Improving Accountable Talk Ability as a Conversational Skill accountable talk ability conversational skills small talk skill teaching

English as a second/foreign language I. Context regarding conversation skill(s), interaction(s), and lesson After reflecting on the results of student conversation in the previous assignment, in this assignment I decided to concentrate on the skill of conducting and supporting accountable talks. The participants of the classroom accountable talks analyzed in this assignment were the secondary school students learning English as a foreign language at one of the schools with advanced studies of English and computer technologies located in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. As we guess, to be able to form effective groups, we must know our students well. As our classroom includes English language learners, we must be keenly aware of their proficiency levels in English as well as their understanding of the content of the task. Placing one student who is new to English in a group of proficient students may seem like a good idea, but, as our actual teaching practice shows, that student is likely to participate more with students whose level of proficiency in English is closer to his or her own: the English language learner will not feel as intimidated, and the other students may have more empathy and understanding of how the student feels. And, although it can be helpful to assign a buddy to a student who has just arrived with no English, we have to be careful that the buddy does not do all the work and become a caretaker. Rotating buddies periodically relieves the burden of being the "teacher" and helps the new student get to know more members of the class. The given lesson was organized for the students of the 6th grade learning English as a foreign language. Most of the students of the given class have the pre-intermediate level of English proficeincy at the moment, although several students from the class currently have the elementary or intermediate level of English proficeincy. The first goal of the lesson is improving our students' speaking and listening skills while learning and practicing new vocabulary and grammar. As it was mentioned earlier, the lesson of English as a foreign language described in this assignment was organized for secondary school students. The talk of the classroom is necessarily academic in nature and includes a variety of cognitive functions that help students explain their thinking and learn from others. For instance, students need to be able to compare and contrast ideas, ask questions, and describe phenomena. We find it useful to provide sentence starters related to the different types of thinking necessary in any learning environment. So we decided to post these sentence starters around the room and refer to them during guided instruction. In addition, we reminded our students of the language objectives for the types of language they will use in their collaborative learning activity. A copy of the poster which we used during our class is presented below:

Language objective

What is it?

What does it sound like?

To instruct

Giving directions

"The first step is " "Next " "The last part is "

To inquire

Asking questions

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? "What do you think?"

To test

Deciding if something makes sense

"I still have a question about " "What I learned is "

To describe To compare and contrast

Telling about something Showing how two things are alike and different

Use descriptive words and details "Here is something they both have in common " "These are different from each other because "

To explain

Giving examples

"This is an example of " "This is important because "

To analyze

Discussing the parts of a bigger idea

"The parts of this include " "We can make a diagram of this."

To hypothesize

Making a prediction based on what is known

"I can predict that " "I believe that _________ will happen because " "What might happen if ?"

To deduce

Drawing a conclusion or arriving at an answer

"The answer is because "

To evaluate

Judging something

"I agree with this because " "I disagree because " "I recommend that " "A better solution would be " "The factors that are most important are "

When students are learning a new language, their receptive skills typically develop in advance of their productive skills. English language learners may indeed understand the discussion in a classroom, but they may have difficulty finding the language they need to express the depth and complexity of their thinking. Using sentence frames can relieve the linguistic load, allowing students to focus on the content while they practice academic language. Some educators may argue that this framing of language results in shallow and contrived discourse, stifling critical thinking. And indeed, when students first begin to use these frames, their language will likely sound stilted and rehearsed. But then, isn't that the natural progression of learning any new skill? First we watch, then we mimic, and then we begin to appropriate, adjusting our use of the skill to suit our own style. Linguistic frames serve as a way to scaffold and differentiate both oral and written tasks for students at different levels of language proficiency. In this way we make the register, the style, and the word choice explicit, identifying the rhetorical moves that are appropriate to the purpose and the context and helping students make their meaning clear. The students were asked to talk to each other in pairs and then in small groups about the ways that insects communicate and to decide what body parts are used by the ant, while students discuss in small groups an ant diagram presented in their biology text-book. Then one person from each group was encouraged to present the main results of their group discussion to the whole class. We expected to hear approximately the following conversation from students (compared to what we really heard at the lesson after that): Student A: Well, I know they touch. Student B: But how do you know? You can't just say "you know." Could you provide some more details, please? [requesting evidence] Student A: I think so because I've seen them wave their their, I forgot, how do we call those pointers on their heads? Do you know, may be? Student B: Look right here [points to diagram]. These are their antennae. [offering evidence] Student A: Yes, these are antennae. Insects use their antennae to touch each other. Student B: Yes, it's right, probably. We're supposed to use that word. Ms. Hirano wrote this word on the board antennae. They touch their antennae to see each other. [using ideas from others] Student A: OK! Do they have eyes on their antennae? Could you show them to me? [requesting evidence] Student B: [examines diagram closely] Wait, I don't see eyes. [giving evidence] Student A: Oh, now I see that the eyes are here [points to label that reads "eyes"].

