Re-echoing his great-aunt Margaret's sentiments, Fuller believed that man's great potential was too often stifled by traditional concepts: "Every child is born a genius" but is enslaved by the misconceptions and self-doubt of the adult world, and spends much of his life having to "unlearn" that perspective. "Dare to be naive" was his watchword. But he was no shallow optimist. "Human beings," he believed, "evolved to perceive principles, to gather information, to solve problems, to use their minds.... Do we really understand that each of us is only here for all the others? If the answer is, 'I am here just for me,' then I think humanity is going to fail its [final cosmic examination].

To "Bucky" Fuller "we are all astronauts aboard Spaceship Earth," living "on a planet that is making 60,000 miles per hour around the sun." As one of his biographers has written, he lived in a state of mind trying to recapture the future before it passed us by unused. Perhaps this intimate glimpse best shows his own self-evaluation and hope: "After all, I'm really nothing special. I'm just a healthy, low-average human being, who happened to be nudged out of the nest. It was something anyone could do.' He pauses and smiles. 'Perhaps that's the good news.

If you would like to read more about Buckminster Fuller, the following books may be of interest:

Applewhite, E. J. Cosmic Fishing: An Account of Writing Synergetics with R. Buckminster Fuller. New York: Macmillan, 1977.

Fuller, R. Buckminster. And It Came to Pass-Not to Stay (poetic essays containing Fuller's social and political philosophy). New York: Macmillan, 1976.

Critical Path, paperback. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982.

Education Automation. Carbondale, III.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962.

Grunch of Giants. New York: St. Martin's Press,

1983.

Nine Chains to the Moon. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1939.

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, paperback. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1971.

Synergetics 1&2: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (with E. J. Applewhite). New York: Macmillan, 1975 (in paperback 1982).

Kenner, Hugh. Bucky: A Guided Tour of Buckminster
Fuller. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1973.
Lord, Athena V. Pilot for Spaceship Earth, R. Buckminster
Fuller, Author, Inventor and Poet (for young people).
New York: Macmillan, 1978.

Marks, Robert W. The Dymaxion World of Buckminster
Fuller. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1960.

What is the America's Cup? Why was this race called, even before it took place, the "Race of the Century"?

The America's Cup is the world's oldest and most famous international sailing competition. It all began in 1851, when a United States schooner named America first won the cup from Britain. Since then there had been 25 challenges usually one every three or four years-but no challenger had been able to win the cup away from the United States: for 132 years it remained proudly displayed at the New York Yacht Club. Then in 1983, by winning the elimination races in which boats from many nations competed, the yacht Australia II earned the right to challenge the United States yacht Liberty. And so it was that the two boats met in the final best-of-seven competition at Newport, Rhode Island, on the east coast of the United States, where the races have traditionally taken place.

Although getting off to a slow start, and being behind 3-1 at one point (so that Liberty had to win but one of the next three races, while Australia II had to win all three while losing none in order to gain the victory), the Australian boat. managed to win the next two races, so that the yachts were tied at 3-3. The suspense and drama of the competition had been building to a climax, and were further heightened when shifty winds postponed the final contest for several days. At last, the "race of the century," its start delayed an hour because of uncertain winds, was under way. Liberty got off to a 29-second lead, and increased that lead to 57 seconds by the end of the fourth leg of the six-leg race.

The outcome seemed certain. But then Australia Il's captain and crew skillfully and, as it seemed, almost miraculously picked up some shifts of friendly wind, surged into the lead, and accompanied by cheers from their compatriots and other well-wishers, crossed the invisible finish line a full 41 seconds ahead of the American boat. At that moment Australia II, the yacht with the mysterious winged keel, had accomplished what no other challenger had been able to do throughout the 132 years of competition.

That night the cup was unbolted from its pedestal at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan and taken to Newport, to be presented to its new owners and then begin its 11,620-mile journey to Perth. As they left Newport, the Australians said, "This isn't goodby to Newport. It's an open invitation to come to Perth and try to win it back."

""

New York"

photos courtesy Julie Ridge

Julie Ridge is a Broadway actress with a difference. The difference is that she did what no one had ever done before when she swam twice around Manhattan Island-nonstop. A year earlier she had swum the English Channel-but a couple of hundred other people had done that; her Manhattan swim was the first ever.

