Understand oral English testing in schools better

1. According to research, it is too difficult for highly trained examiners to measure English proficiency spanning more than 9-10 levels. (Covering a scale of no ability to highly proficient.)

2. Even measuring 10 levels professional examiners can be wrong 27% of the time.

3. On such a scale, for classes that meet once or twice a week for 45-minutes, it may take a full year of training or more to improve one level

4. Factors weigh on the whole process which can cause inaccuracies. During some research on IELTS training it was found that after a 3-month intensive training candidates could improve half a level. However, some candidates actually scored at a lower level at the end of the training than they did at the beginning. Reasons for this were the state-of-mind of the candidate on the test day, familiarity and lack of familiarity with the subject matter of the tests, faults in the testing system (IELTS), etc. So it would be possible to test your student at the beginning of the course and then the student could do worse at the test at the end of the course. How would you give a grade in this case?

Alternatively, test the students on the course material at the beginning of the course. If the students are properly placed in the right level classes they should score very low on such a test but after training on the material should score very high at the end of the course.

In that it is too late at this point, the next best thing is to review the material we taught the students and find some distinct and important points that we can test on. However, if the classes consisted of "well, what does everybody want to talk about today?" it may be impossible to test the students.

Finally, the idea of scoring by student attitude or participation in the class or other student behavior focused method, to my mind, but perhaps many would disagree with me, is fraught with the most disadvantages. Such a criteria makes the test exactly one of classroom behavior, not learning or language acquisition. As the focus of most of us teachers is on the student centered classroom we are constantly questioning ourselves if we are meeting the needs and capturing the interests of our students. Some days we do better than others. Some students (especially the very bright and the very dull) are more easily bored than others. We are tempted to punish our troublemakers and reward our so-called 'good' students by the score we would give them. But again, we would be scoring the student on their behavior which is perhaps not the best way to reflect their learning in our class.

The irony is that for many schools it really doesn't matter what score you give the students because the school often does not treat the oral English class taught by a foreigner as a 'real' class. These grades often don't show up as part of their year-end scores.

Nonetheless, I think we should all be careful in how we go about making these kinds of decisions. There are certain 'automatic' impulses that we should be aware of and question. How often do we do things because that's the way everyone else does them? How often do we do things because that's the way it was done when we were students?

These things I have said in the above are with the realization that they may not exactly apply to the certain aspects of the current discussion. Without complete understanding of the situation I know I may be misunderstanding some things. I am just trying to explore various factors and considerations for the purpose of reflection.

We are the teachers and in a position of power with the students and the school. It is a great opportunity to for us to explore and discover the best ways to do things for our students and ourselves.

Business dilemmas for business speaking

For business related dilemmas, problems and issues for your students to sort out I recommend two books by Cambridge. These are part of their 'photocopiable resource' book series and has teacher instructions, etc, etc.


"BUSINESS ROLES - 12 simulations for Business English"

Two of the twelve units are:

"Polluting the river - This US fridge maker has been secretly polluting the river for decades. However, putting a stop to it may mean heavy financial or job losses..." (Actually, GE is going through some problems in NY about this right now.)

"Quality and personnel - A VCR manufacturer with factories in the Far East and Europe tries to determine why quality is so much better in one plant than in the other."


"DECISIONMAKER - 14 business situations for analysis and discussion"

Two of the fourteen units are:

"Smoke Signals - A trainee in a large cigarette company has to respond to a secret marketing strategy"

"The Hohokum Virus - A computer company responds to a blackmail threat."


Although the books are similar in that they require discussion and problem solving in English, Business Roles is essentially for role play whereas Decisionmaker is for class discussion.

Thinking outside the book

One thing that students and teachers really struggle with is boredom. Maybe I'm just easily bored but I have yet to find a book or teacher that really keeps the student's interest from cover to cover, it doesn't matter how good they are.

Sometimes I think that the way English teaching works is that we often trap ourselves into thinking "inside the book". Publishers have little interest in helping teachers think otherwise and because we often lean on manufactured materials we always wind up with a book.

We are basically teaching the same way Socrates, Plato and Aristotle taught thousands of years ago except for the addition of the printed book invented by Gutenberg.

Of course, there are guys who have rebelled against the book. You can find a bunch of them at Dogme. They have a Yahoo group and their leader has published in The Guardian newspaper ELT pages.

