Conversational Structure

Today, in class we learnt how to structure a conversation.

If the question is; what did you do today in Jean's class, then the format of the response should be something similar to:

General - well, today I learnt about text language

Detail - for example, emoticons and shortened language

Feelings - yeah, it was quite hard, but I could understand it in the end

Conclusion - yeah, so that's what we did, yeah - how was your day?

The students practised these conversations in pairs and then did line-ups.

Conversations

The Game on Saturday Night

What did you think on Saturday?

What did you think of the game on Saturday?

un...It`s

I like Toshiaki`s haka more than the real Haka because Toshiaki`s haka is funny and yucky!!

I love the Allblacks because they had a haka and when I watched the game I was cheering um so it was very very exciting!! But the All blacks lost the game, so I felt a little sad. My throat was sore because I did a lot of cheering.

was cheering go blacks waving but when I go to the bath room it was very troublesome and sad so I couldn't see the Allblacks try. Then the Allblacks lost. I could spend a good time.That is about it.

It was a lot fun . Of course I saw the game the Allblacks and France.The children were very cute.The All blacks and France players were very dangerous.

I felt a little sad.

The body guards tackled one of the supporters, so I thought that it was really funny. Everybody laughed and took photos. Some people were also fighting because they were Allblacks supporters and they were angry, but I don't know why they were fighting.

New Zealand supporters throw beer cans, or bottles, so it's very dangerous, but in Japan that doesn't happen at all. Japanese supporters are more gentle than Newzy supporters. Japanese supporters also don't run onto the ground. In Japan the supporters have drums to support and sing chants.

When I was watching a fight in the stand, France made a try, so I didn't see it, but I heard the crowd cheer.

I couldn't choose.

I was in another place smoking, so I didn't see that happening.


I think that it was a great experience for me.


The mayor Peter Chin sang the NZ national anthem.

The entertainment was the boys ballet and the marching band and the kids rugby.

Was there any other entertainment? No there wasn't.

Yes, but they missed some tackles and missed the ball, but it was a great experience for me.

No, I didn't, but I heard that it was a good game, but disappointing for the All blacks.

Anyway, I've got to go to class, see you.

Maths - expressions to show that you understand

ar, yeah, I gottit.

oh, yes, I've got it.

Oh, ok, yeah, I understand.

oh, yeah, I knew that before.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, ok.

oh, I see

Smiling nodding body language eye contact over reaction\


Today in maths class we learnt about quadratic equations, oh yeah, it was quite difficult, but I like drawing so I quite liked this class. Um, yeah, we drew co-efficient graphs and then we drew a pra, parob, oh it's difficult to pronounce. Anyway, I like Richard, and it was a good class, yeah, ha ha.

Conversational Topics - check the link on the right hand side of this blog "Conversation Analysis"

Today in class we looked at what students talked about when they went home. It was a great exercise in making students think about who spoke first, what was said and what could have been said. In all of the situations that occur here, the host parent speaks first. I think that it would be good for the students to actually speak first. Why? We discussed why and the students came up with some interesting things. We also looked at how the slightest conversational initiation can lead into a conversational topic, sometimes without any of the participants being aware of what is happening.

In the later stages of the conversation I showed the students the actual function of the utterances that were spoken; for example, why do you think this was said, what was the meaning of saying this etc. This means that the students are coming away from the sentential level (clause, verb, noun, phrase, etc) and focusing their attention on the meaning above this.

For example, "did you have a good day?" actually means something like, tell me what you did today using general, details, feelings, and a conclusion. The function that this utterance produces is a sociable function inclusive and meaning "lets narrate." The student's response will send out branches of ideas that will no doubt be subsequently picked up by the parent and then sidelined into another conversational topic. Once again, by making the students aware of the frames and references that are involved within conversations (meta-language) makes them understand, to some extent, of why conversations succeed and/or fail. I then also ask if this happens in Japanese language - again, the idea being to get students thinking about cultural appropriacy and context.

HP: Hi [student's name] Who spoke first in this situation? Why? What does it do?

S: hi, [homestay name]

HP: when did you get home?

S: half past five

HP: oh, I'm very tired and I'm hungry, today I didn't eat breakfast or lunch.

S: eh? really are you ok?

HP: oh it was a crazy day ha ha ha ha

S: ha ha ha ha do you want something to drink?

HP: oh, no thanks

S: ok, talk to you later.

