Practicing dialogues is a great way for English students to test their skills and develop a better grasp of the language. Dialogues are useful for a number of reasons:
- Dialogues provide models on which students can base their own conversations.
- Dialogues force students to focus on language production in a way that helps them practice correct usage.
- Student-created dialogues can be used to encourage creativity.
- Dialogues can be used as a basis for listening comprehension exercises.
Using dialogues to help students develop their conversation skills is a common practice in most English classes. There are a number of different ways to go about incorporating dialogues into classroom activities. The suggestions below encourage students to role-play and practice new tenses, structures, and language functions. Once students become familiar with these new language elements, they can then use the dialogues as models to practice writing and speaking on their own.
Vocabulary Exercises
Using dialogues can help students become familiar with standard formulas used to discuss different topics. This is especially helpful when practicing new idioms and expressions. While these expressions might be easy to understand on their own, introducing them through dialogues can help students immediately put the new vocabulary into practice.
Divide students into pairs and give each pair a topic to talk about. Challenge each student to incorporate a few given idioms or expressions into their dialogue before time runs out.
Gap Fill Exercises
Dialogues are perfect for gap fill exercises. For example, take a sample dialogue and delete keywords and phrases from the text. Choose a pair of students to read the dialogue to the rest of class. Then ask the other students to fill in the missing words and phrases. You can also have students create their own sample dialogues and quiz each other to see how well they can fill in the blanks.
Dialogues for Roleplaying and Acting
Having students write dialogues for short scenes or soap operas helps them focus on correct expressions, analyze language, and develop their writing skills. Once students have completed their scripts, have them act out their scenes and skits for the rest of the class.
Dialogue Dictations
Have students write sample dialogues for popular TV shows such as The Simpsons or The Office. Alternatively, write a script together as a class, and have each student be responsible for a particular character. This exercise gives students time to pay attention to details as the plot moves forward.
Memorizing Dialogues
Have students memorize simple dialogues as a way to help them improve their vocabulary skills. While old-fashioned, this type of rote work can help students build good habits as their English skills improve.
Open-Ended Dialogues
Create sample dialogues that show the words of only one speaker. Then have students complete the dialogues using a list of responses you've provided. Another variation is to provide only the beginning or end of a sentence for each speaker. Completing this type of open-ended dialogue can provide a bigger challenge for upper-level English learners.
Recreating Scenes
Have students re-create their favorite scenes from different movies. Ask a group of volunteers to act out a scene in front of the class, then compare their version to the original.
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eLearning BlundersBlunder: a stupid or careless mistake. Alternative words: mistake, error, gaffe, fault, slip, oversight, inaccuracy, botch. This post was inspired by David Anderson’s eLearning challenge: Death, Taxes and E-Learning Mistakes. The purpose of the challenge was to highlight blunders found in eLearning courses and Articulate Community members provided many great examples of what not to do.English-learning resources by type - dialoguesSubject & title: Practical English: Air TravelReservations (airline) / Do you have any flights to Sydney next Tuesday afternoon? Resource type: Dialogue, with audio Level: Pre-intermediate Practical English: Air TravelConfirmation of flight reservation / I´d like to reconfirm my flight Resource type: Dialogue, with audio Level: Pre-intermediate Practical English: Air TravelAt passport control / Do you have a return ticket? Resource type: Dialogue, with audio Level: Pre-intermediate
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Your adult students crave conversation more than anything else.
Career-minded businesspeople, retirees and young adults itching to travel, immigrants living in a new country—they all want practical English that will keep them involved a meaningful discussion and not sidelined by the inability to engage.
A bit of conversation in the classroom goes a long way.
Listening, developing responses and putting critical English thinking caps on are among the trending skills that adult ESL students really want.
These are the skills that will let them get out there, survive on their own, navigate new places, meet new people and get anything done.
Give your adult students what they yearn for by utilizing a few, or all, of these fetching adult conversation lessons!
What Sets Adult Conversation Lessons Apart?
It is simple. Adult ESL lessons are often geared toward learning English for a specific purpose.
Career advancement is often the most common reason adult ESL learners will fill the seats of your classroom. There is usually a balance of these ladder climbers and general English learners (learning for learning’s sake) coupled with those who need English for conversation with family, friends, partners and natives met during travels.
As noted earlier, the element of travel may definitely be a motive for adults to take up English. You may have a handful of retirees breach your door’s threshold in search of vital travel English for their upcoming trip, or young adults ready to see the whole world.
So, combining the business topics with more general interest topics will give your adult ESL students the essential skills they need to communicate effectively with foreign friends, family, colleagues and/or clients.