"I love swimming," she says. "I have always loved swimming." But in spite of her recordsetting stints in the water, swimming is not her first love: acting is. This petite, brown-eyed actress-singer-athlete has appeared in night clubs, commercials, musicals, and plays in New York and other parts of the United States. She had a part in the Broadway production of Oh! Calcutta! when, after eighteen months, she left to prepare for her Channel swim.

While the distance around Manhattan Island is almost as great as across the Channel, the differences in tides and currents make the Channel swim almost twice as far for most swimmers. Besides, as an adopted New Yorker (Julie grew up in Virginia) the added incentive of doing the Manhattan swim "at home" made it all the more attractive. "I love New York," she says-or, as the recent slogan has it: "I New York."

What is Manhattan Island?

It is the oldest and most important of the five boroughs that constitute New York City. It is 21.7 kilometers long and 3.8 kilometers wide at its widest point. It contains New York's tallest buildings, some of the nation's largest schools and colleges, and famous financial and theatrical districts. It is skyscrapers and Central Park, the old and the new, the best and the worst. It is like other big cities, it is like no other city. It is unique.

Julie Ridge takes nourishment from a floating bottle tossed to her by her crew during the Manhattan swim.

To understand Manhattan, we must know something of its history: its early days of Dutch colonists and English settlers, the waves of nineteenth-century European immigrants who arrived at its shores (some from the British Isles, who had the advantage of a common languageothers, poor and bewildered in the midst of an alien language and culture), Blacks from the South, who moved north after the Civil War, more recent immigrants from Puerto Rico and other lands, as well as young Americans from various parts of the country, lured by the hope of "making it" on the stage, or just being part of the excitement that is New York City. All this, and more, must be seen and heard and felt-the mix of ethnic groups and cultures, of hopes and fears, successes and heartbreaking failures, resilience and change and energy, pathos and humor, coldness and caring-all this, in order to understand what a New Yorker means when she says "I love New York."

Using Group Mini-Lessons
STEPHEN BOESHAAR

University College of Bahrain

Every group of students is different, and teachers of English as a foreign language must be able to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of their students. This article is a description of a particular class and how my own teaching style was forced to change to meet the special needs and character of my students.

The problem

The University College of Bahrain is a school for future teachers, and its students are mainly women. English-language study is a large part of their program (twelve hours weekly in the preparatory year) and yet, with the exception of those who actually plan to teach English, the students do most of their coursework in Arabic. There is little immediate use for English. Few of the students see it as relevant to their lives; quite the contrary: they often resent it as an imposition, useless drudgery. This feeling is perhaps intensified by the fact that many of their teachers are foreign and male.

Thus, a preparatory-year English classroom can be forbidding territory for the new

teacher. On first contact, the students appear reserved and wary. They tend to cluster in small knots in the classroom, seeking reassurance and support from friends. Accustomed to an authoritarian style of teaching in their previous schooling, they fully expect to be lectured at. Experiencing for perhaps the first time the more informal, relaxed approach taken by an EFL teacher who is trying to establish the atmosphere and rapport he needs in order to promote learning and communication in English, the students are likely to overreact. Their earlier shy reticence is suddenly replaced by incessant chatter, much of it in Arabic. The class often becomes silly and inattentive. Instructions, explanations, or suggestions by the teacher may be only half heard or ignored entirely. Again and again, one observes a few of the better students translating and explaining in Arabic to their weaker neighbors who have either not understood or not listened to what the teacher has said.

The EFL teacher generally responds to these conditions in one of two ways. Either he

will let chaos reign, hoping that learning will take place anyhow, or he will become a tough disciplinarian, rigidly controlling the lesson and the students in the manner that they are accustomed to. I tried both approaches and found neither satisfactory.

A new solution

Gradually I began to realize that another tack might be possible. I decided to look for the positive aspects of the classroom situation-few though they seemed-and go on from there. Positive point one was that the students were anxious to talk and, judging by their outbursts of chatter, had things they wanted to talk about. Point two was that Arabic, for better or worse, was in the classroom to stay, and the best hope was to minimize it or perhaps use it in some positive way. Point three was that the students had a strong natural tendency to group together in close proximity to one another in groups of from two to five and to support and help one another in all situations, both inside and outside of class. With these observations in mind, I began to adapt some techniques that I thought would take advantage of these "natural" propensities. For want of a better term, I call these techniques "group mini-lessons" or simply "mini-lessons." Much of the presentation and explanatory and practice material in my preparatory-year classes is now done in this modified format.

