Compelling Conversations

Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics for ESL learners and teachers

Posts Tagged Compelling Conversations

CATESOL Accepts Presentation on Informational Interviews

Jan 19

Posted by Eric Roth in CATESOL, California, ESL, English curriculum, Speaking Skills, VESL, adult education, workplace English, workplace communication skills | No Comments

How can English teachers help adult, college, and university students expand their network of professional contacts while improving their interview skills? What practical speaking exercise includes both off-campus interviews and classroom presentations? How can ESL teachers add informational interviews to their oral skills curriculum? What are informational interviews, anyway? What makes them vital to adult English language learners in 2010?

Thanks to the selection committee of CATESOL 2010 State Conference, I will have a chance to share my answers with fellow California educators in late April. “Informational Interviews: A Practical, Illuminating Speaking Assignment” will demonstrate the importance and relevance of this unusual assignment for a wide range of ESL students. Although officially listed for college/university instructors, the long assignment can be adapted for high school, IEP, vocational, and Business English classes. CATESOL includes California teachers of English to speakers of other languages from all levels of education and many public and private institutions.

Naturally, I look forward to sharing the good news about information interviews, a common practice in the United States where individuals interview working professionals about potential occupations. My presentation will cover the several building block assignments that are used to prepare students to find a professional to interview, conduct a successful interview, and give a compelling trip report in class. Each step covers vital vocational and speaking skills.

Hopefully, this small professional presentation will encourage more ESL teachers to assign informational interviews and help their ESL students find satisfying jobs. Given the relatively grim outlook for jobs in California, the definition of “satisfying” might be more flexible than in the past. Informational interviews, therefore, allow job seekers to meet working professionals in their field, collect detailed information on working conditions and professional practices, and expand their network of valuable industry contacts. Sometimes informational interviews also lead to job leads, internships, and even jobs. Practical and popular, this assignment consistently engages students and provides surprising insights.

More later on informational interviews.

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Happy New Decade! How Will We Change? Will We Discuss Change in Our ESL Classes?

Dec 31

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL, ESL worksheets, educational philosophy, favorite quotations, teaching tips, technology and education | 1 Comment

As the decade ends, this 2008 Did You Know videofor a Sony conference seems more relevant than ever. With quick factoids and fast edits, it shows how radically our world is changing. How do we prepare students for a world full of new technologies, new jobs, and new challenges?
2008 Sony Conference Video on Change
Did you notice how dated this celebration of technological possibilities felt with the MySpace reference from just 14 months ago? “Nothing is constant except change,” observed the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus in 500 B.C.E!

From my perspective, this new high ultra-high tech world will demand more attention to “high touch” interpersonal social skills. The ability to critically think, creatively imagine, and deeply reflect will be more important than ever. Our English classrooms should provide space for students to develop their speaking and thinking skills.

One simple method is to make change a topic in our classes. Cities, products, families, schools, and people change. This moment also allows us to ask some “big” questions.

• What changes have you seen in your hometown this decade?
• What changes have you seen in your family this decade?
• How has your country changed this decade?
• How have you changed this decade?
• What changes would you like to see in your country?
• What changes would you like to see in our world?
• What changes would you like to see in your family?
• How would you like to change in the next decade?

Yet change is always relevant in the 21st century. How will our classes change in the next decade? How will the field of teaching English change? How can we, in President Clinton’s classic phrase, “make change our friend”? Here’s change, a free chapter from Compelling Conversations, for you and your English language learners. Visit http://www.compellingconversations.com/pdf/change.pdf

Happy new decade! Let’s make sure the next decade provides more smiles and fewer sighs.

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2008 Sony Conference Video on Change

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Conversation Tip 5: What has pleasantly surprised you today?

Nov 8

Posted by Eric Roth in Amazon, Compelling Conversations, Conversation Tips, ESL, English class, conversation starters | No Comments

What pleasantly surprised you today?

This question often causes people to pause, reflect, and change their dialogue. It gives us a chance to remember some moments of satisfaction, and reminds us that almost every day provides some unexpected moments. “What surprised you today” works too.

But I prefer adding the “pleasantly” to counter dialogues that can run to the negative. This positive question opens up room in a conversation for people to express gratitude for what has gone right – even in a difficult day. We bump into friends while shopping, see a new plant or flower in the yard, read something odd on the internet, or receive an unexpected call. As the ancient Latin proverb goes, “expect the unexpected.” Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t.

What has pleasantly surprised you today? English teachers can use this question as a writing cue, during student-teacher conferences, or with co-workers. Students, especially at more competitive schools, can often feel great stress. Asking students about what is going right in their lives can help them focusing only on the negative. In fact, almost every one can use a gentle nudge toward away from stress and toward gratitude.

So what pleasantly surprised me today? I noticed a new review for Compelling Conversations on Amazon written from Europe. A satisfied customer in Milan, Italy – Siano Luigi “EMY” called Compelling Conversations “a great help!”. This English teacher and private tutor wrote, “I find this book to be a great help for conversation lessons. It’s full of questions/tips/quotes that help students to discuss together, in group or individually on all kinds of different topics.” Given my limited distribution globally, this warm review from far away counts as a pleasant surprise!

