Conversation

Strategies

Pair and Group Activities

for Developing Communicative Competence

+
David Kehe
Peggy Dustin Kehe
with illustrations by Andrew Toos

PRO LINGUA

ASSOCIATES

Pro Lingua Associates

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Brattleboro, Vermont 05302 USA
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At Pro Lingua,
our objective is to foster
an approach to learning and teaching that
we call Interplay, the interaction of language
learners and teachers with their materials,
with the language and the culture, and
with each other in active, creative,
and productive play.
Copyright @ 1994, 2004, 2009 by David Kehe and Peggy Dustin Kehe

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means , electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or other, or stored in an information storage
or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN 0-86647-189-8
This book was designed and set in type by Arthur A. Burrows. Adobe Century Schoolbook
is the type face used for both text and display. It is a digital adaptation of one of the most
popular faces of the 20th Century. Century's distinctive roman and italic fonts and its clear,
dark strokes and serifs were designed, as the name suggests, to make schoolbooks easy to
read. The original, elegant type was cut in 1924 by Morris Fuller Benton for the American
Type Foundry of Elizabeth, New Jersey, (the largest and one of the most distinguished type
foundries in the United States from 1892 to 1993). It was adapted by Monotype in 1928,
and since then many "Century" and "Schoolbook" faces have been developed, as typesetting
and printing technology have evolved from Linotype and film to digital type. The book was
printed and bound by Boyd Printing Company in Albany, New York.

Printed in the United States of America

Second edition, sixth printing 2009
51,000 copies in print.

iv

Introduction
This book is a collection of activities for pair and small group
conversation practice. It is designed to be used with a wide range
of intermediate level students of English as a second or foreign
language. The format of the activities puts the focus on the students, rather than the teacher. At the same time, the activities are
designed to be nonthreatening to even the most reserved students.
They are also enjoyable for both students and teachers, and they
are easy for any teacher to implement.
A special feature of these activities is that they will develop
strategic conversation skills. These are skills that go along with
linguistic and sociolinguistic skills (grammar, vocabulary and
usage). Strategic skills help the speaker/ listener keep a conversation
going to its natural or desired conclusion. These skills include:

+ beginning a conversation
+ clarifying something
+ interrupting someone
+ rephrasing something
+ correcting someone
+ eliciting information
+ soliciting attention
+ repairing a conversation
+ summarizing a conversation
+ escaping from a conversation
+ ending a conversation

vi

+ Introduction
The format of this book is quite simple. Each activity has three

parts: a teacher's introduction, a student's introductory exercise,

and pair or small group practice.

+ The teacher's introduction is very short. It is located in the

Appendix.

+ The student's introductory exercise focuses on the words and

expressions students need to carry out the activity. The
students can do this individually and then check it with a
partner.

+ The pair or small group practice makes use of informationgap and other interactive formats.
It is not necessary to follow the order of the activities in this

book. Each activity is complete and does not depend on another

activity. However, Activity 1, "Rejoinders," is a good place to begin, because the rejoinders can be used in virtually a// of the other
activities. So jump in and start talking, OK?

Contents
+ Introduction
Activities +1
1. Rejoinders

+v

+1

2. Follow-up Questions + 5
3. Confirmation Questions + 9
4. Clarifications
with Question Words t 13
5. Keeping or Killing
the Conversation t l 7
6. Expressing Probability + 21
7. Interrupting Someone + 25
8. Echoing Instructions

+29

9. Polite Requests,
Responses, and Excuses + 33
10. Getting a Response + 37
11. Soliciting Details + 41
12. Responding with Details + 45
13. Making Comparisons + 49
14. Finding the Right Word + 53
15. Exploring a Word t 57

vii

viii

Contents

16. Correcting Someone +61

17. Eliciting Confirmation + 65
18. Starting and Stopping a
Conversation t 69
19. Beginning and Ending
a Phone Call + 73
20. Expressing Opinions t 79

21. Making a Group Decision + 83

22. Discussion Connectors + 89
23. Summarizing t 95
24. Conducting a Formal Meeting t 99
25. For Fun: Find the Strange Word t 103
26. Volunteering an Answer t 108
27. Applying All the Conversation Strategies 1
Review-Fun t 113
28. Applying All the Conversation Strategies 2
Review - Emotions t 11 7
29. Applying All the Conversation Strategies 3
Review - Advisors t 122
Appendix t 127

+
+

General Procedure for All Activities

Teacher's Introductions for the Activities

+ On Strategic Competence

+127

t 145

Index to Conversation Strategies

+14 7

+129