Over the Wall of Silence

38 Over the Wall of Silence

close to the heart of the average university student), you should plan for two possible directions: either a student has a part-time job or they don’t. In the latter case, where can the conversation go? You need to also prepare and present content that allows them to express jobs they would like or wouldn’t like to have, or the reasons they don’t have a part-time job. S TRATEGY 4: S CAFFOLD , SCAFFOLD , SCAFFOLD In this section, we are going to assume that you are teaching con versation about real life topics. This is the approach we have been practicing for most of our teaching careers. Here’s our advice. P ROVIDE ALL THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF CONVERSATION The basic elements of any conversation are questions, answers and reactions. To save time and energy, it is tempting to provide a few starter questions and to just “let students figure out the rest,” but in our experience, thoroughly covering the basic, most obvious examples of each component will help your class run smoothly. Let’s return to the classic topic of part-time jobs as an example. The basic questions you might ask include “Do you have a part-time job?”, “Would you like to have a part-time job?”, or “Where do you work?” There are typical answers to these questions: “I work in a convenience store / in a bakery / at a cram school” or “I don’t work”. And then there are typical reactions such as “Oh, that must be interesting / difficult / tiring”. Introducing all these basic elements before moving to speaking practice provides a safe base for lower-level students. They will def initely have something to say, and they know that their practice part ners also do.