Talking technology: Teaching 21st century communication strategies

Ken Beatty
A teacher holding a tablet to a young student in a classroom sat at a table
Reading time: 4 minutes

When my son created a web consulting business as a summer job, I offered to have business cards made for him. ¡°Oh Dad,¡± he said, ¡°Business cards are so 20th century!¡±

It was an embarrassing reminder that communication norms are constantly changing, as are the technologies we use. Younger generations share contact information on their phones¡¯ social media apps, not with business cards. A similar shift has been the move away from business cards featuring fax numbers. ¡°What¡¯s a fax?¡± my son might ask.

Fax machines have had a surprisingly long life¨Cthe first fax machine was invented in 1843¨Cbut they have been largely retired because it¡¯s easier to send images of documents via email attachments.

More recent technologies, such as the 1992 invention of text messages, seem here to stay, but continue to evolve with innovations like emojis, a 1998 innovation whose name combines the Japanese words e (picture) and moji (character).?

The 55/38/7 rule and the three Cs

Changing technologies challenge language teachers who struggle to prepare students with the formats and the strategies they need to be effective in academic, business, and social settings. These challenges start with questions about why we have particular norms around communication. These norms form a culture of communication.

The artist/musician Brian Eno defines culture as what we »å´Ç²Ô¡¯³Ù have to do. We may have to walk, but we »å´Ç²Ô¡¯³Ù have to dance. Dancing, therefore, is culture. Communication is full of cultural practices that we »å´Ç²Ô¡¯³Ù strictly need to do, but which make communication more successful. These include practices based on the 55/38/7 Rule and The Three Cs.

The 55/38/7 rule is often misinterpreted as being about what someone hears when we speak. It actually refers to the insights of University of California professor, , who looked at how our attitudes, feelings, and beliefs influence our trust in what someone says.

Mehrabian suggests words only account for seven percent of a message¡¯s impact; tone of voice makes up 38 percent, and body language¨Cincluding facial expressions¨Caccount for the other 55 percent. The consequence of this for our students is that it¡¯s sometimes not so important what they are saying as how they are saying it.

Another way of looking at this nonverbal communication is in terms of The Three Cs: context, clusters, and congruence.?

Context is about the environment in which communication takes place, any existing relationship between the speakers, and the roles they have. Imagine how each of these factors change if, for example, you met a surgeon at a party compared to meeting the same surgeon in an operating theater where you are about to have your head sawn open.

Clusters are the sets of body language expressions that together make up a message; smiling while walking toward someone is far different than smiling while carefully backing away.

Congruence refers to how body language matches¨Cor doesn¡¯t match¨Ca speaker¡¯s words. People saying, ¡°Of course! It¡¯s possible!¡± while unconsciously shaking their heads from side to side are perhaps being less than truthful.

How does a culture of communication practices translate to new technologies? Mobile phone texts, just like 19th-century telegraph messages before them, need to be precise in conveying their meaning.

In virtual meetings (on Teams and Google Hangouts, for example), students need to understand that tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language may be more important than the words they share.

Politeness as one constant

An additional key concern in virtual meetings is politeness. Once, in preparation for a new textbook, I was involved in soliciting topics of interest to university teachers. I was surprised that several teachers identified the need to teach politeness. The teachers pointed out that the brevity of social media meant that students were often unwittingly rude in their requests (typical email: ¡°Where¡¯s my grade!¡±). Moreover, such abruptness was crossing over to their in-person interactions.

Politeness includes civility, getting along with others, as well as deference, showing respect to those who may have earned it through age, education, and achievement. But politeness is also related to strategies around persuasion and how to listen actively, engage with other speakers by clarifying and elaborating points and ask a range of question types. Online or in person, if students cannot interrupt politely or know when it is better to listen, whatever they have to say will be lost in the court of bad opinion.

This is particularly important in preparation for academic and business contexts where students need to interact in groups, such as seminar settings and business meetings. Within these, it¡¯s necessary for students to be able to take on a variety of roles, including leadership, taking notes, and playing devil¡¯s advocate to challenge what a group thinks.

Engaging students with project work

Role-play can help raise awareness of these strategies among students, but it¡¯s not enough to just take on a variety of roles found in common academic and business exchanges; students need to be able to reflect after each role-play session and infer what strategies are successful.

Technology-based projects can also help students engage in a range of communication strategies. For example, a ɫèAV series, StartUp, embraces technology in each unit by sprinkling various text messages and web-based research tasks. There are also multimedia projects where students use their phones to collect images or video and share the results in presentations that develop their critical thinking.

For example:

Make your own video

Step 1 Choose a favorite restaurant or meal.

Step 2 Make a 30-second video. Talk about the meal. Describe what you eat and drink. Explain why you like it.

Step 3 Share your video. Answer questions and get feedback.

This simple project subconsciously reinforces the unit¡¯s vocabulary and grammar. It also allows students to personalize the project based on things that they need to talk about in daily life¨Ctheir local foods in this case. This means that each student¡¯s presentation is unique. Unlike with essay assignments, students tend to work hard to craft several versions until they are satisfied because they know their work will be seen by other students and that they will be asked questions that only they can answer.

