ESL conversation | ESL Conversation Lessons

Are you a “multipotentialite”? Wait? What

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Personally, I wanted to be a teacher, a veterinarian, a filmmaker, a programmer, a social worker and then a teacher again. The prospect of choosing one single thing was super hard for me. But choose I did, and I never felt entirely happy doing what I was doing.

Is it possible that we don’t have one true calling? That we have more than one talent? One gift? That is the question that Emilie Wapnick asks her TED audience. She is a self-proclaimed “multipotentialite” which is to say, she has many potential careers and gifts.

I must say I got a little emotional watching this talk. I too am someone who has been constantly looking for my one true thing. Wapnick’s premise of the multipotentialite is a very freeing concept that really got my students thinking and talking (and using lots of job and skills related vocabulary).

Today I am a teacher who programs games, uses film and the web to build materials. Many of my students have alternative learning profiles like dyslexia and executive processing issues. I am considered an informal dog whisperer and on the weekends, I go horseback riding with my two daughters. So, somehow my multi-potentials came to fruition. How about you? When you compare what you wanted to do to and what you chose, did you find room for everything or did you concentrate on a few of your interests?

Pre discussion

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
If it changed, why did it change?
Have you changed your areas of interest as you grew older?
Why is it ok for children to have many career paths, but adults must choose one?

The Video: Ted why some of us don’t have one true calling by Emilie Wapnick

Post Video Discussion

You can use this handout to help the students focus their attention on certain areas of the talk. Remember, you can slow the video down and add subtitles if it helps. First, do a Tell Back.

Do you see yourself in Emilie’s concept of mulitipotentialite?
What is the problem of the “narrowly focused life”?
What are some of the problems Emilie encountered (4:00)?
What are the multipotentialite’s “superpowers” (6:30)?
What are the advantages of exploring all our interests?
How are those skills relevant in today’s job market?

Have a good discussion!

Do you follow anyone on YouTube or Instagram?

Do you follow anyone on any social media channels?

One of the newest trends in social marketing is using”influencers” to promote new products. Influencers, as described by the CBC podcast included in this post, are people who have an ‘organic’ following on social media channels like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Linkedin. They are people, like you and me, who have gathered an audience of followers because of their ideas.

I guess you could say that it’s not unlike having a hero or a mentor or a model, but I think it is slightly different because they can be anyone and everyone and have complete strangers follow them.

I would like to preface this lesson by saying that the podcast is geared toward a more business English discussion on marketing and sales. But I think it can also feed a more general discussion about the place of social media in our lives as well as critical media literacy. It’s up to you to angle it the way it can work best for you.

Pre discussion

Do you have an “influencer”? In other words, someone you trust for wisdom and advice.
Do you follow any social media groups or people?

The Podcast

The podcast uses a lot of business vocabulary, so if you are using this post for a more general discussion, you could skip the listen portion an go right to the questions. Otherwise listen to the podcast (11 min.) to flesh out some of the main ideas and key vocabulary.

What are some of the features of an influencer?
What are some of the dangers of using an influencer to endorse a product?
Why use an influencer instead of traditional advertising?
How do you know that a source or influencer is reliable?

What do you worry…? Preposition Practice

Prepositions can be a bit nebulous to second language learners. Yet they do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to meaning. So in many cases, it’s important to get it right. Here is a very short activity that requires the participants to complete the questions with the correct preposition. BUT after the exercise is complete, you can use the questions for a general discussion…double whammy.

Also, if as a teacher you need to get your head around explaining prepositions, this Khan academy presentation breaks it down a little. This is not material I would use with a student, but I thought it was interesting to freshen up my grammar knowledge and get a bit of the method behind the preposition madness. So to speak.

Meet the Preposition

What picture speaks to you?

In my opinion, photography is one of the most important inventions of the last century. The ability to record our past, slices of life, memories. Its impact on history and culture is so vast, it goes way beyond our little discussion circle.

ESL with pictures is probably one of my most powerful lessons. It doesn’t matter what level you students are at, a picture is bound to conjure some vocabulary

National Geographic is one of my “go to’s” when it comes to esl picture prompts. So many of their pictures give me pause. Either because of their beauty or what they tell.

Let’s dive right into this lesson and visit National Geographic’s Photo of the Day Archive…

Let the students pick a photo that they find interesting.
Have them describe it
Have the other student do a Power Listing exercise and ask the speaker at least one question or provide one comment about what was said.
You could also do a Q&A exercise where the student pick a picture in their minds and the others ask questions to try to discover which picture it is.

Let me know how it goes…

What would be different if I knew then what I know now?

Experience is a funny thing. When we don’t have it, we don’t always know it. We are in a state of “blissful ignorance.” What is blissful about ignorance you ask? Well mainly that we can go around judging things with a feeling of superiority and mastery.

Let’s consider a concrete example…

Ever stroll through the aisles of the supermarket, quietly contemplating dinner plans and peacefully reading labels only to be violently yanked out of your reverie by a screaming child? You know what I am talking about: the epic supermarket toddler meltdown. Oh yes, they cry they scream, either they want out, they want in. For goodness sake, what do they want?

I admit it, I judged the parents of those children. But now that I am a mother, I too have been the mother of a screaming toddler. Sometimes I reflect on how my perspective has changed and I feel guilty about my un-empathetic superior thoughts I had about those parents.

