CONVERSATION TECHNIQUES IN THE ENGLISH CLASS

Teacher: Tomescu Sofica

Speaking is one of the basic competences that should be mastered by English learners.
Encouraging English speaking learners to speak in an English class is very
important. Confidence building and not being afraid of making mistakes is also required in
helping improve spoken English skills.
Foreign languages methodologists concerned with the need for spontaneous, meaningful
language use in the acquisition of a foreign language have made the distinction between
linguistic competence and communicative competence. Linguistic competence may be defined as
the mastery of the sound system and basic structural patterns of the language. Communicative
competence may be defined as the ability to function in a truly communicative setting – that is ,
in a spontaneous transaction involving one or more other persons.
It is one thing to know about a language – verb forms, vocabulary items, basic grammatical
patterns , and the like – and quite another to know how to use it effectively in a conversational
exchange with a native speaker. In directing conversation session for students of English, the
teacher will help the student move from pseudo-communication, in which his use of English is
fictitiously prepared and predictable, to communication where he expresses his personal ideas
and needs as the context of reality.
During the early stages of conversation practice, the teacher is bound to maintain a fairly
controlled situation in which the student interacts with the teacher and other students within the
constraints imposed by his limited knowledge of the language. During later stages the teacher
gradually removes the control until they are eliminated altogether and the student enters the
realm of real communication.
In an article entitled Development of a manipulation – Communicative Scale, Clifford Prator
suggests that there are four major phases in the language learning process:
1. the completely manipulative phase;
2. the predominantly manipulative phase;
3. the predominantly communicative phase;
4. the completely communicative phase.
A. Phase One activity might a drill in which the student merely repeats sentences after the
teacher, while a Phase Two activity might require the student to take a sentence from a textbook,
such as My father is a doctor and restate this with information about his own father, as in My
father is a farmer . Paraphrases of dialogues and various kinds of question-and-answer exercises
might be Phase Three activity, where as Phase Four activity might be a free conversation among
class members. According to Prator, the mastery of a foreign language involves a prolonged and

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very gradual shift from Phase One to Phase Four which is accomplished through progressive
decontrol.
The conversation leader, that is the teacher, is confronted with several challenges and he has
to handle them. Here are some of the problems he has to solve:
(1) The student has adjusted to a passive role during the manipulative phase of language
learning and is unprepared for the active role demanded in conversation practice. We
cannot expect students to leap suddenly to original and creative communicating so we
have to lead them step by step gradually reducting controls over what he says and how he
says it.
For instance, at the beginning level we may ask the student to say something about his family
with the following words as part of his sentence My father … but … my mother . The student
might say: My father speaks French, but my mother doesn’t. After he has made this statement
we may ask him: Where did your father learn French? to which he might reply He learned it at
school. In this way a sort of conversation starts.
(2) Immediate correction of errors that occur during the conversation session may inhibit the
student. The teacher will want to correct errors, but he should not interrupt the flow of
conversation with constant minor corrections. While we can correct a few major mistakes
the moment they are made, it is preferable to wait until the students finish a conversation
exchange.
Professor Norman F. Davis considers this problem in an article entitled Oral Fluency Trening
and Small Groups: ”I believe that training for accuracy and training for fluency are usually best
dealt with separately, as there is undoubtedly a conflict between the two. When the pupil is
required to concentrate on syntax and accidence, his speed of utterance and his level of
discourse will almost certainly suffer. Conversely, when speed and appropriate communication
content are the objectives, the teacher must grit his teeth and largely refrain from interruption.”
(3) The students are at different proficiency levels. The more advanced students do most of
the talking or are bored, while the less advanced students fail to participate. In this
situation it is advisable to divide the group into smaller groups. We can assign one
advanced student to each group and have him serve as leader. Leaders should develop
conversation according to the teacher’s instructions and under his constant supervision.
Now let us consider the major conversation elements. Questions and answers are the
backbone of directed conversation. In the first phase question-answer drill helps the student
internalize the phonetic and syntactic design of English. By contrast, questions and answers in
the communicative phase of language learning relate to the speaker’s real situation. Actual
information is sought and a factual reply is expected. There are three patterns of a two-way
conversational exchange : teacher asks student, student asks student, student asks teacher.
Another form is when the teacher directs a question to a class member who must then
question a second class member to obtain the answer:
Teacher: Peter, is George going to London next weekend?
Peter: I don’t know.

