EN 2104: Effective Communication Skills III
Functional dialogues
· Express approval /
disapproval, likes / dislikes, surprise / wonder / hope / fear / disappointment
· Focus: strategies
for avoiding communication breakdowns and comprehension problems
· Activities: create
and write their own dialogues and practice saying them (pair and group tasks)
Group/pair discussions: information gap activities
· Focus: asking and
answering questions, using a conversational register and syntax.
· Types of
activities: finding the differences in pictures / notices / invitations etc.
Role plays using role play cards
· Focus: speaking
appropriately in different situations.
· Procedure: prepare
role play situations and cues for the two persons. Give them time to prepare.
Get them to enact the situation using the cues. Provide at least 4 cues.
e.g. situation; You have borrowed a friend’s notes
over a week ago and promised to return them the next day. You’ve still got
them. What do you say to him when you see him?
You must speak first.
Cue card:
- Say how you feel about not returning the notes
- Say why you couldn’t return them
- Cue card to the friend
- Tell him not to worry
- Ask whether he copied the notes, etc
Dialogues/drama based on stories
· Read stories and
write dialogues / plays based on them. Rehearse, and act them out.
Describe a process
· Focus: use linking
words correctly when describing a sequence of actions
· Types of activities:
how to operate a computer, describing an experiment
Making presentations - using the OHP and other
media
· Focus: using
facial expressions, body language, and other non-verbal cues and visuals to
convey meaning, how to use a neutral or more formal style of speaking
· Procedure:
brainstorm around a topic; organize the presentation, find necessary
visuals-pictures, maps etc. make the presentation to the rest of the class.
· Suggested topics:
Changing lifestyles of people, how ‘green’ are you?
