Look Who's Talking: A Guide to the Development of Successful Conversation Groups in Intermediate and Advanced E.S.L. Classrooms Review

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Look Who's Talking: A Guide to the Development of Successful Conversation Groups in Intermediate and Advanced E.S.L. Classrooms ReviewThis ancient book (1982) was written for teachers of intermediate and advanced ESL classes. There are very few wasted pages and even the beginning teacher can get started right away with the easy to read lessons. The target students are adults or late teens as some discussions center around politics, voting, and even contact wearing.
The book's layout is simple and includes such things as strategy type, personal vs non-personal, time needed, and materials. The strategy type refers to, mostly, the structure of the groups. If you want students to work in pairs, try the Five By Sevens Focus, which allows a student to ask another student a question she has previously written on a 5x7 index card. If you want to work with the whole class as a group, use the Getting It All Together activity similar to the sequence of events activity discussed in LING410 class. Or if you want students to work independently, choose the Teachers activity in which individuals respond to the idea that "everyone is a teacher."
Talking also breaks activities into personal and non-personal. The latter being activities everyone, from most cultures, would feel comfortable discussing in mixed company. Personal activities are those that may require students to share information that may be too personal for some to feel comfortable sharing with strangers.
Finally, the organization of the book allows the teacher to see a guideline for the time and materials required for any given activity, though the time guidelines obviously can only be used as a guideline and will vary widely when considering the actual proficiency level of students and other variables like the number of students in a class.
Many activities are interesting and can be easily adapted for a teacher's specific class. However, because the book was written more than 20 years ago, some of the language used may be less than appropriate for today's language learners. For example, the Upsies and Downsies activity revolves around a list of things that make one feel good (an "upsy") and a list of things that make one feel bad (a "downsy"). While the idea is good for the eventual goal of getting students to converse, the terms "upsy" and "downsy" are dated and a 20-year-old student may come across as speaking like a 50-year-old if we teach from such a text.
The text certainly uses the communicative approach as its main goal is to help students communicate in an authentic way. Activities like Families and Homelife help students discuss gender roles, chores, and religion - authentic discussions that could come up in a casual way with others.
I would use this book for my ESL classes as the exercises are short and they make great filler or rainy day activities. The text makes a good effort, probably ahead of its time, at acknowledging that learners have cultural differences and multiple learning styles. The activities are laid out in an almost linear way such that the beginning activities fall into the "restructuring" strategy followed by independent work then whole group, then partner work, etc. The restructuring strategy is one which is typically done at the beginning of the class to allow students to feel comfortable and allay some anxieties. The activities typically involve students being mobile and talking to new people. Most of these activities usually involve the teacher as a full participant.
All-in-all this book was short, useful and to the point. It's a great reference for activities that have undoubtedly been re-written in many other texts in the last 25 years. The book is no longer in print, though Amazon has used copies costing around $20. Save your money and purchase a more up-to-date guide of useful activities.
Look Who's Talking: A Guide to the Development of Successful Conversation Groups in Intermediate and Advanced E.S.L. Classrooms Overview

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