Gratitude, as ever, seems appropriate. Finding ways to increase our gratitude for our 21st lives makes emotional sense. Asking this simple question is my fifth conversation tip. Help build gratitude, and create better conversations.

What has pleasantly surprised you today?

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Conversation Tip #4: Ask Questions and Take Turns

Sep 5

Posted by Eric Roth in Conversation Tips, Conversation lessons, ESL, Speaking Skills, linguistics, teaching tips | 1 Comment

Why state the obvious? Why take turns asking questions? Why ask follow up questions?

Common sense and social skills don’t seem to be universal. Conversation skills remain a vital soft skill that many scientists, engineers, shy people, and English language learners struggle to master. A key technique is just asking simple questions to keep a conversation moving forward.

Asking follow up questions can provide clarity and allow our conversation partners to elaborate on details. English teachers, especially when reviewing fluency skills, can introduce common phrases to help ESL and EFL students improve their fluency. Use these simple phrases to go beyond hello and create better conversations.

And?
So?
Where?
When?
How?
Why?
Meaning?

You can also encourage your conversation partner with simple phrases.
Go on!
Tell me more!
Sounds interesting.

Smiling and nodding your head also indicate interest and encourage your conversation partner. Yet asking follow up questions and turn taking remain key elements of a natural, satisfying conversation. Everyone in a conversation should both be and feel included, and asking questions remains essential in both superficial and deep conversations. English teachers can gently remind their ESL students of this technique as part of fluency.

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What is Your American Dream?

Aug 21

Posted by Eric Roth in ESL | No Comments

What is your American Dream? This remains one of my favorite questions to ask new immigrants and American citizens.

I asked that question, followed by, “why” in a regular column for Easy English Times this month. I gave the last words to Toni Morrison, the Nobel-Prize winning author. “The function of freedom is to free somebody else.”

Easy English Times, published in California, ran an ESL conversation activity that concluded with that question, is a monthly newspaper written in simple English for these immigrants and future citizens. My co-author Toni Aberson and I have contributed a monthly column called “Instant Activity: Conversation” for the last 16 months. The editor adapts materials from our book Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics for beginning and intermediate students.

While the Easy English Times website remains a work in progress, it contains a number of fine features for English teachers and tutors in adult education programs, including literacy and ESL. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t include a summary of the previous Conversation Activity columns yet).

You can check out the collection of free crossword puzzles and reading comprehension activities for each back issue of Easy English Times:
http://www.easyenglishtimes.com/monthly.html

The Easy English Times editors have also put together a solid EET recommends list of selective ESL resources (including Compelling Conversations):

http://www.easyenglishtimes.com/links.html

While Easy English Times remains relatively unknown outside California, the paper has earned an excellent reputation among CATESOL members, many California adult learners, and literacy instructors nationwide. (The editor and publisher of Easy English Times always give popular workshops at CATESOL regional and state conferences.)

Finally, subscription is $10 per year for each student per classroom inside the United States, and $15 per year for international English language learning students. Details here:
https://easyengl.securesites.com/subscribe.html?Category=newspapers

This thin, quality newspaper focuses on a vital niche in the newspaper world: America’s often overlooked and sometimes demonized new immigrants and adult education students. I’m proud to have been working with Easy English Times for over a year. Check it out!

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What Does Success Mean? What Definition Works for You?

Aug 10

Posted by Eric Roth in Compelling Conversations, EFL, ESL, academic matters, censorship, educational philosophy | No Comments

Sometimes the simplest questions create the best conversations.

What does success mean? What definition are you using? How is that definition working for you?

After a hectic summer teaching English and directing a private high school English program in Vietnam, I’ve been asking myself these questions quite a bit. I learned many lessons, deepened a close friendship with two old friends, met many fine English teachers, and enjoyed working and living in a rapidly developing nation. I discovered new places, ate new dishes, and saw new sights. That sounds like success.

From a professional English teaching perspective, I also made some significant curriculum changes, adding more student-centered activities and oral presentations. Further, I oversaw the creation of a new, tailored version of Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations for Vietnamese English Language Learners. From the resume perspective, the summer certainly was successful. The bank account shows progress. Success right?

Yet there were several disappointments and setbacks both inside and outside the private school and EFL classrooms too. “Stunning” became an adjective of choice, and often as an expression of exasperation. The everyday restriction of information and huge income disparities continually discomforted me. I experienced culture shock for weeks, and often felt dislocated and ill at ease. I didn’t exactly feel successful. Or at least, this success didn’t feel so comfortable. As George Bernard Shaw noted, “Success covers a multitude of blunders.”

Therefore, I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of career success, and having some wonderful conversations with friends and fellow English and ESL teachers. Do you know the website TED.com? I often go there for ideas – and sometimes classroom materials for advanced ESL students.

Today, this lecture on developing a kinder, gentler definition of success from a TED conference by Alain de Botton commanded my attention. With wit and humor, the philosophical author critiqued the contemporary obsession with career success.

