Free conversation or free talk is a very popular lesson request from ESL students. At first, this might seem like a piece of cake. All you have to do is talk, right? Not quite so, free conversation lessons can sometimes be the most stressful especially if you’re not good at building rapport. Finding interesting topics to keep your students entertained while making sure it doesn’t feel like an interview is particularly important in these lessons.

Let’s look at some ways in which we can make sure our free conversation lessons pop. Bear in mind that, this is not an exhausted list but rather, just a few tips that can be quite helpful.

PLAN A LIST OF RELATED TOPICS IN ADVANCE

Yes, it’s a good idea to plan for your free talk. More importantly, try to make a list of related topics so the conversation can feel more natural and free-flowing. You don’t want to be talking about travel and then randomly switch to blood types.

When the student requests a free conversation lesson they normally want the conversation to mimic that of an everyday conversation you would have with a native speaker. Here are some good examples of related topics that can create a near-normal atmosphere is: Travel, culture shock, foreign cuisine, architecture and so on.

MINIMIZE DEAD AIR

Dead air is an uncomfortable period of awkward silence that usually occurs in a tense social setting. I know we can all agree that we don’t want our students to feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Well, minimizing dead air is why we plan for free conversation in advance. Having a set of questions prepared for awkward moments is at the top of the list. Likewise, if the student is struggling to find words to answer, it’s a good idea to offer suggestive answers to help the student along.

Another way you can minimize dead air is by asking short follow up questions like “really, how was that”, “tell me more” or “why?” This keeps the student talking and minimizes your speech time.

IT’S NOT AN INTERVIEW

Please do not ask the student one question after another. That’s not a conversation, that’s an interview. If you can avoid using full-length questions entirely, that would be great! I know it sounds impossible but there are tricks you can use.

Here’s what I do: if I want to start a new topic I simply tell the student about my experience. For example, if I want to talk about culture shock I would say – “I was completely surprised by the enormous amount of convenient stores in Japan, I have never seen anything like this before”.

This would prompt the student to talk about something that they were surprised by or about how it is in their country. But if it didn’t, don’t worry you still don’t have to ask an excessively worded question. You can follow up by asking “How about your country?” It makes the conversation more natural and prevents you from asking question after question.

AVOID DOMINATING THE CONVERSATION

The 70:30 rule is way more important in free conversation lessons than any other lesson. Although the student wants to practice their listening skills, free conversation is mostly about enhancing their speaking skills. You are a guide, prompt the student by introducing new topics and have them speak.

An interjection should only be made to correct them (if asked by the student) and to sprinkle a little spice as it were to the conversation. I know it can be tempting to keep talking and talking to avoid any awkward moments but free conversations should be student-centered. Allow the student to control the conversation if they want to hear more from you they will ask.

OH AND ONE MORE THING……. Avoid talking about controversial topics. You know topics like religion, abortion, and same-sex marriages. Remember we don’t want the student to feel uncomfortable or even worse angry.