Principles of Effective Conversation Sessions

Goals of a Conversation Session

A conversation session is your weekly opportunity to practice your target language. During a conversation session, you will spend time speaking with a conversation partner who has been trained to facilitate spoken language practice. Speaking practice is designed to help you use the language in conversations and role-plays to mimic real-life situations. You will become most comfortable in the language by speaking it as consistently as possible.

What a Conversation session is NOT

Conversations are a time to speak. Your conversation partner will be able to answer some questions in order to enhance your understanding of the language and improve your speaking ability. However:

• Conversation sessions are not a time to drill grammar, take lots of notes, or study from your book. Conversation partners are not there to “teach” you the language. You should come to every conversation session having already studied on your own and prepared as best you can by using your book and other resources available to you.
• Conversation Partners are trained to leave 5 minutes at the end of each session for questions in English. If you have an urgent question that will prevent you from participating at your fullest, you may ask at the beginning and quickly move into conversation time.

What can you expect from a conversation session?

Every conversation session will look a little different depending on the language and the number of students present, but all sessions include the same components:

• Greeting each other and saying goodbye using culturally appropriate gestures and phrases.
• Conversation sessions involve multiple role-play scenarios. These can be used to practice a variety of topics: a group of vocabulary words, a grammatical concept, or a cultural situation you might encounter. Role-plays help you become comfortable using grammar and vocabulary you might need when navigating life in your target language.
• You and your conversation partner might ask each other questions about your classes, activities, schedules, or opinions. At the intermediate and advanced levels, you and your conversation partner might start to discuss more abstract topics.
• During the semester, you will read or watch, then discuss, videos about important traditions, holidays, or events from the culture you are studying. Discussing these with your conversation partner will enrich your understanding of your target language country.