Detailed Sample Task: Stage I

CLB 4 - Speaking
Interacting with Others

Community and Recreation

Real-World Task

Make small talk with a participant at a community event or recreational activity like a Pride celebration event, spring clean-up, potluck or yoga class.

Planning Context

Helpful Knowledge:

Vocabulary related to community events, volunteering and cultural events in the local community.
Basic knowledge of local community events held at different times of year.

Context:

In Canada, it is common for people to participate in events in their community.
They may see it as a way to help build community pride, to meet new people, to improve their language skills or to volunteer. Many Canadians value building strong, supportive communities where people know and help each other.
Small talk is a helpful skill in terms of making connections with other people in education, the community, and the workplace.
This task reflects the intention to include all people in Canada in the themes.
The language skills in this task could be applied to other contexts.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Sample Vocabulary:

phrases related to conversation openers (How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun this past weekend?)
relax
chores
errands
go for a bike ride / walk / picnic and other pastime activities
work / study / do homework
phrases to show interest (Really? That sounds fun. Oh nice!)
questions to extend the conversation (Where did you do that? Do you do that often? Who did you go with? Was the weather nice?)

Sample Grammar:

Yes / No questions
Wh- questions
Adequate pronunciation to convey basic messages

Knowledge and Strategies

Textual and Functional Knowledge:

Cohesion links between sentences
(such as pronoun references).
Use common expressions for specific purposes.

Sociolinguistic Knowledge:

Culturally appropriate non-verbal communication strategies.
Culturally appropriate strategies to convey politeness and respect.

Activities and Tasks

Sample Skill-Building Activities:

Discuss with the class: What is small talk? When do you use small talk? Why do we use small talk in the workplace and in other community settings? What are some good topics for small talk? What topics would we usually avoid for making small talk? Why is small talk especially important in the workplace? What does small talk say about you to your co-workers and managers?
Review the vocabulary and do some activities to practice.
Look at images of different leisure time activities, such as a family having a picnic in the park, walking the dog, going for a bike ride and so on. Respond to each image with a follow-up comment and question, such as That looks fun. How was the weather?
In small groups, learners brainstorm community events they have heard of or attended. With the whole class, create a web of events on the board and talk about what goes on at the different events and when the events happen. Look at community webpages with different events listed on them to add to your original list.
Review the rules for question formation for both yes / no questions and wh- questions. In pairs, look at an image of a busy community event. Create a list of five yes / no questions and five wh-questions about the image. In groups of four, take turns asking each other about your images using the questions you have written.
Listen to a short dialogue of an extended small talk conversation between two neighbours. Listen again, line by line and repeat each sentence or question. As you repeat the dialogue out loud, focus on the different intonation patterns for the yes / no questions, for the wh-questions and the responses. Think about the tone of the dialogue. How do the speakers show that they are friendly and interested through their tone of voice? Try to use this tone when repeating the dialogue. Discuss how we can show positive interest in a conversation with our body language, such as eye contact, smiling and so on.
In pairs, using a dialogue with some words missing practice small talk conversations with a classmate. See how long you can keep the conversation going by asking questions but remember to keep the conversation casual and not too deep.
Create your own set of small talk conversation cards. On each card write one useful phrase / question / answer that you could use in a small talk situation at a community park. Write three different questions to ask about the weekend, three different questions to extend the conversation, and three different ways you would answer such questions. Using these cards, circulate around the class making small talk with various classmates.
Listen to an instructor-made dialogue between two co-workers which includes a number of small talk errors. Identify the topic, intonation and question errors that the co-workers make in their conversation.

Sample Skill-Using Tasks:

Role play with a classmate asking
questions appropriate for small talk about the previous summer break. Ask three additional questions related to the answers your partner gives.
Give a brief description of your typical week and provide details about the 5-Ws of your time.

Sample Assessment Tasks:

Role-play with an instructor making small talk with a participant at a community
event or recreational activity like a Pride celebration event, spring clean-up, potluck or yoga class.