This conversation is characterised by short, quick statements that seems to be successful. There is no extension into any topic, but I don't think that that is necessary. In fact, to me the student responded very well. I would recommend that the student concentrate on practising short, quick comments - perhaps a joke would be appropriate.


HP: Hi, what did you do today in class?

S: so, oh, um, today I had English and computing class. Computing class was so difficult because so teacher spoke so fast and his writing is difficult to read, but anyway, yeah, how was your day?

This short conversation illustrates quite a simple response. The student does show a general topic, one short detail, their feelings and then passes (just like a rugby ball) the conversational turn over to the parent.


HP: Did you have a good day?

S: oh, yeah, I think so, it was a good day oh, um, how are you feeling?

HP: oh, I'm feeling quite bad.

S: Oh, that's too bad, would you like me to do something for you? How about I make you a cup of tea, hot milk.

S: oh, you look very tired, would you like me to help you with anything?

S: oh, you look very tired, look, don't worry about me, I can look after myself. Please just look after yourself. I'm going to let you rest a bit, see you soon.

HP: oh, thanks, but I'm fine. well, actually there is something, could you please take my medicine into my room?

S: sure, no problem.

This conversation shows a successful transference of kindness by the student. If the parent is sick then the student needs to think of strategies in language to excuse themselves from tiring the person who is sick. The expression below achieves this. I think that it would be inappropriate for the student to try to engage their parent in a lengthy conversation here.

S: oh, um, excuse me, I just need to do something. I'll be back soon.




How was your day?

Ar, it's kind of good , so same old same old.

HP: Did you wake up at 2 or 3? Question

S: yeah, of course because it was very noisy because the cactus was knocking on my window, so I was scared. Response

HP: That's too bad. Did you think that it was a ghost? Question

S: yes, because I don't like scary things. um I thought that somebody might be looking in the window ha ha ha. Response - the beginning of a story

HP: ghosts aren't in New Zealand. Comment

S: really? In Japan ghosts come from old stories, for example have you seen Ring? It was very scary. I saw it a long time ago and it was very very scary because when I was watching it I couldn't move. If I watched it I can't sleep. I can't go to the bathroom to do pee. ar, so I don't want to watch any horror movies (ha ha). Your story from Japan

This conversation really goes to the heart of what I am trying to teach. Again, I asked the students why this conversation worked. It really is a lead into a conversational topic about ghosts and was generated by the student and the parent adding to each other's story.

Conversation with two people

Today we looked at conversation. (General)


We divided into groups of three. One person marked the other person's conversation. For example, general, details, feelings, conclusion, safety, smiling, nodding, body language, eye contact, comments. (Details)

It was interesting, but difficult. I think that I became a more natural speaker than before. (Feelings)

Anway, that's about it. (Conclusion)

The students are now realising that conversation is made up of complex components that all act in many various ways. By teaching the students about these components I hope that they will distinguish between why some conversations work and others don't. By talking about these components (termed "meta-language") students consciously look at how their own "Japanese" communicative style operates - this brings student ideas and opinions more out in the open because the students are now in the position of explaining to me about what they think - very motivational stuff! I intend to reformulate the students' particular language, so that they will be able to explain these features, in a light-hearted, but analytical way, if the opportunity arises in any conversation.

The other added bonus is that any discussion around conversation may also focus on specific communication breakdowns and how these might be avoided in the future.

Video Taping Interviews

I used the video camera to record the students responding to the question, what did you do in Electrical class today?

The students used the conversational framework that I gave them and I marked them according to this. The students individually came into my office, sat down and talked for about two minutes. I will go through the video with them on an individual basis, so that they don't get embarrassed if others see it, and point out how they could improve their response. Already, students have commented that this is the first time that they have seen themselves speaking in English and have said how beneficial it is.

The students have learnt how to say "safety strategies" if they don't know how to respond, for example, "oh, it's difficult to express myself in English, um, anyway, moving on...." and so forth. They also learnt how to move away from the topic and then move back into their narrative. Finally, the students illustrated that they could conclude their narrative by saying something like, "well, ar, that's about it, yeah." They also learnt to make eye contact, provide body language, and smile. I explained that if they provide body language, smile and make eye contact then the listener is more likely going to appear interested. (Using a video to show this to the students is really beneficial.)

All of the students did very well, with some actually moving away from their topic to branch into another topic and then skillfully manoevre their way back into their main monologue. Others need to concentrate on providing quick "safety strategies" when they fall into difficulty.

We will do this activity again and hopefully I will ask the students if I can put some of the recordings onto the blog for homestay feedback. (I'll keep you posted about this.)

