Doing the Possible
Conversation classes for English majors at many universities are tough assignments. Survival is not much of a problem for teachers who have been around the track a few times and have filled a bag of tricks which includes a conversation course book. But just surviving, and knowing that's all your efforts amount to, can hurt. It helps to be thick skinned. More than a few teachers find failure in the conversation classroom confusing. There is often precious little conversation even when there is talk. Teachers and students usually agree that they want to have conversations in the classroom but this goal too often proves elusive. Some types of talk are relatively easily come by: teacher monologues, question and answer exchanges, readings of models, memorized dialogues, and students' own versions of model conversations which contain more examples of embarrassment than of natural spoken language. Frustration comes from the painful recognition that talk is cheap when it's a poor substitute for the target - natural conversation.
Some times we justify these talking activities by telling ourselves and our students that a step by step skill building approach is logical. Other times we complain conversation is not a subject that is amenable to classroom study or not a fit subject for study at universities. There are more than a few teachers around who are embarrassed to say they teach conversation courses. Poor old conversation. It is the embarrassing relative of the language family. It has to be invited to the party but no one knows what to do when it shows up. And worse yet, if not kept quiet it is distressingly good at making the rest of the family look bad.
Should we do anything to make a happier language family ? It depends. If you need to learn special techniques just to take attendance in less than twenty minutes, you just go right ahead and survive as best you can. Or, you could teach a course on the place of conversation in the spoken language and contrast spoken and written language. In other words, you could tell your students why it is so hard to get conversation going in a classroom, just in case they think the only reason is that dozens of their pals are crammed into every nailed - to - the floor desk in the hall. You could give `A` s to the ones who realize they have been talking written language in some conversation classes. Real conversation ? Don't try it. Talk about it. Teach something about learning strategies and tell your kids to go converse somewhere else.