Creative Conversation Practice for Homeschool Foreign Language

Here’s Something I Learned the Hard Way….

Do you know the importance of conversation practice for foreign language learning?

Let me share a little bit about how I learned it for myself.

Many Augusts ago, I was an eager college freshman, thrilled to arrive on campus and begin my new life as a Very Serious French Major. I had studied French for four years in high school, was a member of the French Honor Society (I mean, the Societé Honoraire de Français) and had even chosen to live in the French-only dorm on campus. My then-boyfriend (now husband) and I had a plan: we’d both major in French and study abroad in Paris during our junior year, then graduate and get married. Très romantique.

During that first week of school, I strode into the French Placement Exam with confidence. The writing potion didn’t seem too hard and reading was a breeze. I stumbled with some of the oral questions, but surely, I thought, I’d still place into literature classes.

Two days later, I reported to the French Department to receive my course placement: French 101. When I protested, the chair of the department cooly informed me, “I’m sorry, but your speaking skills just weren’t good enough.”

Well….(somewhat) out of spite, I decided to major in Spanish instead, and the rest is history. But, no one should suffer this fate!

It is not worth studying a foreign language for four years only to have to start again from the beginning. That’s why conversation practice is necessary—especially for homeschoolers.

I’ve written elsewhere on the blog about how to learn a foreign language with young children, but today, I want to share some creative ways that older students can get the conversation practice that they need to really master a foreign language—or, at the very least, pass the placement test.

How to Spare Your Kids My Grief

If your child isn’t getting enough conversation practice with his homeschool foreign language curriculum or through his weekly co-op class, you might consider enlisting some technological tools to make it happen.

Today’s online schools and apps provide so many different ways to practice a new language. You can sign up for sessions with an online tutor, take a class from a homeschool academy, or even practice through an app. But here are some additional ways—ones you might not have thought about—to find your homeschool high schoolers the conversation practice that they need:

First, choose a curriculum with built-in conversation practice. It’s not just online homeschool academies that offer this. Breaking the Barrier has recently partnered with Time2Talk to offer on-demand conversation practice to its Spanish students. The pre-screened conversation coaches are available experienced native speakers who are familiar with Breaking the Barrier’s excellent curriculum (I’ve shared my positive review of Breaking the Barrier before). Here’s a sneak peek if you’d like to see what this looks like in practice:

As an alternative (or even better, in addition!), start a “story club” or a “podcast club” with other homeschool students. In real-life, the best conversations tend to happen around shared interests and experiences. Why not use that to your advantage? For literary-minded kids, I love the Easy Reader series from McGraw Hill, which include short stories (and their audio versions), along with comprehension and discussion questions. For those who are more interested in non-fiction or want to develop new vocabulary around a particular interest, they might enjoy one of my favorite language learning podcasts. The group could pick an episode to listen to together, then be responsible for asking the others 1-2 questions about it. Mature high schoolers could run this group on their own, meeting on Zoom or outside of class time (and a two-person group would work just as well).

By the way, although both of these options use technology, you’ll note that they also have something else in common: human beings! “Conversation practice” with AI doesn’t really work—at least, not yet—and that’s why I very rarely hear of homeschool families having success with purely computer-based programs.

And If Your Child Doesn’t Mind Trying Something A Little Silly…

But what if those don’t work for you?

Well, there’s one more option. It might sound a little bit zany, but in an informal poll that I did with my polyglot friends, we all confessed to doing this.

What was this embarrassing strategy for language learning? Self-talk.

I now know that self-talk is actually an incredibly effective strategy for language learning, but back in college, I just thought that it was just a convenient way to review new vocabulary and phrases while I was walking around campus. I would replay conversation scenarios in my head—like ordering food in a restaurant—and try to play out the different ways that that conversation could unfold. Sometimes, I did this silently, and sometimes I did it under my breath to practice my pronunciation. And every time, I was adding to my own fluency and ability with the language.

If your high schooler is willing, she should give it a try! Most high school language textbooks have some conversation prompts. Why not do those independently? By playing both participants in the conversation, your teen will get twice the practice! Obviously, the potential downside here is making errors (and not being able to correct them), so your student should start with scenarios and vocabulary that she already feels fairly comfortable with.

In Conclusion

Homeschoolers do need to think through how to fit conversation practice into their language learning—but today’s technology makes it easy to find an option for every family. What are your family’s favorite ways to get conversation practice? What challenges have you found with it?