Efficiently Getting Students Creating Natural Dialogues

Korean General English students appear reluctant to communicate in spontaneous, natural dialogues involving follow-up questions, and providing extensive answers in English in class - even when explained simple, broken attempts are acceptable. Students may be from a culture with low tolerance for uncertainty; they fear making errors that can embarrass them, especially in class with peers. Other reasons also play in. At the same time, teachers have limited class time, and must cover their textbooks for tests based on them. Little time is afforded for gradually building up elements of conversation skills/ strategies. How to get students engaging in more natural conversations very quickly? General English students take required courses. They must pass tests. Some percentage of the score is up to teachers’ discretion. If the need to ask follow-up questions and make extensive answers is made part of what students are tested on in oral quizzes, students will do so. Newfound confidence in conversing after having broken the ice in tests can translate into greater willingness and ease in making natural dialogues subsequently. A series of testing formats and schedules are outlined to supplement the theoretical points made in this paper.