Learning to Converse in a Foreign Language: The Reception Game

Abstract

The RECEPTION GAME is an exercise for teaching ordinary social conversational skills to adult foreign language learners who use such skills in their professional work at posts abroad. Of all the tasks carried out in the target language at post, learners claim to experience the most difficulty participating in ordinary social conversation. The properties of ordinary social conversation imply that language learners practice following unpredictable turns in topic, displaying involvement, and producing unplanned speech. Challenges for teaching social conversation lie with classroom interactional patterns whose characteristic turn-taking structure is unlike that of ordinary social conversation. This design for teaching conversational skills-combining elements of simulation and experiential learning-takes into account conversation's rapport-building function, turn-taking mechanisms, and open-ended structure, as well as listening demands for following rapid shifts in topic and displaying understanding and involvement in the interaction.