"It Sure Has Been Cold Lately"

Yesterday at one of the coffee shops I use as an "office," the owner/server started making small talk about the weather. (It was cool and drizzly.) As an ESL tutor, these seemingly inconsequential conversations are not wasted on me.

"Small talk" is one of the frequent areas of concern for many of my ESL students working as professionals in the U.S. Native English-speakers take this for granted. No big deal. But for English language learners, small talk can be a challenge.

Appropriate topics for small talk, how much small talk to make, when is it appropriate. All these are concerns for my ESL students.

So when the coffee shop owner from Morocco started talking about the weather, it did not go unnoticed by me!

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ESL Tutoring and the Economy

A large part of my ESL tutoring is devoted to job interview preparation, as well as resume and cover letter writing. My students who are studying for their MBAs have been notably more concerned over these past few weeks.

A regular topic of conversation these days (usually small talk) is the devaluation of the currency of my students' home countries.

Our economic downturn is definitely reaching far.

I don't see that private ESL tutoring is taking a hit, yet. Students still visit from other countries and still want to take advantage of learning English while they are here in the U.S.

We'll see how long ESL tutoring holds out as a recession-proof industry.

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"Small Talks" and ESL Learners

One of the most common errors I hear my adult ESL students make is referring to small talk as "small talks," with an "s". Small talk never takes an "s" at the end. It's already a plural (compound) noun.

This is probably the easiest thing that I can offer my ESL students about small talk. I can also offer some basic topics for small talk (weather, traffic, food, sports, etc.). For more advanced ESL learners, the topic can get a little more complicated.

After English language learners master the simple small talk topics, they often want to go beyond the basics. I feel that this is often where cultural differences and even political correctness can come into play.

Thanks to my previous lengthy work and life experiences, helping students to maneuver the topic of small talk through these more complex pathways is one of the things that I feel I'm able to offer my students.

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Teaching Small Talk to ESL Students

I've mentioned before that some of my advanced ESL students have asked me about making "small talk." Most want to learn about it so that they can use it at work, especially. Every now and then, I take it upon myself to bring up the issue to my students even if they haven't asked me about it.

I always greet my students with the typical, "How are you?" Every now and then, I get a student who gives a very long answer. Well, as most Americans (and others) know, this question is really a form of greeting. The typical response should be something like, "Fine, thank you. And you?"

This doesn't necessarily mean that Americans are insincere. It's just that the initial "How are you?" should be thought of more as a traditional greeting, rather then a real request for information, or even genuine concern. We may follow up with a more genuine question like, "How are you, really?" if we are closer to the person.

If my ESL students aren't aware of this social skill, then they may turn off others when they are really trying to be polite and genuine. So I think it's a useful thing to teach.

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Talking about Small Talk

Many of my advanced ESL students ask me about "small talk." Small talk is the short conversations we have with other people when we first see them or first meet them. Small talk topics include the weather, sports, and traffic. Sometimes "chit chat" is also considered small talk.

The purpose of small talk is to break the ice and for people to get comfortable talking to one another. Sometimes it's just a cultural norm that people take part in.

Many of my students make the mistake of saying "small talks." It's always just "small talk," without an "s." The verb to use is "make." For example, "It's often common for people meeting each other for the first time to make small talk."

It seems like a fairly simple thing for native English speakers to do, but making small talk is one of the topics that ESL teachers should teach their ESL students so that they can feel more comfortable with their English speaking skills.

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Toastmasters for ESL Speakers

When my private ESL students tell me that they want to improve their speaking skills, I always ask how they use their speaking skills and/or how they plan to use their speaking skills in the future.

Some ESL students just want to improve their general English speaking skills. Some want to work on making small talk. And many want to improve their presentation skills. They want to feel comfortable making presentations on the job or in the classroom.

For my ESL students who want to improve their speaking and presentation skills, I always recommend Toastmasters. It's a great organization and not very expensive. There are meetings all over the place. All an ESL student has to do to find local meetings is Google "Toastmasters meetings" and their location. I encourage students to try more than one meeting, as they are all a little different. They do all follow the same basic format, but some might be large, some small, and just have different "personalities."

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