Srudent B: Oh, yes, that's right! They can see! They use their eyes to see. [using ideas from others] Student A: Look how tiny they are. Probably, they can't see a lot of stuff. The academic language of the speaker is only one side of the equation, - as we know, the listener also has responsibilities. Beyond basic social expectations regarding polite behavior, true discussion needs the active participation of others if there is to be an exchange of ideas. Lauren Resnick (1995) introduced the concept of accountable talk as a means of raising the level of academic discourse among students. Accountable talk governs the norms of academic discourse and requires that students ask for and furnish evidence to support their statements (Michaels, O'Conner, Hall, & Resnick, 2002). This ensures rigor and moves the conversation from task-oriented to concept-oriented learning, which is provided by the discussion activities like this one, for instance. II. Reflection The real conversation which we could here from one of the groups at that lesson is presented below. Student A: Well, I know they touch. Student B: But how do you know? You can't just say "you know." [requesting evidence] Student A: 'Cause I seen them wave their their what are those pointers on their heads? Student B: Right here [points to diagram]. Antennae. [offering evidence] Student A: Yeah, antennae. They use their antennae to touch each other. Student B: We're s'posed to use that word. Ms. Hirano wrote it on the board antennae. They touch their antennae to see each other. [using ideas from others] Student A: Do they have eyes on their antennae? Show me? [requesting evidence] Student B: [examines diagram closely] I don't see eyes. [giving evidence] Student A: The eyes is here [points to label that reads "eyes"]. Srudent B: Oh, yeah, that's right! They can see! They use their eyes to see. [using ideas from others] Student A: Look how teeny they are. They must not see a lot of stuff. As we had hoped before, many students took rather quickly to accountable talk, and many of them appreciated the guidelines and norms because they prevented their conversations from going astray. In this case they still had to think and speak as 11-year-olds, but the difference was that they were listening to one another instead of speaking in parallel. In addition, we tried to make sure that the conversation shouldn't wander from the topic, because the students are accustomed to working together like this. After conducting the lesson discussed we realised that some instructional tasks require the give-and-take of a slightly larger group of students. Collaborative learning among four students is a bit more active than partner activities, so the noise meter is useful when setting up these tasks. In addition, group tasks tend to be a bit longer than those accomplished in pairs, so a display of elapsed time gives students a way of monitoring their progress and adjusting their rate of work.