Once all of the students have become proficient at framing their narrative I will add in the listener's comments and then teach about turn-taking. I plan to map the listener's comments onto the basic conversational framework using an overhead projector - any other ideas would be most welcome! This is where the fun is going to begin because this is where the conversations start to define themselves. After conversations using two people I will move into three people.

Small steps first!!

Did you have a good day? / Electrical Engineering - Basics

Today, we practised the same question as the other day, but this time, I got the students to structure their answer in a way that starts with a general introduction, then a slightly more detailed account of some topics, and then finally a conclusion relating to how they felt about their day. I included an example of this structure from a conversation that I had and analysed it with the students on the data projector. Tomorrow's class is going to be going over the same content - practise makes perfect. I have found that the students really appreciate having the opportunity to practise speaking. They told me that they never got this practise in Japan. I also told the students that if they are asked a question then they should answer within about two seconds. Even if they don't know the answer, then they should give a hesitational marker (so as to keep the floor and indicate acknowledgement that they have been asked something) and then give an avoidance strategy such as, "I'm sorry, I don't know, but I'll think about it. Please ask somebody else first." I also gave other similar expressions and then we practised saying them. Hopefully, now the students understand that if they are asked anything by anybody then they should quickly default to these expressions. We then talked about classroom culture in Japan and New Zealand.

I am now starting to encourage the students to use more English in the classroom.

What is the unit of length? mWhat is the symbol for metre?What is time measured in?What is length measured in?Volume is measured in meters (to the power of 3) cubed.What is area measured in?What frequency is radio NHK in Japan?What frequency is National radio in New Zealand?What is this number to 3 significant figures? (Please round this number to 3 numbers.)

The students learnt about how to manipulate various units of length, measurements and equations into English (as above). I sent the students all of the electrical engineering notes and went through them in class. We are up to page 21 now.

Did You Have a Good Day?

HS: Did you have a good day? Maybe the students will face this question every day. The students need to respond quickly.

S: um, yes, thanks, um, yeah, today By saying these hesitational markers the students give the impression that they have got something to say. It also means that they can hold the floor for a longer time - or less likely that they will be interrupted.

We also learnt how to "feel" if the conversation needs to be extended into giving extra information. If it does then the normal information expansion works; however, if the person looks as if they are busy or don't want to continue the conversation then the students should say:

"Oh, anyway, I'll talk to you soon, um, I'm going to go and change my clothes." We also looked at other expressions to use. For example, "anyway, I'll talk to you soon, um I just need to go to my bedroom" etc.

The students are learning strategies to change the flow of the conversation, or to end it. I made the students realise that they need to pay attention to the atmosphere of the situation.

ESP - Getting the students to teach

Today, the students taught each other about some specific engineering subject of their choice. Firstly, I took the students to the library and got them to choose a book related to their subject. The children's section in the library has many books which explain these concepts in easy English. The idea of this task was to get the students to talk about a subject that they already knew about in their own language, but needed to now explain it in English. Of course, like anything, it was difficult, but the students were starting to surround themselves with specialised vocabulary and concepts. It only took a little prodding from me to get them on the road to explain what they already knew about engineering, and at some times, quite advanced vocabulary. I then prized out what they needed to know and wrote some of the sentences up on the board and proceeded to give a grammar focus. Tomorrow, I intend to give the students more time to practise teaching the other students in their group about these concepts.
In all of this classroom task, the students are the ones who are developing their own knowledge and are in control of their learning in most parts. Hopefully, when the engineering teachers come in to actually teach the content, the students will already have been pretaught much of the content, but more importantly, engaged with the content in a way that they can manage.

English for Specific Purposes/Taking Notes/Journals/Reading/Listening

Today, as always, we spent the first hour practising conversational English. The students get into two lines and ask each other questions, for example, what kind of music do you like to listen to?
The students are trying to adopt a conversational style of taking the question and making it into a platform to launch into anything related to music, especially highlighting music in Japan and comparing it to music in New Zealand.

Later on when the students have become proficient at this conversational style they will be given cards with just a topic on them, for example, music. This means that the student should voluntarily talk about music in a conversational style. This is quite a difficult task to achieve, but with practise the students will reach this level.

Today, we also did some homestay conversational topics that the students chose themselves. These conversational topics included talking about; TV, the weather, chess, food, etc.