This lesson features a funny video about how non-parents see parents. I like the video because it is repetitive enough that students may be able to get the humour. As you may know, understanding humour in a foreign language is rather challenging, so any time I find something that can make people laugh, I like to use it.

But I feel the discussion lies beyond the video. I think it’s about how experience changes us. And how sometimes that very experience can have us looking as crazy as the people on the video.

Rather than have a pre-discussion as a warm up, I would use the video to get prime the participants’ thoughts.

The Video: What Parenting Sounds Like to Non-Parents

Discussion

Can you think of a ‘before and after’ situation where experience made you change your perspective?
What events in your life (e.g. becoming a parent, changing jobs, moving to a foreign country) have changed the way you think about things?
Can you remember a scene in your life that made you look as crazy and the people in the video?
If you were going to make a video like this one, what would the topic be?

How do you make hard choices?

So much of me has changed since I entered adulthood. My career, my interests, my abilities. And some of these changes have put me before some of the hardest decisions of my life. Like choosing to put my career on hold to raise my daughters. Or shifting my practice to literacy and dyslexia remediation when I became brave enough to admit my own struggle with dyslexia.

But before making those hard choices, I felt caught between what I ought to do and what I want to do. And sometimes this tension became so great that I had to make concrete changes to find peace.

Changing careers, changing partners, changing schools, changing where we live…those are all hard choices. So what governs our decisions? In Ruth Chang’s TED talk “How to make hard choices”, Chang fleshes out how we weigh the pros and cons and how culture influences this. Chang argues that hard choices are precious opportunities that show us that we have the power to become the individuals we desire to be.

See also Let’s make some Let’s make some comparisons.

Pre discussion

What major life changes can you share?
What were the options? Between what and what were you choosing?
How have the changes influenced your life?

The video: Ruth Chang: How to make hard choices

Do a Tell Back of Chang’s main points
What is the difference between scientific thinking and value-based decision making?
Why do you think Chang studies the phenomenon of hard choices?
How does this shed light on your own hard choices?

Are you good with conflict?

Even though I know how to stand up for myself, it is not my favorite thing to do. It will inevitably cause awkwardness perhaps even anger. I might be perceived and agressive or unreasonable.

Yet, we all have to deal with conflicting view points at some time or another. Perhaps some have to deal with it every day. Heck , some make a career of it.

That’s why I like this article from Thrive Global (Ariana Huffington‘s wellness publication). In it there are practical tips on how to deal with relationship conflict. The article is nicely organized, well supported and each part succinct. It makes for a great Tell Back article and probably a few anecdotes.

Pre discussion

How are you with conflict? Are you more a fighter or lover?
Do you have any moments (perhaps not too personal) where you have had to stand up for yourself?

The Article: 9 Ways do Deal with Relationship Conflict

Take each of the 9 points and pull out the main recommendation
Are there any recommendations that you disagree with?
Are there any that you see yourself adopting?
Is there a pattern or something that each recommendation has in common?

Are billionaires a good or bad thing?

I don’t know if any of you buy lottery tickets, but I don’t. I suppose my logical brain tells me that the chances are so low that I shouldn’t waste my money. Still, when the jackpot goes up high, I can’t help my thoughts wander to odd fantasies of what I would do if I had that much money.

I’ve often heard that we need billionaires because they create wealth for everyone. In the financial terms, this notion of trickle down economics is rooted in the idea that over taxing the wealthy will do more harm than good. Forbes magazine poses this very question and ask famous billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates about the consequences of a wealth tax. The answer may surprise you.

This article is a vocabulary rich text, appropriate for intermediate to advanced learners.

Pre discussion

What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Which billionaires are philanthropic (use their fortune to better the world)?
Do you think billionaires are a good thing or a bad thing?

The article–Forbes Bill Gates gets why people are doubting billionaires

Pull out the economic related vocabulary
Do a Tell Back of what Gates says about over taxing billionaires

The article is pretty intense, so I will leave it at those two points for now, but if you have a question suggestion, please don’t hesitate to add it to the comments.

What is your parenting philosophy?

Parenting is probably one of the toughest jobs on the planet. We all do it slightly differently and usually have fairly strong beliefs about how it should be done.

In this post I have two references for you. First a psych-quiz on parenting styles:

And then a series of open ended questions from the TESL Journal to fuel discussion further:

http://iteslj.org/questions/parenting.html

Let’s make some comparisons…

Cats or dogs? Chocolate or ice cream? Making comparisons can ignite some interesting debates with the simplest of prompts.

Most of my posts include some sort of first language ressource to use as a launch pad or a vocabulary building tool. However, sometimes I like to see what words live spontaneously in the minds of my students.

Some of my more extraverted learners enjoy this because they do not have to struggle with the dual task of incorporating new words while stringing together meaning. Others find it utterly daunting because they have nothing to inspire their thoughts. Or the idea of just talking makes everything jam up inside.

In both cases, open ended questions can be either a good relief or a good challenge (that you can scaffold with various prompts if necessary).

Here is a good ressources to practice comparatives. The site features a ton questions organized in different themes and focuses, but I like this one because it contains a lot of variety and a relatively easy grammar element.

eslconversationquestions.com: equative