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Sometimes beginner students request “free talk” lessons even though they aren’t able to … talk freely. 😭😭😭 How should we handle lessons like these? What questions should we ask? And how can we best help the student?

Here's some advice from experienced tutors to help make these lessons more enjoyable for you and the student!

Suggest Materials

Luckily, many absolute beginners are open to using materials! As Tutor Jeff C. (🇵🇭) shares, “Many absolute beginners request free-talk lessons because they are new to the service and not familiar with the materials. They tend to appreciate it when you suggest materials.”

However, if we suggest materials too early in the lesson, the student may feel that we are disrespecting their request or are underestimating them.

Instead, we can start a conversation about an easy topic (e.g. hobbies) and then subtly suggest using a basic conversation lesson on that topic (e.g. this lesson on hobbies). For your convenience, here are the topics covered in our new basic conversation course:

However, some students may insist on continuing without materials. In that case, you'll need to continue the conversation.

Ask Beginner-Friendly Questions

Here are some short, easy questions that you can ask:

Notice that the questions are in the simple present tense. For instance, instead of “Why are you learning English?” (present continuous tense), you should say, “Why do you learn English?” This is easier for beginners to understand.

During the Conversation

But what if your student doesn't understand the question?. You’ll need to:

Help them understand you
Help them say something (anything!) in English

1. Help the student to understand you
To make yourself understood, you’ll need to:

Repeat the question
Type it into the chat box
Send them pictures (e.g., pictures of cats and dogs if you’re asking, “Do you have any pets?”)
Use a translation

Don’t feel bad if you need to translate the question. In fact, many experienced tutors said they use Google Translate or Microsoft Translator when tutoring absolute beginners. After all, it’s most important that your student understands you.

We don’t want the following to happen:

2. Help the student to reply
Now, let’s say your student finally understands your question. They may struggle to reply, so you’ll want to:

make some suggestions (“a dog?" ... "a cat?”)
provide a sentence structure (“I have …”)
provide a sample response (“You can say, 'I have a dog.'")

However, don’t be frustrated if the student only gives one-word answers – even after all your patience and encouragement. As a tutor (🇺🇸) put it, “Sometimes it's just ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for the rest of the lesson … I do my best, and that's most important for me.” Give yourself an A for effort, and even if it doesn’t feel like it, know that you’ve helped the student!

📌 Takeaways

To recap, here's our game plan for free-talk lessons with absolute beginners:

Ask if they want to use materials.
If their answer is "no," start asking them beginner-friendly questions.
Help them understand you.
Help them say something (anything!).

And if the student only gives one-word responses, know that you've tried your best! Happy tutoring!