All this forces students to consider speaking strategies, as well as strategies for appropriate facial expressions and body language. Similarly, they have to use active listening strategies when listening to others¡¯ presentations while asking questions. As technology continues to evolve, teachers need to integrate new applications into their teaching so students learn how to communicate with the tools they have at their disposal.

Read our blog posts 'How to motivate and engage students with authentic video' and '21st-century skills and the English language classroom'.

More blogs from ɫèAV

  • A group of students hugging a teacher

    How to use praise to motivate your students

    By Joanna Wiseman
    Reading time: 3 minutes

    Praise in the classroom is a valuable resource that every teacher has in their toolbox.?It can encourage struggling students and reward learners who have been studying diligently and working hard on their language skills.

    But not all types of praise have the same effect. Let¡¯s take a look at different types of praise and how you can use it to boost your learners¡¯ motivation and?self-esteem.?

    Different types of praise in the classroom

    There are three types of praise that teachers commonly engage in - but they¡¯re not all equal and are not all desirable:?

    • Personal praise: Here you praise a student for a specific ability or quality. For example, you might say something like,?¡°You have a great memory for vocabulary¡±.??
    • Effort-based praise: This?is when you comment on a student¡¯s efforts. For example, you could say,?¡°I can see you tried really hard with this vocabulary homework ¨C well done.¡±??
    • Behavior-based praise:?This type of praise?is where you comment on how a student is acting, an example would be,?¡°You were really paying attention during the vocabulary lesson ¨C good job.¡±

    So how ¨C and when ¨C should we use these types of praise in the classroom??

    Try not to praise ability

    The first type of praise ¨C personal praise ¨C should be avoided in the classroom.??has shown that this type of praise doesn¡¯t have a beneficial effect on motivation.?

    In fact, praise for intelligence actually has a detrimental effect on student achievement. When students were praised for their intelligence, they tended to care more about their performance goals ¨C the score they achieved on a test, for example. Learning goals, like mastering a new skill, became less important to them.?

    Moreover, personal praise has been shown to undermine student resilience in the face of failure. Students showed less persistence when it came to challenging tasks and less enjoyment of the challenge. They also performed more poorly than children praised for effort.?

    Furthermore, when you praise students for their ability, they also tend to see intelligence or aptitude as a fixed trait. However, students who are praised for effort are more likely to see ability as something they can improve on. This feeds into the development of a growth mindset vs a fixed mindset.?It¡¯s important to?instill?a growth mindset in learners to enable them to reach their full potential.?

    How to praise effort and behavior

    When it comes to praising effort and behavior, what¡¯s the most effective way to do it? Here are some techniques to employ:?

    1. Be specific ?

    General praise such as ¡°Good job¡± isn¡¯t nearly as effective as a comment that shows you¡¯ve been paying attention to what the student is doing. A precise compliment will make a much bigger impact on a student, for example:?¡°I was really impressed at how hard you concentrated during the listening exercise. Well done.¡±??

    2. Give praise in the moment?

    Immediate praise doesn¡¯t need to be disruptive, but it shows students that you are paying attention and noticing good behavior and effort.?

    3. Avoid comparisons with other students?

    Instead of saying, ¡°You got the best mark in the class ¨C well done!¡± say something like,?¡°You got a really high score in the reading test. Your hard work has really paid off this term.¡±

    4. Keep track of praise?

    Before your class, choose three or four students you¡¯re going to praise that day. That way, you can be sure that each and every student will benefit from the motivational power of effective classroom praise!

    5. Personalize your praise, depending on the student?

    Young students enjoy being praised publicly, but shy students, older children and teenagers prefer positive feedback to be given quietly.?

    Don¡¯t overpraise and watch your positive bias?

    It¡¯s important to be sincere. Older children, especially adolescents, have an extremely low tolerance of insincerity. So, »å´Ç²Ô¡¯³Ù be tempted to praise students too often, or too effusively ¨C it can actually have a negative impact on your relationship with your whole class. Insincere praise can lead students to question your judgement.?

    It¡¯s also really important to be aware of your positive bias.?that teachers consistently give students of color more positive feedback on their work. It¡¯s done with good intentions, but it can actually be harmful. If you regularly overpraise students for minor achievements, it can imply that you have low expectations for these students. And, this can make your students feel like they might not be capable of fulfilling the high expectations that you should have of them.?

    So, instead of overpraising, focus on giving specific, immediate praise to motivate your students, boost their?self-esteem and unlock their potential.

    Find out how to?nurture creativity in your learners?and this post will tell you how to?promote student happiness?and wellbeing.?

  • Children in halloween costumes stood in a hallway with a adult

    5 spooky ideas for your primary classes this Halloween

    By Joanna Wiseman

    It¡¯s almost Halloween, and the ghosts and vampires will soon be coming out to play. Did you know that although we often associate Halloween with pumpkin carving and eating candy, the festival has much older origins??

    is an ancient Gaelic festival that celebrates the end of the harvest and the start of winter. This is why people often associate the colors of orange and black with Halloween: orange is the color many leaves turn in autumn and black is the color of the darker winter months.