Personally, I found Botton’s words and reflections refreshing and helpful. You might too. Listen for yourself, and found out!

http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler_philosophy_of_success.html

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A kinder, gentler definition of success

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What will I learn today?

Jul 17

Posted by Eric Roth in ESL | 1 Comment

Consider me psyched. I’m going to a huge conference of ELT, EFL, and ESL professionals today in Vietnam’s White Palace. The 4th-annual VUS-TESOL conference program is full, and I expect to hear many more teaching tips for working with Vietnamese students who want to learn English, but are often reluctant to speak.
I’m particularly interested in hearing about successful transitions from grammar-based EFL classes to communicative philosophies, and talking with other English Language trainers and ESL professionals who have enjoyed teaching much more than administering programs.

Naturally, I’m also looking for “good mistakes” that don’t seem to transfer from the United States, Australia, and England to Vietnam. As Octavio Paz notes, “To modernize is to adopt and adapt, but it is to also to recreate.” What will work for Vietnamese students? What materials will most effectively encourage more Vietnamese adults to speak more in adult courses? What techniques work best here?

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Two More Steps Forward

Jun 15

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL | 1 Comment

Today is a good day.
For the first time ever, an English teacher used Compelling Conversations for English Language Learners in Vietnam in an EFL/ESL classroom. Emily, a close friend and fine teacher, used the modified “going beyond hello” chapter with advanced English students with considerable success. Consider me pleased.
Second, I had a chance to actually review a physical copy of the latest edits – including the inclusion of many local photographs. Although the images are rather small, they do make a big difference.
On the other hand, editing with a less than perfectly fluent staff also lead to some additional editing work, especially on the three new chapters for Vietnam. So I’ll do another round of edits – and add more proverbs and quotes from Vietnamese writers and poets. Doing it right is more important than just finishing it. Hopefully, the conversation textbook will help students learn to ask more and better questions in English – and allow students to reflect on their experiences and ambitions in a rapidly changing Vietnam.

The addition of an index of authors quoted with nationality, profession, and birth/death dates should also help English teacher and tutors here. But every part has taken far longer than expected.

Still, patience remains a virtue. Step by step, we climb the mountain!

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As always, writing means rewriting.

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Culturally Sensitive Compelling Conversations Created for Vietnam!

May 30

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL | No Comments

How do you revise a conversation textbook designed for American immigrants and international students in the United States for high school English language learners in Vietnam? Carefully!

Naturally, the new version of “Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics” will emphasize aspects of Vietnamese culture, avoid taboo subjects, and include local folk sayings and proverbs. The chapter called, “Driving Cars” becomes “Riding Motorbikes.” Other chapters get deleted altogether. Religious quotes are lost and some touchy questions remain unasked. So it goes – even in the 21st century.

Today, after weeks of collecting proverbs, talking with EFL teachers in Vietnam, and editing my original ESL for a particular EFL audience, I have a close to finished version. I feel quite satisfied with Compelling Conversations for English Language Learners in Vietnam. The new edition will be out within a month!

Shalom,
Eric
www.CompellingConversations.com
eric@compellingconversations.com

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Are you prepared? Are you ready? Aren’t you nervous?

May 23

Posted by Chimayo Press in Conversation Tips, EFL, ESL, ESL/EFL teachers' resources, Speaking Skills, Teaching English in Vietnam, VESL, adult education, conversation starters, educational philosophy, teaching tips, workplace communication skills | 2 Comments

During the last hectic week of international travel and professional development presentations, I’ve been heard a few simple questions over and over.

  • Are you ready?
  • Are you prepared?
  • Aren’t you nervous?
  • Do you have enough time to do that?
  • When are you going to sleep?

Friends – and close relatives – ask these questions out of concern and curiosity.  I appreciate their questions and enjoy our discussions.  My confidence can lead me to underestimate the difficulty of  projects, tasks, and chores. I should manage time better, probably reduce my commitments, and prioritize more. Yet that’s easier said than done when pursuing multiple projects and working with people on different continents. I also like my work, and appreciate new challenges.  And I can draw on a considerable amount of experience as a  world traveler and English teacher. Despite approaching deadlines, I tend to feel strangely comfortable.

For instance, this week I left Los Angeles to begin a new position creating a Practical and Academic English program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Packing for a ten-week summer trip takes considerable time. So does writing up detailed course descriptions, planning professional development workshops, and writing a high school graduation speech. Tracking Compelling Conversations book orders, planning website and blog changes, and interviewing ESL/EFL teachers also takes time. So sleep becomes a lower priority and friends keep asking those few simple, reasonable questions.

They are good questions and fine conversation starters too. In our often-hectic world, many people make the same “good mistakes” as me. As a result, these simple questions seem about time management seem timeless. English teachers can – and I’d suggest should – introduce these practical questions to their students. Business English teachers and workplace instructors, of course, frequently include entire lessons to personal time management skills. Letting students ask these questions and interview each other will also lead to interesting classroom conversations.

By the way,  despite my last minute style, I was actually quite prepared. I quickly packed, arrived safely in Vietnam and lead an engaging workshop on creating autotelic materials for EFL students.  Experience and expertise help – even on limited sleep!

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