Conversation clubs

General discussion about learning languages
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Jean-Luc
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Conversation clubs

Postby Jean-Luc » Wed Nov 10, 2021 5:55 pm

Have there been any member-to-member conversation clubs (Skype, Zoom, ...) organized through the forum?
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iguanamon
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Re: Conversation clubs

Postby iguanamon » Wed Nov 10, 2021 6:10 pm

As an idea, I'd be in favor of this. As a practical matter, the forum is dominated by native English-speakers. Native-speakers of languages other than English are much fewer in numbers. Also, some learners here aren't interested in actually speaking the language they study.

I'd like to see something like this succeed, but I fear the practicalities and low numbers of native-speakers of languages other than English would doom it to failure. I am not interested in speaking or conversing in L2 with other L2 speakers.
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tiia
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Re: Conversation clubs

Postby tiia » Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:39 am

There's at least a discord server, where there are some members of this forum (original discussion here), but it's not too active. Cannot remember, that people have actually used the voice channel there, but one could try.

I'm personally not against speaking with other L2 speakers in my L2's, if it's not only beginners. Have done that at language cafes in real life and I'd say it depends a lot on the people (and their respective level of the language).
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Ogrim
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Re: Conversation clubs

Postby Ogrim » Fri Nov 12, 2021 10:11 am

On the old forum HTLAL (How To Learn Any Language) some TAC groups used to organise Skype meetings if I remember correctly (I never took part in any but at least the Russian group held a few online meetings), but that was all L2 speakers meeting to exchange and compare their level to each other. I guess it also had a social function allowing people to "bond" and see the person behind the avatar and the nickname.

For those who weren't on HTLAL, TAC (Total Annihilation Challenge) was a yearly challenge and people organised in groups according to the language(s) they studied. There were no fixed quantitative goals like in the Super Challenge, rather it was all about getting as far as possible in your studies in a year and posting your progress regularly on the forum in your log and in the group thread. It was very popular for some years and created a lot of buzz and activity in November and December, when groups were organised and people stated their goals, but then activity tended to diminish drastically into the spring and people dropped out or simply stopped logging and contributing to the team discussions.

Like iguanamon I am not really interested in conversing with other L2 speakers, but if some people are interested and can find a "language match" then I can't see why they wouldn't be able to suggest this in a forum thread and make the arrangements for meeting up outside of the forum (as some people have done in person by organising a LLORG meet-up, e.g. on the US East Coast).
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Jean-Luc
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Re: Conversation clubs

Postby Jean-Luc » Sun Nov 14, 2021 1:19 pm

If some people are interested, I can suggest this trial format for a meeting in French I can do :

    A native speaker
    Free. The format is different from a paid language learning conversation with a teacher that can be found on the internet. It's not a job!
    5 to 6 people
    One level only A, B or C (for European CECRL)
    Full immersion in French
    Zoom 30 minutes
    Each participant has a preset number and should speak in that order so that the animator has minimal work
    A preset topic like "going to the zoo" that participants could gather vocabulary and sentences before the meeting (do your homework ;)
    The native speaker asks a question and repeat the answer made by a participant in the same or another way as a correction The native speaker is not a teacher (so no total beginner and few explanations). At higher level, each participant can answer and then ask a new question on his own to the next number.
    No pressure for the native animator to organize more. It's up to him or her.
    People have to cope with time zones (no mandatory US zone) but animator should try to propose 2 or 3 time zones in case of more than one session

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