June 26, 2003 - Lida Baker: Encouraging English Learners to Talk
in Class, Part 2 Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the
link.) AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week
on Wordmaster -- we chat again with English teacher Lida Baker
in Los Angeles about how to encourage English learners to speak
up in class. RS: This week Lida focuses on very shy students.
This is one of the techniques she uses to engage those who are
especially reluctant to say anything in class: BAKER: "Probably
the best activity for getting the students to talk is a paired
activity or a small group activity where each person in the
group has a different set of information and the students have
to talk to each other, asking questions, to get the information
that the other people have. "So let's say, for instance, that we
have three students. They have to work together to fill out a
calendar of, let's say, their teacher's weekly schedule. So each
of them has a calendar and certain activities are filled in. But
the activi