Tips for a Successful ESL Social Talk Class

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Tips for a Successful ESL Social Talk Class

Written by Robert Vance on April 24, 2008 – 4:08 am

Most foreign teachers in China have to participate in some form of an ESL social talking class at least once a week. Some schools may refer to this class as an ‘English Corner’,'English Salon’, ‘Free Topic Discussion Time’, or ‘conversation class.’ In my experience, this class can be exhilirating, exhausting, and downright frustrating at times. As a conversationalist, I probably enjoy this type of class more than others, but even I feel ‘burned out’ and out of ideas especially after I have been working with the same group of students for many months. Here are some tips that can help reinvigorate your social talking classes and help you to have fun as well:

–Remember that your students, not you, should be doing most of the talking. While that takes some pressure off you, motivating your students to talk can be difficult especially if they are low level. One way to make sure that everyone is practicing their English is to break your class up into small groups and have them discuss a topic. You can walk around the room and monitor pronunciation and grammar. After 20 minutes or so, you can ask a representative from each group to discuss the group’s conclusions or differences on the topic.
–Talking about one topic after another can become mundane for both you and your students. You can mix things up a little bit by holding a debate. Click here to read about how to hold your ESL debate.
–The internet is your best friend when it comes to finding ESL topics to discuss. You can print out snippets of articles and give them to your students as handouts at the social talk. You can go through the article, teach some new vocabulary words and ask your students questions that make them ‘critically think.’
–If your school has the technological capability, you can consider showing a short movie clip or some pictures from the internet. Catching the students’ interest is key to having a successful social talk.
–Talk about current events in China and around the world. I have walked into a classroom with no topic before and ended up having a great social talk because of a recent interesting piece of news or occurrence.
–Ask your students before class to suggest topics that they would like to discuss. This is a great way to find out what matters to your students.
–Of course, if you are completely out of ideas, you can always find some more on our ESL Conversation Topic on TeachAbroadChina.com page.

Most importanly, try to keep the conversation going. Keep your students on their toes; keep them thinking. And always encourage your students to speak. Create an environment where your students can ‘experiment’ with their English and not be afraid that others will laugh at them. Even after years of participating in social talks, I think that social talks are my favorite types of classes because it is a good chance for me to learn about other cultures and customs.

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