Spanish Version

CONVERSATION

PRACTICE

Introduction

One hour of English conversation practice can be worth two hours in the classroom. Every student of English should look for opportunities to speak English as often as possible.

In a school or university there is – or should be – someone who is responsible for organizing conversation groups or running an English-language club.

This may be another duty that is imposed on a hard – working teacher, but it doesn’t have to be – students over the age of eleven could arrange a group themselves.

If students don’t practice speaking English there isn’t a lot of sense in learning the language. This applies to all students, even children in nursery schools.

One of the biggest obstacles to speaking English (or any foreign language) is the embarrassment or timidity that a student might feel at first. The only way to overcome this is by practicing English and by spreading the idea that ‘it’s no big deal.’

Speaking English should be a natural and regular thing that everyone in the group should support; no laughing at mistakes or mocking beginners’ accents, for example.

A good group needs a plan; it is unrealistic to get a group together if no one has any idea what they’re going to talk about. And it must be a small group – no more than three or four people.

A larger group will not produce useful conversation. In real life, in our own language, more than four or five people don’t usually have a true conversation.

It becomes a shouting match or the group splits into smaller groups.  Please see 'A Plan for Larger Groups'.

Bigger groups can provide excellent practice, but more structure is needed: the group could ‘role play’ as a committee given a specific task (for example, how to spend a one million dollar legacy to the school or barrio).

With a bit of help the students could even set up a ‘virtual’ company, with virtual products and problems. This would be good for groups of eight or even more people. But it needs organization and discipline.

It also provides opportunities for interpreters, as the specialists in business subjects (other teachers, for example) don’t necessarily want to speak English.

Outside of the school or university it is difficult to maintain a conversation group. A local teacher may offer private conversation sessions (as opposed to lessons) and these are obviously valuable to students of English.

In fact I would suggest that the busy teacher who can’t face doing extra private lessons could relax a bit and make some extra cash by hosting groups.

If the teacher, or any qualified English – speaker, has suitable premises, arranging conversation groups can be fun and can be profitable.

Students of English can, of course, organize everything themselves, perhaps meeting in each others’ houses on a scheduled basis every week. This costs nothing except effort.

Finally, it’s worthwhile mentioning that a ‘conversation group’ doesn’t mean that everyone has to speak. Students who are not yet ready for conversation can still attend. In their case it’s a ‘listening group’.

And why not? It will surely help them with their English to hear the conversations.

And an extra two or three listeners can add to the teacher’s income because they pay the same as everyone else.