Week 5: Update on Conversation in Class -- weeks 7/8/9

William Perry teaches oral communication at Kobe University, using CiC and the Immediate Method. He was kind enough to write down what he has been doing recently and to send it to us, together with the documents he used in class. Thanks a lot, Bill!
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Update on Conversation in Class -- weeks 7/8/9

I have finished the second round of conversation tests and will be doing two more by the end of the semester.

I wanted to let you know about the written conversation test that I gave my classes (attached Word file). I thought I could give the students a chance to show their conversation skills in writing once during the semester. They were to use the Golden Rules in answering the questions in a conversational style. There was also a vocabulary test in the form of a crossword puzzle (also attached). It took the students a little bit more than 30 minutes to complete the two tests and it took about an hour for me to correct the tests from one class. I think it was worth the time to do this kind of a test. The students in some classes had trouble with Golden Rule 2 -- I wrote "more" after each minimal exchange. In response to the question "Could you tell me a bit about your family?", some wrote "Yes" and that was all. "Do you like sports?" "Yes." It gave me yet another chance to emphasize the importance of long, rich answers. I think they got the point because when we did the next activity, they said a lot!

The grades for the semester will be based on 4 conversation tests (each worth 20 points), one written test (10 points) and a book-check (10 points) to make sure they have done all of the exercises from the units we have covered and have checked them with the answers on my website. The book-check 10 points also include attendance and participation.

The second test was so much better than the first one. I worked with my 40+ classes in groups of 3 this time and told them that they only had to come for their tests (10 minutes of class time). Of course they all had to practice, so nearly all of the students came on the two test days. The room was quieter, so I had no trouble hearing the students in the test, and using groups of 3 gave them a better chance to perform autonomously. Nearly everyone went up a point (14 to 15) and some went up two points. Clear leadership roles emerged, too, because they had to direct the conversation. If things got quiet, if I was interested in adding something or if I could tell that it was memorized stuff, I intervened. I didn't have to do it very often, though. We just finished preparing for 4a/4b and 5a/5b tests. They will have to be ready to do either topic -- a coin toss will decide. To prepare for these topics, we did interview practice on part-time jobs and schedules (each student had to do detailed interviews of four other students (applying GR #2). The first interview was set by same color, same number playing cards and then they could choose the other 3. Everything had to be done in English and written down. The activity worked well and certainly prepared them for the conversation test. We did information-gap drawing of people wearing different kinds of clothes and in different poses to prepare for 5a/5b. They used lots of expressions related to what people were wearing and seemed to have a lot of fun. I also gave them time in groups to practice the structures from 5a/5b.

Finally, for the last conversation test, they will work with the same group of three, again for 10 minutes. They can choose any two lessons that we haven't covered in class for the last test. They have to tell me a week ahead of time at the preparation session. Should be fun.
Bill

Link:
Mid-term%20written%20conv.doc
crossword-family.tiff
crossword-family_solution.tiff