1. Starting & Growing a
Conversation Partner Program
Catherine Clements, Education Specialist,
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
cleme050@umn.edu
2. Today’s Presentation
• Overview of Conversation Programs
• Creating a program
– Different models
• Growing an existing program
• The role of the coordinator
• Results
3. Conversation Partner Programs
Participants learning each
other’s native languages divide
time b/w both languages,
exchanging language and
culture
• Traditional model. There are
variations.
4. Traditional Model
Spanish L1/English L2 paired with
English L1/Spanish L2
• Participants meet, divide time
equally between languages
• Can meet in person or virtually
• Done individually, or as part of
language coursework
6. Consider Your English L2s
• Common L1s (Spanish, French, German)
• Easy to pair with English L1s
• Critical L1s (Arabic, Russian, Korean)
• Increasingly easy to pair
• LCTLs (Somali, Karen, Thai)
• Require creativity but there are options
7. Consider English L2s’ needs
• Do they need English for work?
School? Everyday?
– Determines who they should be paired
with & what to expect from program.
• Pair like with like – students should be
paired with students
• Do they have jobs/dependents?
– Free time is crucial
8. Considering L2s’ needs
• What are their resources?
– Cars/transportation, $$$, computer access
• Determine where and how to meet partners, what sorts of
activities to plan
• How long have they been in the country?
– Length of residency may determine comfort level,
confidence meeting new people
9. Where to Find English L1s
• Students
• Community members
– Heritage learners
– Retirees
– Other altruistic groups (church groups)
11. Consider your English L2s
• More options for EFL vs ESL in terms of
pairing, for virtually any language
– Commonly-taught languages
• Face-to-face
• Telecollaboration
– LCTLs
• Face-to-face
• (Some) telecollaboration
12. Other needs to consider
• English L2’s needs
– Where will they use English?
• Work or school
– Other needs, same as ESL
• Technological resources in
your country
– If pursuing telecollaboration
14. Language Exchange (Traditional)
• Contact language instructors of local schools
– If enough English L2s from 1 background to pair
w/whole class
• e.g., Chinese L1s with an English L1/Chinese L2 class
• Must have plan for your students not from the L1
• Logistics
– Students meet certain # of times per semester
– Students discuss topics related to FL coursework
15. Non-Language Exchange
• Contact instructors of non-language classes
– TEFL students
–“Globalization” classes
• Increasingly common in college, some high schools
– International business/MBA students
• Partnership/“badge” for hours of interaction
– Not tutoring, just interaction
16. Motivating Teachers
Intercultural exchanges facilitate larger goals:
– Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) (Byram,
Council of Europe,1997)
– 5Cs of the World-Readiness Standards (1996, 2015)
– Translingual/Transcultural Competencies (MLA, 2007)
– Global Competency (ACTFL, 2014)
17. Motivating Students
• ICC is très hot
– Doesn’t grow sitting in class surrounded w/other
L1s!
• Efficient language learning
– Exchanges accelerate in-class learning
• Learn culture, not language
– FL is a bad investment
19. Language Exchange (Traditional)
• Face-to-face
– Expat groups
– Study Abroad students from English L1 schools
• Telecollaboration
– E-mail language teachers overseas
• If you have monolingual students
• Online courses: the gold mine
– Join Unicollaboration (uni-collaboration.eu)
• Post a course/search complementary courses
20. Non-Language Exchange
• Face-to-face
– Local TEFL students
• Telecollaboration
– Globalization course in foreign country
• e.g., “ Language and Society in Korea”
– TEFL students overseas at school w/o
large international population
• Community colleges
22. Pairing: Go Digital
• Required fields:
– Name, contact information
– Free time each week
– Hobbies/major
– Partner preferences
• Your age/10 years of your age/any age
• Male, female, don’t care
– … but beware of male seeking female
– # of partners (OK if you share a partner?)
27. Pairing Logistics
• Priority: available free time
• Be aware of cultural norms
– Alternative partnerships can
reduce awkwardness
• 2 on 2 instead of 1 on 1
• Send e-mail to both/all
partners
– Tell them arrange meeting, or
– Inform them when they will meet
28. Coach on Cultural Norms
After pairing, coach participants re:
• Cultural sensitivity
– Ideas about time/punctuality, topics of
conversation, personal distance, etc.
– Gender roles, especially touching
• Communication
– Americans’ texting/emailing practices confuse
many
29. Have Events. Lots of Them.
• Host multiple open-
enrollment events
where participants
meet, use
language/intercultural
skills
– These grow the
program
• Low (or no) cost, low
stress, high impact
• Have food. Always.
30. Communicate With Participants
• Old school
– Flyers
– E-mail
– Office hours
• New school
– FB/Social Media
– Message boards
– Listservs
31. Communicate, cont’d
• Check in regularly with participants
– If partners are meeting, ask how it’s going
– If not, ask why, and how you can help
– Get involved sooner rather than later
• Send “care packages” via e-mail
– Suggest local resources, ideas for places to
meet, multilingual conversation resources
33. Think About Sustainability
• “Open enrollment,” not rolling enrollment
– Program works best if NOT continuously pairing
– Constant pairing drains coordinator
• Promote a variety of communication methods
– Face-to-face is great, but requires much coordination
– Encourage FB/e-mail/Skype in lieu of F2F
• Create anonymous Skype/e-mail accounts for
participants concerned about privacy
– GoldyGopher1, GoldyGopher2
34. Become a Student-Run Group
• Shed exclusivity
– Be known as a language and
culture group
• Not “the ESL Group”
– Try not to be housed in
1 department
• Create a multicultural community
35. Create Partnerships on Campus
• Build bridges with language departments,
especially critical/growing languages
– Arabic-English
– Chinese-English
– Korean-English
– Portuguese-English
– TEFL-English
36. The Coordinator’s Role
• Your role: create & facilitate language use
opportunities
– Conversation partners are awkward relationships
• Introverts & those shy about L2 skills find it
challenging
– People will drop out, have imperfect
experiences. There will be great successes too.
37. Does it Work?
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1993 1998 Fall 2010 Fall 2011 Fall 2014
TandemPlus Enrollment
38. Does It Work?
After the first arranged chats, we started
communicating via WhatsApp, so we could
communicate whenever we felt like it. We're now
friends on Facebook, and we follow each other on
Instagram … This exchange has been such an
incredible opportunity for me. It has enabled me to
learn about the Spanish culture in a personal and
engaging way, it has definitely helped me improve
my Spanish, and I've made a friend in the
process. —English L1/Spanish L2 virtual
exchange
39.
40. References
• Byram, M. (2008). From foreign language education to education
for intercultural citizenship. NY: Multilingual Matters.
• Byram, M. (2014). Twenty-five years on - from cultural studies to
intercultural citizenship. Language, Culture and Curriculum (27),
p. 209-225.
• Deardorff, D. K. (ed.). (2009). The SAGE Handbook of
Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.
• Lidicott, A. J. & Scarino, A. (2013) Intercultural language teaching
and learning. Wiley-Blackwell Publishers.
• Moeller, A., & Osborne, S. (2014). A Pragmatist perspective on
building intercultural competency: from theory to classroom
practice. Foreign Language Annals (47), p. 669-683.
• All images from the Noun Project (thenounproject.com)