But to me, they seem more readily identified for what they are against than what they are for. And from my experience, it really helps to have a course or plan for students as otherwise the training can seem a bit aimless to the students.

So how can we escape the book but still have a plan?

First, let's brainstorm a list of all the new tools and technologies and other things that are available to us since the days of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Gutenberg. Without much order, here is my list:

Computers
Email
Telephone
Phone messages
PowerPoint
YouTube
PDA
Chat rooms
Blogs
Websites
Fax
MP3
MP4
Video
Email spam
Voice spam
Television
Shopping malls

Perhaps your list is longer. Now, just as a thought exercise to stretch us "outside the book", what if you assigned yourself the task of using each of these to provide some part of a training course.

There was once a game called Majestic by Electronic Arts. They described it as "The suspense thriller that infiltrates your life through the Internet, telephone and fax, then leaves you guessing where the game ends and reality begins." To play this game you had to check websites and periodically you'd receive frantic phone calls with clues or cryptic faxes.

I think something so pervasive would be an exciting way to teach and learn. What would a "Majestic" English course be like? The student would be receiving training from so many directions at so many times. Of course, not all of this is possible with every teacher and every student, but employing some of these technologies could really get us "out of the book". Consider the possibilities that a ficticious Chinese student named Jerry Liang would experience:

- Jerry gets a daily Email that has a short lesson, story or MP3. This Email is pumped out to Jerry and all the other students by a program similar to those used by spammers.

- Jerry also receives a daily SMS phone messages that reminds him to study an assignment, do homework or join some activities that the teacher has organized.

- Every week, Jerry is directed to watch a certain TV program or movie which all the other students and teacher will be watching. Jerry doesn't have to participate if he is busy that night but he does need to participate in at least two per week. Jerry tunes in the program and starts the chat program on his computer. While he is watching the program on his home TV, other students and the teacher are watching it and chatting with him about it, about the story, actors, what they like or don't like, etc. ("Don't go in that dark room!...don't do it!...Ugh! I knew it!!!")

- Jerry posts assignments on the blog.

- Jerry gets SMS phone messages with new vocabulary on set days. After first contact with the new vocabulary in a lesson he receives the vocabulary in a message on day 2, 5, 12, 19, 33, 63. He has a look at the words and reviews them.

- He has some specially recorded lessons made by his teacher or other teachers in MP3 format in his MP3/MP4 player or PDA which he listens to throughout the day.

- When Jerry visits the popular local mall he takes a walking tour via MP3. The teacher has made a short recording and guides the him through the mall, describing interesting things about the mall and shops and introducing more new vocabulary. ("Starbucks took its name from a coffee-loving character in the famous American novel called 'Moby Dick', a story about a man hunting a whale. Starbuck's strategy is to become people's 'third place', the main place people go outside of home and work.")

- Sometimes Jerry receives a phone call from the teacher to practice his speaking, but more often than not, the teacher (randomly?) assigns Jerry and the other students speaking buddies, other students, who he calls to practice a particular speaking activity. Every week Jerry recieves an Email with a speaking lesson to practice and his speaking buddy's phone number. Sometimes the buddy is in his class but most of the time the buddy is a student in one of the teacher's other classes, perhaps a manager in a company. It's interesting to have this way to talk to various professionals that he wouldn't normally meet (and Jerry thinks it's always interesting to talk to girls).

- Twice a month, Jerry is given a phone number to a company in an English speaking country that provides information about their services along with one or more questions that he needs to ask about. For example, he once had to call Trump International Hotel in New York to find out if they allow dogs in the room. (They do if the dog is under 10 pounds but the guest must pay a non-refundable $200.) This provides a real English challenge and practice for Jerry.

- Etc, etc, etc.

All of this is possible with current technology but will never be offered by a book publisher. It just remains for the teacher to sort out his content and figure out the different ways to deliver it.

A student, going through a course like that, would have an experience they've never had before. But as I said, maybe I dream up this stuff because I'm the kind of person who is easily bored.

Total class participation

Sometimes a few sharp students will answer all the questions I put to the class while some students want to space out, read or chat. To force total class participation I ask all the students to stand up. Then when I put a big question to them like "Give me some words about [whatever the subject we're studying]." Each student who replies with a satisfactory word can sit down. In this way everyone has to participate.

