Meeting Other New Students (Novice)

Practice on Your Own

• Practice words for greetings that are culturally appropriate, time of day, name(s), where do you come from (country, state and town/city), work, academic subjects, adjectives and how to ask questions.
• Read the material available to you on introductions, academic subjects, adjectives and how to ask questions. Practice pronouncing the related terms correctly in the language you are learning.
• Listen to audio examples to practice comprehension and to enrich your vocabulary.
• Review other material that you might need, such as pronouns (masculine and feminine, singular and plural), how to speak about the present (present tense or equivalent structure), etc.
• Imagine that you are having a conversation at a dinner table with other new students. In your conversation ask for their names, where they come from, what they are studying and why they are studying at that school.
• Practice the conversation on your own (and if possible with friends) in the language you are learning. This will help you with your fluency as well as to retain vocabulary.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Warm‐up small talk practice. Be prepared for a warm‐up activity in which you practice greetings, introducing yourself and saying where you are from, what you are studying and why you picked that school. Let your conversation partner and fellow students do the same. Ask them questions in similar ways to how you were practicing on your own.
• Role play the conversation by talking to one individual and then to two or more people who respond individually. In the conversation you will be asking questions and your role pay partner(s) will respond appropriately. Use a greeting that is appropriate for the situation and the time of day (evening).
  • Introduce yourself to one individual, ask your partner their name, where the person is from, what the person is studying and why they chose the school that both of you are at now.
  • Have another conversation in which you are talking to more than one person. (Depending on the number of people in the group, one person may have to play multiple roles.) Make sure you are using the correct form to address multiple people.
• Switch roles and repeat the conversation. This time you switch roles. You will be the one being asked questions by your role play partner. The role plays can be changed and the roles repeated several times according to the number of people in the group. You may make up alternate identities in order to practice giving different answers. These roles plays will help you to be fluent and comfortable when introducing yourself and asking people questions about themselves in the language you are learning.