What if you have students who start the class by saying: “Let’s just talk.” Everybody has these kinds of students. They are very friendly, chatty, and perfectly happy to spend an hour discussing their recent holiday or some troubles at work. But the moment you pull out structured tasks, they look much less enthusiastic. They don’t want grammar, drills, or anything that feels like what they experienced at school. They want honest communication.
At first, this is a relief for the trainer. Since, after all, speaking practice is valuable, and some trainers love to chat too. But after a few sessions, the downside of this approach starts to show its ugly head. The learner repeats the same errors, avoids new vocabulary, and refuses anything that might push them out of their comfort zone. They get stuck on what some trainers call the B1 plateau. They reach a functional area, but they cannot take the step up. Progress stalls, and the trainer slowly becomes nothing more than a well-paid conversation partner, and in some cases, a therapist. Eventually, HR asks what the learner has achieved, and there’s not much to show, so the course is shut down.
The challenge isn’t that these learners are lazy. It is a combination of factors, for example, bad experiences of pervious drill-orientated training sessions. Often, they’re exhausted after work, worried about practicing grammar because it makes them feel less proficient in the end. They generally believe that fluency comes from talking endlessly. They may have had trainers in the past who simply chatted with them, so they assume that’s what “lessons” are supposed to be. It is what they are used to.
One of the simplest solutions is to keep the conversation element but control it more cleverly. Instead of open chat, you need to steer communication towards possible language upgrades and note down useful emergent language. This could involve saying something like: “say that again using this phrase.” These little interventions act like structure without it looking like grammar. The learner feels relaxed and spontaneous, but you’re quietly shaping the language they use.
So, you let them speak freely, but then slip in small improvements: a better phrase, a cleaner sentence, a more natural collocation. Ask them to immediately repeat it once. This takes ten seconds and feels like part of the conversation, not a correction drill. Over time, these tiny moments add up.
Some trainers avoid correction with talkers because it feels disruptive. They are often taught that correcting when people are talking is bad and should only be done at the end of the task. This can mean that the moment when a meaningful correction can be made is lost. Corrections don’t have to be loud or embarrassing, but just an opportunity to recast something in a better way. They can help the learner improve without breaking their flow. The trainer should not focus on the “mistake” but more on the “upgrade” that will make a learner sound more fluent.
It also helps to anchor the lesson in the situations the learner actually cares about. When you connect structure to functional aspects of their real lives, for instance, a meeting next week, an upcoming presentation, or a difficult colleague, their resistance drops immediately. The learners stop seeing structured work as “pointless grammar stuff” and start seeing it as support for their real lives. A short activity about interrupting politely or softening disagreements suddenly makes sense.
Another way to deal with this is to be honest. A real comment like “Let’s make sure you learn something that will help you at work,” works better than a lecture on learning theory. Give them a choice between two options, both of which include a small amount of structure, and most will choose the slightly more productive one because they want to feel in control.
Eventually, the learner sees results: a new phrase they use confidently, clearer sentences, smoother participation in meetings. These small wins prove the point far better than any explanation. The lesson still feels like a conversation, but a conversation with a real learning outcome.
Working with “let’s just talk” learners doesn’t have to be frustrating. The goal isn’t to drag them into grammar exercises they hate. It’s to embed structure inside a communicative lesson that will help them achieve their work goals and something they enjoy. Once the progress becomes visible, the resistance fades, and the sessions become productive for both sides.
Photo: Chat GPT
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