Turn taking Strategies That Will Boost Student Speaking Time. ESL students learn a variety of skills in the classroom, and strategies for listening, writing or reading. They can certainly speak in class, but is answering your questions the same as speakingGreat speaking activities for ESLEFL class. For English teachers. Levels beginner, preintermediate, intermediate, and advanced. Disagreeing BBC This programme is all about expressions you can use when you want to tell someone that you disagree with them. Can your students carry a conversation with another English speaker How long can they keep one discussion going The reason these questions are important is that ultimately this is exactly what ESL students hope to accomplish they want to gain the level of proficiency that will allow them to engage English speakers in conversation. And to reach this level of proficiency, the ability to take longer turns and turn taking skills are absolutely essential. What Is Turn taking in SpeakingWhat happens most often in the ESL classroom is that one or a few of the students dominate the conversation, giving the others very short turns. Quite literally, were talking about taking turns to speak. So, if you tell a group they have to plan a party together, the students should take turns providing ideas, offering to do something or giving opinions. What happens most often in the ESL classroom is that one or a few of the students dominate the conversation, giving the others very short turns. Alice In The Country Of Hearts Game Download Pc'>Alice In The Country Of Hearts Game Download Pc. Sage 50 Pro Accounting here. Another common scenario, when students are divided into pairs, is that both students take turns to speak, but end the conversation in a matter of seconds, i. So, here are some tips, just a few ideas that should help your students have longer and better conversationsdiscussions. Use These 7 Turn taking Strategies to Boost Student Speaking Timeclick to enlarge the infographic Speak, then Ask. Agreeing And Disagreeing Esl Activities For Beginners' title='Agreeing And Disagreeing Esl Activities For Beginners' />When you ask someone a direct question, youre forcing them to take their turn. One great strategy is to divide students into pairs to discuss a topic and instruct them to do the following one student has to get the ball rolling with hisher opinion, then ask hisher partner a question. Say the topic is Cell Phone Use How much is too much S1 The first thing I do after I wake up is check my phone. How about you S2 First, I have breakfast and turn on my computer, then I turn on my phone. Do you check your phone for messages all the time S1 Constantly I cant stop checking messages How many messages do you think you send per dayA ccording to linguists, there is an important distinction between language acquisition and language learning. As you may well have noticed, children acquire their. EtcAs you can see, questions can help move the conversation along nicely This is a great strategy for beginners to intermediate students who need that little extra push to speak. Use Conjunctions. Conjunctions and connectors like however, on the contrary or as a result, help students get used to taking longer turns. Try this strategy. Write down a list of conjunctions on the board or on a piece of paper. Each student has to say something and then add more information by using a conjunction I went to the movies last weekend. In fact, I go to the movies every weekend. Cross out this conjunction, thus forcing the other students to use the rest. This is a great way to practice these as new vocabulary, but it also helps students speak a little longer. Teach Phrases for AgreeingDisagreeing. Another great way to keep the conversation going is by agreeingdisagreeing with what another student has said. Some of the phrases you can teach include I agreedisagree with you. Im afraid I cantdont agree with you. I couldnt agree more. Teach Phrases for Asking forGiving Opinions. Just like the above skill, its very important for students to be able to not only express their opinions, but also ask others for their own. Some of the phrases that come in handy in this case are Do you like that idea What do you think Does that make sense to you Teach Fillers for Pauses. One of the things that can scare any ESL student is not knowing what to say. Long silences are awkward. So teach them useful phrases that act as fillers, thinking words they can turn to when they need time to come up with an appropriate response. Some of these fillers include Let me seeLet me thinkThe thing isWhat I mean isAvoiding Interruptions. Another important skill is being able to avoid being interrupted. If you start by saying, There are three things I would love to do before I die then the others will have to wait to hear what those three things are before they can add their own thoughts. Another strategy is to begin the sentence with a clause Although I Even though IBecause they. This way those who are listening will have to wait until they hear both clauses. Fluency over Accuracy. When encouraging students to take longer turns speaking, I recommend keeping corrections to a minimum. In fact, consider simply letting them speak and giving them feedback at the end. This works for two reasons. If you insist on correcting them, you will not only interrupt their train of thought which they are trying so hard to keep but it will also affect their confidence. So, when theyre done speaking, offer some suggestions for improvement. But dont forget to offer praise as well Students struggle with grammar, students struggle with confidence, students struggle to remember the right words. And through it all, they dont want to embarrass themselves in front of their classmates. Its not easy for them to get used to speaking longer. But if you guide them with the right steps, and provide the right strategies, you will have more confident speakers. This question was sent in from a real ESL teacher, just like you If you need any advice on a particular topic, share your question in the comments below. Or tweet your question to busyteacherorg with the hashtag ESLTeachers.