Compelling Conversations for English Teachers, Tutors, and Advanced English Language Learners

“Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.”

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), Nobel Prize winner for Literature

Holidays and anniversaries often prompt personal reflections. As 2010 ends and a new year beckons, millions of English language learners and thousands of English teachers  reflect on their lives and make new year resolutions.

·         What did you find satisfying in 2010?

·         What were some magic days and memorable moments?

·         What English words will you choose to remember?

·         What English lessons would you prefer to forget?

Sometimes we look back with satisfaction on our classroom achievements, and sometimes we look back in regret.  A USA Today article proclaimed “2010: The Year Technology Replaced Talking. Yet here we are facing 2011.. Almost everyone hopes for a happy, healthy, and more prosperous and productive new year. The challenge remains how we can move forward, and talking about change and hopes for change seems like a natural place.

Often, we openly declare our hopes and goals for the New Year with bold resolutions that require serious change in our habits. We also know that change can be hard, surprising, and sometimes liberating in our classrooms and in our personal lives.

·         What do you hope for in 2011?

·         What changes would you like to make? Why?

·         How do you plan to realize your goals in the next year?

·         How will you measure personal success in 2011?

·         How will you measure your academic success in 2011?

·         Are you ready to keep your New Year resolutions?

Given the rate of exceptional technological and social change in the 21st century, I find that discussing the topic of Change a perennial winner in my advanced English classes. I often open the Spring semester with this popular conversation activity in the first two weeks.  Although public opinion surveys show that only a small percentage of Americans keep their New Year resolutions to change after a month, I suspect we can increase those odds of our English students by candidly discussing our hopes and plans to change.

Feel free to use this sample Compelling Conversations chapter on Change in your English class.

“To modernize is to adopt and to adapt, but it is also to recreate.”

Octavio Paz, 1914-1998), Mexican writer and diplomat.

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http://www.compellingconversations.com/pdf/change.pdf

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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We Just Want a High TOEFL Score!

Students often need solid TOEFL scores to study abroad, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Naturally, this need – and ambition – often makes reaching a certain number on the TOEFL exam as the goal of their English studies.

Unfortunately, sometimes these imperfect standardized exams – all attempts to measure language ability of English language learners – become a goal in and of itself. Consequently,  some students and stressed parents want all their English classes to primarily focus on test preparation. “We just need a good TOEFL score” mantra can lead to pressure on private high schools and language programs to exclude material unrelated directly to the influential ETS exam.

Let me suggest that this worshipping at the altar of standardized test scores can distort, even pervert, English language instruction. While excellent, specialized test preparation courses serve a vital purpose, they should be small parts of a larger English curriculum. The main focus of language programs, especially in high schools,  should be helping students develop authentic language skills so they can actually read, write, listen, and speak English – both inside and outside the classrooms and away from multiple choice exams.

Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, and Jack London may or may not appear on the next TOEFL test, but high school and older English students should be exposed to their writings. We do not want to throw away our humanistic cultural heritage and reduce our English and ESL classes into mere test training. The TOEFL exam is a means, not an end in and of itself.

Likewise, we need – as English teachers – to remember that ideas matter, celebrate our dynamic language,  and avoid the temptation to become grammar fundamentalists or mere language technicians. Learning English, a global tongue, allows students to move beyond the narrow confines of their local language and more easily join the global village. Let’s keep those larger goals – and the humanities – in the English curriculum.

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