[livinginkorea]

Hi meggy,

For conversational lessons when I started out I used to pick an article from Yahoo, always an interesting one (I think it's Odd News or something like that) and copied that into Word. I then edited it out depending on the level of the class and underlined certain words that I would want them to learn in the class. Of course you could always get a topical talking book where your class can have discussions in the class but it helped me a lot when I started off to pick my own articles and edit them. My class was an intermediate class so they couldn't just read an article and talk about it, I had to ask them questions and give them time to form their own opinions in their head. After doing this a few times I got a real feel for it and really enjoyed doing them.

It's just an idea that you might want to try. Also you can set your students into pairs and assign them some questions which they can answer together. Proved a good hit in my earlier classes (before I had books )

Best of luck and let us know how you get on

[meggy]

Hi and thanks for the good advice. Im going to give it a go, in my next class, its great, when people help share their teaching experiences. I shall certainly let you know cheers.

[Whistleblower]

Well this reply maybe slightly late, but better late than never. I use News articles in my conversation classes. This helps students to understand the world around them in English.

Furthermore, I also use Speaking Extra, which is a great resource book for groups of students. You cannot use it for individual students though. However, when you look at the contents of the book it helps you plan what to teach during the week. Please see below a list of the contents for some ideas for your conversation classes:



1 Personal Information:
1.1 What about you?
1.2 Life experience
1.3 Spy Catcher

2 The family:
2.1 She's got her dad's eyes
2.2 Family tensions
2.3 Family values

3 Daily activities:
3.1 Whose Saturday?
3.2 Are you in touch with your body clock?
3.3 Beyond the routine

4 Homes:
4.1 House doctor
4.2 A perfect home
4.3 A messy home means a messy mind

5 Town and country:
5.1 A nice neighbourhood
5.2 Then and now
5.3 A business proposition

6 Travel and tourism:
6.1 Hotels
6.2 Traveller's tales
6.3 Life's an adventure!

7 Food and drink:
7.1 Recipes
7.2 Menu, please
7.3 Food for thought

8 Describing people:
8.1 Lost!
8.2 Who's who?
8.3 Star quality

9 Describing things:
9.1 Can you describe it?
9.2 Lost property
9.3 In your mind's eye

10 Friends and relationships:
10.1 What kind of friend are you?
10.2 Moral dilemmas
10.3 What are friends for?

11 Health and fitness:
11.1 Well-being
11.2 Healthy, wealthy and wise
11.3 First Aid

12 Leisure time:
12.1 What's on?
12.2 Focus on leisure
12.3 Leisure centre

13 Education:
13.1 Learning to learn
13.2 The best years of your life
13.3 A preparation for life

14 The world of work:
14.1 Why work?
14.2 The right person for the job
14.3 Great perks!

15 Money:
15.1 Sale or exchange
15.2 Common currency
15.3It's all about image

16 Past experiences and stories:
16.1 Really?
16.2 Interruptions
16.3 Small ads

17 Science and technology:
17.1 Gizmos and gadgets
17.2 It'll never happen
17.3 It will change our lives

18 Social and environmental issues:
18.1 How green are you?
18.2 Pressure group
18.3 Keeping an open mind

---

Also click here for some sample material with the textbook.

I hope the titles gets you thinking about how you could plan for your lesson and topics to introduce to the conversational classes.