Teacher Discussion Forums

I have a new student who is after an intense month of English, meaning up to 10 lessons a week . To save time, we've agreed to do a number of lessons over the phone, as he largely wants to improve his speaking. I've never taught over the phone and was wondering if anybody had some sterling ideas as to topics/structure of lessons...
Thanks!

I would find some things to discuss but first provide some stimulus. Here is a few interesting facts I found online. I would read one to him, or possibly give them to him ahead of time, go through each one with him and see if any discussion comes out of it.

1.Identical twins do not have identical fingerprints.
2.The earth is .02 degrees hotter during a full moon.
3.If you’re typical, you can guess someone’s sex with 95% accuracy just by smelling their breath.
4.The creator of the NIKE Swoosh symbol was paid only $35 for the design.
5.Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from producing tears.
6.When you walk down a steep hill, the pressure on your knees is equal to three times your body weight.
7.If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
8.Fifteen people are known to have been crushed to death tilting vending machines towards them in the hope of a free can of soda.
9.The most common time for a bank robbery is Friday, between 9 and 11 a.m. The least likely time is Wednesday, between 3 and 6 p.m.(in the US)
10.Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.
11.The banana tree cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.
12.Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team his sophomore year.
13.Cats cannot taste sweet things.

Other ideas...... find a simple article to read to him or simple story. I take aesop fables and rewrite them in simpler language or language a Spanish speaker is more likely to understand. There are hundreds available online. However, it helps imensly to be able to read the story or article as it is being read outloud by you. So if you could give him a copy of it ahead of time...

I think the key to successful converstations, ones that are not artificial feeling, too contrived, is to provide good stimulus: news; stories; questions that ask about the person to get to know them; things that spark curiosity or interest such as intersting ads, posters, art, hobbies. Since this is an audio converstaion, it would have to rely on less visual stimulation except that which you can provide ahead of time to give points of discussion. So that means using things like I mentioned above, articles, facts, news. I am constantly trying to think of new kinds material so if anyone has more ideas?

Great stuff! I'm going to start with some of these ideas tomorrow.