12 Tips for Teaching Conversational English Like a Pro

More and more TEFL/TESOL educators teach conversational English as demand continues to grow for classes focused on speaking and fluency. But what exactly does it mean to start teaching English conversation? Are these classes solely focused on free talk? In reality, many teachers who want to know how to teach spoken English quickly discover that effective conversation classes need clear goals, useful prompts, responsive feedback, and plenty of student talking time. They are just like any other type of ESL/EFL class, and they also require perhaps a greater degree of adaptability and “thinking on your feet” than other types of classes.

This article takes a closer look at what goes into English conversation classes, where you can find these types of TEFL/TESOL jobs, and some strategies to help your classes run smoothly.

If you’re new to teaching, you’ll want to get initial training and qualification with a TEFL certificate. You can explore our online TEFL courses to get started!

What is conversational English?

At its core, this type of lesson involves teaching through the art of conversational English. You will spend the majority of the lesson, if not the entire lesson, having a dialogue with your student.

TEFL conversation lessons focus almost solely on speaking skills. Additionally, many conversational English teachers tend to prioritize fluency over accuracy (i.e., the goal is for the student to be understood, not for them to have perfect grammar), but some students might ask their instructor to pay special attention to accuracy and grammatical errors as well. It really just depends on the individual student’s goals, which you should learn about when conducting your initial student needs assessment.

Ultimately, conversational English lessons give students the chance to use the language they already know in more natural, practical ways. They may look informal on the surface, but effective conversation classes still depend on clear goals, responsive teaching, and thoughtful support from the instructor.

What types of students take conversational English classes?

All types of students take conversational English classes. Since the primary objective of English conversation classes is to help students practice for real-world conversations they might encounter and to become more confident in their speaking abilities, this type of class is useful for students with a myriad of goals and backgrounds.

For example, you might teach teens who want to practice their ability to orally respond to English questions in order to prepare for an upcoming English proficiency exam. If you have experience teaching teenagers but ask yourself how to teach spoken English to adults, you should start by considering their previous learning experiences, as many adults who learned English years ago simply want to practice informally in order to hold on to their language skills or improve pronunciation.

While you will occasionally find group classes, when choosing this TEFL niche for your practice, the vast majority of opportunities will focus on teaching English conversation to students one-on-one. You’ll also notice that most students have some experience with the English language, as absolute beginners rarely seek out conversation classes because they wouldn’t have the basic vocabulary they’d need to sustain a conversation.

It’s also far more likely that you’ll be teaching teens or adults, as a very young learner might find it difficult to sit and converse for an hour or more at a time because of their attention span.

Because students come to conversational English classes with different goals, teachers need to adapt each lesson to the learner’s context, level, and interests. The common thread is simple: students want more confidence and fluency in conversational English when speaking English in real-life situations (academic, professional, social, or personal).

Check out these speaking activities you can use to help students improve their English.

What skills do you need for teaching conversational English?

In addition to all of the general English teaching skills (like lesson planning, familiarity with different ELT methodologies, etc.) you acquire in your TEFL certification course, conversational English teachers need to have some additional qualities. Teachers who search for how to teach English speaking need more than a list of conversation topics; they need to build rapport, manage speaking time, listen actively, and give feedback that helps learners communicate more clearly. They are expected to have:

• People Skills – Speaking is perhaps one of the skills that intimidates students the most when they learn a new language. To encourage students to speak up, you’ll need to make them feel at ease when talking to you. Pay special attention to building rapport with your students and creating an environment in which they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and speaking (and making English mistakes).
• Conversational Skills – To improve your students’ English speaking skills through conversation, you need to excel as a conversationalist. This means you need to actively listen, convey your ideas clearly, speak at an agreeable speed, have strong pronunciation skills, show comprehension, and check the listener’s understanding. It also means that you intuitively understand the ebb and flow of a good conversation and know when and how to seamlessly shift topics.
• Nonverbal Communication Skills – A lot of communication occurs nonverbally, and whether you teach conversational English online or in person, you’ll need to convey information through posture, gestures, facial expressions, and other nonverbal cues. This is especially important when you listen to your students speak and help them feel confident while doing so.
• Improvisation Skills – You never know exactly where a conversation might take you, and even if you have planned a list of topics to discuss during an hour-long class, you don’t know what your student will say about each one or where the conversation will naturally veer on its own. Conversational English teachers need to be especially good at thinking on their feet and adapting when conversations take turns they weren’t expecting.