When teaching adult ESL students, it is important to focus on practical English vocabulary. You want your adult students to be able to communicate efficiently, be understood and have the vocabulary comprehension to soak up sentences they may have outside the classroom. You may need to introduce a few words or phrases that may not be so grammatically sound, but that is all right for your adult students.
It is also vital to focus on practical conversations in your adult ESL lessons. Think about your own personal conversations with colleagues, clients, friends and family. What do you talk about? What type of language or tone do you use in different conversational settings? Recording a few of your daily conversations could make a great deal of difference to you and your adult students when reviewing native English conversations in class.
How to Develop Conversation Skills with English Levels in Mind
During your career as an ESL teacher, you may find a myriad of diverse adult students, with diverse skills and needs, filling the spaces around your classroom table.
The degree of challenge you will implement in your adult conversation lessons will most certainly depend on your students’ levels.
The differences in vocabulary may not be so different, but the sentence construction and focus on grammar might be. For example, while focusing on the words “job” and “work” with your students, the context, depth and sentence structure for each word may vary. For example:
- For beginner adult students: What is your job?
- For intermediate adult students: Do you enjoy your job?
- For advanced adult students: What is the single greatest joy of your current job?
You can see the difference in how you would interact with your students in conversation.
Regardless of the level of language you are teaching, the emphasis on introducing vocabulary with context and practical usage for the future is quite possibly the most foundational aspect of teaching adult ESL conversation lessons.
Let’s take a look at five wonderful ways to converse effectively with your adult students of different English levels using various topics.
1. Talking Jobs
This conversation lesson is exceptional for your beginner adult students. It implements key vocabulary that is easy to follow while discussing the target topics of work, jobs, likes and dislikes. The essential ESL skills that are built during this lesson include reading, listening, communication, informative discussion, vocabulary and developing questions and answers that bolster practical conversation.
You will first focus on the reading and listening comprehension involved in this activity. Your beginner students will read a short text, after you read it out loud first in order to develop listening skills vital to conversation.
Sample Text:
Tom is a banker. He works banking hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the National Bank of Ohio. Tom truly likes his job and attended university for his degree in finance and accounting. Tom really likes his colleagues. He likes working with them, and he likes discussing their weekend experiences on Monday morning with them too. Tom also likes the people who come to the bank, especially his regulars.
Sample Comprehension Questions:
- What is Tom’s job?
- Where does he work?
- What does he like about his job?
- Did Tom go to university for his job?
- What did Tom study?
The simplicity of the comprehension questions is important for your beginner students. You want to keep them engaged without discouraging them with challenging questions right out of the gate. Here are a few more examples for this beginner conversation lesson here.
Now that your students have a handle on Tom’s job and can answer questions relating to it, open the floor for them to discuss their work. This is when the practical conversation comes into play.
Ask them about their work. Even if you have already discussed these topics, your students are much more warmed up this time around. You can also record the follow-up discussion and discuss that with your students later.
Sample Conversation Questions:
- Would you like Tom’s job? Why or why not?
- Do you like your job? Why or why not?
- What do you like about your work?
- What don’t you like about your work?
- What are some different jobs done by your colleagues?
2. Grocery Shopping
Conducting a grocery shopping ESL lesson with your adult students may seem elementary, but it is a daily task that is actually a large part of how your student may navigate simple conversation.
If your students begin to doubt your abilities when you mention this lesson, thinking it seems like far too simple a topic to need covering in class, take those students to the grocery store—or make up a faux grocery store in your classroom with printed pictures and food items—and begin asking them multiple questions in English. They will soon find the importance of such a seemingly simple lesson.
For this conversation lesson, you will need to build a dialogue surrounding grocery shopping. Maybe you could even record your next shopping experience with a friend or family member to get some more creative ideas as well, capturing things that naturally unfold during a routine shopping trip.
Communication, dialogue, vocabulary building and snappy English thought are all ESL skills represented in this wonderful conversation lesson for your adult students.
Sample Dialogue:
A: What do we need to get?
B: I forgot our shopping list at home.
A: Are you serious? Don’t joke with me.
Easy Conversation Practice Speaking English
B: I did, I am really sorry. Can’t believe I did that again.
A: Well, I think we need carrots, chicken, butter…
B: And milk and eggs, don’t forget those.
A: Right!
B: Should we get ice cream?
A: Remember the last time we got ice cream? It was delicious, but we ate too much!
The value of this example dialogue is to show your students how many questions and answers are commonly found in English conversation. People will often ask you things, from the small to the very, very big.
It also highlights areas of not so proper grammar, but is still how many native English speakers converse.
