A conversation class is a great way to improve one’s speaking skills, especially when taken along side a grammar course because it reinforces the grammar being taught in class. One of the only ways to improve speaking is by speaking more and often; of course practice is important but the grammar is obviously necessary to make the conversation flow. However, not all conversation classes are going to be very instructive, focusing mostly on just talking. Therefore, one might not make much improvement right away. Here is how to make the most out of your conversation class or casual meetup group.

Take notes to look up words and expressions later, and write a sentence with the word.

I know this may sound obvious, but take notes. I know it can be tedious to take notes when trying to have a free-flowing conversation.  However, too often people will ask for a word they need, and only moments later ask for the same word again.  The truth is that you will likely not learn a word on the first go, maybe not even on the second or third.  It will take many times seeing or hearing a word for it to really become part of your repertoire.  Long ago, when I was still a young student, I decided to start underlining words in my dictionary every time I looked them up. I realized, very quickly and to my dismay, that I went back to look up the same word again and again. You may only start to learn new words after reading a book in which that word shows up again and again. This is why you should write them down, look up the word in a dictionary, and create an original sentence with it. Try then to use this sentence in conversation next time. The word needs to become part of your personal vocabulary. Doing this will reinforce its meaning and help with memory.

Look up words and take notes on word families, related expressions and alternate meanings.

Something else you can do after looking up the words you learned during the lesson, is to also take notes on word families (the noun, verb, adjective or adverb forms) to see if there is a difference in spelling, pronunciation or meaning. A word can change a lot by changing forms. Additionally, while there, look to see if there are any idioms or related expressions, collocations (words that go together) or alternate meanings of the word depending on its usage.  This way, instead of learning one new word, you have potentially learned three, four or even more.

Keep a list of subject specific vocabulary.

A great way to conduct a conversation class or group is to do conversations based on one theme or subject. This I something that I like doing instead of having an improvisational conversation. This way all the vocabulary and new expressions that come up are all on one topic. That way you can keep a notebook on vocabulary all around one topic like food, pets, hobbies etc. It makes for easy reference, you can find these words quickly in your notebook. The other benefit to doing this is because you can also prepare in advance for the topic by looking up before the class whatever vocabulary you think you might need.  For example, if topic for the day is hobbies, but you don’t know the word for “stamp collecting” or “horseback riding”, then you can come prepared for this discussion with the words you need.

Listen for the use of grammar challenging to you, like verb tenses and conjugations, articles or preposition use

Conversation class is a great chance to practice the grammar you are learning in class, but with less time for reflection. This helps train your reactions to producing in an instant verb conjugations and tenses, picking the right articles and prepositions, and all these little details. Take note of these details, so that maybe later you can think about why certain verbs, tenses, articles etc were used in that instance and not other ones. Maybe these are questions that you can bring back to your grammar teacher later. I’ve often had students ask me later about things they heard during conversation class like “Why did they use this verb, why this tense, or what does this word that I heard over and over again mean?” Having heard it, noted it and then asked about it later created a lasting memory that stuck with them

Listen for pronunciation and liaison

This is something that you can only get from a good grammar class that encourages lots of speaking practice, or a dedicated conversation class. Liaison is the way words link together in speaking. It can be very difficult to learn to recognize the words individually when hearing them spoken with liaison. This will take lots of practice to learn to distinguish them. Therefore, it is one of the most important aspects of language learning. Any language spoken naturally the way natives speak, including English, will tend to link words, give less emphasis on function words and run together words that are commonly used together. With practice and lots of careful listening you will eventually get accustomed to it.   Liaison is not the only challenge here.  Pronunciation can also cause problems. Sometimes, just the slight distinction between vowels can be the difference between two completely different words. Other times, two words are said exactly the same way, but the context will tell you which word is being used. Therefore, you have to listen very carefully to catch these subtleties to catch the meaning.

All these things, and possibly even more things than that, you can practice during a conversation class to get the most out of the experience.  Let me know in the comments below if I left something out.  I would love to hear your ideas about conversation classes and how you get the most out of them.