    People used to believe that spirits walked the Earth on the night of Samhain. The tradition of dressing up as ghosts and demons started as a way to hide from the spirits who walked the streets. Similarly, people used to leave treats outside their houses for the spirits and from this came the tradition of trick-or-treating.

    So to help get your younger students in the Halloween spirit, here are five spooky ideas to try in your primary classes.?

    1. ¡®Pumpkin¡¯ oranges

    Pumpkin carving is fun - but it¡¯s also messy and pumpkins can be really heavy. Instead, bring in an orange for each student and give them a black marker pen. Get them to draw a scary face on their orange and then write a short text describing it.?

    My pumpkin orange, Ghoulie, has two big eyes. He¡¯s got a small nose and a big mouth, with lots of teeth. This Halloween, he¡¯s going to sit outside my house. He¡¯s going to scare people but he doesn¡¯t scare me. I think he¡¯s very funny.

    2. Bat fishing

    This is a great way to practice questions and review language with your younger students. Have your students cut out bat shapes on card and tell them to write a question on the back of each one. They can write personal information questions, such as ¡®What do you eat for breakfast?¡¯ or questions related to topics you¡¯re studying at the moment, like ¡®How do you spell dinosaur?¡¯?

    Attach a paper clip to each bat and put them on the floor, with the questions face down. Then attach a magnet to a piece of string.

    Divide the class into teams and have students take turns to fish a bat from the floor. When they catch a bat using the magnet, a student from another team asks them the question written on the bat. If the team can answer correctly, they keep the bat. If they »å´Ç²Ô¡¯³Ù answer correctly, the bat goes back on the floor.

    When all the bats have been fished, the team with the most wins.?

    3. Haunted house dictation

    This is a good activity to review prepositions of place and house vocabulary. Before you start, elicit some scary things from the students, such as ghost, spider, witch, zombie. If these words are new for your students, draw a picture dictionary on the board for them to refer to in the next stage.

    Next, give students an outline of a house with the rooms labeled, but without any furniture. Then dictate a sentence to the students and have them draw what you say on their individual houses. For example, ¡®In the kitchen, there¡¯s a big cupboard. In the cupboard, there¡¯s a witch.¡¯ Or, ¡®In the living room, there¡¯s an old sofa. A zombie is sitting on the sofa.¡¯

    You can then divide the class into pairs or small groups and have them take turns dictating sentences to each other. When they finish, they can compare their pictures and then write a short story about their haunted houses.?

    4. Trick-or-treat board game

    Draw a 7x5 grid on card and add Start and Finish squares. Number the other squares so the students know what direction to move in. Then, on some of the squares write Trick and on some of the other squares write Treat. Finally, prepare a set of ¡®trick¡¯ and ¡®treat¡¯ cards for each group. (There are some ideas for tricks and treats below).?

    Before students play, teach them some phrases to use while playing the game. For example:

    • Whose turn is it?
    • It¡¯s my turn.
    • Roll the dice.
    • Who¡¯s winning?

    Then divide the class into groups of four and give each group a board, a set of ¡®trick-or-treat¡¯ cards, a dice and a counter. Have them take turns to roll the dice and move. If they land on a Trick?or Treat square, they have to take a card and do what it says. Then they put the card at the bottom of the pile.?The winner is the first person to reach the Finish square.

    Ideas for ¡®trick¡¯ cards

    • Go back 3 squares
    • Miss a turn
    • Go back to the start
    • Count down from 10 to 1 in English
    • Say the alphabet backwards (Z, Y, X¡­)
    • Laugh like a witch
    • Pretend to be a ghost

    Ideas for ¡®treat¡¯ cards

    • Go forward two spaces
    • Roll again
    • Go forward five spaces
    • Choose someone to miss a turn

    5. Spooky stories

    Are your students bored of celebrating Halloween every year? Mix things up with stories or readers. Allowing their imagination to run wild. There are lots of you can use or get inspiration from, creating your own. If you want your pupils more involved you could also have them make or take part in your very own 'create your own adventure' spooky story.?

    After reading the story, have your students create comic strips of different parts of the book and display them around the classroom. If your students prefer theatrics, get them to act out or sing parts of the story.?

  • Children running outside together with balloons

    5 quick and easy ESL games for teaching young learners

    By Joanna Wiseman

    Can we play a game? How many times have you been asked this in class? And how often do you say Yes? Young learners love to play games, and if you choose the right ones, they can have a hugely beneficial impact on their learning.

    As well as being fun, games can provide learners with necessary language practice, as well as lowering the affective filter (i.e. anxiety, fear, boredom and other negative emotions that can all impact learning). Games also foster a positive, relaxed environment.

    So are you ready to play? Here are a few tried and tested games that work especially well in the primary classroom. Each game is designed to consolidate and review the language students have been learning, and take from 5 to 15 minutes. The primary games are flexible enough for you to adapt them to different learner levels, age groups and skills.