Organizing speaking tests for large numbers of students

Yesterday, I did a speaking test for 200 students. It's quite a big job and took me all day. But it would have taken much longer if I had never done this before and if I wasn't organized.

Some teachers allow students to choose their partner and choose their subject. Sometimes they can do this days in advance. Consequently, some students will find a dialog and memorize it and then perform it for the test. I don't do it this way. I don't think it's very realistic.

In the workplace, people need to be able to speak English to anyone and they can't always choose the topic. So I tell my students they can choose any partner they want as long as student #1 chooses students #2 and student #3 chooses student #4, etc. I tell them they can choose their own topics to talk about. They come up to my desk and choose from several slips of paper which are facing down. The students cannot look at the paper before they choose. Consequently, they are choosing randomly. I do allow them 3-4 minutes to prepare before the interview. The topics are always things that we practiced discussing in class.

When one pair of students sits down to do their dialog for me another pair of students will come up to the desk, choose a topic and stand aside to prepare. I don't allow them to use dictionaries, notebooks, textbooks or to talk with other students during the preparation period. I sit facing the two students who are talking but behind them I can keep an eye on the next two students who are preparing for their talk. This is important because they many of them can hardly keep themselves from a bit of cheating if it is possible.

The students talk to their partner on the topic. I used to be an IELTS examiner and found it is a bit extra work to have to also be asking the students all the questions. So I like to get the students talking with each other and I listen in. If I think a student can go higher or if their dialog was too short I will jump in with a few extra questions.

While they are talking I am recording them. They hold a cheap $2 clip-on microphone that I found which works really well and is fastened at the end of a ballpoint pen. I use free program called Audacity to record the interview. Although I'm sitting right next to them, I actually listen to the students through a set of earphones. This ensures that everything is being recorded. The interview is recorded for reference in case I want or need to go back and check something or if I need to justify a score I have given.

If their dialog is too short or doesn't reveal their English skills well enough I will ask some questions to make them speak more. Answering"why" questions or questions where they have to explain or justify a viewpoint are some of the toughest questions and are good to push students to the limits.

I have some band descriptors and a list of all the students names and numbers on an Excel sheet. The band descriptors are divided into three areas of speaking (communicative range, overall fluency, accuracy & appropriacy) and four levels (levels 4-7 of a 10 level rating system) While they are talking, I scan the band descriptors and give them an initial score. I continue to listen to them and modify parts of my score as they perform better or worse.

It's very important to have a clear set of standards that the students should speak to. And while they are speaking you should be constantly checking those standards and try to measure the student to those standards as best you can.

After all of the testing is done, I will use Excel to average out the band scores and assign grades on a curve.

Teacher talk

I can often tell an upper intermediate or advanced student by their one-word reply to a simple question. If I ask a student if they speak English and the reply is "yes" then perhaps their English is quite good but more often than not it is at a lower level. If their answer is "yeah" then I know their English level is quite high.

As far as producing the so-called Teacher Speak or Teacher Talk, I learned to do this long before becoming a language teacher. Living and working in foreign language environments, I was unable to learn all the languages of the countries I was in. But I, at least, learned how to simplify my English by employing all the methods that Keith Folse described so that my listeners who spoke a bit of English could understand.

I speak slower and more distinctly. I use simpler vocabulary and shorter and simpler sentences. I avoid idioms. I try to keep the concepts simpler.

I have learned how to listen to myself speak and even to pre-listen. I can put myself into my listeners position and listen to what I am saying or am about to say. Not only trying to keep it simple but also constantly questioning myself if there is any way my listener can misunderstand me.

Often the contraction "can't" can be confused with "can" by low-intermediate students. So I will try to say "CAN-NOT" making a clear distinction between the two syllables.

Although I am speaking slow, my mind is working fast testing different words and phrases, looking for alternative and simpler ways to express a point.

My students recognize right away I am using a Teacher Talk with them. Low-level students are happily surprised that they feel they can understand everything or nearly everything I say. Upper-level students are annoyed and feel my speaking is not challenging enough. When teaching mixed level classes I have to remember to try to do both at different times.

A related problem is the language of textbooks. On occasion I come across books written for low or mid-intermediate students with advanced English not only in the examples but in the instructions to students.

