Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá'í Studies, North America
August 29 - September 1San Francisco Creating a Talk Show: An EFL Opportunity for Authentic Communication
Presented by Irshat Madyarov,
Teaching assistant in the Intensive
English Program,
West Virginia University
irshat@yahoo.com
1. Introduction
1.1. ZIPoPo (Academy for positive behavior)
was initiated as a Bahá’í-inspired socio-economic project. It was first shown
on Tatarstan TV, Kazan, Russia, 1994.
1.2. The author: Shamil Fattakhov, a
journalist, Kazan, Russia.
1.3. Main objectives and principles:
- to
educate participants in moral and spiritual truths with reliance on wisdom
proclaimed by world religions, philosophers, and prominent people;
- to
support youth and children in solving their real life problems in a positive
and moral way;
- to
promote independent investigation of truth, and principles of consultation;
- integration
of drama elements through a skit.
1.4. Variations of the Happy Hippo Show:
- TV
talk show;
- Club
discussion (schools, penitentiaries, asylums, etc.);
- Puppet
show (nursery and elementary schools, kindergartens, etc);
- Radio
version;
- Newspaper
version.
2. Happy Hippo Show in EFL context: description of
experience
2.1. Setting:
EFL
context: Orenburg State University (OSU), Russia (students majoring in foreign
languages: English, French, German (all taking English at some level)
2.2. Objectives of the Happy Hippo show at
OSU:
- to
raise awareness among the students and faculty of the most crucial problems,
promote open discussions, and facilitate solutions of these problems in a
constructive way;
- to
provide opportunities for students and faculty to use English in a meaningful
way;
- to
enable students to achieve unity through the creative process.
2.3. Procedure:
- Survey of topics to reveal students’
interests (all in English)
- Choosing the dates and hours suitable for
most students;
- Setting
up a team: actors-playwrights; technical support (computer operator,
photographers, camera person); PR (getting information from outside through
interviews, research, etc.); decorators and artists, etc.
- Inviting
a special guest (native speaker of English);
- Survey
to reveal the public’s opinion on the selected questions related to the
targeted topic;
- Collecting
information pertaining to the topic (interviewing respective people,
specialists, doing research, if needed);
- Writing
the script for the skit and acting it out;
- Putting
everything together involving available technology;
- Holding
the talk show;
- Setting
up a follow-up display with the key points of the discussion (display would run
until the next talk show).
2.4. Talk show topics discussed (1-2 month
break between each)
- Teacher-student
dynamics (bias issues,
other than academic relationships between teachers and students, bribery);
- Child out of Marriage (responsibility, having sex out of
marriage, abortion, etc.);
- Marry
or not to Marry (pros
and cons, main conditions: age, money, parental consent, etc.).
3. Conclusion: Results of the experience
3.1. Enjoyable experience for myself,
students, and faculty;
3.2. An opportunity for students to
practice English in meaningful way;
3.3. A place for an open and fruitful
discussion of students’ and faculty’s pressing concerns;
3.4. Foundation for unity among students
and faculty;
3.5. Arena for students to gain confidence
by expressing themselves in English in public.
References
ZIPoPo International Movement. 15
Aug. 2003 <www.wellwishers.net/zipopo/>.
ZIPoPo. (In Russian).15 Aug. 2003
<http://www.zipopo.narod.ru/>
ZIPoPo.
(In Russian).15 Aug. 2003 <http://zipopo.tripod.com/>