English Conversation Practice

Welcome to the English Conversation Practice Section of Bill’s Site!

I’ve set this page up as an information space to explain the latest offering of Bill’s World-Class English Classes: free English conversation practice with fellow BWCEC students! Note that, while these extra sessions are indeed free, they are solely held with other students of mine on a one-on-one basis and will not be attended by your tutor Bill (I’ll merely coordinate the matching of my students, provide conversation topics beforehand, handle the inevitable issues that arise, etc.). The only requirements are that you attend regular weekly lessons with me booked via Preply, and also that you’re committed to being responsible and showing up for the conversation practice sessions at the time that you’ve agreed to with the other student.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Email me back if that you’d like to sign up, if you received my announcement or another email (you’re also welcome to contact me out of the blue if you found this page on your own).

  2. Tell me which languages you speak and how well you speak them (e.g. I myself am a native user of English and a B1 user of German). The idea here is that I don’t want to match students who share a common language other than English, because we’re all inevitably tempted to fall back on other means of communication, including other languages, when we’re unable to get our point across in the language we’re trying to learn.

  3. I will then do my best to match you with at least one other student of mine who’s made the same commitment (while, again, not sharing any languages with you other than your target language of English), and I’ll provide each of you with the other’s email address while also sharing a short list of suggested conversation topics (generally non-controversial).

  4. I’ll leave it to you to arrange the frequency and timing of the practice sessions directly with your partner, but I would just suggest that you keep the sessions to 30, 45 or 60 minutes (and no more)

English Conversation Partners List (As of 9/30)

Possible suggested conversation starters for one partner to ask the other to start things off (as of 9/30 and suggestions welcome!):

  1. Halloween is becoming more and more popular around the globe. Is it celebrated in your country, and, if so, how?

  2. The United Nations Human Development Index is a nifty tool for comparing the ability of member states to help their citizens achieve their full potential as individual human beings. Is the HDI accurate, and/or are there other things to measure?