Cambridge University Press

978-0-521-68951-9 - Dialogue Activities: Exploring Spoken Interaction in the Language Class

Nick Bilbrough
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Dialogue Activities

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978-0-521-68951-9 - Dialogue Activities: Exploring Spoken Interaction in the Language Class
Nick Bilbrough
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Cambridge Handbooks for LanguageTeachers

This is a series of practical guides for teachers of English and other
languages. Illustrative examples are usually drawn from the field of
English as a foreign or second language, but the ideas and techniques
described can equally well be used in the teaching of any language.
Recent titles in this series:
Teaching English Spelling Using Authentic Video in the Language
A practical guide Classroom
ruth shemesh and sheila waller jane sherman
Personalizing Language Learning Stories
Personalized language learning activities Narrative activities for the language classroom
griff griffiths and kathryn keohane ruth wajnryb
Teach Business English Language Activities for Teenagers
A comprehensive introduction to Business English seth lindstromberg
edited by
sylvie donna
Pronunciation Practice Activities
Learner Autonomy A resource book for teaching English pronunciation
A guide to activities which encourage learner responsibility martin hewings
ágota scharle and anita szabó
Five-Minute Activities for Business English
The Internet and the Language Classroom paul emmerson and nick hamilton
(second edition)
Games for Language Learning (third edition)
Practical classroom activities and projects andrew wright, david betteridge and
gavin dudeney michael bickby
Planning Lessons and Courses Drama Techniques (third edition)
Designing sequences of work for the language classroom A resource book of communication activities for language
tessa woodward teachers
Learner English (second edition) alan maley and alan duff
michael swan and bernard smith Dictionary Activities
Teaching Large Multilevel Classes cindy leaney
natalie hess Five-Minute Activities for Young Learners
Writing Simple Poems penny m c kay and jenni guse
Pattern poetry for language acquisition
vicki l. holmes and margaret r. moulton

Laughing Matters
Humour in the language classroom
péter medgyes

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Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-68951-9 - Dialogue Activities: Exploring Spoken Interaction in the Language Class
Nick Bilbrough
Frontmatter
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Dialogue Activities
Exploring spoken interaction in the
language class

Nick Bilbrough

Consultant and editor: Scott Thornbury

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Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-68951-9 - Dialogue Activities: Exploring Spoken Interaction in the Language Class
Nick Bilbrough
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore,
São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, uk
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521689519

© Cambridge University Press 2007

This publication is in copyright, which normally means, that subject to

statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective
licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. The
copying of certain parts of it by teachers for use in classrooms,
however, is hereby permitted without such formality. To aid
identification, activities which are copiable by the teacher without
further permission are identified by separate copyright notice:
© Cambridge University Press 2007.

First published 2007

Reprinted 2010

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Bilbrough, Nick.
Dialogue activities: exploring spoken interaction in the language class / Nick Bilbrough.
p. cm. – (Cambridge handbooks for language teachers)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-521-68951-9 (pbk.)
ı. English language–Study and teaching–Foreign speakers. 2. English language–Spoken
English–Study and teaching. i. Title. ii. Series.

pe1128.a2b475 2007
428'.0071–dc22
2007001839

ISBN 978-0-521-68951-9 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or

accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel
timetables and other factual information given in this work are correct at
the time of first printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee
the accuracy of such information thereafter.

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978-0-521-68951-9 - Dialogue Activities: Exploring Spoken Interaction in the Language Class
Nick Bilbrough
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Contents

Thanks and acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 Understanding 18
1.1 Understanding dialogues: a basic procedure 18
1.2 Board grab 21
1.3 Reading versus listening 23
1.4 Dialogue interpretation worksheets 24
1.5 Jigsaw 26
1.6 Designing exam questions 27
1.7 What are they talking about? 28
1.8 Snippets 29
1.9 Fairy tale tableaux 30
1.10 Lame jokes 31
1.11 Working with interviews 32
1.12 Dialogue as a way into a graded reader 35
1.13 The bit I like . . . 37

2 Analysing 39
2.1 Tricky words 40
2.2 Closed mouth minimal pairs 40
2.3 Fishermen 42
2.4 Stage directions 45
2.5 Authentic versus scripted dialogues 47
2.6 Dialogue scan race 49
2.7 Filling in 53
2.8 Speech acts 55
2.9 The teacher does the speaking test 56
2.10 Student dialogue reformulation 57
2.11 Backchannelling 61

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Nick Bilbrough
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Contents

3 Reproducing and reconstructing 62

3.1 Jumbled lines 63
3.2 Dialogue rebuilding 65
3.3 The ultimate gapfill 68
3.4 Listen again 70
3.5 Jumbled reconstruction 71
3.6 Dialogue pairs 73
3.7 Dialogue retranslation 76
3.8 Retranslated tapescript 77
3.9 Dubbing 78
3.10 From monologue to dialogue 79
3.11 Turning news items into dialogue 81
3.12 Shadow dialogues 82
3.13 Mimed dialogues 84
3.14 Modernised voiceovers 86
3.15 Roughing up and censoring 89