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 Teacher: Ask him.
Peter: George, are you going to London next weekend?
George: Yes, I am.
Peter: He says he is going to London next weekend.
This last exercise implies a good mastery of several types of transformations: injunction,
reported speech.
There are four major types of question-answer sequences for directed conversation practice:
(a) Question – single statement answer :
A: Can you play the piano well?
B: No, I can’t,
(b) Question – multiple statements answer
A: Where did you get this book from?
B: My brother gave it to me. He borrowed it from the library.
(c) Questions deduced from answers:
Teacher: Mary is wearing a blue dress.
A: Who is wearing a blue dress?
B: What is Mary wearing?
(d) Multiple Questions drawn from a single statement:
Teacher:Tom has a fever.
A: Who has a fever?
B: What does Tom have?
C: Tom has a fever, hasn’t he?
D: Is Tom ill today?
E: Is Tom’s temperature above the normal?
F: Why doesn’t Tom feel all right?
As a additional part of the exercise described above, students may practice questions that
require judgement of the situation described in the statement.:
A: Should Tom stay in bed?
Should Tom call a doctor?
B: Would you go to school if you were Tom?
The second major conversation element is comments. We continually make comments when
we converse – either in the front of simple remarks ( It looks like it’s going to rain) or in the
form of rejoinders (You’re right). So, by means of rejoinders students may express their interest
(e. g. I’m going to buy a new car. Really? / How nice! You don’t say!), surprise (Nick won the
prize. O, really? / He did? / What do you know about that?), agreement ( This is a good meal.
Right./ You’re right./ It certainly is.) etc.
After having discussed the most important conversation elements let’s examine some of the
conversation techniques:
Dialogues

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 A short conversation between two people presented as a language model is often used in the
manipulative phase of language learning. As a result, students spend much time in repeating
dialogues for pronunciation or memorization practice or for grammar drills on selected lines..
There are certain procedures that make the dialogue develop fluency in English and therefore,
good for the communicative phase as well. Once the students have memorized the dialogue
through chorus repetition, filling in the blanks after erasing some phrases or the whole dialogue
the teacher can pass on to the substitution and transformation stage, which is meant to better
impress the dialogue on the students:
A: Where did the Browns go last summer? / last spring/ /last winter holiday? / last spring
holiday?
B: They went to the country. / to the seaside. / to the mountains.
A step ahead implies the alteration of the dialogue to make it conform to the reality
surrounding the student:
A: Where did you go last summer? / last spring?/ last winter holiday? / last spring holiday?
B: I went to the country. ? to the seaside. / to the mountains.
This is a way of making students talk among themselves.
The teacher may write the dialogue on the blackboard and have his students suggest one
more exchange that would be a logical addition to the conversation:
A: How long did you stay there?
B: Ten days. / Two weeks.
A: Where did you stay there?
B: In a chalet. / In a hotel. / At my friends.
You may have your students paraphrase the lines of the dialogue. Once your students have
become adept at paraphrasing you can ask two of them to take one of the parts and thus the
students’ paraphrase becomes a real conversation.
The dialogue on the blackboard is used as a departure point for other similar situations that
the teacher can describe and ask his students to make up a dialogue. Only advanced students are
able to do this type of exercise but this is the goal we aim at through progressively controlled
practice.
Visual aids can play an important role in conversation when they are used as focal point for
discussion and to lend variey to the conversation format. Thus pictures, flash-cards or slides are
important ones for conversation sessions.
(1) You may ask your students to describe in detail what they see in a given picture and then
put questions like: What do you think is happening? or What are they doing?
(2) If you show your students a flash-card representing the plan of a town district you may
ask one student to imagine he met a stranger in the street who asked him how to reach a
certain hotel. He has to tell him the way, thus give him directions. At a less advanced
stage the teacher can help the students’ answers by projecting or writing parts of thr
directions on the blackboard and ask the student to fill in the blanks. At a more advanced

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 stage the teacher can only tell his students what to do and the students would be able to
make up the dialogue by themselves.
(3) Another profitable exercise practised with advanced students only having a picture or a
flash-card in front of them is that in which students have to complete some sentences of
a dialogue:
A: You are working too much.
B: I’ve tried to work less.
A: Promise me you ’ll try again.
B: OK. I promise I’ll try again.
(4) Flash-card set in a logical sequence can help students tell a story. E.g. A trip by car. or A
car accident.
At an earlier stage the students answer the teacher’s questions then they complete some
sheets of paper containing statements whose blanks should be filled in and then the teacher asks
them to retell the story and eventually write a composition having the same topic.
(5) Some other time besides flash-cards or pictures the teacher helps his students answer
with some questions written on the blackboard or projected on a screen, questions that
the students have to take into consideration when writing the composition.
(6) You may also show a picture of two people and ask each student to make up a dialogue
that might happen between these two people. Each student can have a role-card with cues
which enable the conversation.
(7) Showing flash-cards portraying people in a dramatic situation you can ask each student
what he could do if he were one of the persons in the picture.
E.g. The story of officer Robo who arrested a thief who stole some sandwiches and a bottle
of water. Question: If you were officer Robo, would you arrest the thief? Why or why not?
The students have to argue their opinions. As for comments a useful exercise is that in
which you allow your students to inspect a picture of a famous football player, actor or
actress or a person with typical features. Then the students should describe him fully – his
age, physical features expression. In a variation of this exercise each student can write a
description of the person and then class members can discuss their individual descriptions..
The students may also be given some sheets of paper to be filled in. Thus each student is
faced with the effort to comment on the picture. In a variation of this exercise the teacher
may show his students two pictures that have many likenesses and ask his students to
comment on the likenesses.
Another suggestion could be that of asking the students to rewrite some advertisements
having their answer cued by flash-cards and words or phrases projected on the screen or
written on the blackboard.
Situation:”Timely” – newspaper; ”Swing City” - a place to spend your holidays.
This exercise should be done after the students have become conversant with the type of
statements used in advertisements.

