is simply the lesson plan that I have found works best for me after a few years teaching with this method.

Introducing the class system (PDF)
Starting oral practice (PDF)
Pronunciation, silence (PDF)
Testing (PDF)
Whole text for easy printing (PDF)