Conversation – Oxford Resource Books

• Conversation helps to develop students’ ability to speak English fluently and confidently, especially in less formal contexts.
• Conversation provides a useful source of ideas to supplement any coursebook at any level.

In addition to introductory materials and a bibliography, Conversation includes the following components:

1. Towards a classroom approach
Explains how the activities in chapters 2 to 5 can be combined to provide a coherent approach to the teaching of conversation.

2. Controlled activities (25 activities)
Controlled activities to help students develop confidence as well as the ability to participate in and maintain simple, commonly encountered conversations.

3. Awareness activities (20 activities)
Activities designed to help students become aware of what native speakers do in conversation; the activities involve making observations, imitating, experimenting, and identifying aspects of the language.

4. Fluency activities (28 activities)
Activities which help learners achieve conversational competence through: providing the experience of using English in real time (i.e. people do not wait for the right or the appropriate answer in real life); giving learners the chance to express their own ideas and emotions; giving learners the opportunity of using language for a specific purpose.

5. Feedback (12 tasks)
Practical ways in which consistent and reliable feedback can be used to improve conversational performance.