One of the most nerve-wracking parts about starting at Cambly (and other English tutoring websites) is not really knowing what to expect. A conversation with a person you’ve never met? What should we talk about? Is this really going to help someone learn English?

While there are a lot of students who genuinely just want to have a chat, there are just as many students who don’t know what to talk about, are nervous, or who aren’t at a level to just have a fluent conversation, so here are some tips for when you’re first starting out on Cambly and what to talk about with your students.

This guide is for teachers but can be used by students too!

1. Basic Conversation Questions

Some tutors are naturally good chatters and if you’re one of those, awesome, but often tutors wind up asking their students the same old tired questions. It’s fine to start off with “Where are you from? What’s your job? Why are you learning English?” But if you want to break away from that routine (and many students do), then look up some more interesting conversation questions.

Lucky for you we’ve got a colossal list of questions you can ask your students on our ESL discussion page. Try asking your students about vacations, parties, and their personalities. Even elementary students will appreciate a bit of a break from the norm.

2. Advanced Conversation Questions

What about for some of those more advanced students who’ve already talked about everything under the sun? I recommend hunting around online for some more advanced conversation topics for those students. Try talking about pollution, motivation, or education.

We’ve even got a list of especially fun and unusual questions on Oscar Lessons. Try our post here that includes interior design and superstition among other topics.

3. News Articles

For students who need a bit more guidance, try reading an article together and then having a discussion about it.

Remember that when you’re reading the article to focus on three areas of English at once: vocabulary, comprehension, and pronunciation. For the vocabulary words students don’t know, explain it to them as simply as you can, then have them make sentences using the words or ask them questions about the words. For pronunciation, don’t harp on it. Correct them quickly and move on. For comprehension, for some students you’ll have to read the article in pieces and ask them questions after every few paragraphs. Other students will understand almost everything and you can just ask a few questions at the end. You’ll probably have to get good at making up comprehension questions on the spot!

Then have a discussion. Keep the feedback coming, but most importantly, let your students talk. That’s why they paid for the course after all.

The king of articles for EFL learners is Engoo, which already includes comprehension and discussion questions. There is also Breaking News English with articles that tend to be easier and shorter, so you can pick a low-level article for some elementary students. Finally, the BBC is one of the best places for advanced students.

4. Cambly Courseware

Cambly itself also has some courseware which students can sign up for. Always keep in mind that this courseware is only a guide. If you want to skip a page, do it. If the student is obviously bored, ask them if they want to change to the next lesson. There is some great material in the courseware, but it’s only a guide. Don’t feel compelled to follow it verbatim.

5. Using podcasts 

If you assign a podcast to your student to do as homework, then the following class you can have a conversation about it. Lucky for you, we’ve got some podcasts with comprehension and discussion questions already up on our website. 

In the Listening section of Oscar Lessons there is a selection of podcasts with comprehension questions and vocabulary included.

One lesson that a lot of advanced students love is an NPR lesson all about tattoos and we have vocabulary and questions on our website.

6. Have students prepare a short speech 

If you want, you can tell your students to prepare a short speech about a topic. This is especially good for students with low-confidence or who are at a more elementary level. Good speech topics for lower-level students are “My Family,” “What I did on the Weekend,” or “All About My Job.” Assign the speech preparation before class so students are ready for the lesson.

7. Notes on Feedback

There are two main ways to do feedback. You can correct students at the moment they make a mistake; however, unless the student is advanced, I find that too much of this type of correction results in a lot of interruptions and loss of fluency. Try instead using the Cambly chat feature to just write down your corrections, then when there is a natural pause in the conversation or at the end of class, go over the corrections with the students. You can use the chat feature to review all of the corrections at the end of the lesson if you have five minutes left.

8. IELTS, FCE, TOEFL, etc.

For EFL tests, it’s up to you whether you want to teach these students or not. My rule of thumb is whether or not I’m familiar with the test, and whether or not I can teach it with minimal prep work. For example, if a student has a PDF that he or she can share with me and we can work on it together, then I have no problem teaching the material. Also, in general I don’t mind practicing speaking materials for IELTS or FCE. We have lots of material for these two tests on our site, and they can be done during a half-hour Cambly lesson. 

Here’s some FCE questions about the Part 2 Speaking sections that’s good for a Cambly lesson. 

And here’s some IELTS questions that are good for a Cambly lesson.

I don’t typically teach TOEFL on Cambly. It requires far too much hunting around for materials and even after finding the materials, it requires too much reading and listening to be comfortably done during class, in my opinion.

If you want to turn a student down, then go for it. Suggest they find another tutor and don’t feel bad! Not every student and tutor is going to match perfectly.

9. Grammar Lessons

Sometimes students want to practice grammar. I’ve been an English teacher for a long time and am pretty confident making up some questions on the spot for present perfect or comparatives and superlatives. I also have a mental list of a lot of activities that can be done with a lot of different grammar topics. 

However, if you are new to the game, then I recommend telling that student to sign up for some Cambly courseware, so you don’t have to prepare anything on the spot. 

Engoo also has some great grammar material available.

10. Special Requests

Students have all kinds of requests. Some are easy, like helping a student prepare for an interview or correcting a student’s pronunciation while they read you material from their work. Some are hard, like a recent student I had who requested that I make her 10 lesson plans of exactly what we were going to do to bring her from elementary to intermediate.

Whether you take these requests or not is entirely up to you! If I can do them easily, I do. If I can’t, then I turn them down gently.

But what do students really want to do?

About half of my students genuinely just want to have a conversation. I feel like I’ve become friends with them even though I still correct their grammar and pronunciation.

I also have quite a few students who want to just have a conversation but need guidance. For those students I use discussion questions, podcasts, and articles.

The final few students are working on IELTS or something specific like job interview practice.

But no matter what you’re teaching on Cambly, remember to keep a good attitude and have fun with it! It’s a great side-gig and you can meet some awesome people on the other side of the world.

I hope these tips helped you out. If you’re a student and just starting out on Cambly, have fun! And if you’re a tutor, good luck! You’ll do great.

But wait!

What about homework?

Some Cambly students want homework.

What should you do if your students want homework? I personally think that homework can really enhance a class, but keep in mind that you won’t be getting paid for any outside grading, so try to make the homework beneficial for the student without taking up loads of your time. Good homework assignments include…

1. Podcast and Questions – As discussed above, if you assign a podcast to your student, then the following class you can have a conversation about it. Lucky for you, we’ve got some podcasts with comprehension and discussion questions already up on our website. Try this fun intermediate podcast about whales.
2. An article to read before class – Assign an article to read before class. You can have your student give you a summary of the article during the class and then have a discussion about it.
3. A short writing assignment – Writing assignments are tricky. You don’t want to get stuck reading a ten-page essay. I recommend assigning very short essays. My limit is typically 150 or 250 words (the length of an IELTS essay). Then you can share your screen during class and edit the essay together with your student, so you’re not doing unpaid work outside of class. Also, editing writing together helps students recognize and remember their mistakes.
4. Have students prepare a short speech – As mentioned above, if you want, you can tell your students to prepare a short speech about a topic. This is especially good for students with low-confidence or who are at a more elementary level.
5. Online grammar quizzes – This is a great way to give your students some extra grammar practice. There are plenty of websites with online grammar practice, but I’m partial to these quizzes from English Club.

Check out some more speaking lessons by clicking here!