CONVERSATION PARTNER REFLECTION 1

Reflection on being a Conversation Partner

Shuting Shen

Colorado State University

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Overview of participation with Conversation Partners

In Fall 2018, I volunteered as a Conversation Partner at INTO CSU every

Tuesday from Sep. 4 to Oct. 9 in Alder Hall 104, and was there a total of one hour

from 10:10 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. I was involved with the class 110-001 which had

fourteen students, seven females and seven males. However, all the students were

from Saudi Arabia except for one student from Taiwan. Students were level 1 which

is the beginning level. For me, part of this experience was to meet new friends from

different cultures and share our ideas with each other. When I saw the students once a

week, they told me exciting stories about themselves, their families, friends and their

home country. Also, it provided me an opportunity to develop as a foreign language

teacher. I could observe the language uses of English learners from different

countries which helped me to understand the learner’s language development. I could

also learn some teaching techniques from the teacher.

Each week, the teacher divided the students into small groups of three or four for

conversation partners. Each conversation partner had 10 minutes to discuss with the

small group. Once the 10 minutes was up, the conversation partner needed to change

to a different group of learners. The 10-minute exchange was so each student in this

class could interact with all conversation partners. Moreover, the teacher listed the

tasks that we needed to do during the class and informed us by email in advance. For

example, on my first day as a conversation partner, I received a list of questions for

students to ask me, for example, “where are you from?” and “why are you a

conversation partner?” As a conversation partner, I also helped the learners with their
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current class tasks.

In the classroom environment, which encouraged interaction and risk-taking,

students quickly learned to communicate effectively with each other. However,

outside of the classroom, students reported that they didn’t know how to approach an

English-speaking neighbor, how to start a conversation or how to respond when

someone would address them in English. Some of the students reported their

interactions with friends and acquaintances outside of the classroom are usually in

their native language. To help students to better understand the language and the local

people, interactions within English class and outside of it could be in English. As a

conversation partner, in the process of chatting with them, some students said that

they were ready to communicate more with native English speakers, but at the same

time, they did not know how to contact more native English speakers to practice their

listening and speaking abilities.

In the first lesson, our topic of discussion was for me to introduce myself and

explain why I was a conversation partner. There were four conversation partners in

this class, consisting of two native speakers and two Chinese speakers. Since this

was the first time I was a conversation partner, I felt very nervous and did not know

how to start communicating with them. At the same time, the teacher helped us get

started by introducing us to the students and divided the four conversation partners

into four groups. We were with each group for ten minutes and then moved to new

groups. In each group in turn, I introduced myself and explained that I came to be

conversation partner because I hoped to contact more friends from other countries
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and exercise my speaking ability in English. But when it was the student’s turn to

ask me a question, I discovered a serious problem. When some students expressed

something, I couldn’t understand them clearly. Even though they were speaking

English, I couldn’t understand them and thought they were speaking their native

language. However, through their slow repetition, we communicated with each other

smoothly. Time passed quickly. After introducing myself and sharing the reasons for

conversation partner with four groups of students, the one-hour conversation was

over. The students and teacher thanked us and said they looked forward to the next

conversation time.

In the second lesson, we discussed the topic of careers, including “do you have

any work experience?”, “what do you want to do in the future?” and “Why did you

choose this job?” As a conversation partner, I shared my ideas and experiences with

these students. Also, these students shared their thoughts about careers. For example,

Ali, who came from Saudi Arabia, studied as a pilot in his own country and came to

the United States to study languages. He hoped to still become a pilot in the future.

Furthermore, another student was a math teacher in Saudi Arabia before coming

to the United States. Although they sometimes didn’t know how to express

themselves, they tried their best to use the simplest words and sentence structure to

help me to understand what they wanted to convey. As I became familiar with the

students in this class, I was less nervous when communicating with them.

In the third lesson, we helped the students practice their 3-minute presentations

because they were going to have a speaking test. The teacher asked the conversation
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partners to comment on the presentations’ time, student’s pronunciation and

anything that was unclear to us. Besides, the teacher let us ask these students

questions as needed about where to include more details. For me, I used the timer

function of the mobile phone to help students count down to three minutes so that

they could better manage time in the presentation. Since this was their first

presentation, many students felt nervous and worried about their performance,

pronunciation and so on. They let me give them some suggestions on how to ease

their nervousness and not forget the content of their presentations. Of course, I told

the students that they could practice the presentation with classmates or friends

before the exam and ask the friends to count down to three minutes for them. At the

end of their presentation practice, they could ask classmates or friends to provide

some suggestions for improvement.