It's a small world when the world becomes your classroom

A teacher wants to know what students can do to help themselves improve their English outside of class.

One of the hardest things to do with students who do not live in an English speaking country is to help them practice their spoken English. Thanks to today's modern technology, this no longer has to be a problem.

Skype is a free "telephone" program with which you can call another person computer to computer. The sound is of such a high quality it rivals a telephone call. Skype is currently the most popular downloaded program in the world. It's completely free.

Students can call each other or people all over the world to practice their English. There are some businesses which use Skype (search Skype for "hotel" or "services") which may be more ready to speak, especially to people perceived as potential customers.

Teachers can also have conference calls with students.

Additionally, for about 2 cents a minute Skype users can call normal telephones. This opens up just about every phone in the world. They could spend hours and just a few dollars practicing their English by getting information on ski trips and lodgings, cost of notebook computers and their features, and how the services of a personality consultant can makeover their life.

Break all the rules of sensitivity, politeness and courtesy

A teacher explains: "I'm sure we think we're trying to help our students, encouraging them to speak, urging them, filling in awkward silences, repeating instructions to 'clarify'. In fact we dominate and intimidate them. They can't get a word in."

This teacher and others have given some very good and practical advice. Even Edward De Bono, the father of the approach to Lateral Thinking, had trouble with this and offered no revolutionary solutions except for calling on students directly.

But I suppose I often break all the rules of sensitivity, politeness and courtesy.

I know how to warm up to a class and how to get a class to warm up to me. After being a teacher for awhile you can start to read a classroom of students like a book. (But like all good books, you do get surprised from time to time.)

I usually reach a point with my students, here in China, when I give them "the talk". I tell them what Westerners think of them. I tell them Westerners think that they are often too quiet, too reserved, afraid to make a public mistake, afraid to step out, to give their own opinion and too concerned with unity with the group. I have heard many Western managers complain about this trait. (In fact, when I was doing teacher training around China, I even heard experienced Chinese ELT teachers complain about it, too. Funny thing was, even these teachers would sit quietly when I asked a group of them a question. They were really surprised when they discovered they were doing it as well.)

I tell students about the invisible wall that is between the teacher and students or speaker and audience. I tell them why they can feel safe in not answering my questions, because they are doing what the group is doing, nothing. To various extents, all peoples do this. I even tell them the tricks I use to break down this wall at the start of each class (games, warm-ups, etc.)

Is there something wrong with Chinese culture? No. It's different. But if my students are going to be talking to the world, if they want to be able to be effective with all manners of people, they need to realize what Westerners think and expect just as much as we need to sensitize ourselves to the different ways of Asians.

I then demand that they speak up and not do the group thing to me.

Cranking up your class with the power of TV commercials

A teacher is looking for some ideas to make his classes more lively. Here are some suggestions on how to power-up his classes and get his students excited about learning English.

You said you were playing videos in English with Chinese subtitles. As I said, movies are a little bulky to use easily in English training. But the good news is that most of the time when the students say "We want movies," they really mean they want some variety. They are getting bored with the book and the routine.

I've found that commercials, especially to promote speaking, are just fantastic. Try it in your class. Download this video: FISHING

1. In your classroom divide your students into pairs and then divide the pairs into partners "A" & "B".

2. Tell "A" to watch the screen and "B" to turn around. With the sound off, show the first 31 seconds of the commercial to your "A" students.

3. Now "B" students face the screen and "A" students look away. Show the rest of the video to the "B" students.

4. Now "A" and "B" students talk to each other and try to figure out the story of the commercial. Remind them to speak to each other in English. Walk throughout the classroom checking on them and helping them. You will soon have an animated classroom full of excited students.

After they've had enough time to discuss it ask a few students to explain what their partner told them. Don't ask what they saw. Ask what their partner told them. This extends the speaking exercise as they have to orally report what they heard. Afterwards show the video again to the whole class with the sound on.

The commercial is made by McDonald's. A woman drops off her husband so he can go fishing on a wooden dock. It's clear that she doesn't approve of him fishing or perhaps doesn't approve of him in general. He gets his equipment ready and sits down to begin. He pulls out a lunch, a take-out bag from McDonald's and sets it next to him. Suddenly something huge comes out of the sea. We don't see what it but it must be a Great White Shark or similar monster. The man is terrified. Next we see the man is safe but a large section of the wooden dock, right where the McDonald's lunch was, is bitten off. That's the end of the first part, the part Student A would see. Student A doesn't know what happens next.

