Compelling Conversations

Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics for ESL learners and teachers

Posts Tagged English teacher

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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What are you doing differently this semester in your ESL class?

Aug 30

Posted by Eric Roth in EFL, educational philosophy, forms and worksheets, teaching tips | No Comments

What are you doing differently this semester in your English class?

As a new semester begins, I face the familiar task – and pleasure – of selecting new materials and creating new forms for my oral skills class. One goal is to have students use the internet more; another to provide more opportunities for peer feedback on oral presentations.

Although I do not have a conversation class this semester, I do teach a high intermediate oral skills class that focuses on academic presentations. The students come from several Asian countries and are all graduate students – almost exclusively in engineering. Workplace surveys continue to identify communication skills, including speaking skills, as a top priority for employers – especially in engineering!

The class will include several informal, short presentations in addition to the longer, more formal presentations that receive a grade.  Whenever possible, I prefer to give students to receive fairly immediate feedback, from their peers and me, on their presentations.  Students, as a result, will read peer evaluations from the entire class after giving a short presentation like a product review, extended definition, or process description. To be effective, the form must be both simple and open… with some guidance. This collective feedback often validates instructor comments and prepares students to view their videotaped presentations in a more objective manner.

Here is my new form for peer evaluations of oral presentations.It emphasizes the positive aspects, inquires about what can be improved, allows more detailed observations, and provides a simple rating system. I have used a similar format with my engineering communication courses and expect that it will work in my ESL class too. Time will tell.

Feel free to copy, modify, or share the form to fit your ESL/EFL/speech classroom needs.

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<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Century Schoolbook”; mso-font-alt:Century; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:.75in 1.0in .75in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

STUDENT: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________________________________________

TOPIC: ____________________________________________________

PEER: ____________________________________________________

GOOD TO SEE:

POINTS TO WORK ON:

BEST PART:

WEAKEST PART:

OTHER OBSERVATIONS/TIPS:

Please circle the appropriate overall rating:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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How do you teach the difference between “make” and “do” in your English classrooms?

Aug 17

Posted by Eric Roth in ELL, ESL, English class, Vocabulary, adult education, teaching tips, tutoring tips | 2 Comments

How do you teach the difference between “make” and “do” in your English classrooms?

What do you do? What do you make? What’s the difference, anyway, between “make” and “do”?

These simple words cause lots of confusion for English language learners. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time teaching a very wide range of ESL classes this distinction. Many ESL students struggle with “make” and “do” – from advanced adult education and community college students to intermediate English students in summer courses and regular university courses. The large number of idioms further complicates the problem.

Here is a quick, imprecise guide that helps clarify the issue.

Look at some common expressions with “do”.

  • Do the dishes.
  • Do some chores.
  • Do your work.
  • Do exercises.
  • Do your best.
  • Do it over.
  • Do the report.

Do is used to describe an activity that you have to do, often over and over again. For instance, we “do the dishes” and “do the laundry” many times. Do also contains an element of duty and responsibility.

Now, take a look at some expressions with “make”.

  • Please make time.
  • You make dinner.
  • You make drawings.
  • You make decisions.
  • You make plans.
  • Your make reservations.
  • You make money.
  • You make friends.

Make is used to describe a creative activity or something you choose to do. You choose, for instance, to make plans, make friends, and make decisions. You have choices.

Why do we say “make dinner” if we have to do it over and over? Perhaps because cooking is seen more as a creative activity than a chore. But cleaning the table, and cleaning the dishes are just chores so we say “do the table” and “do the dishes.” That’s also why Americans say “make money” instead of “do money.” Making money is seen as both creative and a choice.

Idioms, of course, are cultural and sometimes less than completely logical. Sometimes Americans will use the verb make in a way that might seem strange, but I urge immigrants and international students to “make a decision”, “do your best”, and learn some practical workplace idioms using make and do.

Finally, I encourage students to work together in small groups and create their own list of idioms with make and do. When I’m lucky and have time, I like to ask students to come to the white board and write their collection of idioms on the board. Homework, of course, is asking them to choose 5-10 idioms and write complete sentences.

So how do you teach the difference between do and make to your English students?

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Learning by Stumbling (again) and finding Classroom 2.0

Jun 19

Posted by Eric Roth in ELL, ESL, Teaching matters, academic matters, adult education, website | No Comments

As readers of this blog will soon discover, I believe in experimenting and finding new resources. Following an emailed lead, I discovered an impressive website for teachers called Classroom 2.0 . What attracted me?

The site meets me where I am – an English teacher curious about new technologies, but unsure how to proceed and which technologies to explore in depth. Filled with concise, yet detailed guidelines to various 2.0 technologies, I look forward to reading and learning more about evolving web technologies and how they can be used as 21st century educational tools.

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