Creating Compelling Conversations

Creating Compelling Conversations: Reproducible Search and Share Activities for English Teachers

Give your English students a choice and a voice!

How can we make each lesson different and engaging? How about letting our English student co-create their assignments!

This new collection of reproducible ‘Search and Share’ activities and worksheets for English teachers gives your students a choice and a voice. Each one-page lesson encourages curiosity, deepens research skills, expands word knowledge, and sparks student discussions. How? We ask our English students to find contemporary sources, summarize information, evaluate evidence, and reflect on their relevant experiences with a conversation partner or in a small group. Students answer sets of 10 questions, cite sources, share information, learn new vocabulary, and express their opinions.

The flexible worksheets and activities allow students to expand their working vocabulary in English, deepen critical thinking skills, and even learn some grammar in context of authentic documents. This collection includes the most popular ‘Search and Share’ activities from ESL/EFL textbook series Compelling Conversations, including Compelling American Conversations and Compelling Conversations – Vietnam. Originally created for community college and international university students, these communicative activities require students to develop essential research skills in small, focused exercises.The book also includes optional, creative and supplemental activities allowing students to create documents such as writing Yelp reviews, memos, and tourist brochures to recorded newscasts, movie reviews, and mock Skype interviews. Almost all the Search and Shares can be used as springboards for a wide range of oral presentations and/or short writing tasks. Students and English teachers have an impressive range of creative assignments based on student research.

The book includes:Unit A: Studying EnglishUnit B: Preparing for American College LifeUnit C: Creating a HomeUnit D: Modern LivingUnit E: Exploring New Career OpportunitiesUnit F: Enjoying and Keeping MoneyUnit G: Traveling Around the Big WorldUnit H: Enjoying Free TimeThe appendix also includes student survey forms and teacher, peer, and self-evaluation forms for student presentations. Recommendations for websites and educational apps are also included. The communicative assignments also provide English students practice in citing, writing, and speaking on personal interests, academic topics, and workplace skills. Based on the extensive teaching experiences of professors Eric H. Roth and Teresa X. Nguyen with both international graduate students and community college classes, ‘Creating Compelling Conversations’ focuses on the essential communication skills required for academic success in American universities.

Many other experienced ESL/EFL teachers and English tutors also contributed activities and ideas including Toni Aberson, Hal Bogotch, Trinity Bustria, Shiggy Ichinomiya, Yuka Kuroda, Andrea Schmidt, Tuanni B. Vasconcelos, and Brent Warner. Intermediate to advanced English students in high schools, intensive English programs (IEP), community college classes, adult education centers, and vocational programs will find these communicative activities appealing and useful.

These single- page reproducible worksheets help hectic English teachers create lively classroom conversations. English teachers can also use the creative extension activities to have students give presentations, record videos, make collages, write memos, develop marketing plans, create Venn diagrams and pen persuasive essays.What will your students find and learn? How will you use these Search and Share materials? What compelling conversations will you have in your English classes?