Language Learning Centre – Conversation Club 11/22

We had 9 students join us for our conversation club this week. They were mostly intermediate students. The topic was on shopping and gift giving. I started off by greeting students as they came in and going over the outline while waiting for other students. I asked the students whether they preferred shopping online or in stores and had them elaborate on their answers. They did very well in talking about what they liked about either shopping online or in stores in their responses. Next, we talked about which holidays they give gifts for and whether they gift money in their culture.

In the breakout rooms we had good discussion going as usual. All of the students said that they didn’t like it when someone greets them and offers help when shopping and were able to give detailed explanations. We talked about who they shop for during Christmas and other holidays or occasions and whether they liked shopping for gifts. They enjoyed the activity of trying to find people who shop at the same store as them and though it took a while, at the end I got them asking and discussing with each other without my help.

Overall the pace of the lesson was good and I’m glad we had a few people volunteer answers this time as they get more and more comfortable sharing their ideas in this format, and I’d like to incorporate some of the feedback including aiming for less dependence on us so our lessons can gravitate toward more student-led conversations and typing in shared notes some of the mistakes we hear as a form of assessment and to help with language proficiency.