Sample Comprehension Questions:
- What are these people doing?
- What did they forget to bring to the store?
- Have they forgotten the shopping list before?
- What did they need to buy?
- Do they want ice cream?
Once you and your students have built a solid foundation of understanding with these questions, practicing with a few great dialogue scripts, like this similar example you can also use, takes it all to a real-world level.
As suggested before, at this point you could accompany your students to a grocery store or create a pretend grocery store in your classroom. Either way, this is a great environment to begin a natural, free-flowing discussion surrounding shopping, cooking, what they eat normally or any other related topic that comes to mind.
Sample Conversation Questions:
- What do you normally get for food?
- Do you buy everything for the week? For the month? Or do you shop daily? Why?
- How do you choose your carrots, peppers, chicken?
- Do you normally shop alone or with someone? Why?
- Have you ever talked to anyone at the grocery store, and what did you talk about?
3. Superstitions
This conversation lesson has plenty of discussion opportunities built into it.
Discussing superstitions, especially the bizarre ones, can bring about all sorts of colorful conversations. This lesson is excellent for your intermediate adult students with a focus on new vocabulary, discussion, reading, listening, opinions, storytelling and creative English expression.
First, you will want to set the stage for the superstition communication to take place. It is possible that your students know what superstitions are, but have never known the word to describe them until now.
Sample Conversation Questions:
- Do you believe in superstitions?
- Do you believe in luck?
- Are there certain people, places, things or events that are lucky or unlucky?
- Do you believe in ghosts or spirits from another dimension?
- What are some superstitions from your culture?
- What is the most strange, unbelievable superstition you have ever heard?
Since superstitions are rarely discussed in English classrooms, the vocabulary and conversation will evoke some serious English brain fuel to get things moving in the right direction. However, once it does, everything will begin to flow smoothly and so will the conversation!
Once the concept of superstition is developed, begin introducing some new superstitions that will provoke more discussion between students.
Pair your students up and give each pair a worksheet with several superstitions and their meanings. Each superstition will have a few questions your paired up students can utilize to spark up practical and inventive conversation.
Sample Conversation Questions Based On Common Superstitions:
- It is bad luck to put your hat on a bed. Have you ever put your hat on a bed? Do you do that a lot? Do you believe in this superstition? Will you put your hat on a bed now that you know about this superstition?
- To avoid bad luck, you should knock on wood when good fortune is brought up. Have you seen anyone do this? Have you done this before? What would you knock on if you can’t find wood? Do you believe in this superstition?
- A ringing ear means someone is thinking about you. Do you think this is true? How will this change your perspective when your ear rings?
- Breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck. Have you ever broken a mirror? Do you believe in this superstition? Why or why not?
You could even fold a personal writing activity into this lesson, having students dictate their conversation partners’ answers to the questions. You can utilize these great superstition examples for developing this lesson plan further.
4. Career Cache
This lesson is similar to the beginner lesson previously discussed. However, this lesson is more concentrated for listening comprehension, a valuable ESL skill in communication, and wonderful for your intermediate adult students.
The ESL skills involved in this conversation lesson include listening, communication, English thought and expression when answering questions during discussion.
For this lesson, you will need to develop a few short paragraphs explaining different people’s careers, similar to the previous beginner conversation lesson on jobs and work, but more robust in description.
First you will read the short career captions, having your students listen only. This will allow them to hone those vital listening skills! There are plenty of excellent examples you can draw from on the Internet, like this one, to make this lesson a home run for your adult students.
Sample Text:
Harry is a firefighter and he loves his demanding job. Harry wakes up very early in the morning, at around 5 a.m. on the days he works and drives 30 minutes to the fire station in downtown Los Angeles. He needs to know a lot about different firefighter techniques and tools. He also needs to have basic medical knowledge for emergencies. He really likes his fellow firefighters, especially Larry, his best friend. They completed firefighter training together. Harry works 24 hours straight and is then off of work for two days.
Sample Comprehension Questions:
- What does Harry do for work?
- Does he like his job?
- What does Larry do for work?
- At around what time does Harry need to get up on working days?
- Does Harry like his colleagues?
- What skills does Harry need to perform his job effectively?
- How long is Harry’s shift at the fire station?
You can develop several of these career-minded paragraphs and comprehension questions. After a few, let your students develop a short paragraph about their careers and have them read them out loud to you or to partners.
Break them down into pairs (if they are not already in pairs) and have them listen to each other’s job descriptions while they read them aloud again. Then they should take turns asking each other questions about those job descriptions.
Then your students can ask you a few comprehension questions to spark more conversation during this communicative conversation lesson.