Now the plot twist.

Student B watches. It appears that the man has convinced his wife to go fishing with him. He helps her get set up on the dock next to him. Then he pulls out a McDonald's lunch and sets it in front of his wife and smiles. Student B doesn't understand the significance of what he has seen.

The students love this sort of thing. They are mystified. They are curious. They are eager to figure out what is happening. And they have to do it in English. It is a super fast way to get students talking and talking and talking and in English.

The disease is fatal. It's called "boredom"!

Troubleshooting a teacher's problem.

A teacher is having some problems with his classes. Despite his efforts he said his classes were too boring. Here is what he said he was doing to get his students interested in English:

1. Play English Videos with Chinese subtitles
2. Role -play
3. Use scores to stress them
4. Ask the students to recite passages
5. Organize some English contests such as speech contest, etc.

1) Beginners and lower intermediate students will always focus on the L1 subtitles. Sometimes they are unable to watch the action as they have to watch the subtitles so closely. They are long and take up a whole class or more. Watching them is a passive event. The students sit and receive information but don't have to interact with it. Finally, watching a movie is something they commonly do outside of class.

For beginners and intermediates, movies are not an easy language learning tool except for listening (and reading). There are a few simple movies that you can watch with your intermediate students in English with English subtitles that they will follow the language enough to laugh when something clever is said and shed a tear or two at the end. Try "Big" with Tom Hanks, "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy, "Don Juan Demarco" with Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando.

But even with these, they are passive events which only challenge the students' listening and reading ability. They are not as good as something that makes the students interact with the language.

2) Role plays are good if they are interesting for the students. Students seem to especially love anything with negotiation in them. Negotiation is like a game for them.

3) Scores (like death and taxes) always seem to be with us. But (like death and taxes) they should be a motivator of last resort.

4) Reciting passages is an effort of rote memory. It also doesn't require interaction between the student and the language unless the student is studying drama.

5) Speech contests are rote memory efforts with a bit of drama and a score coming up at the end. Debates would be better. Debates are a verbal game or challenge requiring student interaction with the language. For beginners and intermediates it may be best to keep the debates on fun or light-hearted topics to avoid focus on win-lose issues. For example, what is better: KFC or McDonald's? Pizza or ice cream? One million dollars or one million flowers?

Top Ten student speaking activities in order of stress

In a discussion about classroom speaking activities for students a teacher suggested: "Perhaps there is a middle ground between forcing students to speak and letting them stay completely silent."

Most people are shy or timid in unfamiliar situations. Most of us who are professional teachers have gained confidence through the expertise in what we do but may still be timid in unfamiliar situations. Some of us have reached the point where we can boldly go where angels fear to tread and are ready to laugh at our bumbling. We could say this is not an English teacher issue but a human issue that all people have to deal with.

But within the realm of the classroom, is there something we can do to help students, a middle ground as Maria put it? There are various speaking relationships that are easier than others. Here's my Top Ten list of speaking activities in order of stress:

10. Pair work with a student friend. Least stressful.

9. Group work with student friends.

8. Pair work with student who is not a friend. (I find this very effective if the problem of students not talking is they are too cliquish or cool with their buddies.)

7. Group work with fellow students who are not friends.

6. Talk with teacher.

5. Talk in front of class and teacher.

4. Talk with native English speaking strangers who are not part of the class.

3. Make an announcement to a group of people.

2. Make a presentation to a large number of people.

An the #1 most stressful speaking activity would be:

1. Give a talk to people who are hostile to the idea you are presenting, like a press conference about something controversial.

Evaluating speaking and validity

A teacher, who has his students do a class presentation as the sole English speaking evaluation task, defended his approach by saying: "I guess this just shows that there is more ways than one to skin a cat - the principles of public speaking are things that we can use every day in our lives and, if it helps to build up the confidence in the students to use their English, then it seems as good a technique to use as many of the others."

Indeed, there is more than one way to accomplish a task. But there are also good ways and bad ways, effective ways and ineffective ways.

