The group has been working on the language of buying and selling in a shop. The teacher prepares the beginning of a dialogue in which a shopkeeper says very simply...
The dialogue is projected on the screen. The learners discuss who Frank is and what he wants. They must find at least three different ideas. The teacher takes suggestions, encouraging the learners to find the best formulation, helping them when necessary. The session can continue like that until a short game is produced.
Alternatively, the teacher can ask the learners to think of five or more ways the conversation can end. For example, Frank finds something to buy and buys it; Frank sees something he likes but can't afford it; Frank doesn't like anything; Frank negotiates, etc. The teacher can ask different groups to prepare the story of the dialogue. Then the different stories can be developed with alternate paths at each step.
As the work takes place, learners are working on the dramatic logic of a conversation, on the attitudes and emotions, on the required vocabulary and style, on grammatical distinctions, on effective syntax and on context appropriate meaning (semantics). And they can be invited to record the roles to make them sound realistic, using the text-to-speech model for their basic phonetic orientation but giving it the nuance of expression the situations requires.
Thus without being told they are supposed to be learning all these things, the learners are getting straight into the nuts and bolts of how language is used. The teacher guides their understanding and appreciation of differences in formulation and style. A project could last for one session or for several weeks. At the end, the learners will have alternatively played the roles of author, director, actor, editor and producer, and they can invite others to see their production. The teacher will have a complete game that can be presented to other groups as an example, or even reused partially or totally as an online activity or in the classroom.
Chatscaper is a multi-faceted tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. Here are two examples.
Example 1: Teaching a foreign language
Example 2: Brainstorming with a coach
The coach starts a dialogue by formulating a strategic question:
Working with the coachee, they begin exploring the possible directions their thinking could take them. At each phase objections, alternatives, risks, threats, opportunities can be explored and developed.
Working in groups, the tasks can be divided in a way similar to the language training example. It's also possible to have several individuals or groups working on predetermined outcomes and building the way to get there (with multiple alternatives and varied outcomes) and another group working freely from the starting point.
This technique can be used for training, coaching or team strategy building. This dialogue was created in the Windows desktop version of Chatscaper (Chatscaper Manager) that contains management functions not present in Chatscaper Online. Content produced in one version can be imported from the other.