5. Coffee Table Controversy
This conversation lesson is perfect for your advanced students ready to discuss current events that may be controversial and trending on various news outlets.
The ESL skills your advanced adult students will gain from this exceptional communication building lesson are reading, listening, English expression, critical English thought, vocabulary and advanced grammar. You may even find it useful to add a few idioms or phrasal verbs as well, depending on your students’ comfort levels.
First you will need to find a controversial issue that may be of importance to your students. It is always a wonderful idea to find a topic that relates and/or will be of interest in order to keep your class engaged. You can use utilize the below example or check out this link for more great ideas.
Sample Text:
The overfishing of the Pacific Ocean has become a very serious debate over the last few decades. Asian countries have been the brunt of much negative press after fishing vessels in the Pacific pull up giant whales for the fishery market. Many North American and European activists are wholeheartedly against the business of catching and killing whales for food. However, many Asian countries maintain that it is part of their culture and subsistence practices.
Sample Conversation Questions:
- Does your culture eat any food that may be controversial to other cultures? What kind of food? Have you had this experience?
- Do you think it is right for whales to be killed for food and/or science? Why or why not?
- What are your thoughts about other countries trying to stop the Asian fish industry from catching whales? Do you think it is just, or is it an intrusion on their culture?
- Do you think catching whales for food is the same as beef markets in North America and Europe?
Developing conversation lessons for your adult ESL class is essential to the growth and success of your students, both in language learning and professionally.
They will have the exceptional support and knowledge of you while they navigate practical adult conversations that will keep them in the discussion at work with colleagues and clients.
Your students will also develop faster response times to questions and begin honing their listening skills as conversations happen in real time, just like a native speaker. Adobe after effects crack 2018.
And One More Thing…
Searching for fun, authentic videos to introduce your students to English conversation? Check out FluentU!
It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities. You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.
On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!
The full FluentU video library is available on any computer or tablet, and users can even download the app at the iTunes and Google Play store.
Stephen Seifert is a writer, editor, professor of English and adventurer. With over 8 years of teaching experience to students worldwide, he enjoys the many aspects of culture and traditions different from his own. Stephen continues his search for writing inspiration, boldly enjoying life to the fullest.
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
“All right everyone, pair up!”
This sentence can be met in many ways.
Blank stares. Two class troublemakers reaching for each other’s hands.
The shy kid in the class trying very hard to become invisible.
It’s no secret, getting students to work well in pairs can be hard, and it doesn’t stop with just having them pair up.
ESL students doing pair activities can often try to skive off doing the activity at hand. Shyer students can be tempted to let their partner do all the work.
As far as the teacher is concerned, it can be tough making sure that the students who are actually working are speaking correctly.
Well, it’s time for all those problems to be ancient history. Here, you’ll find the ultimate guide to perfect pair work.
Techniques for ESL Pair Work
The first mistake many teachers make when assigning pair work is letting students choose their pairs.
While that may be fun for those in the class who are already friends, your job as the teacher is to assess each student’s strengths and weaknesses and put them with someone they can work with well. In other words: you make the pairs.
If you know that two students are particularly good at conjugation, it might be interesting to put them together so that they have a real challenge. If one student is exceptionally shy, don’t stick them with the class loudmouth; they’ll only be overshadowed.
The best way to set up pair work in the classroom is to allow no expectations amongst students that they’ll be picking their own partners.
“We’re going to go about this activity in pairs! Sasha with Kevin. Lucy with Mary.”
By making it obvious that you’ll be the one deciding who works with whom, no one will get upset or try to fuss.
Once the pairs have been established, it’s time for your most important role: monitoring pair work.
While most pair work should finish with a group discussion or individual evaluation, the purpose of the pair work is lost if you aren’t listening and gently correcting. While you should be wary of over-correcting and silencing a student, do wander the room, listening for errors that you know a student can correct him or herself. Then you can gently remind the student how to properly use that language.
This serves two purposes: not only does it reinforce correct use of English, but it also ensures that students know you’re listening. This way, they’re sure to give the pair work activity their all. Chicago free ged classes.
Easy Conversation Questions For Esl Students
Not all classroom activities are designed for pair work. The best time to use pair work is during oral activities, as these activities allow students to get more speaking time than they would in a class setting.
But you can’t just ask students to talk to each other for two minutes—you need a bit more structure than that!
Here are 7 great ESL pair work activities that you can use in a variety of ways to get your students talking.
1. Investigative Journalist
Investigative journalist is a classic pair work activity for a reason: it works!
