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focused on the vocabularies and depended on the situation chosen, intonation to convey emotional charge, surprise, etc., language of discussion and evaluation.
The preparation that needed to be done was a number of short dialogues open to various interpretations. The dialogues could be written in cards to make the
distribution simple. The time needed was about one hour or more, depended on the available allocation time.
The dialogues written on the cards had been prepared. There are five prepared dialogues that could be used:
A: Who did this? B: I’m not sure.
A: But you must know. You were here all the
time.
B: I’m sorry ... I can’t ... It’s a secret. A: It’s time.
B: What do you mean? A: I think you know what I mean.
B: Oh no. Not yet, surely. It can’t be. A: Come on now.
A: Can you see them? B: No, where are they?
A: Look, over there, behind that tree. B: Wow That’s really interesting
A: Will it be enough, do you think? B: When is it ever enough?
A: Yes. I wonder if they’ll ever be satisfied.
A: Please tell me. B: What can I tell you?
A: You know what I mean. B: How CAN I tell you that?
The procedures of doing the dialogue interpretation activity were as follows:
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a Students worked in pairs. The same dialogue was distributed per-pair. The writer explained that they had to set their dialogue in a specific context. The
students needed to decide who was speaking, where they were, what the topic was, what exactly was going on. They were allowed for ten minutes for doing
this.
b In a whole-class session, the writer collected ideas from students arising from
their discussion.
c In pairs, the students were given another ten minutes to rehearse their dialogues. Partners should take turns at reading A and B so that they each got
the feel for the speaker. Finally, they performed their dialogues for the whole
class.
d Either in class, if there was time, or as homework, students should extend the dialogues into a slightly longer script, by adding a couple of lines at the
beginning and some concluding lines. They were encouraged to add stage
directions, to give A and B names, etc.
In practice, it was taken one kind of dialogue that was used along the time allocated. The dialogue used was:
A: Can you see them? B: No, where are they?
A: Look, over there, behind that tree. B: Wow That’s really interesting
