Special Feature

What's Small about Small Talk?

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The model enables learners to develop lengthy, natural sounding, social exchanges. These then provide the perfect platform on which they can further acquaint themselves with the rules of conversational etiquette they will need to maintain social exchanges. They need to become familiar with, for example, appropriate ways to open and close a conversation, to signal they have finished their turn, to interrupt a speaker, to change the topic, to return to a topic, to encourage a speaker or signal they would like to speak. These skills are essential for learners, if they are to develop full conversational competence.

Again, textbooks, on the whole, do not address this need. Many do include strategies and various conversational routines in activities, but these tend to be introduced in the contexts of transactional interactions where they are largely inconsequential to the speaker purpose. The advantage of introducing the various conversational micro-skills in the context of social talk is that they are perfectly in line with the speaker purpose of maintaining cordial relations with whomever they are speaking to.

A text I have found a very useful resource in this regard is Conversations and Dialogues in Action by Dornnyei and Thurrell (1992) which provides a range of activities on 'conversational rules and structures' and 'conversational strategies', amongst others. They also provide a large selection of phrases commonly used to perform the functions listed above, and many others too.

Applying the model
The 'AAA' model provides large classes of students (particularly if they don't know each other that well) an opportunity to practice authentic small talk with their peers. I generally set everyone the task of speaking to everyone in the class by the end of the semester, and then set aside a little time each lesson for students to mingle. In the first lesson, after introducing the 'AAA' model, I generally provide students with ways to initiate small talk and tactfully close conversations. From then on, I gradually introduce various other micro-skills through the course of the semester.

“For small classes, or classes where the students know each other well, students sometimes become stuck for things to talk about.”

These mingling sessions are an excellent way for students to relax and get to know one another, and help to create a supportive atmosphere in the classroom. Students also tend to be quite highly motivated in this activity – for a combination of reasons, I believe. Firstly, they recognize the conversations as authentic social interactions where they feel very real social pressure to contribute. In addition, they genuinely enjoy getting to know others through their interactions.

For small classes, or classes where the students know each other well, students sometimes become stuck for things to talk about. Whenever this happens, I provide them with an 'identity role card' to fill in, such as the one below:

Name _______________ . Age _____. Sex _____. Family _______________ . Home _______________ . Profession _______________ . Pastimes _______________ . Achievements _______________ . Goals _______________ .

Students then engage in small talk with their new identities. Their essential details on the role cards will only provide the basics of their identities – they will need to fill in the gaps as they speak. In lengthy conversations, inconsistencies in the facts they present about themselves may arise in which case they will need to use their ingenuity to iron these out. This can be an added source of entertainment, but is also a valid conversational skill to practice.

Setting the scene for role-plays is obviously important. Students need to be clear on their relationship to one another and the exact situation they find themselves in. I try to provide them with situations that are realistic – situations that we might well find ourselves required to make small talk in. With a little thought, it is not difficult to come up with a long list of such situations.

As a way of practicing specific conversational skills, I sometimes give students secret agenda, such as: 'avoid talking about work'; 'do not speak to anyone for longer than three minutes'; 'you only want to talk to people who work in the computer industry'. These would probably require students to change the topic of discussion, interrupt the speaker, exit a conversation etc., all of which, in the context of small talk, would need to be done politely and inconspicuously.

The above represent methods I have employed to help students acquire skills I believe vital if they are going to be able to integrate successfully into English speaking environments. On the whole, I have found the methods very successful in terms of student participation and enjoyment. Students seem to gain considerable satisfaction from being able to manage and shape conversations (as they gain more leverage over the various conversational skills), but also from being much more able to reveal more of who they are as individuals in the way they communicate with others – in what they choose to talk about, how they listen, acknowledge and respond to others, and generally choose to interact.

References and Further Reading:

• Brown, G. and Yule, G. - Teaching the Spoken Language, Cambridge University Press, 1983.
• Richards, J. C. - Conversationally Speaking: approaches to the teaching of conversation in: Richards. J. C. - The Language Teaching Matrix, 1990, pp. 67-86.
• Dornyei, Z. and Thurrell, S. - Conversations and Dialogues in Action, Prentice Hall, 1992.
• Tomalin, B. and Stempleski, S. - Cultural Awareness, Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Keller, E. and Warner, S. T. - Conversation Gambits, Heinle, 2002.

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Stewart Jones has been teaching English in Japan for 7 years, and is currently working as an EFL teacher at Ritsumeikan University. When he is not working, he is usually struggling to learn Japanese from his two children or cycling off the extra pounds. He has a passion for Japanese food.

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