Teaching Considerations

Cultural Considerations:

In Canada, small talk conversations are seen as important for relationship building and workplace friendliness. In other cultures, small talk may not be the norm and workplace communication may be more formal, hierarchical and professionally focussed.
Some learners may feel uncomfortable discussing their personal life, such as family, religion, or how they spend free time. Certain weekend activities may be considered too private to share (e.g., attending religious events, family obligations). Emphasizing that small talk is designed to be only related to topics that individuals are comfortable sharing and responses can be only related to aspects learners want to discuss.

Digital Literacy Strategies:

Successful completion of some tasks may require some baseline knowledge and digital skills.

Learners may need to:

Have keyboarding and typing skills.
Locate, navigate and use websites.
Use familiar apps, social media platforms and web pages.
Read information from a screen.
Navigate camera and microphone
Adjust volume on device
Use videoconferencing technology for online meetings.

Instructors can:

Dedicate time to improve digital literacy for learners
Make and/ or adapt digital materials.
Introduce websites that are relevant to the task(s).
Support learners in finding, navigating and using websites.
Introduce tools and apps that can aid learners in coping with communication barriers, such as translation, pronunciation, text to speech, speech to text tools and so on.
Share knowledge and strategies to ensure online safety.
Refer learners to programs to improve their digital skills.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization Strategies:

In some cultures, men and women may not typically make casual conversation with each other, especially about personal topics. Learners may be unsure how to greet or speak casually with someone of a different gender. Provide safe, respectful examples of gender-neutral greetings and behavior in the Canadian workplace. Allow learners to choose role-play partners they’re comfortable with.
Use diverse representations of people in all your learning resources and images, including people who are 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigenous, Francophone and of other cultures, and people who have disabilities or who are neurodivergent. Consider this diversity as you choose names for characters in stories you create as well.

Trauma-informed Strategies:

Possible Trauma triggers:

When teaching about Canada, you may teach about things that are triggering to learners who have experienced trauma. We can’t know what the triggers might be and what seems commonplace to us may have a triggering component for learners. Be aware of this and be prepared to support learners as needed.
Recognize that not everyone will feel comfortable with the idea of meeting strangers.
Questioning can be triggering for learners who have experienced trauma.

Strategies:

Adapt tasks to meet or do introductions with “safer” people such as classmates or other teachers as needed rather than strangers at community events.
Give learners advance warning of this topic and be aware that there may be learners who require support.
Learners who have experienced trauma often benefit from having routine. Create a safe and supportive classroom environment by establishing familiar routines, repeated activities, and model friendly and non-evaluative interactions.
Learners will benefit from positive relationships established in the classroom with the instructor and peers.
Learners who have experienced trauma benefit from having choices.
- Allow learners choice:
  - the choice to work on a different topic
  - the choice to share or not share their own experiences
  - the choice to work alone or to work with others
  - the choice to take care of themselves
  - the choice to step out of the learning environment
When learners have shared personal distressing or traumatic experiences, make space for learners to feel safe and recover from the experience of sharing their experiences. Follow the activities which may make learners feel vulnerable with routine, predictable and comforting activities.
Giving learners the knowledge, skills and language to access resources can be empowering.

Resources

Outings, Guest Speaker Suggestions, Extension Activities:

Invite a former student who is now working to come and speak to the class about their perspective on interpersonal communication in the community in Canada.
Free time plans survey: Create a list of questions about the upcoming week and interview three classmates about what they have planned. Write a one paragraph summary about their plans.
Using a list of ten community activities, such as Picnic in the park, Swimming at the community centre, and so on, play Find Someone Who…?
Look at a simplified community map and identify places where people might get to know each other, such as a park, community centre, playground, recreation centre, and so on.
Work with a partner to write a dialogue between two neighbours getting to know each other. Perform your dialogue for the class.

Realia:

Community maps
Photographs of places in the community
Schedules or calendars
Information about free community events taking place locally

Units and Modules:

Tutela: OCDSB Collection: Family and Community CLB 3-4

Lessons and Activities:

Multimedia:

YouTube: YMCA Adult learn to swim: Safety Around Water 2018: Tanisha’s Story
Tutela: ESL Image Bank: Community