I can't say for sure but I'll make a guess that you haven't taken a TESOL course or had any formal training to be an English teacher. I'll admit my formal training is skimpy but I study as much as I can.

Brown & Yule explained some of the challenges of speaking. "...it should also be borne in mind that even native speakers of English find that a straight description is easier, in some sense, than telling a story and, in turn, that telling a story is easier than a justification of an opinion....This is a rather general guide to the level of difficulty. Naturally, a short narrative involving a single character and only two or three events may be easier than a lengthy description covering many details and relationships."

Here is a list of examples of speaking that Brown & Yule point out:


1. Static relationships

a) Describing an object or photograph
b) Instructing someone how to draw a diagram
c) Instructing someone how to assemble a piece of equipment
d) Describing/instructing how a number of objects are to be arranged
e) Giving route directions

2. Dynamic relationships

a) Story telling
b) Giving an eye-witness account

3. Abstract relationships

a) Opinion-expressing
b) Justifying a course of action


If you are familiar with the IELTS speaking test you can see these elements in the test. First the examiner asks some basic information or a description of something. Then to tell a story of something like a holiday you took. Then finally he will ask for some opinions on some topics.

He works from easier tasks to more difficult tasks. Students should begin having difficulty at some point during the test by which the examiner can see the student's level of competence.

Of course, as Karen pointed out, there are different kinds of tests and what we are talking about are not IELTS English competency tests but more like a pass/fail type test.

But my point is that there are a lot of different demands English speaking tasks make and it's important to match the task to the need and to achieve validity.

Brown explains: "The general concept of validity was traditionally defined as 'the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring' (Brown, 1996, p. 231).

"Validity was traditionally subdivided into three categories: content, criterion-related, and construct validity (see Brown 1996, pp. 231-249). Content validity includes any validity strategies that focus on the content of the test. To demonstrate content validity, testers investigate the degree to which a test is a representative sample of the content of whatever objectives or specifications the test was originally designed to measure."

So a test of General English would not be valid for Business English students. A Public Speaking test would not be valid for General English students. Would it be good for General English students to be competent in Public Speaking. Probably. Does the ability to speak publicly show competence in a general English speaking situation? No. Could the specific anxiety generated by speaking in public interfere with General English production? Absolutely.

General English requires the ability to negotiate meaning, explaining, understanding when they are not being clear to the listener and using appropriate strategies (circumlocution or defining terms), turn-taking, etc.

To this the teacher questioned: "Why??? What support do you have for this statement. In my years in China, the correlation is pretty strong, good english communicators give good speeches. This seems natural."

I meant invalid as far as content validity is concerned. Are you familiar with content validity?

As explained by Underhill the question is:

"It is relevant? Do the items or tasks in he test match what the test as a whole is supposed to assess? Where the objectives of the programme are set out in detail, for example in a syllabus that lists skills or functions, then the content validity can be assessed by comparing the kind of language generated in the test against the syllabus. The questions then is whether the test produces a good sample of the contest of the syllabus."

Using a public speech as a way to test general English is like giving a driving test on a motorcycle instead of a car.


Brown & Yule (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language, Cambridge University Press. Brown http://www.jalt.org/test/bro_8.htm
There is a lot of good information about testing at: http://www.jalt.org/test/news-title.htm

Speaking ideas borrowed from Edward de Bono

Here is one idea that takes no preparation and can keep your students talking for a long time. I'm borrowing from de Bono's Lateral Thinking. De Bono, in one of his books, spoke of the importance of trying to see situations from various perspectives. Also I'm taking some ideas from Willis and Willis' Task Based Learning and Nation's Just Say It:

Tell the students story where there can be different viewpoints. For example, there was a story in a newspaper about an eagle that escaped from its cage in a zoo and was difficult to capture. It was perched on a high branch and is resisting the efforts of the keepers to lure it back to its cage.

Divide the students up into four equal groups. Ask each group to imagine a different viewpoint in the situation. One group should imagine and discuss the viewpoint of the keeper, another group should consider the viewpoint of a newspaperman, a third group should consider the eagle and another group a passerby.

The groups should discuss each viewpoint and from that viewpoint how they would describe their feelings and attitudes in that situation.