4 Memorising 91
4.1 Who said what? 92
4.2 Reduced dialogues 93
4.3 Story to dialogue 95
4.4 Adjacency pair turnover cards 97
4.5 Remembering the questions 99
4.6 Dialogue halves 101
4.7 Line by line 103
4.8 Prompts 104

5 Rehearsing and performing 107

5.1 Chanted dialogue 108
5.2 Sounding like a gringo! 110
5.3 It’s not what you say . . . 112
5.4 Students perform the listening material 114
5.5 Improvising into a scene 115
5.6 Shadowing actors 117
5.7 Dialogues with movement 118
5.8 Who’s next? 119
5.9 Conducted dialogue 121

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Contents

5.10 Performance to writng 124

5.11 Reader’s theatre 126
5.12 Direct speech 128
5.13 No way José 130
5.14 Let’s have a drink 132

6 Co-constructing 134
6.1 By name and by nature 135
6.2 Half a conversation 137
6.3 Dialogue building 140
6.4 Community language learning 143
6.5 Writing dialogue articles 145
6.6 Famous last words 147
6.7 Dialogue into song 148
6.8 Conversational involvement 151

7 Creating and personalising 155

7.1 What did we have to say? 156
7.2 The words I’d like to own 157
7.3 Dice dialogues 158
7.4 Speech bubbles 159
7.5 Picture dialogues 160
7.6 Dark secret scenes 161
7.7 Soundtracks 163
7.8 Conscience alley 164
7.9 From depiction to dialogue 166
7.10 Semi-planned roleplay 167
7.11 The room talks back 168
7.12 Into the future 169

8 Communicating 170
8.1 Venn diagrams 171
8.2 Speed dating 172
8.3 Gibberish scenes 174
8.4 Dialogue warm-ups 175
8.5 The status game 176
8.6 Cline debates 177

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Nick Bilbrough
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Contents

8.7 Gossip 178

8.8 Paper talk 180
8.9 Multi-speak dialogues 181
8.10 ABC dialogues 182
8.11 Odds versus evens 184
8.12 The yes/no game 185
8.13 Robinson Crusoe Island 185
8.14 Who’s lying? 187
8.15 Interclass calls 189
8.16 Celebrity ball 192
8.17 Boring short stories 194
8.18 Read, turn and talk 195

9 Dialogue as learning 196

9.1 The closed question restaurant 197
9.2 Building a life 199
9.3 The dating agency 200
9.4 Talk and chalk 202
9.5 Never-ending dialogue 204
9.6 Would you give your teacher a job? 206
9.7 The tourists are coming 208
9.8 Dialogic text building 210
9.9 Cooperative storymaking 212
9.10 Teacher in role 213
9.11 Interrupting the tapescript 216
9.12 Dialogue versus internet 217
9.13 Difficult dialogues 220
Dialogue Bank A: From the film Mulholland Drive 222
Dialogue Bank B: Authentic snippets 226
Dialogue Bank C: Snippets from fairy tales 230
Dialogue Bank D: Lame jokes 232
Dialogue Bank E: Situational dialogues 234
Dialogue Bank F: ‘Dating Agency’ from the comedy series
Little Britain 237
Further reading and resources 239
Index 241

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Nick Bilbrough
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Thanks and acknowledgements

