This paper uses conversation analytic research on a particular practice of organization in talk--pre-sequences--to evaluate English as a Second Language (ESL) textbook dialogues and make recommendations for their improvement. Pre-sequences, such as pre-invitations (e.g., What are you doing on Friday night?) and their responses are used to show…

Introduces a recorded skit entirely based on the responses of one speaker, the lines spoken by the other being suggested by the context or left to audience's imagination. Suggests this material for use with advanced students and proposes various classroom activities leading to a reconstruction of the dialogue. (MES)

Three text examples from a newspaper are given, and teaching procedures, aimed at developing communicative skills, are described in detail. Short dialogues are used, based on series of slide pictures. Students' real-life needs are kept in mind as the overall teaching goal. (IFS/WGA)

Draws on Bakhtin's work on dialogism and research with a group of non-traditional student writers and their specific experiences of academic writing within a number of academic disciplines. Maps out different levels of dialogism in Bahktin's work and illustrates the way these are and are not to be the center of an academic literacies stance.…

Provides an overview of the most widely used methods of classroom oral testing, as well as evaluations of their practicality and conformity to the goals of communicative teaching and testing. Also described are ways the video camera and task-based activities have successfully been used to make oral testing a more realistic communicative…

Discusses the integration of Fluent 2, a two-medium immersive conversational language learning environment, into the pedagogical environment. The article presents a strategy to provide teachers and other designers of language lessons with tools that will enable them to produce lessons they consider appropriate. (seven references) (Author/CK)

Describes a controlled experiment conducted to determine the differences between native and nonnative speakers' strategies for transcribing dialogs, from the simple to the complex. Results confirmed that there were significant differences among three categories of the users' interactions with a computerized transcription system. (seven references)…

This paper reports on an investigation into the discourse features of seven dialogues published in coursebooks between 1981 and 1997, and contrasts them with comparable authentic interactions. It finds that the textbook dialogues differ considerably from their authentic equivalents across a range of discourse features: length and turn-taking…

A tuition-free, vocational, English as a second language (ESL) program offered at a large community college suffers from high attrition as well as student dissatisfaction with curriculum. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, longitudinal study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific ESL curriculum supplement as an intervention to…

This paper discusses the use of skits and dialogues in a first-year Chinese course to help novice learners enhance their communicative skills. Because novice learners of Chinese lack the appropriate vocabulary and grammar knowledge to express themselves freely, skits can help them use their limited knowledge to communicate in an effective manner.…

"Communicative Competence" is today the avowed primary aim of foreign language teaching. This paper points out that communicative competence in this context differs from communicative competence between two native speakers of the same language. In the two cases the difficulties that appear are not the same. Various possible dialogue elements are…

Cites a typical classroom "pseudo-conversation," showing how German students of English sound stiff and clumsy when conversing with English-speaking partners. This is blamed partly on the teacher's behavior. The example is then expanded into a "communicative exchange." In teaching conversation, manner is seen as more important…

Describes work at a Goethe Institute branch with two groups of foreign students learning German, in which radio news, after preparatory work by the teacher, was used to induce question-and-answer dialogue. Many types of teaching aids and exercises used are described, including three-way conversation. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

The purpose of this article is to suggest ways which will prevent students from responding automatically when they are working in the language laboratory." Suggestions for drills are made and sample drills are presented. (FB)

Discusses the value of dialog, and presents criteria it must meet if it is to be useful in creating communicative skills. Cites a dialog from the school radio series "Let's Talk in English," and states conditions for its adoption in the seventh grade. Describes, in detail, a class hour. (IFS/WGA)