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The Oregon International Internship Program (OIIP) hosts college students from China, Taiwan and Japan to intern in local Oregon elementary school classrooms. In addition to their internship, students take a course on English pragmatics and intercultural communication. Effective language use is much more than simply knowing the words and the grammar; knowing the context and the cultural cues are critical to successful communication. In this course students explore tasks such as: making requests, giving opinion and disagreeing politely, leave-taking, compliments, and active listening. Many activities for this course were inspired by and adapted from activities found on the website American English Teaching Pragmatics. This is a useful free resource for English pragmatic activity and lesson ideas. The following lesson on active listening skills and strategies combines content from two activities from American English Teaching Pragmatics: "Are You Listening? (Backchannel Behaviors) by Anne Berry, Georgetown University, United States and "Listen Actively! You Can Keep That Conversation Going!" by Sara Gallow, Clark College, United States. 

To see the procedure and access the powerpoint click here.