Hey yall,

I am studying in pamplona and am lamenting being an expatriate money vacuum for my parents. I have taught english here before but it was to little kids. Anybody had experience giving conversation classes to adults? Topics? Techniques? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help,

Emily

OK. I don't want to come over all tecnical, but first of all, conversation clases are not just about sitting down and chatting, whether it be about the weather or a relevant newspaper article.
Your students want to learn something. So, by all means, think of a topic, but think it through and decide what vocabulary one would need to discuss this topic. And then expressions for agreeing and disagreeing. Listen to yourself for a few days, and you'll see what I mean. In fact I'll send you my own list. It's more than "I agree" or " I disagree". Shoot them if they say I AM agree.
But it's things like:
Of course, but don't you think ....
Well, I wouldn't go that far...
Up to a point maybe...
Blah Blah Blah
Then choose a topic, brainstorm yourself all the vocab you need to constructively discuss it.
For example if you're going to discuss LOVE this Valentine's Day, make up a list of vocab from your own experience. Listen to yopurself talk about the thing over the next few days. Watch Sex And The City - well maybe not - and make up a handy hand out with phrases like:
I'm really into guys who...
I can't stand girls who..
What really turns me on is...
Fling
One night stand
Unrequited love
I fancy...

And so on.
Give your students a list of provocative statements or proverbs about the subject, put them in pairs and then have them report back to the general group and discuss..
For example:

Love is blind
All men are pigs
Does love at first sight exist?
Would you forgive infidelity?
Men are from Mars... (or Ohio, see MadridMan) and women are from Madrid.

Anyway. Structure every class around one topic, give them the phrases, vocab, and run it like a talk show.

Just remember that your students are paying and they want to leave the class having spoken and having learned a few new turns of phrase, and who knows , equppied to pick up a new boy or girlfriend. Which will make you redundant.

PS Agood book for theme related vocab is
Longman Language Activator
ISBN0 582 04093.0 (paperback)

Good advice Barry. When I started giving lessons I soon learned that you can never be too prepared. Thanks,

em

I taught private english classes in Spain and found that instruction books and newspaper articles (for the more advanced speakers) were invaluable. I did this during the time of the OJ Simpson trial, so a few of my students would read articles about that and that made a good discussion topic. The best topics were ones with which the student was already somewhat familiar. I brought with me a series of English books called Interchange along with a tape set and got heavy use from that. There were so many things in that book that were great conversation starters. I am not creative or spontaneous enough to teach English without lots of materials.

try doing a google search and typing in "teaching ESL" you will come up with a ton of online resources and ideas.

As tonytorero once said to me...often it´s the simplest idea that gets overlooked.

Or something along those lines...sorry Tony..wasn´t recording your exact comment at the time!