The mini-group format

Before each class, all "mini-group" material is typed very clearly in English and a copy is made for each group. Presentation material usually takes the form of texts, dialogues, conversations, or pictures with descriptions. conversations, or pictures with descriptions. It may be adapted from the textbook, or the text itself can be used. The important thing is for the material to be clearly presented in a way that enables the students to understand what is to be done. The material is presented in much the same way that it would be in a regular class, except that a student in each mini-group takes over the teacher's role. That is, each group leader will present the material, reading it aloud, explaining unclear points and vocabulary items, conducting questionand-answer exchanges, assigning roles, and doing whatever else is required by the nature of the material. Once the groups are under way, the instructor can circulate, answering questions if asked, or even sitting in with the groups. My experience suggests that the teacher can still have an active role in the pro

cess, but he must remove himself from the focus of the students' attention.

Explanatory material, usually in the form of points of grammar, can also be handled in the group format. The key here is to prepare concise handouts that are clear and to the point and contain no unfamiliar vocabulary or other extraneous items. Again, one member of each group is assigned the role of teacher. At this point, I make no stipulation as to how the explanation is to be done. In practice, the weaker classes will tend to employ Arabic while the better ones use English. In either case, the students receiving the explanatory lessons are markedly more attentive than they would be if the teacher were talking to the class as a whole. They appear to feel safer and more at ease in the small groups. Some of the students suffer from extreme shyness and will hardly ever speak in front of the class, even when called on. In the groups, they do talk and will often ask questions of one another if they don't understand something. After a few minutes of group explanation, most of the students have grasped the salient point(s) and are ready for practice. To make sure, I sometimes request one student (who has not been a group leader) to come before the class and summarize (in Arabic or English) what she has understood.

Group practice material is usually given out next. This can consist of almost any conceivable type of exercise-from simple manipulative drills to complex communicative practice. The essential thing is that the directions are clear, the material is well presented, and the students can see some point to what they're doing. Again, one student may be chosen as group leader or the students can decide on some kind of rotation. My experience has shown that the students are quite able to work out such details among themselves. Some important considerations

I have learned to prepare the mini-group material carefully and to keep certain points in mind. The handouts must be very clear, preferably typed double- or triple-spaced. They must be fairly brief and to the point, and must not contain extraneous items. Directions should be as explicit as possible so the students will understand exactly what they are to do. I have found that one handout per group has proved the best policy. It remains in the hands of the group leader, with the others clustering around. This helps to keep the group together. If each student is given a separate sheet, there is a tendency for individuals to drift off or to treat the whole thing as a writing exercise.

I have found it best to divide my classes into more or less permanent groups which reflect the preferences and friendships of the students. It seems best to let them work with those whom they like and get along with. The groups are always three, four, or five in num

Stephen Boeshaar teaches at the University College of Bahrain, where from 1982 to 1983 he served as acting head of the English Language Center. He received a B.A. in social science from Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, and both an M.A. in Middle East studies and an M.A. in applied linguistics from the University of Utah.

Mr. Boeshaar has taught and coordinated EFL programs in Syria, Yemen, and France, and for the U.S. Peace Corps in Morocco.

ber; four is perhaps the optimum. Ideally, each group ought to contain one of the stronger students who can act as leader and help the others. However, the teacher need not enter into the process of group formation unless a number of unusually poor students happen to form a group or if a shy or unpopular student has been excluded.

Finding the right role for myself as instructor within the mini-group format has not been easy. Every class has a different personality, so my role has in each instance been different. In most cases, when the students realized that I was serious about the groups and that they were to assume part of the responsibility for their own learning, they responded well. In the better classes, most of the group work runs along with hardly any need for a teacher's services; in weaker classes, the groups need more support and guidance. The mix of control and freedom is different for every class. The groups should not sit around waiting for the teacher to tell them what to do next; neither should they use the time to chat about clothes or parties: they should be really practicing English. The trick is to be an interested observer without dominating the proceedings.

Admonitions and conclusions

The mini-group format has proved effective, but I have learned to be careful not to overuse it. The group work can be alternated with other formats-whole class, pairs, or individual work-to provide variety and prevent boredom. However, group work makes up the core of a typical lesson.

