Editorial
Dialogue Activities (2007) is written by Nick Bilbrough and published by Cambridge University Press. It inspired Lindsay Clandfield to write this review in dialogue form.

Dialogue Activities: A Book Review (Written in Dialogue Form)

Lindsay Clandfield, Spain

Lindsay Clandfield is a teacher, trainer and author based in Spain. He is the author of coursebooks and books for teachers including the award-winning "Dealing with Difficulties" (with Luke Prodromou, published by Delta 2007). Lindsay's book "The Language Teacher's Survival Handbook" (2008 written with Duncan Foord) is published by sister zine It's for Teachers (www.its-teachers.com). Lindsay has survived staffrooms in more than six different countries. E-mail: lclandfield@yahoo.ca

So, what have you been reading lately?

I’m glad you asked. I’ve just finished Dialogue Activities by Nick Bilbrough. It’s a new title in the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers, one of the first ones to come out with Scott Thornbury as series editor.

Dialogues, eh? What can you do with dialogues, apart from getting students to listen or read them?

Quite a lot, actually, as this book demonstrates. Dialogues are often associated with an old-fashioned way of language teaching that was accused of being boring and meaningless and, at worst, “inhumane”. Perhaps this is because these methodologies offered little else apart from memorising and repeating dialogues. However, as the author says: “All genuine language use, either spoken or written, is essentially dialogic. It exists because of a need to communicate an idea or feeling to somebody else, and in response to some previous communication – either actual or assumed.” The book shows many ways in which teachers can exploit, use and create dialogues in the classroom.

Hmm. OK. So how is it organised?

The book is divided into nine main sections. The order is logical and easy to follow, going from receptive to productive use of dialogues. It starts with Understanding and Analysing, moving on to Reproducing and reconstructing and Memorising (an excellent chapter, by the way) and then Rehearsing and performing. Then there are chapters on Co-constructing, Creating and personalising, Communicating and finally Dialogue as learning.

Dialogue as learning?

This chapter is one of the most interesting in my view. It shows a move from dialogues as product to dialogue as process. These are activities that incorporate the teacher as an active participant in dialogue with learners. It gives ways that the teacher can helpfully join in or co-construct a dialogue in a learner-centred way. For example, the learners role play managers of a school and interview their teacher. Or the teachers and the learners co-operate in creating a story together. There are some great ideas here for the ubiquitous “conversation class”. Come to think of it, all the activities in the book would be suitable for that kind of class.

Is it as... practical as other books in the series?

Yes, definitely. There are more than 110 activities. The activities are well written and easy to follow, even for novice teachers. Many of them are generative too – you can adapt them easily. That being said, the example dialogues the author includes are natural-sounding, useful and well-written.

As practical as the activities are, I think the introduction to the book is also not to be missed. There’s a really interesting potted history of dialogues in language learning and some tips on managing dialogues that had me nodding all the way through.

Is there something you thought could be improved or done differently? To make a balanced review, you see.

I see. In terms of the activities and organisation I think it’s great. I like the introduction too. The appendix includes a bank of dialogues that teachers can use. The texts there are a good mix of authentic dialogues, situational dialogues and jokes. However...

There’s always a however...

However, it might have been helpful to have cross-referencing in the book to how teachers could use the dialogues in the dialogue bank. Either references in the dialogue bank back to the activities or references in the activities for the dialogue bank (e.g. Try this with the dialogues in dialogue bank B). But that’s a minor point.

So, all in all, you liked it.

Yes. I’m looking forward to using the activities with my next class.

You would recommend it for any language teacher’s bookshelf.

Yes.

Well, thanks for the review.

No problem!

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