Initial Chatting Period (ICP)

Initial Chat Period | Martin Lovatt | April 6th, 2004

Hi Everyone,

I am doing the MET Module and would like to do some action research concerning the pedagogical significance (or otherwise!) of the 'warm-up' chat (which I call the Initial Chatting Period , or ICP) that occurs in many adult English conversation classes in private language schools in Japan. I would be very grateful for some feedback from other teachers in similar circumstances. Firstly, let me outline my situation:

Like most teachers in 'conversation schools', I usually begin my classes by chatting briefly to students about their recent news (my classes are small - on average 3 or 4 adult students). I try to have them focus on 'good news' in order to begin the class in a positive atmosphere. I usually limit the time to 10 minutes out of a class time of 60 minutes. Having reflected on why I start classes this way I have come up with the following list of 'justifications':

My aims are to have students:

1. think about their news before coming to class and identify something they can talk about with the other students

2. encourage the other students to ask questions concerning each other's real lives

3. try to focus on the positive aspects of their recent lives, thereby recognizing recent 'successes' in their lives (which good news usually represents) no matter how small they may seem to be

4. check the dictionary for words they need to express their news

5. empower students to open the lesson with a topic of their choosing and about themselves

6. connect English to their real lives to aid in vocabulary memorization.

Added benefits are:

1. it gives me background information on the students, which aids in our relationship building

2. I can gain insight on how the student is feeling that day (a lack of good news usually means they're not feeling on top of the world!)

3. it allows me to tie their news in with the lesson topic or use the ICP in other aspects of the lesson (this one was Steve Mann's suggestion)

4. I can be flexible and make the students' news the topic of the class if it offers something pedagogically significant

On the negative side the students may see this chatting period as:

1. simply 'warm-up' and therefore not particularly important or useful

2. the teacher delaying the start of the 'real class' while the stragglers arrive

3. adding psychological pressure to come up with some 'good news' for the teacher, which may also lead to avoidance of the first 10 minutes of the class if the student has no particularly good news - or has had a bad week and doesn't particularly want to listen to everyone else's good news! (As we all know, one definition of happiness is when the people around you are in a worse situation than you are, which naturally implies the   opposite is true.)

4. 'routinization' which may be boring and therefore de-motivating

5. representing laziness on my part not to come up with more varied and interesting lesson openings.

Furthermore,   I have no idea (as yet) what the students perspectives are on this kind of lesson start. (However, that will soon be rectified as part of this action research.)

If you've read this far, thank you!

As I said at the beginning of this message, what I would really like is some feedback from other CPs on:

1. similar research or recommended reading

2. how you generally open your classes

3. any different or positive methodology points I have overlooked in the above 'justifications'

4. critical comments, and please limit yourself to 10 or less : - )

5. any other suggestions or advice

Thank you all (in advance) for your help with this.

If you need anything from me in return (except cash...), I will do my utmost to repay your favors.

Thanks again & best regards,

Martin
Fukuoka, Japan

Re: Initial Chatting Period | Tisa | April 6th, 2004

Hi Martin,

I enjoyed reading your message, especially since I still have 'MET' on my mind.   I sent off my assignment last week.   Although my topic was totally different from yours (I looked at creating 'critical space' for reflection and evaluation in one-to-one lessons), I think a lot about how to get classes off to a snappy and interesting start.

One activity that gets students talking and definitely gives you some clue as to what they're thinking about, is to have to them write down the first three words that come to mind.   Then, in pairs, they discuss these words and ask questions about them etc.   What I like about the activity is that it takes the focus off you, the teacher, and encourages the learners to chat to each other.   Pedagogically speaking, it's also a great way for you to listen out for the language they're using/not using (this is the critical distance I find hard to establish in one-to-one teaching, actually).   This information can be used to start the next stage of the lesson, or be fed in later on in the course.

It would be interesting to see how students perceived the ICP if the teacher wasn't directly involved in the conversation (or at least not until afterwards and then only in a sort of reformulation role).

Have you heard of the book 'Creating Conversation in Class' (by Chris Sion)?   It may be helpful to you.

I'm curious to hear how about any learner feedback you get and what you do with it.

Bye for now,

Tisa

Lausanne, Switzerland

Re: Initial Chat Period | Martin Lovatt | April 7th, 2004

Hi Tisa,

Thank you for your reply and suggestions. I will certainly look up the book you recommended. I also like your 'three word idea' very much. I imagine all kinds of interesting conversations could spring up very naturally from it, and (outside the parameters of the exercise itself) the teacher does not control it at all. Anyway, I'll give it a try with a few classes and let you know the results.

I've also asked about 25 of my students (so far) to answer a questionnaire I've put together on the ICP. I've arranged for them to be able to do it anonymously, so I'm hoping for the truth (even if it hurts!). Of course, if anyone writes anything really bad, I'll be lifting fingerprints from the sheet and using tracker dogs, but otherwise I'll try to keep an open mind...

Anyway, wishing you the best of luck with your MET results.

Thanks again for getting back to me.

All the best,

Martin

3 word activity | Martin Lovatt | April 9th, 2004

Hi Tisa,

I haven't got any feedback from my students about my regular ICP yet (I'm awaiting the return of their questionnaires), but I tried your 'three-word, warm-up activity' with two classes today. The classes were both intermediate level and their responses were very interesting.

In both classes, I did as you suggested and just asked them to write down the first three words that came into their heads. They then discussed them with their partners. Surprise, surprise, most of the students chose words that were connected in some way. Even better, one student who wrote 'tree, cherry blossom, lucky', said there was a connection between tree and cherry blossom (obviously), but she couldn't figure out where 'lucky' had sprung from. After a short discussion she decided it was more of an unconscious connection (she described it as 'just a feeling') as tree and cherry blossom represented very positive images for her (as did lucky, of course). This highlighted the rather nice point of how the brain flits comfortably between conscious and unconscious activity while 'thinking'. We then talked very briefly about how that might be connected to language learning, memorization, and recall. (And they concluded some learning must happen unconsciously...) I have mixed feelings about their conclusions (maybe they think they can learn English in their sleep!), but at least it was thought provoking.

I followed the three (random) word activity with a further three-word activity, but asked them to deliberately think of words that were not connected in any way. Again they discussed their words with their partners. Finally, I asked them which exercise had been easier and they concluded that the first one had, as they had 'naturally' chosen connected words. It was then very easy to elicit the idea that it's much easier to learn, remember and recall words that are connected (as collocations etc.). I hadn't expected so much to come out of such a small exercise (and I confess it took about 20 minutes of class time to do this), but it was very worthwhile--especially as the students came up with most of the above without too much prompting from me.

So thank you for that idea. I will be thinking about the meanings of their responses in more detail, but just wanted to let you know (and others) that your idea was a very successful opening to those two classes.

So, if you have any more good ideas for starting classes, please let me know!

All the very best,

Martin Fukuoka, Japan

P.S. I managed to order the book you recommended ('Creating Conversation in Class' by Chris Sion), which was lucky as it's out of print now. However, it will take four to six weeks to arrive...

 

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