Teaching Conversation Structure & Strategy

2008 Korea TESOL International Conference

Saturday, October 25, 2008
2:00 – 2:45 p.m., B142

PRESENTER: Jeffrey Walter

EMAIL: jeffwalter@gmail.com
WEBSITE: www.tesoljeff.com

ABSTRACT:
Conversations follow rules and patterns. However, many English learners are unfamiliar
with them and thus have difficulty having or maintaining conversations. Even learners
who have a good knowledge of vocabulary and grammar may still struggle to
communicate effectively without having specific conversation skills.

Conversation strategies, structure, and micro-skills need to be explicitly taught.

Unfortunately, many conversation courses and textbooks do not directly cover much of
this material. This presentation will show what skills and language can be taught with
regards to conversation rules, structure, and strategy (ex. signaling to close a conversation,
how to accept a compliment). Methods of teaching these skills will be introduced.
Finally, this presentation will present how to integrate the lessons into a conversation
course. A list of resource books and websites will also be provided.

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW:
1. WHY do we need to teach conversation strategy?
2. WHAT do we need to teach?
3. WHERE can we find materials?
4. HOW can we teach it?
5. Sample activity
6. Questions

1. WHY do we need to teach conversation strategy?

a. CS Definitions
i. "potentially conscious plans for solving… a problem in reaching a
particular communicative goal" (Faerch & Kasper, 1984, p. 47).
ii. "patterns of acts that serve to attain certain outcomes and guard
against certain others" (Smith & Meux, cited in Van Lier, 1988, p.
30).
iii. "any conscious methods that result in communication"
(Riggenbach, 1998, p. 12).
b. What the experts and the research say
i. Whether you are using Communicative Language Teaching
(interaction is both the means and goal of learning a language) or
 Task-Based Learning, strategies, skills, specific language structure
(i.e. gambits) and helpful because they facilitate interaction
ii. Helps in “preparing students for spontaneous communication”
(Dornyei, 1994)
iii. Richards (1990) (as quoted in Dornyei) – The Direct Approach
“involves planning a conversation programme around the specific
microskills, strategies, and processes that are involved in fluent
conversation.”
iv. By incorporating CS into your lessons you can add FUNCTION,
not just FORM of the language
2. WHAT do we need to teach?
a. Very often strategy is combined with some set rules and language
(structure)
b. They are also skills that can be taught, practiced, and improved over time
c. See attached list of strategy and skills
3. WHERE can we find materials?
a. CS materials are scarce
b. Recommended book: Conversation Gambits by Eric Keller & Sylvia
Townsend
c. Recommended article: Teaching Conversation Skills Intensively: Course
Content and Rationale by Dornyei & Thurrell (1994)
d. My website: www.tesoljeff.com
e. Examine your own students’ failures
4. HOW can we teach it?
a. Dornyei & Thurrell (1994) promote 3 basic ideas
i. Specific language
ii. Increase consciousness raising – helps them learn faster
iii. Sequencing – and recycling
1. Role play disagreeing politely
2. Add interruptions to the same role-play
3. Same conversation but now on a bad phone line so it
requires clarification questions
b. How to integrate them into a course
i. Start with some important ones that they can use throughout the
semester
1. Openings + Small talk
2. Compliments (because they are good openers!)
3. Interrupting
ii. As always, what do your students need / want to learn?
c. Short and sweet – most of mine are 15-30 minutes long
i. Warm-up / Introduce a topic
ii. Fill out a lesson
iii. Complement regular material
d. Final Tips
i. Don’t overwhelm
ii. Recycle
 MOST IMPORTANT STRATEGY & SKILLS
(adapted from various sources)

Opening a conversation
 Greetings, comments on something present, weather, general complaints,
compliments, social lines

Closing a conversation
 Excuses, blaming, general wish, positive comment, thanks, reconfirming plans,
reached the goal

Changing the subject

Adjacency pairs – “What’s up?” ~ “Not much.”

Choosing conversation topics – What is appropriate / inappropriate?

Turn-taking

Interrupting – also how to refuse an interruption

Approximation & Circumlocution – talking around something

Topic avoidance

Appealing for help with the language – “What do you call that thing…?”

Checking comprehension – “Are you with me?”

Interpretive summary – “Do you mean…?”

