???????? ??????????? We have just one (rather out-dated) computer in our classroom and the students huddle around it. The images are good and […….

Thanks for your feedback. There are a variety of activities on our website that can be used for more capable students. The trick is to approach the files/activities with ‘collaborative dialog’ in mind. The phrase itself has been introduced into mainstream second language jargon by Merrill Swain. Collaborative dialog is intended to be interaction that ‘constructs linguistic knowledge… where language use and language learning can co-occur. It is language use mediating language learning’ (Swain 2000).

Simply put, collaborative dialog is the activity that takes place in the social environment (classroom or anywhere else) with active participants (learners and teachers) who are engaged in building knowledge (the ability to communicate in English).

Here is an activity (“PhotoTalk”) from the Language Works files and some ideas on employing a collaborative approach to communication:

MAIN SYLLABUS:

PhotoTalk (beginning in Module Four): These files present photos and a word scramble exercise. In order to create collaborative activity, a teacher or student will create a question after each sentence has been unscrambled.

For example:

Q: (first slide) “What kind of fast food do you eat?” (fries eat burgers and I)

A: (following slide) “I eat fries and burgers.”

Possible follow-up Qs: “How often do you go out to eat?” “How much does it cost for a burger?” “Where do you eat on special occasions?”

The questions and answers can be explored collaboratively on the level of: vocabulary, word order, grammar, meaning, pronunciation and intonation and can also be expanded upon (as it may unfold in any conversation, in any language, in any culture) perhaps even developing into a discussion. There are also “photo-only” slides at the end of the file for initiating a freer form of Q and A activity.

You will probably find that students will require the most assistance (gradually and minimally offered so they have a chance to regulate their own learning) with question forms. A few of the reasons are that 1) word order is challenging in most question forms– different from statement forms, 2) questions require an original thought– learners must come up with the idea for a question on their own and 3) conversation (if the dialog permits) needs some form of coherence– there needs to be a thread running from utterance to utterance.