6 Tips to Launch a Successful English Speaking Club
The best way to get really good at speaking English is – no surprise here – to speak it. After all, that’s what Skype conversation classes are all about – offering you a chance to converse with a native speaker on a regular basis and get pointers on improving your English speaking skills. But there are other ways to practice, even if no one in your home or workplace speaks English as well. Starting a English Conversation Club with other English speakers is a great idea and easily done.
Here are six tips to get your English Conversation Club started:
Invite people whose skill levels are similar
It’s fine if some people are a bit more fluent than others, but an English Conversation Club composed of half beginners and half intermediate speakers can easily become a group tutoring session rather than a conversation. If you’re all at the same rough level, you can progress together.
Post a notice at your library branch, community center, or on a Facebook group or other message board, looking for people to join. Be sure to specify the level of knowledge that you’re looking for.
Have a portable reference library
If all of you have the same native language, try to get hold of a large English-native language dictionary (i.e. English-Spanish or English-Ukrainian) that comes to the English Conversation Club each week so that you can all look up words when you don’t know them in English.
If you have different native languages, smaller pocket dictionaries for each language should be enough. An English thesaurus and a basic grammar book are also great tools to have on hand to check for rules and other ways to say something.
Build a giant list of topics, then choose three at the start of the meeting
At your English Conversation Club’s first meeting, spend the first 30 minutes coming up with a bunch of conversation topics and writing them down on slips of paper. Put them in a bag or box that someone will be in charge of keeping safe and bringing to each meeting. Every time you meet, draw three topics out of the bag and use them to spark your conversations. If you meet for an hour that’s three 20-minute discussions, which should fly by once everyone gets a chance to speak.
Assign a moderator each meeting to keep you on task and topic
With half a dozen or more people in a room together, it’s easy for things to get off-topic, side conversations to start up, or people who speak the same native language to slide into it. The moderator should change every week so one person doesn’t always have to be the “bad guy.” Make a list with everyone’s name on it and just rotate through people.
Have English or American-themed snacks
What would a English Conversation Club meeting be without something to munch on? It’s important to have a little something to eat to keep your brain cells active. You can ask the moderator to also be the bringer of snacks each week, which keeps the same person from bringing food over and over, especially if they are hosting the club in their home. Why not have a little fun and keep the snacks English or American themed?
If you’re not in an English-speaking country, see if you can find a store that sells foods from those countries. If not, look up recipes online for typical American snacks like apple pie or chocolate chip cookies, or British ones like flapjacks and shortbreads. If your club’s host location has a kitchen, you could even devote one week a month to baking or cooking a snack together and discussing the steps you are taking as you do it.
Take field trips
If you’re not in an English-speaking country, you can go see an English-language movie (try to ignore the subtitles and listen to the dialogue), visit an English bookstore or shop, and talk about what you see there.
If you are in a country where English is spoken, you can do those same things, or you could go to the grocery store and talk about foods and cooking; visit a museum and talk about the exhibits; or a botanical garden or zoo to discuss plants and animals.
Bonus tip: Try to meet at the same place each week
It’s easier for people to remember and plan for. If it’s not possible, you can rotate meeting at the homes of club members, but if your local library or community centre has meeting rooms, let them know what you’re using it for and they may be able to let you use a small space for free or fairly cheap.
By using these tips to start your own English Conversation Club, you’ll be giving yourself and others more opportunities to practice, learn, and grow as an English speaker.