Fillers & pauses – “Um… er… well… the thing is…”

Agreeing & Disagreeing

Requests (both asking and declining) – levels of politeness, making excuses

Giving & receiving compliments – see sample activity

Self-correcting – “What I meant was…”

Non-verbal – gestures, etc.

Making small talk

MORE SPECIFIC LANGUAGE & STRATEGY

Strength of opinions – “I’m absolutely sure.” vs. “It could be”

Telling secrets / refuting gossip – “Where’d you hear that?!”

Better ways of saying “I don’t know” – “Beats me.”

Surprise / disbelief – “Get outta here!”

Returning to the subject – “Where was I?”

Pointing out the positive side - “At least…”

Softening your comments -“sort of”

Thingamajig and other approximation words

Expressing reservations – “I know what you mean, but…”

Breaking into a group conversation

DON’T FORGET GENERAL CONVERSATION TIPS!

Ask open-ended questions
Don’t dominate

Listen sincerely
Pay attention

Include other people
Be positive
REFERENCES:

Dörnyei, Z., & Thurrell, S. 1994. Teaching conversational skills intensively: Course
content and rationale. ELT Journal, 48, 40-49.

Faerch, C., & Kasper, G. (1984). Two ways of defining communication strategies.
Language Learning 34(1), 45-47.

Keller, E. and S. Townsend Warner. 1988. Conversation Gambits. Language Teaching

Publications.

McCarthy, M., McCarten. J., and Sandiford, H. 2005. Touchstone. Cambridge University
Press.

Richards, J.C. 1990. The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge University Press.

Riggenbach, H. (1998). Discourse analysis in the language classroom, Volume 1: The

spoken language. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Van Lier, L. (1988). The classroom and the language learner. London: Longman.

SUGGESTED READING:

Dörnyei, Z., & Scott, M. L. (1997). Communication strategies in a second language:

Definitions and taxonomies. Language Learning, 47(1), 173-209.

Dörnyei, Z., & Thurrell, S. (1991). Strategic competence and how to teach it. ELT
Journal, 45(1), 16-23.

Dörnyei, Z., & Thurrell, S. (1992). Conversation and dialogues in action. New York:
Prentice Hall.

Ellis, G., & Sinclair, B. (1989). Learning to learn English: A course in learner training.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kehe, D. and Kehe, P. 2004. Conversation Strategies: Pair and Group Activities for
Developing Communicative Competence. Pro Lingua Associates.

Nolasco, R., & Arthur, L. (1987). Conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scattergood, E. 2003. Encouraging the Use of Strategies to Improve Communication in

the EFL Classroom. The Language Teacher, 27 (6).
 A No Way!
There are lots of ways to show surprise and / or disbelief.

No way! For real? (sounds like freal)

Really? Get out of (outta)here!
here!
Are you serious? I can’t believe that.
Are you pulling my leg? Come on.

ACTIVITY: Work with a partner. Use phrases from above.

Did you know that…?

ANIMALS
• A crocodile can’t stick its tongue out.
• Cheetahs can’t retract their claws.
• A blue whale’s tongue weighs as much as a whole elephant.
• Giraffes and humans have the same number of bones in their necks: seven.
• All clams are born as males.
• No two zebras have stripes that are exactly the same.

HISTORY / CULTURE / TRAVEL

• Coffee first came from Ethiopia.
• Ancient Egyptians used stone pillows.
• Africa has 2,000 languages.
• A man traveled from Maine to Florida on a lawnmower. (It took 260 days.)
 •

B No Way!
There are lots of ways to show surprise and / or disbelief.

No way! For real? (sounds like freal)

Really? Get out of (outta)here
here!
Are you serious? I can’t believe that.
Are you pulling my leg? Come on.

ACTIVITY: Work with a partner. Use phrases from above.

Did you know that…?

MOVIES
• Johnny Depp dropped out of school at age 15
• Bruce Lee was an American.
• Nicholas Cage’s real name is Nicholas Coppola (His uncle is famous director Francis
Ford Coppola.)
• Sean Connery wore a toupee in every James Bond film
• Jean Claude Van-Damme
Damme speaks five languages.

HEALTH
• A sneeze travels up to 166 km/hr.
• You can't tickle yourself.
• We exercise at least 30 muscles when we smile.
• Right-handed peoplee live nine years longer than left-handed people.
• You cannot lick your elbow (but you will try!)