Structuring an Effective One-on-One English B’Yachad Session
With no structured curriculum, we’re often asked, how do I structure a session with my English B’Yachad student? What makes for a great English B’Yachad session?
This blog and the attached presentation provide strategies and suggestions for structuring an English B’Yachad session.
Our answer - what creates an effective session is that you are creating conversations with purpose. Helping a learner communicate a little more comfortably and confidently than they did before.
Because every English B’Yachad learner has different goals, interests, experiences, and levels of English, the most effective sessions begin with your mentee.
Start with your learner
Before planning your next session, channel what you know about the person you're mentoring.
Ask yourself:
What does my learner need English for?
What are their interests and strengths?
Which situations are challenging for them?
What can they already do comfortably?
What would they like to do better?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions or haven’t asked for some time, you might use them to delve deeper to help your English B’Yachad partner articulate what he or she wants to get out of your sessions together.
The answer might involve professional goals such as participating in meetings, giving presentations, preparing for an interview, or communicating more comfortably at work.
Or your mentee may want to focus on everyday life—talking about family, traveling, discussing the news.
A simple structure can make planning a session easier
You don't need to reinvent every session. A repeatable structure can give you a framework while still leaving plenty of room for conversation, creativity and spontaneity.
The EBY five-part framework is designed for a 50-minute session:
1. Warm Up & Connect — 5 minutesStart with the learner's week, experiences, or interests. This builds rapport and gets the conversation going.
2. Introduce a Topic & Vocabulary — 10 minutesChoose a topic that matters to the learner and introduce 5–8 useful words or expressions.
3. Practice the Language — 10 minutesUse questions, short readings, listening activities, examples, or sentence-building to practice.
4. Conversation & Application — 15 minutesPut the new language to work through a realistic conversation or role-play.
5. Review & Next Steps — 10 minutesReview the new vocabulary, recognize the learner's progress, and agree on one small practice activity.
This structure is meant to serve as a frame, a suggestion - not as an inflexible box.
Adjust the structure to fit your learner and the conversation.
The underlying goal: Get your learner talking
One of the most important things a mentor can do is talk less and create more opportunities for the learner to talk.
Open-ended questions encourage learners to explain, describe, compare, tell stories, give opinions, and ask questions.
And when you want to keep the conversation going, there's one wonderfully simple follow-up:
“Can you tell me more?”
The presentation's example of a conversation about weekend activities shows how one open-ended question can naturally lead to longer answers, new vocabulary, and a richer conversation.
Teach and Use Vocabulary in Context
Vocabulary becomes much more useful when learners can immediately connect it to their own lives.
For example, if you're talking about workplace communication, you might introduce words and expressions such as:
deadline
clarify
concern
suggest
follow up
But don't stop with definitions.
Ask the learner to explain the meaning, create a sentence, use the expression in conversation, and say it aloud.
The goal isn't simply to know a new English word. It's to be able to use it.
Communication first, perfection later
For many English learners, speaking can feel vulnerable. Constant correction can make a learner hesitant to take risks—and taking risks is essential to becoming a more confident speaker.
Instead of interrupting every mistake, look for ways to correct naturally.
Another strategy is to make a note of recurring errors and review them later rather than interrupting the conversation repeatedly. Focus particularly on errors that affect understanding or represent recurring patterns.
End with a sense of accomplishment
The last few minutes of a session are an opportunity to reinforce progress and help the learner look ahead.
Try asking:
What new words or expressions did you learn?
What was most interesting or useful today?
What would you like to talk about next time?
Then, if appropriate, suggest one small practice activity—perhaps reading a short article, listening to a podcast, learning five new expressions, preparing to share a personal experience, or bringing a question or topic to the next session.
Most importantly, end with encouragement.
Your learner should leave the session thinking, “I can do this.”
