Teaching English as a Foreign Language is a tough but rewarding job. One of the main components is being able to teach students the ability to have a conversation in English.
To converse in English, students must not only speak, but also listen to the person to whom they are speaking. So while an EFL teacher may dream about having a class where students do nothing but talk to each other, the reality is that planning a Conversational English lesson (or teaching a Conversational English class) is just like teaching any other type of English (grammar, vocabulary, etc.). Additionally, it actually takes more work, especially since English learners are not typically fans of speaking English, out of fear of making mistakes.
The Essentials of a Conversational English Class
There are two main ways of sparking a Conversational English Class:
- Introduce a text so the students can discuss it.
- Ask the students what they want to discuss.
For beginners and pre-intermediate levels, introducing a text is the best way to go. Here are some basic texts that can be useful for a lesson-long class:
- A newspaper article on a significant local or international news event
- A poem
- A song
- A short story
For intermediate to advanced-level learners, it's useful to provide a list of the things people usually talk about
- Events of the days (A very common thing for people to ask a friend or loved one when they see them after work/school is to ask "How was your day?")
- Weekends (On a Monday morning, for example, it's common thing to ask colleagues is "How was your weekend? " On Fridays, it's common to ask colleagues, "What are your plans for the weekend?)
- Jobs and work
- Feelings (Teachers should explain the level of depth of which people speak about their feelings, depending on moods, and how close the relationship is to the other person.)
- Children (Parents talk about their children often.)
- Other people (For example, people complain to their partners about difficult people they work with, and describe the people they like and dislike.)
- Love (Again, the level of depth of which people speak about their love lives depends ontheir moods, and how close the relationship is to the other person.)
- Current events
- Movies
- TV shows
- Travel
- Theater (Performances we have seen or will see.)
- Music
- Sports (It's popular to discuss recent sports games or upcoming games.)
- Computer games
- Food (People often speak about which restaurants they have been to and which ones they want to go to.)
- Books
Role Playing in a Conversational English Class
It may be useful for students to role-play with each other, and with the teacher. For example, classmates can pretend that they are friends, colleagues or family members.
Conversational English Prompts
To get the ball rolling in class, English teachers can offer this list of basic conversation prompts:
- How was your day? How did your meeting go? What happened?
- How was your weekend? Did you go anywhere?
- How are your children? How is your roommate? How are things going with your partner?
- Have you read any good books lately? Have you seen any good movies lately?
- What kind of music do you like? What concerts have you been to?
- What's your favorite sport? What's your favorite team? Did you see the last game? What did you think?
- Where have you traveled to? What's your favorite city/country? Where do you want to go next?
- What type of food do you like? What restaurants have you been to recently? What foods are you planning to make?
Teachers of Conversational English should try to be culturally sensitive (for example, in some cultures, it is unacceptable to speak about one's family to other people.
Teachers should also be careful to avoid sparking arguments that may arise if students discuss controversial topics or sensitive topics like religion, race and politics.
Learn more about Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
