Try this activity right now. Open up The Huffington Post or Silicon Valley News and read an article that you’re not very familiar with. Now, in 30 seconds, give me your opinion. Go!
Not easy, is it?
As teachers we often say, “give me your opinion” in order to hear our students speak. We really don’t care [...]

When you attend a lecture, conference, or trade show, do you feel comfortable starting conversations with the strangers around you? It’s not an easy thing to do, even for native speakers. (See Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch post about how to interact at events.) Talking to people is an important business skill because meeting new people and [...]

Have you ever finished a classroom discussion where getting the learners to talk was like pulling teeth? The learners just don’t seem interested in speaking up, or when they do answer questions, their answers are too short.  I recently read a blog post titled, “26 Reasons why most brainstorming sessions fail (and what to do [...]