English Conversation

Conversational English lessons are designed to improve your English speaking and listening skills.  The main focus is to improve your confidence and fluency when speaking English in a two-way conversation. We do this in various ways, such as:

• Learning idioms, Kiwi slang and common phrasal verbs that are useful in conversations and practising how to use this vocabulary through speaking exercises.

• Speaking role plays that are based on your work situation, social situations you often find yourself in, visiting the doctor or other appointments, and shopping scenarios like buying clothes.

• Improving pronunciation skills. This includes learning the natural rhythm and stress patterns in English; being taught how to make difficult or confusing sounds, for example, R & L or B & V or F & P;  and learning connected speech which is how we join words together and change the sounds of certain words while we are speaking.

• Doing exercises which help you to think in English rather than in your first language to increase spontaneity and naturalness when speaking.

Listening skills often naturally improve along with your speaking fluency. We often focus on real life listening skills by listening to the news and different accents in English. We can also practise telephone conversations which are often particularly difficult, because you can't see the person speaking, and the connection sometimes distorts or interferes with the speaker's voice. We can also practise body and hand gestures which can be an important part of a conversation.   ?