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Click here. -- Link closed, but feel free to email questions to sbanke@pcc.edu

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Volunteer tutors meet 30 minutes/week with 1-2 of my adult ESOL students at a time on Zoom outside of class for conversation.  The ESOL students sign up for a regular time slot, and the volunteers set up the Zoom meet & contact the students with the link.  (See the example schedule below.) The ESOL classroom instructor provides materials for the volunteer tutors & students to discuss and debriefs weekly with the tutors  to discuss what went well and to troubleshoot what didn't.

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Copy of Spring term 2021 conversation appointment schedule (Example for ORTESOL 2021 Spring Institute).pdf

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1st -- Contact the volunteer coordinator

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1st -- Contact the volunteer coordinator

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Prior to the start of the term, I touch base with the instructor of the capstone class at PSU to request a few students to work as conversation tutors in my class.  The PSU students who sign up to work with me know the time commitment and the general "job description" -- meet with 1-2 students for conversation at 30-minute intervals on the given evening.

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At the start of every term, I meet with each of my students to ensure they have the information they need to participate in class on Zoom.  During this beginning-of-term conference, I ask them if they have time on non-class days to meet with a conversation tutor for 30 minutes once a week. as well as which email they would prefer the tutors to use to send them the Zoom link for their conversation appointment.

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After they've signed up to work in my class, I get in touch with the PSU students to brief them on the project and ensure they know what is expected. Note -- it's best to meet with your tutors together, rather than individually, both to save time and so that they can learn from each other. I try to get an idea of their experience working with non-native speakers, their own language learning backgrounds, their interests, and so on. I give them general information about my class and students -- demographics, language backgrounds, educational backgrounds, etc. so they know what to expect. Additionally, depending on their prior tutoring experience & experience with non-native speakers, I give them some guidance on speaking speed, use of idiomatic expressions, and if/when/how to correct errors.

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4th -- Introduce the conversation tutors to the class

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4th -- Introduce the conversation tutors to the class

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At the end of the first week of class or early in the second week, I have the tutors visit my class to introduce themselves. This is key to make the conversation activity concrete and more personal.  If the tutors cannot make it to a class meeting, they can make a short video note introducing themselves, which can then be played for the class.

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On the same day when the tutors introduce themselves, or at least prior to the first evening of conversation appointments, I talk to my students & fill in the conversation appointment schedule.  I share the appointment schedule with the tutors and post it on your Learner Management System (at PCC, D2L) for my students to refer to.

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6th -- Using Zoom for the conversation appointments

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6th -- Using Zoom for the conversation appointments

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Up to this point, my conversation tutors have been PSU students with access to their own institutional Zoom account.  With this they set up their weekly meets and share the links with the students.  It has worked best when the conversation tutors schedule one recurring Zoom meeting, say 6:00 - 9:00 p.m., and then have their tutees click on the link at their appointment time.
If your volunteers do not have their own institutional Zoom account, you can set up the meets, make them co-hosts, and share the link with them.

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7th -- Regular confirmation / reminder emails

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7th -- Regular confirmation / reminder emails

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I ask my tutors to send weekly confirmation emails to their assigned students to remind them of their conversation appointment and the link, with a cc to me.  It is helpful to give the tutors a template or example email to use and adapt. The confirmation emails also serve as a way for my students to contact their tutor if they cannot make their appointment.

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Every week, I send the tutors conversation questions or other materials for them to use during the appointments, if they wish.  I haven't been too concerned if they always use the questions or if they go off-script; the point of the conversation appointments is to practice English & conversation strategies.  That said, I do advise the tutors to use their own best judgment when it comes to sensitive topics.
Also every week, I debrief with the tutors to answer questions, troubleshoot, and monitor who of my students is making it to their conversation appointments so I can follow up.

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By and large, this process has worked well since our classes have been meeting remotely due to COVID. A real advantage to a more conventional use of classroom tutors is that my students get more focused and extended conversation practice with a proficient English speaker than can be afforded them in class. Additionally, the regular communication they have with their tutors, both in their appointments and if they need to reschedule, gives my students more agency in their language learning. The model also gives the volunteers more independence and responsibility in the tutoring process, as well as more contact with language learners than they would have with an in-person, synchronous model. For both of these reasons, I would like to continue with this conversation appointment activity even after we are back to in-person classroom instruction.