Frequently Asked Questions
The following are general suggestions on how to use Let’s Talk, Second Edition more effectively in the classroom. Click on a question below or scroll down the screen.
About how long should a lesson take to complete?
Generally speaking, one lesson should take approximately 60 to 90 minutes to complete, depending on variables such as:
- how much preparation students may need
- how challenging students find the activities
- how much interest is generated by the activities
- how many of the activities you choose to teach
- how many questions students ask
- how much follow-up work you may need to do
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What is the purpose of the Getting started unit?
If your students have had little or no experience with pair work and group work, this unit introduces them gently to the kinds of tasks and exercises they will be doing during the course. If your students have had prior experience with pair and group work, this unit will serve to remind them why this student-centered approach to language learning can be so valuable.
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Why is it necessary to give students a time limit for completing a task?
It is important that students know how long their pair or group work is supposed to take. This allows them to pace themselves better and deal with questions in more depth. Without a time limit, some groups may finish quickly and have nothing to do, while others may take longer and feel frustrated if they are interrupted before they have finished. If everyone has the same time limit, the discussion will be more interesting and satisfying, because students will feel encouraged to stay on task and share their ideas and opinions in a more relaxed way.
The Teaching notes section of the Teacher's Manual includes suggested time limits for all activities. These are meant to serve as general guidelines, however. With a talkative class, for example, you may discover that the suggested three-minute limit will shortchange your students, who will need at least four minutes. Your own judgment and knowledge of your students will help you determine when to shorten or lengthen the time for an activity.
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What is the teacher’s role during pair or group work?
While students are working in pairs or groups, move around the class and listen to each pair or group for a few moments. When helpful, you may wish to join in occasionally and offer encouragement, advice, or suggestions. Make notes on any important mistakes you hear while walking around – but don’t spend time correcting students' mistakes while they’re trying to express themselves.
The teacher has three main responsibilities in doing pair or group work:
- getting things started (making sure every student knows what to do and has the necessary vocabulary to do it, and explaining how long an activity should take)
- monitoring the pairs or groups as they work and deciding when to stop the activity
- leading a short follow-up discussion after each activity (answering questions, pointing out significant mistakes, and giving additional practice)
If your class does not have an even number of students, you will need to place some students in groups of three with two members of the group doing the same task. Rearrange pairs and groups frequently so that students are exposed to different conversation styles and ideas. For some activities, you may want to place more outgoing learners together so they don’t intimidate others. In other situations, you may want to pair the shy or less-proficient students with more outgoing or proficient partners so they can be exposed to more language input.
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What if an activity doesn’t seem to be working?
Some of the more open-ended activities in Let’s Talk, Second Edition, are quite challenging. Students may not possess all the language they need to participate easily and fluently. There are several ways of preparing for this situation, not all of which will be necessary at the same time:
- Quickly go through a few vocabulary items students can use in the activity.
- Model or demonstrate the task so students understand what has to be done.
- Make sure students read the instructions or information carefully, and ask questions before they begin the activity (and as necessary during the activity).
- Sometimes it may be helpful to give students a few moments to think about what they are going to say, and perhaps make a few notes. Students should not write down full sentences, however.
- Photocopy and hand out the Model conversations in the Teacher's Manual. Have students practice the conversation in pairs or groups, and then try the task again, using their own words.
- If an activity proves difficult, give students some helpful feedback and then have them try it again. This will help students feel they have made progress.
- Remind students that in real life, they may not have anyone to help them out and may have to cope by using their limited English resources in similar situations. The activities in this course will build their confidence in real-life situations.
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How can students be encouraged to speak only in English?
If students are tempted from time to time to use their native language, remind them that every member of the class has a common aim: to improve his or her English. Indeed, the activities in this course were created to foster a spirit of cooperation and friendship in the class and to give students the feeling that they are all members of a team with a common purpose and a role to play in the success of the course. Accordingly, ask students to agree on this rule: “Only English may be spoken in our class.”
These ideas may help students who find it difficult to follow the English-only rule:
- Remind students that your class may be their only opportunity to use English.
- Demonstrate what to do before students are split into pairs or groups, using one of your more confident students as your partner while the others listen. This modeling will help everyone get into the discussion or activity more quickly.
- If you overhear students using their native language, remind them of the rule.
- Separate students who persistently use their native language, and put them with students who do use only English in class.
- Make sure all students know basic transactional language that they can use to manage their conversations. Many of these useful statements and questions appear in the Working together pages of Student’s Books 1 and 2 (see pages vi–vii). Go over these pages carefully to help students learn and remember this important language before you begin the units in the Student’s Book. You may also want to make a list of this language on the board (or create a poster for the classroom) and add further transactional language as the need arises.
