Dialogs

Principles and Methods: Dialogs

A dialog is a conversation between two or more people. The language included is representative of everyday speech that would be used by Americans in a natural situation. The structures in the dialog are models of language patterns, which can be imitated, repeated, and varied by the student with the teacher's guidance. Dialogs can illustrate the use of a pattern or structure within a cultural context, and good dialogs can add humor and human interest to language learning.

How to Write Dialogs

The situation of the dialog should be geared to the age and interest of the students. Speech used by peers in various situations can stimulate ideas.
Dialogs should generally be no longer than five to six lines, especially at first.
Dialogs should contain examples of English sentence patterns you wish to teach and may include any structures previously introduced.
New nouns and verbs used in a dialog should be taught in advance using familiar sentence structures. Also, introduce the characters. These may be puppets, other children, or fictional characters.

An Example

Objective: Teach the present continuous.

Prerequisites: Prepositions of place, question-word questions, "be" present tense.

Bill	Hi, Jan! Where's Mike?
Jan	He's at school
Bill	It's summer! What's he doing there?
Jan	He's swimming and playing basketball. I'm going there now. Are you coming?
Bill	No, thanks. Where are Joe and Cathy?
Jan	They're watching TV next door. See you later!

Ideas for Teaching Dialogs

Prepare
- Write or find a dialog. Prepare or procure props if needed (hats, pictures, puppets).
- Study the dialog and practice presentation beforehand if possible, so you can deliver it smoothly with appropriate gestures and expression.
- Choose useful vocabulary for substitution drills and variations. When possible, get or make flash cards with pictures to illustrate vocabulary.
- Have students close books and make sure all eyes are on you.
Model the entire dialog twice.
- Show who's speaking by moving from side to side (or change chairs, hats, alter voice, etc.). It should be fairly easy to present a good dialog using natural speech and intonation at a normal pace.
- Point to a picture of the speaker, if using pictures.
- Use puppets. Allow students to manipulate puppets only after they've learned the language being taught. It's a great incentive!
Teach dialog.
- Model first stimulus response pair. Have students imitate each sentence as a group, then individually. Use backward buildup drill if necessary. Use hand signals to elicit responses. Then combine stimulus-response pair and take parts, possibly using a chain drill to reinforce.
- When students have mastered the first pair, repeat the procedure with the second pair, then combine all parts learned. Continue until the entire dialog is learned.
- Have students take parts and say or act out the dialog. They may manipulate puppets for this, hold a picture of the speaker, or wear the hat of the speaker.
Follow up.
- Use patterns as a basis for structure drills.
- More advanced students may create their own dialogs.