These skills help teachers create conversation lessons that feel natural without becoming unfocused. When teachers build rapport, listen carefully, adapt in the moment, and support students with clear feedback, conversational English classes become both useful and engaging.

Where can I teach conversational English online?

ELT marketplaces

Online English teaching marketplaces, like Preply, are platforms on which teachers can list their services and set their own fees in order to attract students to take their classes. In exchange for bringing students to the platform and handling all financial transactions, the marketplace takes a cut of teachers’ earnings.

ESL conversation classes are so popular that some marketplaces will even provide short articles or other resources to help spark conversations between tutors and students. Some platforms also have features that allow students to call a tutor instantly rather than schedule a session, so teachers can be on standby or “active” for spontaneous conversations.

Learn strategies that help you stand out on online ELT marketplaces.

Private tutoring

A lot of English teachers who start their own tutoring business end up teaching conversational English online at some point. These types of lessons are just so popular that you’ll come across a lot of students who are looking for them, whether it’s to improve their pronunciation, boost their speaking confidence, expand their vocabulary, or something else entirely.

Teachers who start teaching English conversation classes offer learners a way to improve their speaking skills in a relaxed, fun setting, and their shorter duration usually makes them easier to schedule (typically, they are 30 minutes to an hour long), so it’s no surprise that these classes attract so many different types of students.

Whether you choose an online marketplace or build your own private tutoring business, conversational English can be a flexible and in-demand teaching niche. The format gives teachers room to personalize lessons, work with different types of learners, and create speaking-focused classes that meet practical communication goals.

Interested in becoming an independent teacher? Take a look at Bridge’s Teacherpreneur Academy and learn how to start your teaching business from scratch.

What are some tips for teaching English conversation?

1. Prepare a list of discussion topics ahead of time

When it comes down to how to teach English conversation, preparing your list of topics ahead of time is one of the most important things you can do. The idea isn’t to talk about everything on your list in one class or even to stick exclusively to your chosen topics. Rather, the purpose of a list is to give you a conversation starting point and plenty of topics you can pull out of your back pocket if and when the conversation lags. You can discuss many interesting topics in an ESL/EFL class, as you can incorporate everything from hobbies to news to art – literally, anything!

You can use this list of discussion questions to get started.

2. Be comfortable with silence

During any English conversation class, there will be times of silence. Many teachers find this uncomfortable at first and feel the need to fill the silence or prompt an answer from their student. Remember that your student is not only trying to come up with an answer to a topic or question they were spontaneously asked about (i.e., they didn’t have access to your topic list ahead of time), but they are also translating into another language. Don’t jump in right away – give them plenty of time to formulate their thoughts and then construct the English phrases needed to convey those thoughts.

Explore ways to reduce your teacher talking time (TTT).

3. Prioritize student talking time (STT)

In all classes, but especially in a conversation class, teachers should allow plenty of student talking time (STT) and reduce teacher talking time (TTT). The whole point of a conversation class is to allow the student to practice speaking English, so be mindful of how much talking you’re doing.

In many ways, the simplest answer to how to teach English speaking is to create more space for learners to speak, test language on their own, pause, reformulate, and try again. The student should always be speaking more than you.

4. Ask open-ended questions

Open-ended questions are a great way to get students to speak in more complex sentences and offer more information than they would if asked a question with a straightforward answer or a yes/no response. Open-ended questions also allow new topics to come up naturally. For example, if you ask your student, “If you could have your dream job, what would you be doing?” it might just lead down a rabbit hole of discussing a certain industry, hobby, or passion. In particular, opinions and experiences provide ample opportunities for open-ended questions.

Need to get learners speaking at the beginning of the lesson? Check out these icebreakers for learners of every age.

5. Evaluate your own speech

Like in any English class, you’ll need to pay special attention to your register (how formally you speak, the level of vocabulary you incorporate, the syntax you choose, etc.) and your speaking speed. You’ll want to speak naturally, so your student can practice English conversation in a realistic setting, but you should also be mindful of the learner’s English level. You want them to improve their English, not feel lost in the conversation!

