HOW TO SURVIVE A CONVERSATION (Conversation Class)

Oftentimes, the students in our English Classes (even in Conversation Class) find it uneasy to develop a  conversation and to make it last longer. When they have topics in hand, they just skip from one topic to another so quickly and meaningless. They tend to ask just one question for each topic meaning that if they have even 10 topics to discuss, they would complete their conversation in merely less than ONE minute!

Practicing in pairs making a longer and more meaningful conversation

To anticipate this, the students are therefore to encourage to ask more questions to build up a better and more meaningful conversation. When they can ask more questions for each topic, they eventually enhance their speaking ability in terms of fluency. People say "practice makes perfect"; no pain, no gain. Without practicing, they cannot become a fluent speaker of English. Too much theory will kill their inventive creativity.

The following steps may help teachers in giving their students more chances to practice:

FIRST STEPS: Ask the students to list down as many as 3 questions to ask their friends. The questions may vary in topics. Topics which are oftentimes chosen by the students are those dealing with hobbies, sports, music, foods/drinks, celebrities. But sometimes when coming to certain students with special interests, the topics may shift into a more challenging ones such as religion, universe, politics, futuristic concepts, etc. We cannot just limit their creativity and imagination since both are precious assets in enriching the conversation so as to make it more interesting to the both speakers and listeners involved in the conversation.

SECOND STEPS: Say, you have only six students in the classroom. Then they will sit face to face (look at the picture above) to have a conversation. Since each student has made 3 questions by his own, so in each pair then they will have 6 questions to start with. It is certainly more than enough for a 12 minute conversation. The pairs have to make a trivial conversation using the questions they have made. Every 12 minutes the teacher gives a sign that they will have to change partners. Since there are 6 students in the class, each student will have a chance to "make a conversation" with 5 different partners. All in all, they will practice their English in 60 non-stop minutes.

TIPS TO SURVIVE A CONVERSATION:

1. Pick a topic (pick a question).
2. Ask your partner Questions dealing with the topic
3. LISTEN to your partner's ANSWERS
4. USE the ANSWERS for your next questions
5. Go back to number 3
6. If you get bored (with the topic), get stuck (cannot ask more), then go back to number 1
7. Don't give up easily on ONE TOPIC

The teacher has to practice the tips above with the students before they practice by themselves. 

KECERIAAN TUJUH-BELASAN DI LBPP-LIA BANDUNG

Tu, wa, ga, pat. Siapa cepat, dia dapat

Ayo kayuh, biar peluh mengucur di sekujur tubuh

Ssssst .... Pak Haris ..... liat apaan tuh?

Tim Kuning mencoba menyusul. Tim Biru di atas angin ..... 

Keseragaman pake pakaian seragam ....... cuma pakaian seragamnya tidak seragam

Jaga keseimbangan dulu sebelum melangkah ...

Yang depan susah payah mengatur langkah, yang belakang hanya tinggal ikut sajah

Demi keceriaan tuju-belasan, rela tersungkur menimpa teman

Pose ........ hehehehehehe. Tahaaaan, jangan buang angin!

Cepet, cepet, cepet, kebelet.

Tim Kuning dipantau Tim Biru di kejauhan....

Tim Biru seng ada lawan, kaka!

Lomba makan bakiak dan sepatu! Ikutan yuk!

Wah kejauhan .... susah digapai tangan, apatah lagi dimakan!

Benar-benar setia kawan. Pak Wawan melompat, yang lain melompat ..... meninggalkan bakiak sendirian !!!!

Awas...jangan dorong-dorong, nanti jatuh.

Tuh kan jatuh ........... gue bilang apah!

Cepetan yuk. Tim lawan sudah jatuh cepet, cepet, cepet

Cepeeeeet

Yaaaah ..... kalah kita. 

Waduh capek. Tinggal 12 putaran lagi kita thowaf.

Pasang Krupuk. Ayu di-cup dulu krupuknya. Jilat dulu biar yang lain gak mau makan. 

Hehehehe yang ini sudah aku cup. 

Yang lain makan krupuk, Ibu Eliza malah bernyanyi: "Perdamaian, perdamaian" (Lagu Kasidah)

Eiiit, jangan pake tangan. Gak boleh! Curang!

PAK WAWAN: "Lihat nih. Gue lepas tangan."