As with almost any technique, there are pros and cons. Certainly mini-groups are best suited to speaking/listening/conversation / grammar classes and less well suited to reading or writing lessons. Also, a classroom with mini-groups can be a noisy place at times, perhaps even a bit unnerving if one is accustomed to more orderly teaching. Finally, the use of Arabic in class for explanations bothers me at times; however, I look on it as a way of turning a bad habit on the part of the students to some advantage.

The plus points of the mini-group format

have proved to be these: It allows a sizeable number of students who are normally unable or unwilling to speak in the classroom to participate and use English. It increases the amount of time students are actually speaking and reduces teacher talking time. It raises the level of student understanding of English in that every student is provided with an explanation she can grasp. The students themselves have commented favorably on this. Most importantly, I think, it allows the students some control over their own learning. It involves them by letting them take roles usually reserved for the teacher. It alters the pattern, particularly strong in this area of the world, of students passively absorbing knowledge from an all-knowing authority figure.

At any rate, my students have responded well to the mini-group; it seems to fit the way they learn and the way they are. I am now experimenting with the idea of getting students. to participate in choosing or writing the mate

rials used in the lessons.

BELGIUM

Fifth European Symposium on LSP

The 5th European Symposium on LSP (Language for Specific Purposes) will be held in Leuven, Belgium from August 26 to August 30, 1985. For further information contact:

Instituut voor Levende Talen
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Vesaliusstraat 21, B-3000 Leuven
Belgium

CANADA

A Redefinition of Roleplay for EFL/ESL

DAVID PIPER

University of Calgary
TERRY PIPER

University of British Columbia

Roleplay is a technique currently in vogue in foreign- and second-language teaching. It takes many shapes, from the brief two- or three-line improvisations used to extend prepared dialogues to the elaborate simulations used originally in ESP classes but now in more general use. While roleplay is, without doubt, a valuable addition to the language teacher's repertoire, it has limitations-limitations which, if not anticipated, can result in the kinds of failure illustrated by the following incidents.

In one, an inexperienced teacher assigned a 1. Ken Jones, Simulations in Language Teaching (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).

roleplay activity in an attempt to stimulate language production among his students. A female student from Japan was assigned the role of waitress in a fashionable restaurant. The situation required that she cope with a customer who refused to pay his check, the role assigned to one of her male Japanese classmates. The result was not the outpouring of purposeful language that the teacher had intended, but an almost total lack of talk and frequent glances toward the teacher for guidance followed by a great deal of nervous laughter.

In the second incident, a more experienced teacher assigned a roleplay based on a skit that the students had rehearsed and presented. The plot of the skit involved parents' returning early from vacation and finding a party in progress for which they had not given permission. While most of the guests had escaped through the back door, two were left hiding behind the sofa to assist the young hosts in coping with the parents' predictably angry reaction. In the roleplay activity that followed the skit, students, in pairs, were instructed to improvise the conversation between the two guests as they walked home after escaping from behind the sofa. The purpose of the activity was to elicit spontaneous language use. Despite the fact that the situation and the appropriate responses to it had been anticipated in the prepared skit and in subsequent discussion, there was in most groups embarrassment, awkwardness, and very little spontaneous language use. Most ESL/EFL teachers can recall similar failures in their own classes.

These incidents raise some doubts about the kinds of roleplay activities traditionally assigned in language classes. These activities are based on the belief that students lose their self-consciousness and thus make fewer mistakes when they assume a false identity. Students are assigned fictitious roles from which they must "improvise some kind of behavior towards the other role characters in the exercise.... In some roleplays . . . the student may simply be assigned the role of playing himself, but then you have a simulated situation rather than real roleplay. The two basic requirements for roleplay... are improvisation and fictitious roles."2

Yet, as the episodes described indicate, roleplays meeting this description do not always result in an outpouring of functional language. This suggests that we may have been misguided in believing that fictitious improvisation is necessary, or even desirable, in classlearning depend on situations that demand room roleplay. Why should second-language fictional pretense rather than everyday reality? It is entirely possible that fictional pretense will maximize rather than minimize the

2. C. B. Paulston, "Developing Communicative Compe tence." In The Human Factors in ESL, ed. R. L. Allen, M. K. Burt, M. Finocchiaro, C. P. Paulston, G. R. Tucker and R. Yorkey (Washington, D.C.: TESOL, 1977).