Explore methods for teaching meaningful vocabulary that learners will use in class.

6. Take notes

Taking notes will help you immensely when it comes to error correction, as there are times when you won’t want to correct your student while they are still speaking. Instead, you can refer back to your notes as you’re wrapping up a certain topic or at the end of the class to let a student know what they need to work on grammatically or to clarify a misused vocabulary word.

If you are teaching a specific student regularly (i.e., teaching them more than just once), then taking notes is especially vital so you don’t repeat the same topics in the next ESL conversation class. It can get quite tricky to remember who has already discussed what when you have many students taking conversation classes in a given week.

7. Use a whiteboard or other visual aid

Though teaching English conversation doesn’t involve a lot of writing, you should still be able to show a student what a newly learned word looks like and how it’s spelled. Having a visual is especially nice for helping students with their pronunciation, as you can help them sound out the word. Make sure that you have a physical or digital whiteboard, or at the very least, a chatbox, at your disposal.

Take a Micro-credential course in Teaching English Pronunciation to learn how to help your students speak more clearly – and more confidently.

8. Don’t be afraid to incorporate TEFL activities

Just because you are teaching conversational English doesn’t mean you can’t plan fun activities for your classes! Here are just a few ideas to consider:

• Role-plays work particularly well for conversation classes. You could have your student pretend to be in an interview with you, or you could have them practice calling to set up a bank account or make a hotel reservation. Role-plays still count as conversations!
• You can use a topic generator like this one from ConversationStarters.com and take turns asking each other questions using the topics provided.
• You could make the conversation a game by printing out or typing up a list of questions that correspond to certain numbers and rolling the dice to see which corresponding question your student has to answer.
• You can incorporate timed activities and have students speak about either a serious or a funny topic for a set amount of time.

There are endless possibilities for making conversations more fun.

Go through this list of digital tools for online English teachers and find the best tool for your needs.

9. Assign homework

Homework is a great way to have students come prepared to discuss a certain topic in the next class. For example, you can have them read a specific article and be ready to discuss it with you. Or you can ask them to listen to an episode of a podcast of their choosing and have them come to class and summarize it for you.

Another effective answer to how to teach spoken English to adults is to give learners meaningful input at the end of the lesson, so they think about it at home and arrive with ideas, vocabulary, and opinions ready to use in the next class. These are great, authentic ways to spark conversation and also get students practicing English outside of class time.

10. Set a clear communication goal for each lesson

Conversation classes can feel relaxed, but they should still have a clear purpose. Before each class, decide what the student should be able to do by the end of the lesson, such as describe an experience, express an opinion, agree and disagree politely, tell a story, or explain a work-related problem. This gives the lesson structure without making it feel rigid. It also helps students notice their progress, especially when the class focuses mainly on speaking rather than completing written exercises.

Learn how to use lesson objectives in your ESL lesson planning.

11. Recycle useful language from previous conversations

Students often use a new phrase once and then forget it, so make time to bring useful language back into future lessons. You can revisit expressions, corrections, vocabulary, pronunciation points, or sentence frames that came up naturally in earlier conversations. This helps students move language from recognition to active use. It also makes each conversation class feel connected to the previous one, rather than a separate speaking practice session with no clear thread of development.

12. Be flexible

Teaching conversational English requires flexibility, as you never know where a conversation will lead. It’s best to let the discussion flow naturally and lean into whatever topics your student seems to be interested in. The more excited they are about a subject, the more likely they are to speak up in class. And, while conversation classes are slightly looser in structure than some traditional types of English classes, their spontaneous nature is partly why they can be so much fun to teach.

Teaching conversational English involves much more than just free talk. It requires preparation, structure, strong people skills, and the ability to adapt when a conversation takes an unexpected turn. Teachers need to guide the lesson without controlling every word, support students without interrupting every mistake, and create the kind of environment where learners feel comfortable enough to speak, experiment, and improve.

With the right balance of preparation and flexibility, conversational English classes can help students speak more confidently and use English more naturally in real situations. These lessons can also be deeply rewarding for teachers, as they create space to learn more about students as individuals while helping them make visible progress on their English language journey.

Ready to teach conversational English and much more? Check out Bridge’s 120-Hour Master TEFL Certificate and learn methodlogies, lesson planning and everything you need to become a certified global teracher.