Online conversation courses for confident speaking in daily life and travel

A conversation course trains speaking in conversations. It largely assumes grammar and vocabulary and only refreshes them where they are missing in a conversation. You speak much more in one lesson than in a general language course, which practises all skills equally.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is the Council of Europe's scale with six levels from A1 to C2. It divides speaking into two activities. In spoken interaction you talk with others and respond to them, for example in small talk or when making a complaint. In spoken production you speak on your own, for example when you describe your holiday. A good conversation course practises both.

Two goals pull against each other. Fluency means speaking without long pauses. Accuracy means using grammar and words correctly. Learners who are new to conversation need fluency first, because pauses end a conversation sooner than small mistakes do.

Since 2020 a CEFR Companion Volume also describes online interaction, meaning conversations by video, chat and voice message. An online conversation course practises this kind of communication along the way.

Many conversation courses start at level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the European scale with six levels from A1 to C2. At A2 you can talk about familiar topics and answer simple questions. Below that level, most learners lack the words for a free conversation.

Speaking courses also exist at A1. They are usually called travel or crash courses and practise fixed sentences for hotels, restaurants and stations. A free conversation on an open topic is not yet the goal at A1.

If you are unsure of your level, the Council of Europe's self-assessment grid helps. It describes in plain sentences what you should be able to do when speaking at each level.

The formats differ mainly in how many minutes you speak yourself and how precise the feedback is.

A tutor is a teacher who works with you individually. A language tandem is an exchange between two people who are each learning the other's language. You might speak Spanish for 30 minutes and English for 30 minutes and help each other. An AI conversation partner is a program that replies by voice or text and marks mistakes.

Clubs and tandems are free because someone else benefits

In a tandem you pay with your own native language. Free conversation clubs run by language schools often serve to attract new customers for paid courses. Both are a useful extra, but neither replaces a teacher who knows your typical mistakes.

The Council of Europe rewrote the pronunciation descriptors of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in 2020. The old 2001 scale suggested that progress meant sounding more and more like a native speaker. The new scale puts intelligibility at the centre, because research shows it matters more for communication than accent.

The new scale has three parts. Overall phonological control describes how easily people understand you. Sound articulation covers individual sounds such as the Spanish rolled r or the French u. Prosody covers stress, rhythm and intonation, in other words the music of the language.

4 exercises that work well online

1. Minimal pairs: you practise word pairs that differ in one sound only, such as pero and perro in Spanish.
2. Shadowing: you speak along with a recording at the same time, about one syllable behind. This trains rhythm and intonation.
3. Record and compare: you record yourself and compare the recording with the original.
4. Speech recognition: apps with speech recognition show whether a program has understood your word. That is a rough but quick test of intelligibility.

Many conversation courses organise their lessons by situation instead of by grammar. Six areas of life come up in almost every course for daily life and travel.

A travel crash course practises the most important of these situations in the few weeks before you leave. It works with fixed phrases that you learn as a whole, without taking every form apart grammatically. Teachers call these fixed phrases chunks. Asking for the bill is a typical chunk that you recall as one complete sentence.

Many adults understand a language well and still fall silent as soon as they have to speak. Fear of mistakes and of other people's judgement often holds them back more than missing knowledge. This anxiety can be reduced step by step.

1 Start with private lessons

In a private lesson only the teacher is listening, and many learners speak more freely there than in front of a group.

2 Prepare topics

Write down three to five sentences on the topic before the lesson. Prepared sentences give you a safe way in.

3 Learn chunks for gaps

Chunks are fixed phrases that you recall as a whole. Phrases such as 'How do you say ...?' or 'Just a moment, let me think' carry you over gaps in your vocabulary.

4 Use the camera deliberately

Some learners find it helps to hide their own video preview in the first lessons, so they do not watch themselves speaking.

5 Treat mistakes as material

Every mistake shows the teacher what you should practise next. A teacher who corrects patiently takes the weight out of mistakes.

Speaking anxiety rarely disappears in a week. After a few weeks of regular speaking lessons, most learners find it noticeably easier to start a conversation.

A teacher in a conversation course has to judge when to correct. Interrupting too often makes you lose your thread. Never correcting lets mistakes settle in.

A recast works like this. In a Spanish class you say: Ayer voy al cine. The teacher replies: Ah, ¿ayer fuiste al cine? You hear the correct past tense without the conversation stopping.

Speaking needs frequent practice above all. Three short sessions a week keep words active in your memory, while a single long lesson fades quickly. A plan for people in work can look like this.

• Monday: a 30-minute private lesson on a prepared topic.
• Wednesday: 45 minutes in a small group or an open conversation club.
• Friday: a 30-minute private lesson that targets the week's mistakes.
• Every day: 10 minutes of shadowing, meaning speaking along with a recording at the same time.

On days without lessons, an AI conversation partner, meaning a program that replies by voice or text, helps you actively use the words from your last lesson. If you want to save money, replace one of the private lessons with a language tandem, an exchange with someone who is learning your native language.

These six questions show whether a conversation course gives you enough speaking time and useful feedback.

1. What is the maximum group size, and roughly how many minutes do you speak per lesson?
2. Does the provider state a minimum level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), such as A2?
3. Does the teacher prepare topics and chunks, meaning fixed phrases for the conversation, or does it run without a plan?
4. How and when does the teacher correct you, and do you get your mistakes in writing?
5. Is there pronunciation training with feedback on sounds, stress and intonation?
6. Can you help choose topics, such as travel, work or hobbies?

A course in which the teacher does most of the talking does not serve your goal. In a trial lesson, notice who talks how much.

1 Starting without the basics

If you join a free conversation group below level A2, you search for words constantly and lose motivation. A2 is the second of six levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

2 Always talking about the same topics

If you discuss hobbies and the weather every week, you learn no new words. Move deliberately to topics that you still find hard.

3 Not following up on corrections

A correction only works once you use the correct form yourself several times. Go back over your noted mistakes in the next lesson.

4 Practising only with an AI partner

An AI conversation partner, a program based on artificial intelligence, answers patiently but reacts differently from a person. You only learn to handle interruptions, accents and quick replies in conversation with people.

5 Neglecting pronunciation

A large vocabulary helps little if others cannot understand your words. Ten minutes of pronunciation work per lesson often makes a clear difference.