Getting Them To Talk: Communicative Activities for the ESOL Classroom.

A variety of activities are presented that are designed to stimulate conversation and communication among students in classes in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The first part of the report discusses the nature of communicative activity and of classroom conversation. The role of the teacher is seen as making the activity as truly communicative as possible, structuring activities so students use the information exchanged and are held accountable for their English usage, guiding without dominating, creating an atmosphere supporting self-expression, making students aware of the characteristics of authentic conversational English, and refraining from grammar correction during a communicative activity. The second part describes nine activity types that suggest communication but are not truly communicative: listening cloze; identification of appropriate conversational utterances from a list; dyadic information exchange; use of pictures or realia; elicitation of expected responses; oral reports that lead to classroom conversation; activities to develop conversational strategies; improvisation; and completion of plans, maps, or diagrams. In the third section, activities that resemble authentic communication are defined and described, including: free questions and answers; role-playing and socio-drama; class discussion; and other group activities such as problem-solving and task-oriented exercises. (MSE)