Ms. Maya ......... krupuknya dimakan bukan ditatap!

Nah gitu ........ dimakan!

Minum dulu ah. Keselek!

Bu KACAB pun lepas tangan. Krupuknya tinggal sebelah. 

Eh, eh, eh jangan makan krupuk aku! 

GRAMMAR/WRITING/VOCABULARY etc.

Here are some simple tips in teaching ESL to students of foreign languages. Who knows they may come in handy:

1. WRITING A LETTER (ADVICE COLUMN)

WRITING A LETTER (ADVICE COLUMN)

Writing a letter 

Writing a letter looking for an advice                              

Writing a letter to look for an advice from someone close to you is a fun activity. It is a must activity worth trying in your class of ET-level (ET-7) when coming to Unit 4 (Advice Column).

Looking busy ......

Students are to write a letter of looking for an advice to another student sitting next to him/her (if the class is quite small, like a class of 6 or 8 students). Then the student who receives the letter will have to write the reply letter.

Making an envelop

Writing an address

The very same student will also write a letter of looking for an advice to somebody sitting next to him/her. And in return, he or she will have to write a reply letter to it.

Finally, all students have finished writing both letters to look for an advice and letters of reply to each of the letter (containing a problem or two to solve).

                                       

Seriously involved.....

Fun activity, eh?

    

No single soul produces a sound ....

             

How to write 

The students are to follow guiding questions to write a letter, but they may also improvise when writing their own letter. The guiding questions are as follows:

what happened?

when did it happen?

How it happened/

Why it happened?

Why did you ask for an advice?

etc.

The letters they wrote and their replies

Here are some samples of the letter to look for an advice and their replies. The grammatical errors (or mistakes) have not been corrected yet.

please, click to enlarge

please, click to enlarge

please, click to enlarge

please, click to enlarg

THE ENVELOPES 

Letters are sent in envelopes; no single letters are sent without envelopes to carry them. An envelop does not only wrap a letter in it, but it also provides a place to write down an address of the sender and the receiver on it. We can also put a stamp on it as symbol that we have paid the service of mail service and the postman who will carry our letters to their corresponding destination.

The envelops with their addresses and stamps

The envelops with their addresses and stamps

Here you are a video link for you depicting a lady who is making cute envelopes. It may come in handy when you need to make envelopes in your beloved classes.

How to Make Envelope or Envelopes/ handmade envelopes@youtube

THE CHILDREN WHO TOLD A SIMPLE STORY ABOUT THEMSELVES

EC-5 STUDENTS: TELLING A STORY

EC stands for English for Children. It has 12 levels ranging from EC-1A/EC-1B to EC-6A/EC-6B. These classes are designed for Elementary School children who begin to learn basic English. The books we use are BACKPACK Series.

LIA has provided some skillful teachers who are experienced in teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) to children of 10 to 13/14 years old.

Looking for ideas 

Here is a "once upon a time" in our class of EC-5. The students were asked to tell a simple story about themselves. They were to choose one of the following topics:

1. My hobbies
2. My pets
3. My favorite song (or music groups, or singers)
4. My favorite foods (or drinks)
5. My favorite place (a getaway, a hideout)

They are topics which are easy enough for them to elaborate. The students were asked to write what they were about to present.

Busy preparing what to say 

For example, when they choose the topic number two, they have to make sure they have the name of the pets; they know the kinds of pets; how they get the pets; how they take care of the pets; how they play around with the pets, etc.

When they choose topic number 4, they have to prepare the names of foods (or drinks); how they get them (by buying or having them cooked); how they taste; etc.

The following are videos of the students telling one of those topics mentioned above:

Video One

Video Two

Video Three

Video Four

Video Five

Video Six

SERENADA CINTA (An Amazing Indonesian Little Girl giving a speech in English)

This wonderful speech was delivered on the opening ceremony of LBPP-LIA Bandung New Building, back then in 2014. We just moved to a new building and we had this kind of simple celebration to introduce our new office to other clients and customers in the surrounding. 

This amazing little girl's name is SERENADA CINTA; and she was just an elementary school kid (SD TARUNA BAKTI) who happened to also study in our beloved campus LBPP-LIA Bandung. She studied in EC Program (EC stands for English for Children). To know more of her, you just click the above-mentioned link of her video. Happy watching .........