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 A useful exercise is to ask each student to make a remark about a specific item – a statement
he is sure he has never made before. The item may be a watch:
A: I received this watch as a gift last year.
B: My watch runs quietly.
C: I can swim with this watch because it is waterproof.
Games
Games are another profitable conversation technique used at various proficiency levels. The
only equipment needed for question and answer games would be a glove puppet or doll, a scarf
to be used for blindfoldingor for holding objects and a box for putting things into: Sentence
patterns: What is…? This is…. . It is… .
Is this your ….?Yes, it’s.
Is your / his name ….? No, it isn’t.
Where is…?
What colour is…?
How many …?
Teacher: What is your name?
Puppet: My name is Puppet.
Later the student use the puppet to pass the question around the group. The students can be
involved in enjoyable quizz-games to revise and repeat vacabulary and sentences already learnt.
Thus one student is blindfolded and another sits on hi slap. The first student tries to guess the
name of the student sitting on hi slap and asks: Is your name …? If the first guess is wrong the
second student or the group as a whole, answer No, it isn’t. And this continues until the right
name has been found. Later on when the students’ competence has increased, pictures of people
doing various activities can replace the objects just described to enable the students to ask such
questions as: Is it a boy or a girl?
The teacher may also distribute sheets of paper to answer the questions written on them. The
students will have to supply information about their own person. Examples of questions:
What is your name?
Where do you live?
How old are you?
The students will have to fill in the sheets, then ask their fellows the same questions by
reading them from the list, then learn the questions by heart, return the sheets and do the exercise
again without the sheets before them.
Lotto, Bingo and Memory Games involve a number of large cards showing two or more
pictures and a series of single cards depicting all the objects shown on their large card.. For the
Lotto game no two students have the same picture on their large card. The teacher shows a
single card and asks: Who’s got the bicycle?
The student who has a picture of a bicycle on his card answers: I’ve got the bicycle. And is given
the single card. The game continues until all cards have been claimed.

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 For the Bingo game each student has a large card containing several pictures, but the
selection of pictures on each large card is different. One picture may appear several times on
various cards but if possible, no two cards are identical. The teacher draws a card and ask: Who’s
got the…? Several students will answer: I’ve got the… and then they cover the picture with a
blank card. The game continues until one large card has been completely covered.
For the Memory game a certain number of single cards are duplicated so that there are pairs
showing the same picture. At a later stage the pairs can be made up of two different cards which
belong together for some reasons. The object of the game is to find the pairs. The card is laid
face down on the table and mixed. The first student may pick up two cards, name them by
saying: I’ve got a… and a … . If they are not a pair both cards must be replaced in the place they
were taken from.. The next student picks up one card and tries to guess or remember where the
pair is to be found.
The integrated technique allows the students feel enthusiastic, curious and easy to describe
and to build the meaning in speaking class activity. In its implementation, the teacher offers
interesting topics in stimulating the students to give their opinion about the topic will be
discussed. Before the activities being implemented, students should have learnt how to speak in
daily routine conversation and be familiar with related vocabulary and grammar.
Another techniques for stimulating interactive conversations in English as a second language
conversation classes could be:
 Ask controversial questions – You can ask questions relating to the environment, local,
national and international news, current events, sports or entertainment events. All of
these areas can generate topics for controversial questions. What are some controversial
issues in your local area, region or country? List three to five of the most important topics
to use for discussion and individual opinions.
 Use proverbs during discussions – The collection of proverbs and sayings worldwide is
astounding. Virtually every country, culture and language group has a collection of
proverbs from which both you and your students can draw to stimulate conversations.
Quotations such as, “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar," “early to
bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" or quotes from movies can be
good conversation starters for your students.
 Simulate everyday conversation situations – Recreations of business meetings,
negotiations at a foreign market or shop, chatting with someone on a bus or train,
introducing yourself to someone, choosing a new music CD or countless other daily
situations that require short dialogues can be interesting for your English as a foreign
language students to practice. Brainstorm with your students for other possible topic
ideas and situations.
 Use quotations from famous people or famous quote – There are literally thousands of
memorable quotes from famous politicians, presidents, entertainers, historians, generals,
soldiers and others that could be listed and worked on by students for conversation class
practice. Certainly all of your learners will have their own favorite movies complete with
memorable quotes. Why not tap into this as a resource for some conversation classes?
 Discuss scenes from movies or videos – One very useful technique is to play a short clip
of a scene from a movie and then have students verbally react to the scene clip among

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 each other. Who were the best characters? Why? Have learners not only speaking
dialogues, but also act out the more dramatic scenes as well.
Conversations play a crucial role in teaching and learning English in the secondary schools
because they are a basic form of spoken English and contain a lot of spoken features such as
vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. Opportunities to practice conversation are all around.
Given the proper tools, students will take advantage of them and even learn to enjoy them.

Bibliography

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