40 TESOL JOURNAL VOL. 11, NO. 1

101 Ways to Say Hello:An Exercise in DiscourseLively Nova

L ast summer I tutored a 25-year-old Taiwanese ESLstudent in pronunciation. She had been studyingEnglish at a U.S. language institute for 3 weeks but

was worried about her inability to initiate conversations ina socioculturally appropriate manner. One of my goals wasto expose the student to a variety of native speech samples,particularly those used in greetings; thus, we often met inpublic places, such as coffee shops and shopping malls,where we could observe and listen to people greeting oneanother. Native speech can be the springboard for succes-sive lessons in pronunciation on the different ways to greetpeople in English and can contribute to developing indi-vidual discourse skills and strategies. I have adapted thefollowing exercise for use with ESOL learners who haveintermediate-level proficiency.

Procedure1. Begin by greeting individual students.

Teacher: “How are you doing?”Student: “Fine, thanks.”

2. Ask the students to recall situations from the pastfew days in which they had greeted someone orwere greeted by someone. Ask them to share howthey greeted someone or responded to a greeting,and why they responded this way. Write theirsituations and responses on the board.

3. Discuss the appropriateness of their reactions andask students to suggest alternative verbal andnonverbal greetings and responses for eachsituation.

4. Following this discussion, prepare a lesson onreduced speech forms. For example, explain tostudents how the vowels in certain functionwords, such as you, are often pronounced “a”(schwa [ə]), as in the following speech samples:

Sample Reduction of you

What have you been up to? Whatcha been up to?How have you been? How ya been?

5. Develop a listening discrimination exercise (e.g.,dictation, fill-in-the-blank) using a scripteddialogue and have the students write down whatthey think is an appropriate response.

6. Show students videotape clips from televisionshows (e.g., Blind Date), movies (e.g., TheTruman Show), or family videos of peoplegreeting each other. Ask the students to predict

Sample Greeting andResponse Scenarios

1. You pass an acquaintance in the hallway as you aregoing to class. You do not have time to talk.Possible Response: “Can’t stop to talk. I’ll see you

later.”Nod your head.

Possible Explanation: I am in a hurry, so I don’t want tosay a lot. I just want to say “hi.”

2. You arrive for class early Monday morning. Two of yourclassmates are already there. What do you say to them?Possible Response: “You’re here early.”Possible Explanation: Since we have time to talk before

class, I can chitchat with myclassmates.

3. You are going for a walk. A stranger greets you as youpass by.Possible Response: “Hello.”Possible Explanation: I don’t know this person, but I

want to be polite.

4. Your neighbor waves to you as you are getting your mailfrom the mailbox.Possible Response: “Hi, nice day, isn’t it?”

Wave.Possible Explanation: I don’t know my neighbor very

well, so I don’t feel comfortabletalking to her a lot.

5. The bus driver greets you as you board the bus.Possible Response: “Hello.”

Smile.Possible Explanation: The bus driver is a stranger, so I

don’t think I would say anything tohim. I would probably just smile.

6. You are on a date at a restaurant. Your friends arriveunexpectedly. On the way to their table, they stop to sayhello. You and your date are in the middle of dinner.Possible Response: “Hi, what a surprise to see you

here.”Possible Explanation: I didn’t expect to see my friends,

but I don’t want them to think thatI’m embarrassed to see them.

7. You are working at your desk. It is time for lunch. Yourboss passes by and says “Still here?”Possible Response: “Yes, I’m just finishing up.”Possible Explanation: I don’t want to give my boss the

impression that I can’t get mywork done on time unless I skiplunch.

8. Your coworker greets you during a coffee break.Possible Response: “Hi, how’s your project going?”Possible Explanation: I like to get to know my coworkers

during my breaks.

41VOL. 11, NO. 1 TESOL JOURNAL

what greeting and/or response will be used in theclip.

7. Divide the class into small groups. Instruct eachgroup to act out a scenario (see the samplescenarios in the sidebar on p. 40), paying atten-tion to the pronunciation and appropriateness ofthe selected greeting as well as the responses tothe greeting. Alternatively, ask each group tocompose its own greeting scenario.

ConclusionESOL learners’ sense of accomplishment is closely tied totheir understanding of English and their ability to be

understood by others. These exercises seek to help studentsestablish consistent patterns of intelligible speech through aheightened awareness of reduced forms and sociolinguisticappropriateness in the use of greetings. In addition,students will develop a repertoire of language skills andstrategies, which will enable them to perceive, produce, andpredict the pronunciation of unfamiliar words and phrasesin everyday discourse situations.

Author

Lively Nova holds an MS in TESOL from California StateUniversity, Fullerton, in the United States. She currently teachesESL in Calgary, Canada.

TESOL Journal invites readers to share tips on successful ESOL techniques, activities,and methods. Please send two hard copies of your tip to:

Stephen J. StoynoffEditor, TESOL Journal

Department of English230 Armstrong Hall

Minnesota State University, MankatoMankato, MN 56001 USA

For further details on submissions, see the publications submission guidelines available at http://www.tesol.org/