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What should the teacher do when students make mistakes?
Although most students using Let’s Talk, Second Edition, probably already have a basic knowledge of English grammar, they will still make mistakes. Although accuracy is an important aspect of language learning and should never be ignored, it is more important for students to be able to communicate effectively. Many grammatical mistakes don’t seriously affect communication. For example, the meaning of what a student is trying to say – his or her message – may be clear to others in spite of an incorrect verb tense or article. Moreover, students should not be corrected every time they make a mistake. If that happened, most students would become inhibited and afraid to speak at all. Actually, mistakes play an important role because they are an essential indicator of what still needs to be learned. On the basis of the mistakes you overhear, together with the types of questions students ask you, you can plan any additional practice your class may require.
Students should certainly be corrected when they make serious errors. However, it’s usually better not to interrupt students while they are doing an activity but to point out any mistakes after they have completed it. This allows students to focus on communicating with each other. While you are listening to students working in pairs or groups, you might make the occasional discreet correction without interrupting the flow of the conversation. It’s usually better, however, to take notes on some of the important or frequent errors you overhear and point them out to the class later. Then individual students won’t feel singled out for making mistakes, and all students can learn from one another.
In writing, where errors are noticeable and may interfere more seriously with communication, accuracy is more important. When marking students' written work, you can’t really overlook some of their mistakes as you might if they were talking. However, it’s helpful to show students which of their mistakes in writing are more serious or less serious and to distinguish between different kinds of mistakes.
When students submit written work, ask them to leave a wide margin so that there’s sufficient room for you to add comments later. Give students a chance to correct their own mistakes by underlining the incorrect parts and showing in the margin whether there’s a mistake in grammar (G), word order (WO), vocabulary (V), pronunciation (P), or spelling (SP). If there’s a clearer way of saying something or a better word to use, you may want to write a comment to indicate that in the margin as a suggestion.
And don’t highlight only mistakes. A check mark is a nice way of showing that an idea has been well expressed. Words of encouragement are even more appreciated – especially if a student seems to have put a lot of effort into his or her work.
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How should the teacher handle new vocabulary?
As students work through Let’s Talk, Second Edition, they will be learning more and more vocabulary. Some items are presented in vocabulary boxes, while others occur in context in the recordings and the activities.
The teaching notes for most activities include a glossary that highlights the important new vocabulary students will encounter in that activity. It is important to limit definition of vocabulary to those words that are essential to the task. Students can often complete an activity successfully without understanding every word. In fact, learners should be encouraged to develop a tolerance for ambiguity so that they don’t panic when they see an unfamiliar word. By focusing on essential vocabulary, you can use class time more efficiently.
Before presenting the definition of a word, ask the class if anyone can explain the word. If no one can, give the meaning provided in the Teacher’s Manual. Alternatively, ask students to look up the word in a good learner’s dictionary such as the Cambridge Dictionary of American English. Whenever possible, encourage students to guess the meaning of a word from its context – an important reading and listening skill. Students may need your guidance at first, but as their skill develops, they will be able to do this on their own. Explain that guessing the meaning of a word from its context involves:
- looking in the text or at the other words in the vocabulary box for clues
- thinking about what they know about similar words
- using their knowledge of the word
If students figure out meanings for themselves, they’re more likely to remember the new words than if you define the words for them in English or translate them.
Students may ask about other words that are not listed in the glossary for a particular activity. It’s a good idea to preview the activities and the audio scripts of the recorded material so you can answer questions about any potentially difficult or unfamiliar words.
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How can the teacher help students build their vocabulary?
Recommend that students circle or underline new and/or important words and expressions in their Student’s Book. Highlighting is particularly effective because it makes the language students want to remember “jump off” the page, reminding them of the key vocabulary items and showing the words in contexts. Moreover, going over previous lessons will help students review vocabulary easily and effectively.
Students should be encouraged to record new vocabulary in other ways as well. Suggest that they keep a vocabulary notebook, organized in one of two ways: alphabetically (like a dictionary) or by topic or subject matter.
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What is the role of writing in Let’s Talk, Second Edition?
Although this course focuses on speaking and listening skills, you may also want your students to do some writing. To facilitate this, there is a Writing option activity at the end of the teaching notes for each unit in the Teacher's Manual. You may want to give students some class time to prepare for this activity; however, the actual writing should be assigned as homework. When the assignment is due, have students work in groups to take turns reading and commenting on one another’s work. Then collect the assignments and add your comments before handing them back. (See the suggestions in What should the teacher do when students make mistakes? for ways to give corrections and comments.)
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