Every month our teachers come together for a roundtable to discuss a different topic and share ideas and information. June's roundtable topic was "Conversational Lessons: How They Contribute to a Student's Learning Journey". Here are the highlights!
What does a conversational lesson mean to you?
- Teachers noticed a trend: Adults tend to request conversational lessons – spouses especially so that they can communicate with teachers/doctors. Executives are also starting to request conversational lessons to practice “small talk” at work.
- A “conversational lesson” may mean different things to different students. Some may want to practice “chit chat,” while others may expect a “Flipped Classroom” (i.e., students are provided with a text/video to review before class that will be the basis of conversation during the lesson, which may also include a short exercise to review interesting/advanced words).
- Some students may also request “conversational lessons” to work on their social skills – sometimes they are very shy/introverted and need help feeling more comfortable conversing. These students may be especially challenging because they only provide 1-word answers, which is often due to their anxiety when speaking – they may just be embarrassed that they will make a mistake.
Planning for Conversational Lessons
- Another teacher mentioned trying to abide by the 80/20 rule, in which the student is speaking 80% of the time, while the teacher is there to guide the conversation by asking questions, providing prompts/expressions, etc. but generally only speaks 20% of the time
- Getting started is hard (especially for the first session) so it’s important to have topics planned (i.e. What are your hobbies? Who is in your family? etc.)
- It’s a good idea to preview the planned topics with the students so they know what to expect. Teachers may also share sentence starters/vocabulary/visual aids before the session so the students (especially the shy ones who are afraid to make mistakes!) are set up for success to be able to respond to questions. Students can also be tasked with asking the questions to the teacher to create a more level playing field
- Teacher/Resource Ideas:
- Compelling Conversations – textbook with several versions excellent for giving prompts (https://www.compellingconversations.com/compelling-conversations)
- Create your own list of random questions according to fluency level. If your student doesn’t know how to use the past tense, then they can’t respond how to respond to that question
- Provide visuals to use when speaking as an aid to scaffold during the lesson.
- Have students complete Word of the Day assignments so they can anticipate what’s going to be used in the next session
- Consider “controversial” topics – these issues are great to tackle in conversational classes because they usually cause emotional reactions in students, which creates more investment in the conversation
- Give students a list with a wide variety of topics and have them pick the topic
- If you have a student who is not very responsive, start with “closed questions” (questions with yes/no answers) and then expand from there.
Assessing Student Skill/Progress in Conversational Lessons
Providing clear feedback to the student is imperative to a successful conversational lesson. The most common feedback we receive from students is “I’m not learning anything, all we do is talk.” Of course, we know this isn’t true! However, students don’t see the same progress as you do, so it must be laid out for them.
- As the student talks, it’s important for the teacher to take notes on areas of strength/weakness so the teacher has a record of student progress and so the teacher can share these notes with the student
- Is the student using complete sentences/appropriate grammar to respond to questions?
- Are they missing any vocabulary to express themselves clearly?
- One teacher suggested making a list with two columns: WHAT YOU SAID vs. WHAT YOU COULD HAVE SAID.
- Most teachers agreed that allowing students to finish their thoughts is important so they can practice fluency.
- Another teacher shared this excellent redirect: rather than telling a student what they said is “wrong,” teachers can reframe that feedback as “A native speaker would not understand what you said.”
- Then, teachers can address errors with the student at the end of the statement/conversation/lesson, depending on the student, and use that information to plan for the next session. Some students may also benefit from a typed review of session feedback.
- One teacher suggested having students write up their feedback at the end of the lesson as well. As homework, have them write sentences using new vocabulary from the session/text/video, and/or have them write additional questions that arise based on the session.
- You can provide your student (or your student can provide you) with a list of new words covered in the session
- For some students, an entire list of words may be too daunting, so you can also just focus on learning one new word from the session
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- Ask the student for their feedback: Did you like the class/topic? Do you have any questions?
Our next roundtable topic will be "Communicating Across Cultures". Stay tuned for the highlights!