We also made a start on English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The students are being introduced to many terms associated with engineering vocabulary. For example, motion, movement, force, mass, volume, etc. The ESP classes start on the 18th of May and the students will be studying until about 4pm.

TAKING NOTES

From experience I tend to know that a lot of the students I have taught on this programme don't really know how to use their notes. The students write down a lot of things from the board, but don't really engage with the material that they have copied down. I always try to say "cover/check" in order to get the students to use their notes. Today, I got them to give their notebooks to their partners and then the students had to tell their partners what was written on that page. Of course, this was quite difficult to remember, but it did emphasise that the students need to know what they have written down. I then said, "well, do you really need to know this?" This is when the students started to highlight what they wanted to remember and erase what they didn't need. I think that now the students know that their notes are important.

JOURNALS

I encourage the students to write in their journals every day, or as they want to. They can write about anything. I check their writing and always encourage them to do their corrections - sometimes, like today, I focused on some common mistakes that many of the students made.

LISTENING

All of the students borrowed a book from the library with an audio tape of the story. The students took it in turns to listen on a tape deck in the classroom about their story. The students also borrowed another book of their choice.

S.R.A. (Scientific Reading Associates) READING

This is a reading box that has twelve cards in each colour level. The colour levels start at red and go to the most difficult level: purple. The cards have a story and then comprehension questions. The students then take another card and check their answers. (You may remember this tool box in your own class at school - this is a revised edition). I have heard from the students that they enjoy doing this kind of reading because they are in complete control of their own learning. They also like competing with others in the class to see who can get to the highest level.

All of the activities in today's blog are focusing on giving the students the strategies to take control of their own learning, so that they can learn in the class, or at home independently of a teacher. My job now is to encourage the students to practise these strategies to the best of their abilities and furthermore, show them new ideas for learning.

It's Cold Today

Today, the students learnt how to respond to the comment; it's cold today.

They wrote many responses up on the board. For example: Yes, the snow covered my house; yes, my host mother gave me some gloves; yes, it is; yes, I need a hot drink; yes, it was difficult getting up this morning.

The students also practised saying them very fast because if you pass a person around the Polytech then you only have about 1 second to say the response. We also practised rubbing hands together, so as to really give the feeling of being cold.

Hopefully, the students will be able to use these expressions around the Polytech and also at their homestays.

What's that?

SITUATION: The students had just finished taking a break and the teacher had sat down ready to listen to the start of the English class. One of the students was swinging a kendo stick, but noticing that the class was about to start was putting it back against the wall behind where the teacher was sitting. The teacher was curious as to what the stick was and so asked:


T: Oh, what's that? The teacher was asking about the kendo sword that the student was holding.

S: Oh, home run. This is just a one word answer that doesn't really explain anything.

T: Oh, really?

Me: Come on [student's name], what is it? Here I tried to get the student to explain about "kendo." Since the student wasn't that forthcoming I decided to throw the question out to the whole class with some prompts from me.

Class together: Kendo is a traditional Japanese sport that uses bamboo. A very long time ago people used this. It is used for practise only. We use it for baseball.

T: It reminds me of the Maori fights that they do with their sticks too. We can see here that the teacher is now giving some knowledge to add to what the class said. This is where the conversation really starts to take shape about a certain aspect, i.e., kendo. I then drew a diagram on the board showing that the students have knowledge from their background and people in NZ have knowledge from their background. When the two pieces of knowledge intersect then there is a conversation where both parties can share and expand upon - as happened in the conversation above.

I was really pleased that this conversation took place - it happened by pure coincidence in a very natural way. The conversation illustrated that even though the students have been practising such responses to questions just like this, they still revert to missing the opportunity to converse by simply giving a one-answer response (which wasn't even understood by the teacher). I intend to use this type of situational question to remind the students on how they should be trying to respond.

Conversation Analysis

These following conversations were recorded in class. I use them to illustrate how conversational styles are different between Japan and New Zealand, or between a high context culture and a low context culture.

Conversation Analysis 1


1) HS: what did you do today, Hiroko? Really the question here is; tell me everything about what you did today - entertain me with a story.

2) S: today, today, I had a English class. This is just a direct answer to the question, not answering the actual "behind the scenes" question.

3) HS: ask, what did you do yesterday?

4) S: yesterday? ((laughs slightly)) yesterday I had an English class. ((laughs))

5) HS: what did you do yesterday afternoon, Hiroko?

6) S: I watched, “I am Legend.” ((laughs))

7) HS: and where did you watch that?

8) S: at Hoyts.


