Tefl.NET Forums

Hi!

I'm teaching English to young learners.
Now I've been asked (and I would like that a lot) to have conversation classes with adults. I'm not a native speaker so I guess I'm a little bit scared with the idea. :oops: Any ideas? How can I prepare myself :?: Where can I find useful resources :?:

Thank you,

;)

Hi there

it's useful to find topics that the students are interested in, e.g sports, movies, music, their home town etc. It is true that people speak more freely when it's a subject close to their heart or something they have knowledge of.

There are some resources on the internet that will give you some starters

http://iteslj.org/questions
This website has plenty of conversation topics, but you will need to develop the lesson plan , e,g think about vocabulary you want to pre-teach.

http://www.compellingconversations.com

The second link is handy as the lessons are developed for you. There are some sample lessons for you to try out, after that you have to buy the book or pdf . Maybe your school would purchase it for you?

Deborah :D

The best way to be prepared to pick a topic, pick key vocabulary for the topic, think of a couple questions in case the conversation has trouble starting and then have fun. Your job is to monitor, correct and encourage conversation so don’t worry if you’re not a native speaker because your not the one who is going to be talking :). Another technique I like is to use conversation games for the first couple classes to get the students more comfortable with using English. I really like jeopardy, three truths one lie (where the student list three truths and one lie about themselves and the other students have to guess what the lie is by asking questions) Hope these ideas help.

Claraisa wrote:Hi!

I'm teaching English to young learners.
Now I've been asked (and I would like that a lot) to have conversation classes with adults. I'm not a native speaker so I guess I'm a little bit scared with the idea. :oops: Any ideas? How can I prepare myself :?: Where can I find useful resources :?:

Thank you,

;)

Hi. I like starting off any conversation with a 'warm up' idea. Try using pictures to bring out related vocabulary first or put some key words on the board and ask them to guess the conversation topic. It's never a good idea to try to go into a conversation 'cold'. Have fun !

Claraisa wrote:Hi!

I'm teaching English to young learners.
Now I've been asked (and I would like that a lot) to have conversation classes with adults. I'm not a native speaker so I guess I'm a little bit scared with the idea. :oops: Any ideas? How can I prepare myself :?: Where can I find useful resources :?:

Thank you,

;)

I have just thought of another idea. It's something I picked up from a teacher training course at Pilgrims. The idea is for each student to bring in objects that represent them in some way. They then make a 'life sculpture' with them by putting them together on a table. Everyone then walks around the room trying to find out what the significance of each object is for each person. We then vote on the most 'artistic' sculpture or the most original one. This activity works well as it uses the student as a resource.