Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics

In sum, Compelling Conversations is a recommended resource for teachers who want to make their conversation classes more learner-centered. ..It reflects the authors' considerable professional experience, and would be a notable addition to any English teacher's bookshelf." Hall Houston English Teaching Professional magazine " Compelling Conversations allows teachers to confidently walk into an advanced ESL classroom with self-contained, engaging conversation lessons. .. A great book for adult education teachers, university instructors, and private tutors!" Eric Busch, Founder ESLHQ.com"This manual (Compelling Conversations) will bring about authentic, not stilted communication, which should be the purpose of an ESL course." Dane Robert Swanson Santa Monica Daily Press Preview "The authors appears to share my love of having conversations that are full of witty and personal questions designed to probe deeper and to build a certain level of trust and both intellectual understanding and emotional intimacy between the people involved in the conversation. This is a daring choice, and it represents an apparent desire by the authors to help the readers and students who use these books to become accepted within American society as thoughtful citizens or at least witty resident aliens. This is a noble and a worthy goal."Nathan Albright, Edge Induced Cohesion blog June 2014 "Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure." - Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), American psychologistThe art of conversation, once considered the sign of a civilized individual, seems less common today. Yet I treasure the moments of sharing experiences, collecting news, and exchanging ideas. I make a point of knowing my neighbors, allowing casual greetings to become long conversations, and making time to explore in depth the feelings and perceptions of friends, students, and relatives. These natural conversations provide information, encouragement, and pleasure.Many people say that they are too busy to have long talks. Other people prefer to watch YouTube, play computer games, chat via email rather than talk to relatives, co-workers, and friends. Many Americans, it seems, have forgotten how to hold good, deep conversations - or even a friendly chat on the phone. I suspect this lack of real communication lessens their daily joy. English language learners, of course, face many more barriers to have a satisfying conversation in English. First, English remains a confusing, difficult, and strange language. It's very easy to feel uncomfortable when speaking a new language - whether a second or fourth.xa0 English students in my advanced speaking skills courses often ask questions like: How do start a conversation? How do start a conversation? What questions do I ask? What questions do I ask? How can I keep a real conversation going? How can I keep a real conversation going? How do I share agreement - or disagreement - in a polite way? How do I share agreement - or disagreement - in a polite way? How can I share my experiences in clear manner with appropriate vocabulary? How can I share my experiences in clear manner with appropriate vocabulary? How I can have better, more engaging conversations? How I can have better, more engaging conversations? Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics addresses these issues for both native and non-native speakers. The focus remains on learning by doing and making "good mistakes". (Good mistakes, by the way, are natural mistakes that help us learn so we can make different and better "good mistakes" next time.) Each of the 45 thematic chapters focuses on a promising conversation topic. Every chapter includes 30 or more questions (both direct and indirect), 10 or more targeted academic vocabulary words, a few proverbs to paraphrase, and 10 or more quotations to discuss from a variety of perspectives. Although designed for advanced English language learners, many intermediate ESL and EFL students will plenty of material to use can can benefit from exposure to authentic questions, common phrases, and new vocabulary words. As I tell my university English students, "your English may not be perfect yet, but daily practice does lead to significant progress." Compelling Conversations gives students, teachers, and tutors the tools and phrases to talk more and listen better to friends, classmates, and strangers in English.xa0 I hope you enjoy creating many compelling conversations - in and out - of the English classrooms! Eric H. Rothco-author of Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics ... highly effective "In sum, Compelling Conversations is a recommended resource for teachers who want to make their conversation classes more learner-centered. It should be especially appealing to those who wish to escape the confines of the Presentation-Practice-Production approach and do without a formal grammatical or functional syllabus. It reflects the authors' considerable professional experience, and would be a notable addition to any English teacher's bookshelf." xa0 Hall Houston English Teaching Professional magazine ...hours of conversation practice "I wish I had written this book! It will provide students with hours of conversation practice." xa0 Nina Ito California State University Teacher and Co-author of The Great Big BINGO Book: Bingo Games for ESL Learners ...excellent! "This book is excellent! Both teachers and students love it." Marina Goldshteyn, Director Community Enhancement Services College ...wonderful "A wonderful source of materials triggering authentic (not stilted) communication." xa0 Dr. Sharon Myers, Lecturer American Language Institute University of Southern California ... natural conversations "The students I tutor are well-educated adults, rich in culture and experiences. This book allows them to produce natural conversations using what is most intimate to them: their lives and their culture." xa0 Patricia Schulz, ESL Tutor ...allows students to learn by speaking "Immigrants need to feel comfortable speaking English, but too often students learn everything except conversation in ESL classrooms. Compelling Conversations allows students to learn by speaking." xa0 Zigmund Vays, Founder/President Community Enhancement Services College Eric H. Roth teaches international graduate students the pleasures ofxa0 writing and public speaking in English at the University of Southern California (USC). He also consults English language schools and leads workshops for ESL and ELL teachers. xa0 A Lilly Scholar, Roth studied philosophy at Wabash College and received his M.A. from the New School.xa0 Since 1992, Roth has taught English to high school, community college, adult, and university students. Highlights of his career include: teaching high school English language learners in Los Angeles (1991-1992) teaching citizenship in Santa Monica (1994); directing the CES Adult Education Center (1995-1998); teaching USC engineering students in Madrid (2007) and Paris (2008); and directing the APU International High School in Vietnam (2009). xa0 Roth co-authored Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics in 2006 to help English language learners increase their fluency.xa0 Recommended by English Teaching Professional magazine, Compelling Conversations has been used 50+xa0 countries.xa0 Since 2008, Instant Conversation column has run in Easy English Times, an adult literacy newspaper. Compelling American Conversations: Questions and Quotations for Intermediate American English Language Learners - Volume 1 will be released in 2012. A member of the USC faculty since 2003, Roth is a member of numerous professional organizations including: California Association of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL); the International Communication Association (ICA); the International Professors Project (IPP); and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). The USC Center for Scholarly Technology awarded Roth two teaching with technology grants in 2011. He has given several CATESOL and TESOL conference presentations.. Read more