As you can see from this conversation above, it isn't working. The student only responds to the questions in a direct manner. Compare this kind of response to the response that the teacher (T) gives further down the conversations.

1) HS: what will you do tomorrow, Masa?

2) S: tomorrow, ar, we will go to town and the library

3) HS: and the library

4) S: ((laughs slightly)) yes

5) HS: will you sleep in the library

6) S: ((laughs slightly)) no

7) HS: imm There is no further attempt at trying to get the student to elaborate.



1) HS: What have you been doing?

2) S: arr, watch TV

3) HS: watch TV

4) S: and talking

5) HS: talking, what about your, what are they, your profiles?

6) S: arr, yes, not finished yet


T: Do you take trains in Japan?

S: Yes. The conversation stopped here. Again, there was no elaboration.



T: Is that different to here?

S: Yeah


T: I take a bicycle

S: a bicycle?

T: yeah


T: Whereabouts do the bikes ride?

S: ride? Oh, um, I’m sorry I don’t understand your question.

T: Where do the people walk? (The following is the example response I gave to the students.)

S: Near people. Oh, um, in Japan the bikes and people are on the footpath together. Actually, it’s ok for bikes to be near people because bikes go slow for people. We call these bikes “mama chari” because they go slow and many mothers ride them. They go to the supermarket to buy things on these bikes. Yeah, um, I’ve seen bikes in New Zealand are very fast – it’s different.

T: Near people? (This is the response that the student gave.)

S: yeah



T: What about slang

S: slang?

T: slang, like “gidday.”

S: oh, not good

T: yeah, like not good, but it’s ok, but you know how you do grammar in Japan, we change it like slang words in English. Like cool words to say?


T: What else is different just in general?

T: what about the weather? Tell me everything about the weather in Japan.

S: oh, cold,

T: it’s spring in Japan?

S: yeah


T: Is there always snow in Japan?

S: yeah (Again, the student didn't know how to go "behind the question" to give the response that was probably expected by the teacher, i.e., tell me everything you know about snow (or weather) in Japan.)

T: I didn’t know that.



T: Do you all go skiing?

S: yeah

T: whereabouts? (This word is usually not known by the students.)




T: when you go back to Japan it’s spring again?

S: yeah

T: oh, that’s right because you’re here for a year, right?

S: yeah


T: What don’t you like to eat?

S: I don’t like pickles (Again, there is no further explanation about pickles.)

T: Pickles?

S: yeah, pickles

T: oh, right, ok Pickles are a delicacy in Japan, but this is not commented on by the student. Yes, I know that with limited vocabulary and grammar it is difficult to explain, but I have noticed that even with proficient students, the response is not extended into anything more than just the answer given.

(Next person)



S: What kind of food do you like in NZ? (Look at how the teacher gives more information to the question than was asked. This is a good example of how the NZ teacher responds to the "behind the question's meaning."

T: oh, yeah, I really like sweet food, like chocolate, yeah, I have to have

S: Tim Tams

T: yeah, I like Tim Tams, but I also like avocadoes. I like fish, but I don’t like much shellfish, usually when I go to somebody else’s house.



T: What kind of music do you have in Japan?

S: music, um oh, Jpop.

T: Jpop?

S: Japanese music

T: oh, do you like have drum and bass?

S: pardon

T: um, techno, like drum and bass?


T: Do you like Eminem?

S: yeah, of course This seems to be a typical response by students that I have taught from Japan. There is no further elaboration. Instead, the teacher adds the following comment. Again, it is necessary to teach the students the meaning behind the question "Do you like Eminem?"

T: he’s got some new songs, but he’s ok, I’m not a big fan.




T: so where else have you been to from Japan. What other countries have you been to?

S: America

T: I haven’t been to America

S: Last summer we went to study abroad The student responds in a communicative way, but is then asked a further question by the teacher.

T: oh, yeah, for how long?

S: just one month There is no further information given, so the conversation stops.


T: What do you usually like to do for fun?

S: shopping Once again, there is just one answer given with no further comment.

T: shopping?

S: yeah

T: oh, you need a lot of money for that. The teacher provides a comment, which is not picked up by the student. The conversation then stops here.




ADVICE / THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Try to support each other, e.g. Oh, yes I agree, Oh, Imm, Yes, I think that that’s a good comment.
Laugh when everybody else laughs.
Who did all the talking in your group?
Did you speak in a Japanese/English style or an English/English style?
Explain the CEE programme. Why are you here?