At the same time, this lesson proved the fact that a jointly produced final product is useful for group tasks because it gives all the members a shared focus. However, a common problem is that these tasks often fall to one member who does all the writing (and, therefore, much of the thinking). An easy solution is the collaborative poster discussed earlier in this chapter, where each member of the group is given a pen of a different color and all sign their names accordingly. The instructional routine called "jigsaw" was developed by Eliot Aronson in the 1970s to support the efforts of a recently desegregated elementary school in Texas. The original intent was to foster cooperation among students who did not associate much with one another, but Aronson (2000) and his graduate students quickly learned of the academic benefits to this approach. Each student in the class has two memberships: a home group and an expert group. Each home group of four members meets to discuss the task and divide the work according to the teacher's directions. For example, a long reading might be divided into sections. After each home group member has his or her task, the groups move to expert groups composed of members with the same task. The expert groups meet to read and discuss their portion of the assignment and practice how they will teach it when they return to their home groups. Once together again, each student teaches his or her portion of the task to fellow home group members and learns about the other sections of the reading. Due to planning, designing and completing this assignment I have realized by now that, although the management associated with promoting talk in the classroom can be significant, it is well worth the investment. If students are to benefit from the academic discourse, they must become practiced in engaging in it outside the direct supervision of the teacher. This means that the tasks must be organized and have a clearly stated purpose. In addition, the tasks themselves must be sufficiently interesting so that students will want to invest their time. The collaborative learning that occurs in classrooms rich in talk most closely mirrors the kinds of conversations that will dominate students' post-secondary school lives. It seems to me that it is never too early, or too late, to foster language among learners with the help of accountable talk discussions. After reviewing my submission for the previous assignment I decided to concentrate further on the skill of making effective small talk. The ability to make small talk comfortably is one of the most requested skills of almost any English student. This is especially true for Business English learners, but applies to all. The function of small talk is the same the world over. However, which topics are appropriate for small talk can vary from culture to culture. So recently I've developed a special plan of the lesson aimed at improving the given conversational skill. This lesson plan focuses on helping students develop their small talk skills, while also addressing the issue of appropriate subjects. Difficulties in small talk skills can arise from a number of factors including hesitancy in grammar and comprehension skills, lack of topic specific vocabulary and a general lack of confidence. These topics can also lead to more involved conversation lessons to get at the heart of the matter, so make sure to give students ample room to delve into the subjects if they seem particularly interested. The lesson plan which I'm going to use soon in my actual work with secondary school students learning English as a foregn language is presented below.

Aim: Improving 'small talk' skills Activity: Discussion of appropriate small talk subjects followed by a game to be played in small groups Level: Intermediate to Advanced Outline: Write 'Small Talk' on the board. Ask students to brainstorm as a class to define small talk. Write examples on the board. Discuss the importance of small talk skills with the class. Divide students into groups of 3 - 5. Give students the small talk work sheet. Ask them to complete the first section: Small Talk - Appropriate?. Once students have discussed the various situations, solicit responses on the various subjects from the class as a whole. Make sure to ask for examples of comments on appropriate subjects and explanations for those topics which students feel are not appropriate. Feel free to let students debate the issue (thus developing their conversational skills!), as some subjects are sure to be controversial. Have students get back into their groups and play the small talk game. Circulate around the room helping the students when they run into difficulties. Take notes on subjects that students find difficult and brainstorm on appropriate comments for those subjects after the game has finished.

Small Talk - Appropriate?

The latest films The One True Path to Eternal Life The local basketball team Cars A product you would like to sell to everyone The Death Penalty Your home town How much you make Your last holiday Your favorite movie-star The correct political party The weather Gardening Your health problems Your family

Small Talk - Socially Mixing

Play this game quickly in small groups. Throw one die to move forward from one subject to the next. When you get to the end, return to the beginning to start again. You have thirty seconds to begin making a comment about the suggested subject. If you can not, you lose your turn! Your best friend The last film you saw Pets Rock and roll A magazine Learning a language Playing tennis Your current job An interesting excursion nearby The Internet Marilyn Monroe Keeping healthy Human cloning Your favorite food Finding a job in your country The last book you read Your worst holiday Something you've never done, but would like to do Teachers - what you like Teachers - what you don't like As our practice shows, making small talk is difficult not only for English learners, but also for many native speakers of English. However, small talk can be especially difficult for some learners because making small talk means talking about almost anything - and that means having a wide vocabulary that can cover most topics. Most English learners have excellent vocabulary in specific areas, but may have difficulties discussing topics they are unfamiliar with because of a lack of appropriate vocabulary. This lack of vocabulary leads to some students 'blocking'. They slow down or stop speaking completely because of a lack of self-confidence. Therefore I would like to hope that using various conversational activities included in the proposed lesson plan, - and then in some further plans of the lessons aimed at developing and improving student skill of small talk as well, - will help our students become more confident about making and supporting small talk in English, in any case.