英語ノート
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Students, and many Japanese, seem at a loss about how to use English. This is not so different than being given the equipment to play any game or sport--just having shoes and a soccer ball, or learning the soccer vocabulary and how to talk about soccer, does not make you a good soccer player.  You still need to practice really playing soccer.  Studying English and speaking English are no different.

Watch the video to see 4 3rd-grade junior high school students speaking together, prompted only by ConFluency Card Set 3 cards.  In the first part, I asked the students to talk about Christmas and New Years; in the second part, about food.  Otherwise, the content is entirely theirs.

Want to teach your students to SPEAK ENGLISH, not just STUDY it? The ConFluency Card activity teaches and practices Conversational Fluency. The activity was chosen by peers for presentation at local and national teachers conferences. 

Teaching Conversation Skills in your classes does two things:

1. It teaches the skills students need to use all the English they learn (imagine someone giving you a ball, bat and glove, but never showing you how to use them or play baseball!)
2. You are helping them to be Life Long Learners. After all, using English outside the classroom is what students are training for. Empower them to learn from every conversation!

The basic Skills are so simple you may not believe it:

• Listen & Repeat
• Repeat, Change One Word

Listen & Repeat is how we ALL learn language- when we are born we speak -or read- nothing. But by only listening, we learn to speak. Magic! And Repeating is also the most basic Communication Skill ('My telephone number is 596-9602.' '596-9602?' 'Yes.').
In the classroom, you can do this skill with:

• Janken 4's
  
• CROSSFIRE
• Get The Picture (GTP)
• O/X (Maru-Batsu) Game
• Janken Conversation Rounds or Row Practice/Row Races

Repeat, Change One Word teaches students to create new language. I can say, 'My name is Elton.' But only repeating this will not be true for you; you must Change One Word. This is commonly called Pattern Practice.
Very importantly, practicing this skill helps give students a feel for the language which, like playing the piano or guitar, lets them do it without thinking about it.
In the classroom, you can practice this skill with:

• Hot Potato
  
• Janken 4's
• CROSSFIRE
• Janken Conversation Rounds or Row Practice/Row Races
• Interview Bingo
• Get The Picture (GTP)

To learn more visit the Conversation Skills page at www.conversationalfluency.com