After they get started, check on them and make sure they are getting some ideas. You can further seed their discussion with these ideas:

Alternative viewpoints

The keeper's point of view: the bird may fly away and get lost or shot unless it is coaxed back soon. It is uncomfortable having to climb up trees after the bird and one feels a bit foolish. Someone is to blame having let it escape.

The newspaperman's point of view: the longer the bird stays out the better the story. Can one get close enough to get a good picture? One ought to find some other interest such as different people's ideas on how to catch the bird.

The eagle's point of view: wondering what all the fuss is about. Strange feeling not to be in a cage. Getting rather hungry. Not sure in which direction to fly.

The onlooker's point of view: hoping the eagle will fly away and be free for evermore. Amused to see the strenuous efforts being made to catch the bird. The eagle looks so much better out on its own than inside a cage. Maybe one could show how clever one was by catching the bird when no one else could.

Each group of students could develop what they would say to represent their viewpoint. After some time the teacher would take one student from each group to form new groups. Then each person would discuss their viewpoint in their new groups.

Afterward you can have a general discussion of the situation and talk about any interesting things that the students contributed to the talk.

Making reading comprehension more interactive

A teacher asks: "How I may turn a reading comprehension exercise to be more activity orientated and also one which would encourage the students to talk or communicate with each other?"

Doing speaking activities in conjunction with reading activities is a very good idea. After a reading students have been exposed to some new vocabulary in context and with the appropriate grammar support.

This makes it easier than telling the students, "OK everybody, talk about pollution."

1. Before allowing the students to see the story ask them what they know about the subject. You could have them talk in pairs and exchange what they know about it. Then read the story.

2. If the story is talking about different places or different people, have your pairs or groups talk about which one they think is best, worst, they'd like to visit, etc. and why.

3. If it is talking about a famous person this is a great idea (adapted from a list member's suggestion). Have each student write down a question they would like to ask that famous person if they met him/her. Then have the students circulate around the classroom asking each other their question. The student answering the question would answer as the famous person. After both students get a chance to ask and answer they exchange questions and find other students to do it with.

4. You could try Nation's "Say It!" (documented below).

5. A little simpler approach is to get two characters out of the story (if you're doing pair work) or four characters (if you're doing group work). Then assign students to tell the story from the characters' perspective.


Say It!

In Say it!, learners work in groups of about four people. First they read a Say it! text carefully until they have reached a good understanding of it. They discuss their understanding of the text to make sure everything is fairly clear. Then they do the tasks in the Say it! grid, which is a collection of simple verbal tasks related to the reading (see the following example).

One learner chooses a square for the next learner to perform, for example square B2. The learner does this task while the others observe and, when the student has finished, s/he calls a square, for example, A3, for the next learner. This continues with some learners doing the same task several times and with some tasks being done several times by different learners. Often the tasks are like role plays and require the learners to use the vocabulary that was in the reading text, but to use it in a different way.

This helps the development of fluency by providing lots of associations with the vocabulary used in the task, that is the associations from the reading text and its discussion, and the associations from the Say it! role play. Although the Say it! activity does not involve large amounts of repetition, it involves preparation by the learners.

That is, the learners prepare for the spoken task by studying the written text. This preparation should increase the fluency with which learners do the spoken task.

The following is an example of a Say It! activity (Joe, Nation, & Newton, 1996, p. 6). The story is called "Castaways Survived on Sharks Blood."

Three fishermen who drifted on the Pacific for four months told how they drank shark's blood to survive. The fishermen from Kiribati told their story through an interpreter in the American Samoa capital of Pago Pago after being rescued by the ship Sakaria. Kautea Teatoa, Veaieta Toanuea, and Tebwai Aretana drifted 400 kilometers from home after their outboard motor failed on February 8. They said four ships had refused to help during their ordeal. When they were picked up on June 4 they had eaten the last of a one meter shark four days before and drunk all of its blood. "I have not prayed so much in all my life," Mr. Aretana said.

You are Kautea. Say what helped you survive.
You are Tebwai Aretana. How did you feel when the ships refused to help you?
You are a sailor on the Sakaria. What did you do to help the fishermen?
You are Tebwai. Explain why you were in the boat and what happened after it broke down.
You are Kautea. How did you feel when you caught the shark?
You are the captain. Explain why you stopped.
You are Veaieta. Explain what caused the problem.
You are the interpreter. Describe the appearance of the three men.
The journey was called an ordeal. Why?