In the fourth lesson, the topic was social etiquette culture in different countries. I

thought it was an exciting topic because there were many differences between Saudi

Arabian culture and Chinese culture. Students were also very active in sharing the

practices of their culture. For example, in Saudi Arabian culture, men and women

are not allowed to go on dates alone. Even married people who go to concerts sit in

separate seating areas. Men sit in the men’s area, women sit in the women’s area,

and then they can communicate through Facetime.

I had observed that they habitually communicated with each other in their native

language. Especially when they didn’t know how to express themselves or had

doubts, they would usually ask for help from their peers. At this time, I would
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remind them to communicate in English and ask them if they had any problems. If

there were still some unclear points, we would solve them by writing them down on

paper. In this class, I interacted with students a lot. I also gained a lot of new

knowledge.

In the fifth lesson, the teacher had each conversation partner lead a group, and

each group was given an English idiom for students to study in class. Moreover,

students needed to use this idiom to write a story with a conversation partner and

each group had to perform in front of the class to have other students guess which

idiom this was. I was in a group with two Saudi girls, and our idiom was “hit the

hay" that refers to "go to bed or go to sleep." We expressed this word idiom in a

conversational way, and the students quickly guessed which idiom it was. This

activity was very interesting and provided an excellent opportunity for students to

interact with the conversation partners. After the idiom presentations, we switched

groups, and I talked with the students about any topics that interested me.

In the sixth lesson, the teacher listed some questions about “fat tax” on the board

and asked students to take notes when they discussed with conversation partners.

Before we discussed it, the teacher played a short video that introduced the fat tax. A

“fat tax” is a specific tax placed on foods which are considered to be unhealthy and

contribute to obesity. The tax could be placed on foods high in sugar or fat, such as

crisps, chocolate, Coke, etc. After our discussion, we all thought that the obesity tax

had both advantages and disadvantages. For example, one of the advantages was tax

on unhealthy foods would encourage people to choose healthier foods which could
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lead to improved health and might help reduce related disease. During this activity, I

noticed that some of the students didn’t use the letter order of some words very well

when taking notes, and sometimes they forgot to use punctuation in a full sentence.

But when I reminded them, they soon corrected these problems. I believe they will

fix these problems through continuous practice.

In the final lesson, the teacher and students had a thank-you party for all of the

conversation partners. The students prepared a lot of delicious food, as well as many

homemade Saudi Arabian food, such as specialty coffee and cake. In this last class,

we were free to communicate with the students without any specific topic. We also

took pictures with some students together. Although we didn’t spend much time

together, we felt like friends. It was an exceptional experience for me.

My thoughts on participating in Conversation Partners

I think partnerships give learners an opportunity to both receive and produce

comprehensible input. Having students participate in a partnership also provided

several benefits for the teacher. It offered an authentic way to bring new concepts

into the classroom. Even students who were not participating in partnerships gained

access to a wider range of vocabulary and discussions. The cultural knowledge they

gained through those discussions may increase opportunities to interact with others.

Conversation partnerships can provide access to cultural knowledge and interactions

with a native speaker while providing conversation partners a chance to improve

their communication skills, learn about another culture, and deepen their

understanding of diverse cultures.

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However, I think the most challenging thing for me was the difficulty in

communicating with the students from Saudi Arabia. When we were talking, we had

to repeat “sorry” or “can you repeat it again” many times to communicate

successfully. English may be different from country to country, so those students

spoke English with an accent that was hard for me to understand. Just like in China,

we speak English with different accents in the north and south of China. For

instance, when we say “to do something," there is a difference in the pronunciation

of “to."

Also, I made a lot of new friends through the conversation partner program. I was

especially friends with the student from Taiwan whose name was Peijie. In class, it

was easy to find her at a glance. Not only because she looks Asian, but also, she

looks older than other students. Indeed, she is a mother of two. She came here to

learn the language so that she could study with her daughter at CSU university.

Although she is several decades older than me, we have become friends. I think the

age difference is not important. We became friends, which was hard for me to

imagine before I came to America. In China, it is difficult to meet students of

different ages. Basically, I was normally surrounded by students of similar ages. If I

hadn’t taken part in the conversation partner program at INTO CSU, I wouldn’t have

met this valuable friend. This was one of the most valuable experiences for me in

this conversation partner volunteer activity. I hope to keep in touch with her in the

future.

Not only did I help these students with their English, but I also got a lot of help.
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My native language is Chinese, and I am not a native speaker of English. Although

I’m a TESL/TEFL major, I’m not confident in my communication skills, especially

when speaking English to people from other countries. After several conversations

with INTO students, I felt that I had changed because I communicate with others

bravely in English. I’m willing to try to interact with them, even if it’s a little scary

at times. What’s more, by becoming a conversation partner, I learned a lot of useful

teaching skills from the teacher. This could be helpful for me to improve my

teaching skills after returning to China.