Conversation & Vocabulary

From a tutor:

My learner has explained that she hopes to work on her conversation skills this year, in hearing and responding. We used ice breakers last week, and I thought those went well, but I just wanted to check in and ask if you have other ideas on how to help practice/generate conversation?

My reply:

First, remember that the goal is to help your learner communicate better. Don't try to teach everything; focus on what's going to make communication go a little better.

With that in mind, here's what I'd do:

Find some conversation starters.

Before class, search online for "conversation starters" or something similar, and you'll find lists of questions that you can use to start a conversation on an interesting topic. It's great to talk about basic/normal things (where are from? how was your week? how's work? how's your family?) but that will get boring after a while, and it's better if your learner can begin to talk about a wider variety of topics and in different ways. From the lists you find, choose a few that you think will make for good conversation with your learner.

Remember, these are just to prompt conversation. If you find that no one has much to say in response to one question, then you can use the next question, but once you get a good conversation going, just go with it. Save any unused questions for next class.

Start a vocabulary journal.

A vocabulary journal can be in any format, but ideally it will be something physical and contained, like a small notebook dedicated for this purpose, or some file cards on a ring. Here, your leaner can write any new words she learns, along with definitions, example sentences, pictures, diagrams, translations, or whatever else will be useful for her. She should bring this to every class. You can help her add to it during class, and you can encourage her to add to it outside of class, too. She doesn't need to write down every single new word she hears, only the ones that seem useful to her.

Note: example sentences are important! During my first year teaching ESL, I gave my students a list of vocabulary words, and their homework was to write a definition and use them in a sentence. One word was dismay, and a student wrote, I have a dismay because I am fail. I thought: Well, you do know what the word means, but that's not really how we use it. If you write some example sentences with your learner, you'll help her learn not only what it means but also how to use it.

Integrating conversation and vocabulary learning

While you're talking with her, be patient and give her some extra time to figure things out in her own head as much as possible -- but if she does need help, go ahead and help her. If she doesn't know the word for what she wants to say, encourage her to "talk around" it (like you would if you're playing Catchphrase or Taboo) to give as clear an idea as possible of what she's trying to say. At this point, you probably know what word she wants to use, so you can tell her the word, give her some example sentences or phrases, and help her add the entry into her vocabulary journal. If you use a word that she doesn't know, and it seems like a good word for her to know, you can help her add that one to her vocabulary journal as well.

In sum

Bring something interesting to talk about, and then start chatting. When you need to pause for a quick vocab lesson, follow the instructions above. Then, when you're both ready, you can resume the conversation. Once you resume, try to incorporate her newest words into your conversation (and try to encourage her to use them too!).

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