English is a must here, and there are probably few countries where learners take exam prep classes as seriously as Greek learners do. While such high learner motivation would seem to be a plus, the downside is that English is often learned for the sole purpose of getting the proficiency certificate—a fact that usually reduces teaching to a cramming of grammar and vocabulary, without students being able to become fluent speakers of English. | Copyright © University of Michigan, 2006. All rights reserved. Chapter 3 What Does a Conversation Class Look Like? Questions to consider before reading this chapter: 1. Have you ever taught speaking? What was the context? (When? Where? To whom? Why?) 2. If you have taught speaking, was your teaching experience in #1 positive? Why or why not? Were you successful at teaching speaking? Can you think of specific examples of students whose speaking skills were better after taking your course? 3. Before you read the chapter, make a list of the top ten obstacles to teaching speaking “perfectly”. 4. With regarding to teaching speaking, can you think of problems related to the students’ ages? To their students’ countries or cultures of origin? Write down your thoughts before you read the chapter. 5. How would you deal with student errors in your speaking class? Can you imagine how different groups of students (older versus younger, male versus female, one culture versus another) might react to error correction? 7 Copyright © University of Michigan, 2006. All rights reserved. Web Cases Here are additional cases of teachers’ stories as they taught speaking or conversation in ESL/EFL classes around the world. Web Case #1 Teaching Public Speaking in the United States Graduate Students; University Agnieszka Sypniewska I currently teach advanced business English courses in the Master of Science in International Business program at Florida Atlantic University. The majority of our students are either immigrants or international students. For this reason, some of the courses are designed specifically for second language speakers to adapt their language proficiency to the business environment. I teach English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Business Purposes, and Business Communications Applications. The average class size is about 16. The students range in age between 25 and 40. Since Florida is near Latin America, approximately 90 percent of the students are Hispanic. The
