What Is A Conversation Class?

What Is A Conversation Class?

Publikováno: 17. 4. 2021 Autor: Krisstynaa B.

What Is A Conversation Class?

Do you ever go to a pub with your friends and you’re like:

‘So, today we’re gonna talk about our families, yeah? We’re gonna prepare all of the vocabulary and phrases in advance and we’re gonna prepare like 5 minute speech, and at the end of the night we’re gonna ask each other some questions. And yeah, we will be using only present perfect. And also, here is an article we should read together.’

Nope.

You go there and you never know what is going to happen.

On your mind you might have something important that you want to share with your mates, but sometimes you don’t even have the time to talk about it because you get so engaged in conversations about something else. And you jump from one grammatical tense to another, you talk about what happened to you in the past and how much it has affected you, how you are feeling at the moment and what you are going to do in the future.


And I don’t really see why English Conversation Classes should be any different.


From a certain level, it is necessary to start talking about anything and everything, being able to react and join any kind of conversation.


And that is the moment you actually lose your fear of speaking, you start to think in English, you are capable of speaking spontaneously, and you become fluent and more confident.


I’ve experienced loads of ‘Conversation Courses’ which essentially meant just

• translating sentences that the teacher created

• reading articles that I was not interested in

• playing games that didn’t involve any speaking or we were speaking only in Czech

• doing listening exercise that we couldn’t possibly understand

• the teacher was telling us stories and basically did all of the talking

• the teacher was going around the class and was asking all of the students just one question and we had to answer it one by one

And during the entire class I ended up saying like two sentences which were obviously not correct as I was terrified of opening my mouth, and I felt horrible and stupid after every lessons.


What is not a conversation:

• Reading a written conversation out loud

• Reading an article out loud

• Learning something by heart and then reciting it

• Listening to some audio and repeating it

• Singing

• Watching videos

• Translating sentences

• Doing grammatical exercise

And the list goes on…

These activities are like a soft and comfy blanket, they keep you comfortable and you do not have to step out of your comfort zone at all. Just because by doing them you essentially do not have to have any conversation and you do not have to express your thoughts in English at all.

Quite honestly, you can do them by yourself before the lesson and you do not have to pay a teacher to do that with you.


Yes, they are necessary.

Yes, you have to do them at some point.

Yes, you cannot learn English without them.


But when you already know the basics, and you kind of know how English works, it is crucial to start working on your conversational skills.


So, what the bloody hell actually is a conversation?

Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people.

It means that one person is speaking, you are listening to them, you create a thought, a feeling, an opinion, or an idea, and then you verbally react, and the other person then reacts to what you have just said, and that goes on ,and on, and on, and on…

Nothing else.


:)


Kriss xxx