I have a student interested in having just conversation lessons. He studies English grammar and vocabulary independently, but wants to have conversation lessons once a week to improve his listening, conversation skills, and pronunciation. I was wondering if anyone out there could recommend a good conversation coursebook that they've used. I know that some books exist, but have yet to find one that is appropriate. My student is a 40 year old business man, interested in improving his English conversation skills (he is at the intermediate level) in a wide variety of general situations, not just business. I really appreciate it if you could give me some advice! I am really at a loss as to what to do!
Thank you!
Amanda
Conversation Coursebook?
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I don't know about a coursebook but here's an idea to try.
Ask him about his work diary, then exploit that information. For example, if he has a meeting with a customer he can tell you all about it (revision of past tenses). He can give his impressions of the customer, the deal, the product and the place where the meeting was held (revision of vocabulary, etc). Was he satisfied with the outcome of the meeting? If not, what would he have done differently, given the chance? (Conditionals) What exactly did the customer say? (Reported speech) And so on!
You could then change the angle a bit by having the student tell you about the meeting without making eye contact (phone simulation) or he could write a report. Once you know all about the customer, you can do a role play (and change the discussion, of course!)
If he doesn't want to speak about work (a surprising number of so-called business students would rather talk about something else) you can use the same idea to talk about things that happened during the weekend, etc.
Anyway, I hope this gives you a few pointers. Let us know how you get on!
Ask him about his work diary, then exploit that information. For example, if he has a meeting with a customer he can tell you all about it (revision of past tenses). He can give his impressions of the customer, the deal, the product and the place where the meeting was held (revision of vocabulary, etc). Was he satisfied with the outcome of the meeting? If not, what would he have done differently, given the chance? (Conditionals) What exactly did the customer say? (Reported speech) And so on!
You could then change the angle a bit by having the student tell you about the meeting without making eye contact (phone simulation) or he could write a report. Once you know all about the customer, you can do a role play (and change the discussion, of course!)
If he doesn't want to speak about work (a surprising number of so-called business students would rather talk about something else) you can use the same idea to talk about things that happened during the weekend, etc.
Anyway, I hope this gives you a few pointers. Let us know how you get on!