Writing and Using Conversation Templates for Interpersonal Speaking
Practical ideas to scaffold interpersonal speaking in your world language classroom.
In my 20 plus years teaching French and Spanish, helping students begin to speak comfortably has been one of my biggest challenges. Interpersonal speaking requires a blend of content knowledge and creativity, the ability to think on your feet, cultural and interpersonal sensitivity, and a determination to persevere through frustration. Come to think of it, these are the exact skills I want my students to develop in life! Maybe that’s why it’s so rewarding to watch my students succeed and begin to truly be able to express their own ideas in the target language.
Click to access a free sample Conversation Template
Bridging the gap from head knowledge to cohesive original speech is a challenge for students and teachers alike. That’s why I developed Conversation Templates for use in my own classroom. A properly written Conversation Template provides just the right level of support to push students into real interpersonal speaking, while remaining open-ended enough to spark creative expression. Using Conversation Templates to teach interpersonal speaking has been a game changer for in my classroom, and both students and teachers are enthusiastic about using them. Read more about how conversation templates work in my blog post on teaching interpersonal speaking, or watch this video of novice high Spanish students using a Conversation Template.
Here’s an example of a Conversation Template:
Conversation Templates scaffold interpersonal speaking tasks for novice and intermediate world language students.
Click here for access to this free sample Conversation Template, or visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store to view my entire collection of Conversation Templates.
An effective Conversation Template takes careful thought and planning. Here are a few considerations I keep in mind when writing these activities.
English Prompts
I always provide students with English Conversation Templates, even at upper levels. There are several reasons for this:
“By practicing repeatedly with a Conversation Template, students begin to understand how to express their ideas simply and within the parameters of their proficiency”
Prompts in the target language steer students toward using specific vocabulary. Providing the prompt in English leaves open a much wider range of expressive language choices. This pushes students to use the language they’ve already learned to express original ideas.
English language prompts ensure students comprehend the communication task they must accomplish, which reduces frustration and ensures less confident students can fully participate in interpersonal tasks.
At early stages of language learning, many students think in their first language and then try translating into the target language. This is frustrating, as students feel very constrained by their limited target language knowledge. By practicing repeatedly with a Conversation Template, students begin to understand how to express their ideas simply and within the parameters of their proficiency. The process becomes more natural and interpersonal speaking becomes more comfortable.
At the same time, the English prompts help students identify phrases they need to learn. I’ve had students ask questions like, “How do you politely disagree?” “How do I say ‘even though’ / ‘really?’ / ‘me too’ / etc.” These types of interjections and familiar language are integral to interpersonal conversations, but are very difficult to teach or memorize from a list. When students experience the need for these types of phrases and then have the opportunity to immediately practice them in context, the learning sticks.
Determine the task students should accomplish
Student conversations should achieve a task which is scaffolded to student proficiency level. At novice levels, appropriate tasks could include providing concrete descriptions, giving opinions, and simple exchanges of information. At intermediate levels, students can move into more detailed description, negotiating, expressing stronger emotions, and manipulating verb tenses. Speaking of verb tense…
Consider the necessary grammatical structures
At the novice level, prompts should elicit present and simple future tenses. As student proficiency increases, write prompts that require use of past, conditional, and subjunctive. For intermediate-mid students, some Conversation Templates should encourage students to use multiple verb tenses in the same discussion.
Balance the sides of the conversation.
Avoid Conversation Templates where the two partners are producing different types of language (for example, where one partner asks all the questions and the other gives all the answers.) Strive for a balance of activities such as:
“The best Conversation Templates will be achievable using primarily language students have already learned.”
Asking questions
Providing detail
Responding to new information
Reacting with emotion
Showing politeness
Agreeing or disagreeing
Think like your students
Consider your students’ proficiency level, and think through several different ways they could achieve the conversation with their current target language knowledge. The best Conversation Templates will be achievable using primarily language students have already learned. Of course, it’s fine to introduce a few new words or phrases in response to student questions, but the Conversation Template should mainly provide a vehicle for students to practice and use what they’ve already learned. Interpersonal tasks are challenging enough; don’t compound the difficulty with a Conversation Template that requires a lot of new content.
Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store to view my entire collection of Conversation Templates.