Most books are a dialogue. This has been one more than most. From our initial
discussion over fish and chips in a pub in Camden Town, through a long series of
emailed exchanges, I am indebted to Scott Thornbury for his experience, insightful
comments and unfailing enthusiasm for the project. Thanks too to Frances Amrani,
Laila Friese and Michelle Simpson at CUP for editorial guidance.
I am especially grateful to students and staff at both the Brasshouse Language
Centre, Birmingham and International House Santiago for trialing ideas and
inspiring new ones, and to Emma, Andre and Charlie for all the misspent weekends.
The authors and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to
reproduce copyright material. While every effort has been made, it has not always
been possible to identify the sources of all the material used, or to contact the
copyright holders. If any omissions are brought to our notice, we will be happy to
include the appropriate acknowledgements on reprinting.
This publication has made use of the Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of
Discourse in English (CANCODE). CANCODE is a five-million word computerised
corpus of spoken English, made up of recordings from a variety of settings in the
countries of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The corpus is designed with a
substantial organised database giving information on participants, settings and
conversational goals. CANCODE was built by Cambridge University Press and the
University of Nottingham and it forms part of the Cambridge International Corpus
(CIC). It provides insights into language use, and offers a resource to supplement
what is already known about English from other, non-corpus-based research, thereby
providing valuable and accurate information for researchers and those preparing
teaching materials. Sole copyright of the corpus resides with Cambridge University
Press, from whom all permission to reproduce material must be obtained.
Texts
pp. 3-4: Extract ‘Asking for change’ taken from Situational Dialogues by Michael
Ockenden. © 1972, p. 41 and p. 79: adapted tape scripts taken from Wavelength
Elementary by Kathy Burke and Julia Brooks. © 1999. Used by permission of
Pearson Education Limited; p. 4: Extract ‘At the hairdressers’ taken from Departures
by Bernard Hartley and Peter Viney. © Oxford University Press 1978; p. 5: Extract
‘At the hairdressers’ taken from Exploring Spoken English by Ronald Carter and
Michael McCarthy. © 1997, p. 8: Extract ‘Burns contractor’ taken from Simulations
Language Teaching by Ken Jones. © 1982, p. 23: Extract ‘Dangerous Pastimes’ taken
from Language in Use Upper-Intermediate Classroom book by Adrian Doff and
Christopher Jones. © 1997, p. 36: Extract ‘Every morning’ taken from Help by Philip
Prowse. © 1999, p. 64: Extract ‘What do you do?’ taken from Language in Use
Beginner Classroom book by Adrian Doff and Christopher Jones. © 1999, p. 66:
Extract ‘dialogue between Gary and Rosa’ taken from Messages 3 Teachers’

ix

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Acknowledgements

Resource Book by Meredith Levy and Diane Goodey. © 2006, p. 70: ‘Tape script
review 3’ taken from Activate your English Pre-intermediate Course book. © 1996,
p. 94: Extract ‘Workspace’ taken from English 365 Student’s Book 2 by Bob Dignen,
Steve Flinders and Simon Sweeney. © 2004, p. 214: illustration from John Doe by
Antoinette Moses. © 1999. All used by permission of Cambridge University Press; p.
7: illustrations, ‘Find the differences’ taken from Collins Cobuild English Course 1
by Jane and Dave Willis. Used by permission of Jane and Dave Willis; p. 27: ‘Multiple
choices’ adapted from First Certificate Star Student’s Book by Luke Prodromou. ©
1998. Reproduced by permission of Macmillan Publishers Ltd; p. 33: ‘Britney Spears
interview’ adapted from article written by Rosanna Greenstreet, The Guardian, 26
February 2000. Used by permission of Rosanna Greenstreet; p. 46: Transcripted
dialogue between 2 Neighbours characters, Mike and Libby from TV Show,
‘Neighbours’. © Freemantle Media; p. 81: Summary of news article from Coventry
Evening Telegraph 4 October 2000. Used by permission of Coventry Newspapers
Limited; p. 81: Summary of news article from Yorkshire Post 28 September 2000.
Used by permission of Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd; p. 87: Extract from the script
French Lieutenant’s Woman by Harold Pinter. © 1982. Used by permission of Faber
and Faber Ltd; p. 90: Dialogue from an episode of Bob the Builder, ‘Wendy’s Busy
Day’. Bob the Builder © 2007 HIT Entertainment Limited and Keith Chapman. All
rights reserved. The Bob the Builder name and character, related characters and the
Bob figure and riveted logos are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Limited. Reg US.
Pat & Tm Off. And in the UK and other countries ; p. 106: Script from After
TM

Liverpool by James Saunders. © 1973, James Saunders. All rights whatsoever in this
play are strictly reserved and application for performance etc, must be made before
rehearsal to Casarotto Ramsay and Associates Ltd, National House, 60-66 Wardour
Street, London W1V 4ND. No performance may be given unless a licence has been
obtained; p. 116: dialogue from The Complete Fawlty Towers written by John Cleese
and Connie Booth. Used by permission of David Wilkinson Associates; p. 150:
adapted lyrics ‘Father and Son’ words and music by Cat Stevens © Copyright 1970
Cat Music Limited. Sony Music Publishing (UK) Limited. All Rights Reserved.
International Copyright Secured; p. 151: adapted lyrics ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’
words and music by Leonard Cohen. © Copyright 1971 Stranger Music
Incorporated, USA. Chrysalis Songs Limited. Used by permission of Music Sales
Limited. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured; p. 154: Script from
Monty Python’s Flying Circus Vol 2. Used by permission Python (Monty) Pictures
Ltd; pp. 222-223: Script from the film Mulholland Drive by David Lynch. Used by
kind permission of David Lynch; pp. 237-238: script ‘Dating Agency’ from Little
Britain’s Complete Scripts and Stuff, series 2 written by Matt Lucas and David
Walliams. © Copyright 2005. Used by permission of Matt Lucas and David
Walliams.
Photos
p. 33 Britney Spears photo by Vince Bucci © Vince Bucci/Getty Images.

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