We all know that explaining concepts is difficult, especially in a second language. In order to teach undergraduates, ITAs need to develop strong fluency in both academic and everyday language. However, conversational skills are challenging for most ITAs who are new to an English-speaking country. Unfortunately, there isn’t much class time in ITA classes to practice informal language skills. I have developed the following activities to build conversational fluency. They are also a nice break from teaching presentations, and they energize your students.

1. Present a Photo of Your Hometown. This activity has students practice descriptive vocabulary and offers a fun, less stressful way to begin presentations. Besides, it’s fun for students to learn about each other and other cities and countries. ITAs should be encouraged to share a little information about themselves and their countries when they teach undergraduates in order to develop a rapport with their students. In the beginning of the semester, have your students show a photo of their hometown and describe their town to the class: its location, population, lifestyle, and industries. Students are required to ask questions on at least two presentations, which helps ITAs add detail. To save class time, I had my students do this as a VoiceThread presentation outside of class.
2. Play Modified Catch Phrase! This game helps students learn to paraphrase terms because it requires them to think of synonyms to explain words and phrases. Put students in groups of four or five. The game Catch Phrase! by Parker Brothers has a wheel of common words, phrases, and idioms. Students click until they find a word they know and use adjectives to make the people in their group guess the word. If they can’t guess, I help them out. Have the students pass the wheel to the person on their right. If you don’t have a few Catch Phrase! game wheels, you can write words and phrases on notecards and give one to each student. (My students love this game.)
3. One-Minute Speeches. This activity is fun, takes little time, and really forces students to think only in English. It can be used to warm up students before their presentations. I make a list of common everyday words and short phrases (socks, movies, shopping, sports, food, learning English, etc.) and display them on the overhead. Another option is for you to pass a list out or have students choose their topic. Students are instructed to pick one topic and talk for 1 minute. It doesn’t matter whether they stay on topic—the point is to not stop talking until I say “STOP!” I have students stand in two lines facing each other. Each talks about his or her topic to the person facing him or her until I stop them. Then the partner picks a topic and talks for 1 minute. One line moves down, and students repeat the 1-minute speeches with a new partner. I then have the same line move down again and repeat the speeches. After practicing their speeches three times, students feel more fluent. Next, I have the students choose another topic for their partners to discuss for 1 minute, which is more challenging. As their confidence builds, you can also have them do this alone in front of the class. I advise students to practice a 1-minute speech before they attend a function requiring them to speak and think in English.
4. Write and Discuss Informal Academic Summaries. This activity will take more class time than the other three, but it’s a great way to include writing skills in your curriculum as well as informal language use needed for teaching. Students choose two academic articles in their field and write two summaries of each article, a few paragraphs in length. The first summary is written in formal academic language, such as they’d write for a graduate class. The second is written in everyday language intended for an audience of layman or their future students. I grade both of them. To write the informal article, students need to paraphrase technical terms and expressions plus add a few examples to help people outside their field understand the concepts. I provide my students an illustration of a formal and informal paragraph of the same topic.
   

In groups of three or four, students discuss their articles. It’s best to put them in groups with classmates outside their discipline. If time allows, have them switch groups and discuss them with new partners. The more they practice, the more fluency they build.

Additional tips:

• If your class is less than motivated, have listeners write the main ideas presented on paper you will collect, so that they ask questions to make sure they understand the summaries.
• For more reinforcement, have them record their informal summaries after this activity.
• You may want to include grammar help as ITAs often need a review of using articles and plurals.
• You can also add a lesson of avoiding plagiarism and using correct citations.
• Another option is to have them write just one summary or short research papers.

Denise Mussman teaches the ITA seminar and English for academic purposes at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. She is a board member of MIDTESOL and the editor of New Ways in Teaching Writing, Revised, published by TESOL Press in 2014.