It can be used in a variety of scenarios and tailored according to specific grammar or vocabulary points that you’ve been reviewing in class.
The basis of investigative journalist is for students to interview one another in pairs and present their findings. It can be used for groups at all skill levels from beginning to advanced, as long as you tailor it to their levels.
Beginners may do a simple version, asking their partners about their family structure, favorite colors and foods, pets and hobbies. Intermediate students could use investigative journalist to practice past tense structures by asking about their interlocutor’s childhood. Advanced students might benefit from a murder mystery version of the game, where each student is assigned a character to play and the game concludes with the “murderer” being sussed out as a result of the questions.
A great way to prepare students for this versatile activity, no matter their level, is with authentic videos of English conversations. Tools like FluentU offer fun, real-world English videos they can watch either once you’ve paired them up, or ahead of class for homework.
The FluentU videos are all organized by level and come with interactive captions, flashcards and exercises to help students pick up new words as they watch. Through these supercharged English dialogues, news reports, interviews, movie clips and more, they’ll get comfortable with the types of basic English conversations investigative journalist requires.
Have fun with this game, and remember: if you give your students the tools to succeed, they’ll surprise you!
2. Debate
Debate is another classic that can incorporate pair or group work, depending on the size of your class. Create groups and assign each group or pair a side of an argument. Use pair work time to allow students to develop their argument and conclude with a class-wide debate.
Debate is made even more interesting when you present students with authentic materials to use as support for their claims.
3. What’s Your Secret?
What’s your secret? is a pair work activity that truly involves the whole class. In this game, which is a play on investigative journalist, each student writes a secret down on a piece of paper, things like: “I play the clarinet.” or “I have a twin.” The papers are placed in a hat and each student draws one: that’s where the game begins.
What’s your secret? can either be played by allowing students to mill about the classroom freely or by setting up a speed dating scenario, where each pair has 1 minute to speak before rotating. Students may ask one another yes/no questions—they may not ask directly if what’s on the piece of paper is true about them or not.
Students then must guess to whom the secret they drew belongs.
4. It’s Your Turn: Teach a Class!
Teach a class! is a fun activity for advanced ESL students. In this activity, you assign each pair a grammar, vocab or culture point that they’ll have to teach to the class. The pair works together to prepare activities and lesson plans and teaches the point to the class.
Unlike many of these other activities, the conclusion portion of this activity is built right in: when the pair teaches the class, the teacher should play the role of the student, but you may evaluate the lesson at the end and feel free to correct any mistakes the “teachers” make!
5. Following Directions
Following directions is an interesting game that offers a change from classroom routine.
In this game, each student in the pair draws a picture, keeping their paper shielded from the eyes of their partner. Ideally, pictures should be fairly geometric. Once the picture is complete, they explain to their partner, using words only, how to replicate the image.
For example, if a student has drawn the stereotypical square house with a triangle roof, he might say: “Draw a square in the middle of the paper that’s about a third of the size of the paper. Draw an equilateral triangle on top of the square, using the top side of the square as the bottom side of the triangle.”
The goal of this game is for each partner to replicate the other’s drawing going by these spoken directions.
6. Games! Yes, No
Many pair work activities can feel like games, but sometimes it’s fun to introduce some real games into the mix.
Yes, no is a game where the only two words that students aren’t allowed to say are yes and no. Pair students off and play. When a student loses, he or she is out and the winning partner is paired with another winning partner. In this way, you can create a tournament of yes, no.
Other versions of the game also forbid “maybe” and “I.” Consider these versions when the game is lasting too long or students need an extra challenge.
7. Games! Guess Who
Guess who is a version of 20 questions that focuses entirely on people.
Students draw the name of a famous person out of a hat (you’ll need to prepare these slips in advance!) and their partner tries to guess who’s on the paper by asking a series of yes/no questions.
Like yes, no, guess who can be turned into a tournament-style game.
Concluding a Pair Work Activity
Remember: a pair work activity isn’t a lesson in and of itself.
There should be a brief introduction, letting students know what you expect them to do during the activity.
There should especially be a conclusion. Be sure to budget it into your class time or the pair work activity will be useless.
During your conclusion, you should gather the information gleaned during the activity and go through it as a group. This will allow you to correct errors and it’ll also allow students to learn from their peers.
Many pair work activities also benefit from being followed up by an individual activity such as a written response, worksheet for homework or short oral presentation to the group presenting the student’s findings.
Once you’ve mastered the art of pair work, your students will be speaking up (and correctly!) before you know it!
And One More Thing…
Want your students to learn more about how native English speakers talk? Check out FluentU! FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.
It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities. You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.
On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.