Teaching Conversational Skills Communication / Social Skills – Tips and Strategies
At a Glance Students will: ü focus on correct production skills in conversation ü improve conversational skills when supporting a point of view		Purpose: to build confidence in expressing opinions by first becoming confident in using in English in conversation Materials: 1 handout based on the topic of debate Preparation: 10 minutes to copy the handout Time: 60 – 90 minutes
Teacher’s Notes	Procedure Use this procedure with any topic of debate 1. Review language used when expressing opinions, disagreeing, making comments on other person's point of view, etc. (See work sheet and additional lessons in Communication & Social Skills on these topics) 2. Discuss the topic of the day in general terms (What is a…). 3. Ask students for opinions on the statement of the debate. Give examples of a commonly held opinion and ask if they agree or not. 4. Based on students' responses, divide groups up into two groups. One group arguing for, one group against the statement being debated. Important: Make sure that people are put into the group with the opposite opinion of what they seemed to believe in the warm-up conversation. 5. Give students worksheets including ideas pro and con. Have students develop arguments using the ideas on the worksheet as a springboard for further ideas and discussion. 6. Once students have prepared their opening arguments, begin with the debate. Each team has 5 minutes to present their principal ideas. 7. Have students prepare notes and make rebuttal to the expressed opinions. 8. While the debate is in progress, take notes on common errors (grammatical, pronunciation, culture) made by the students. 9. At the end of debate, take time for a short focus on common mistakes. This is important, as students should not be too involved emotionally and therefore will be quite capable of recognizing language problems - as opposed to problems in beliefs!

Communication / Social Skills Teaching Conversational Skills - Tips and Strategies
Teacher’s Notes	Some students are often timid in expressing their viewpoints. This seems due to a number of reasons: Students don't have an opinion on the subject Students have an opinion, but are worried about what the other students might say or think Students have an opinion, but don't feel they can say exactly what they mean Students begin giving their opinion, but want to state it in the same eloquent manner that they are capable of in their native language Other, more actively participating students, feel confident in their opinions and express them eloquently making the less confident students more timid Pragmatically, conversation lessons and exercises are intended to improve conversational skills. For this reason, it can be helpful to first focus on building skills by eliminating some of the barriers that might be in the way of production. Having been assigned roles, opinions and points of view that they do not necessarily share, students are freed from having to express their own opinions. Therefore, they can focus on expressing themselves well in English. In this way, students tend to concentrate more on production skills, and less on factual content. They also are less likely to insist on literal translations from their mother tongue. Implementing this approach can begin slowly by providing students with short role plays using cue cards. Once students become comfortable with target structures and representing differing points of view, classes can move onto more elaborated exercises such as debates and group decision making activities. This approach bears fruit especially when debating opposing points of view. By representing opposing points of view, students' imagination are activated by trying to focus on all the various points that an opposing stand on any given issue may take. As students inherently do not agree with the view they represent, they are freed from having to invest emotionally in the statements they make. More importantly, from a pragmatic point of view, students tend to focus more on correct function and structure when they do not become too emotionally involved in what they are saying. Of course, this is not to say that students should not express their own opinions. After all, when students go out into the "real" world they will want to say what they mean. However, taking out the personal investment factor can help students first become more confident in using English. Once this confidence is gained, students - especially timid students - will be more self-assured when expressing their own points of view. Follow-up / Transfer Activities: See Conversation Lessons 1 and 2 for topic of debate ideas	Additional Resources See the Internel TESL Journal web page for Conversation Questions and links for teaching tips http://iteslj.org/questions/