Interrupting Lesson Communication & Social Skills Ideas for Practising Functional Expressions
At a Glance Students will: ü develop fluency with functional expressions ü develop metacognition skills ü learn about the cultural aspect of participating in conversation ü practise listening skills		Purpose: To develop fluency with functional expressions; especially preventing interruptions, interrupting politely. Materials: Handout Functional Expressions 3. Preparation: (5 minutes) photocopy handouts for students Time: initially, one class period; can be used as a short exercise in following classes.
Teacher’s Notes	Procedure 1. Introduce the expressions in Functional Expressions 3. 2. Ask students how to interrupt politely. Find out if there are any particular gestures or body language that accompany preventing interruptions (talking louder, looking down/up, waving a hand, pointing…) and interrupting politely. 3. Practice intonation and discuss the appropriateness of each expression, depending on the circumstances. 4. Write topics on the board with three different opinions. Examples: Population Control: It is positive for society. It is a violation of personal freedom. It has a negative effect on the family. Smoking: There should be no smoking in public places. There should be no government interference on personal freedoms. Smoking should be illegal. 5. Divide the class into groups of 3-4. Each group will decide on a topic and each student will take an opinion, even if they don’t believe it. 6. Everyone must try to interrupt and the other people must try to prevent the interruption. 7. Give the groups 5-8 minutes. Discuss the difficulties of this exercise.

Communication & Social Skills Interruptions: Prevention & Politeness
Teacher’s Notes	Lesson Extension Functional Expressions are useful to introduce at the beginning of a course as students can be practicing them in a controlled environment in the class. Target only a few of the functional expressions at any time until students are comfortable with them. 4. Have your students develop the topics and opinions through a writing assignment in an earlier class. Group Discussion Skills: See Teaching Conversational Skills: Tips and Strategies. Giving an Opinion see Functional Expressions Handouts. Follow-up / Transfer Activities: 1. Provide content area teachers with copies of the functional expressions to facilitate discussions in their classes. These are useful skills for everyone, not just ESL students. 2. Watch a debate and have students identify how the participants interrupt and prevent interruption. 3. Pay attention to the expressions you use in the class to interrupt or prevent interruption. Point out to the students what you are doing. Adapted from ESL for Health Professionals: A Resource for Integrating Medical Terminology with Language Skill Development, by Monica Wiest, for Adult Language Training Branch, Manitoba Labour & Immigration, 1999.	Additional Resources http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/xla/ela15a.html for more suggestions on how to practice particular types of speaking. See Final Report “How We Do Things Around Here…” Literature Review, sections ii, iii, iv and Main Findings & Analysis, especially section C, iii. Provide Content Area Teachers with section III, Guide to Teachers.