Low motivation, low self-esteem and debilitating anxiety can combine to 'raise' the affective filter and form a 'mental block' that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition.  In other words, when the filter is 'up' it impedes language acquisition. Krashen, 1985.   (Read more)

Motivation

For years, linguistical scholars have been touting that one of the principal factors impeding language acquisition is fear – the fear of making mistakes, of seeming stupid - of using the wrong word or grammatical structure when having to speak with others in the target language (L2).

Numerous studies have shown that the most competent language learners are those who do not feel threatened by their mistakes and who feel highly motivated to learn and actually use the language.

SimplyConversations^TM gets rid of the barriers which prevent learners from speaking aloud by presenting the task in a seemingly simple, non-threatening, game-like format. 

Fluency is achieved by prompting for spontaneous response designed to be small, clear and easy to use.   Students easily enter the 'comfort zone' and language emerges.  

They don't feel stressed out by the task or forced to respond.  If they can't answer a question they move on to another card.  They are comfortable telling the teacher when they don't understand a word or phrase, if they would rather not discuss the topic prompted by the card, they can skip over it and they easily ask other students to help with concepts or vocabulary.

Once the task has begun, students feel a tangible need to respond quickly, they converse and share information, authentic discourse occurs and they enjoy themselves. 

During active tests of the material, lower level students successfully started to experiment with more difficult grammatical structures without having any idea of what it was they had just produced, only that obviously the sentence was "meant" to be spoken that way - via the process of imitating the grammatical structure and context on the card.  

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Multiple intelligences and learner styles

It is of the utmost importance that we recognize and nurture all of the varied human intelligences, and all the combinations of intelligences.  We are all so different largely because we all have different combinations of intelligences.   Gardener, H. Multiple Intelligences: the theory and practice, 1993.Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice

SimplyConversations^TM works particularly well in classes with mixed levels.  It is also suitable for  different styles of learners and multiple intelligences.

Not everyone learns in the same way.  

Some people need to touch things, move around, take pauses and think about what they want to say - some need to listen a while and others need to get a visual, a picture in their heads before knowing what it is they want to say.  

SimplyConversations^TM is effective because it embraces all kinds of learner differences without putting all students into a box and expecting them to all develop their language knowledge and ability at the same pace. 

It is visually stimulating for the visual learner, provides listening opportunities for the auditory learner and gives the tactile learner a small piece of card to hold on to or turn over.

Interpersonally, intra-personally and emotionally intelligent learners relate with each other and are aware of their and their colleagues' progress.  The verbally intelligent love the challenge of sharing their stories and ideas, the logical like the game/the organisation intrinsic within the system itself, the kinestic enjoy the turn taking.  

SimplyConversations^TM is a fabulous tool at keeping learners happy and satisfied within small, large and individual classes while effectively improving their levels of English.

Many teachers have questioned me about the relationship between learning styles and multiple intelligences and have asked if they are the same thing.  Let's say there are two people who want to develop their musical intelligence. 

The first person goes to the store and buys several of his favourite cassettes.  He takes them home, listens to them and tries to play what he hears.   The second buys sheet music.   She takes the selections home, studies and reads the music then sits down to play.  Both of these individuals are working to develop their musical intelligence - but they do it in different ways.

The perfered learning style for music for the first person is auditory; the second is visual.  MaryAnn Christison, MEXTESOL Journal, 1988.

Key Skills and Business Functions

The material equips language learners with effective tools to deal with business life in English. 

SimplyConversations^TM assumes that students are intelligent, that they are already experts in their professional lives. It does not talk down to them nor put the poor teacher in the embarrassing situation of reinventing the wheel, or at worst, teaching professionals how to do their jobs.

Instead, it elicits and congratulates students' knowledge and experience providing them with the tools to express what would like to say about themselves, their lives and the world.

It practises all of the key skills areas and via the SimplyC.wiki^TM provides links, advice, tips and  information specific to each of the subjects so that the teacher/trainer can further expand and create a completely well-rounded curriculum.

Much class time should be devoted to the development of listening and reading abilities...teachers should assess students' interests and supply appropriate materials.  Horwitz, 1986. (Read more)

Key skills development within speaking task 

Business functions, related speaking practice

Naturalistic Language development

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Exam Practice

The sheets contain subject matters addressed in the oral section of most of the popular ESL/EFL/ESOL examinations (e.g. TELC; Cambridge: BEC, FCE etc; the TOEIC and the IELTS).

They provide students with real opportunities to practice for the speaking skills section and overall the system helps them develop the fluency needed to do well.

Exam Classes (Resource Books for Teachers)