Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

partly to the mode of teaching and may also refer to the
content of what is taught. The idea is that, by simply
conversing, the teacher shows the student how to hold a
conversation himself. But very often the subject matter of a

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given lesson rightly ranges much wider than this. It may come
from the teacher’s professional diagnosis of his students’
needs: this could be remedial oral work to bring the students
up to standard, or straightforward teaching to prepare them
for a forthcoming oral examination. Very often a conversation
class is informal in character and allows much more scope for
the students to put forward topics of particular interest to
them. Indeed, the more personal relationship possible from
teacher to student is often a distinguishing feature of a
conversation class. As time goes on, progressively more and
more suggestions tend to come from the students to which the
teacher may well wish to respond. It is remarkable how he
takes on an explanatory role in answer to questions, and is
often in practice a mediator of his own culture and
background. It is wise to anticipate this and plan quite
deliberately into any teaching scheme a good number of
themes connected with English life and culture.
There are many sources of help here. The big ‘global’
courses put out by the major publishers are often situated in
England with quintessentially English characters in them.
They give a very good impression of what is characteristic of
certain types of English life, and can be used for that purpose.
The amount of explaining that needs to be done will of course
depend on the closeness of the students’ own society to
England’s—in Western Europe it will be much quicker and
easier than in the Third World or the Middle East. There are
also quite a lot of books available about Britain. One of the
most readable and detailed is A.Sampson’s The Changing
Anatomy of Britain (Coronet, 1983). The yearly publication
of her Majesty’s Stationery Office, Britain, is full of facts and
figures and best used for reference. Other official bodies such
as the Centre for Information and the British Travel
Association put out books, leaflets, fact sheets and so on
which are widely available world wide from their own offices,
from the British Council and from British Embassies. There is
another category of books written with at least one eye on the
optional ‘Life and Institutions’ paper of the Cambridge
Proficiency Examination. Some useful titles are:
H.E.Brooks and C.E.Fraenkel, Life in Britain, Heinemann, 1982.
G.Broughton, Know the British, Hutchinson, 1977.

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E.Laird, Welcome to Great Britain and the USA, Longman, 1983.
R.Musman, Britain Today, Longman, 1982 (3rd edn).
B.E.Pryse, Getting to Know Britain, Blackwell, 1983.
J.Randle, Understanding Britain, Blackwell, 1981.
Other very important sources of information are the media—
BBC World Service has a regular programme ‘News about
Britain’ and ‘English by Radio’ often deals with cultural
topics; the English press is always available in reading rooms
and libraries of embassies, consulates or the British Council,
and in most parts of the world can be bought commercially
from newspaper kiosks and in international hotels.
Materials of this nature, and to a lesser extent the books
mentioned earlier in this chapter, are a very direct and lively
introduction not only to English culture but also to the
contemporary use of the English language. They can be
exploited in every conceivable way in the classroom. Many
magazines are visually very attractive and an excellent
stimulus to discussion. At the simplest level, students can be
asked just to describe what they see. Carefully chosen pictures
will give scope for them to make deductions about what has
happened and what might soon happen. This in turn will
probably suggest wider themes which can be expanded and
developed. Practice of this nature is very valuable for students
taking certain examinations—Cambridge First Certificate and
Proficiency Examinations and the ARELS Certificate in
Spoken English and Comprehension for nonnative speakers of
English involve this type of exercise.
Materials from the media are excellent for developing the
skill of reporting. In the first place news items are by their
nature models to imitate. The ability to narrate events is a
useful skill to acquire. Each member of the class might be
given a news story, and given the task of putting it across
orally to the others from notes. Not only is he asked to tell a
coherent story, but also he needs to be able to summarise,
make notes and speak in public in an understandable way. As
time goes on, the exercise set can become harder—he might
be given a non-factual interpretive piece by a political
commentator, for example. As in the case of visuals, this can
easily be seen as very relevant work by the many advanced
examination candidates who are asked to give a short talk,
with only a few minutes’ preparation, to the examiner.

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It would be wrong, however, to think of conversation
classes solely in terms of a final examination or testing.
Certainly the exploitation of the teaching materials should
never be restricted only to provide practice in examination
questions. Variety has got to be present. It is all too easy to
sink into an initially successful, comfortable format which
never varies from lesson to lesson. For instance, instead of
taking a newspaper article and always having the students
summarise and report it orally to the class, they may attempt
to reconstruct in pairs the original interview and make a list
of the reporter’s questions, a verbatim statement of the
interviewee’s replies, and a copy of the reporter’s notes jotted
down at the time. The article can be rewritten for a very
different newspaper in a suitable style for homework.
Variety must be allied to pace. A slow, boring lesson
teaches very little, so it is important to keep everyone moving
and challenged with something which is just a little beyond
his capacity. No topic or device should be overworked,
however good an idea it is or however much preparation it
has entailed. It is always better to stop whilst everyone is
enjoying it and wants more, rather than pursue it to the bitter
end. Then a repetition on another day provokes eager
anticipation rather than groans.
The class atmosphere is very important, and is greatly
helped by a less serious side to class activities. As well as more
serious materials and teaching, there should always be room
for games, songs and puzzles. There are specially written
books on the market that can help (for instance M.Carrier,
Take 5; C.Granger, Play Games with English; J. Hadfield,
Communications Games and A.Wright et al., Games for
Language Learning) and records produced for the overseas
learner, mentioned earlier in this chapter. But it is best to build
up one’s own collection of games and puzzles from as many
places as possible. The type of book sold on railway stations to
keep travellers occupied on their journeys are a rich source, as
are the competition pages of weekly and monthly magazines.
Some records from the present Top Ten, universally known
contemporary classics such as the Beatles’ records, and English
folk songs are also very exploitable. Of the periodicals listed at
the end of this book, English Teaching Forum and Modern
English Teacher are useful for this type of material.

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Variety, pace and humour go hand in hand with a
necessary lightness of touch on the part of the teacher. They
all contribute to the essentially informal nature of the
conversation class, which is one of its great strengths. With
careful management, the pitfalls of boredom through
conversation for conversation’s sake can be avoided and a
friendly atmosphere established in which the advanced
student feels free to develop oral confidence and the ability to
project himself and his personality in a foreign language.