This study focuses on a highly distinct kind of topic shift, to wit topic transitions, which allow a smooth flux from one topic to another, but do not expressly notify that a shift is occurring. It explores how, in casual conversations with English-speaking peers, non-native English-speaking international students reached consistency in their launched topic transitions, and which strategies or procedures they used, and demonstrates how their launches were succesful in capacitating the introduced topic to be grasped, considered and elaborated. It therefore covers aspects of discourse which have been comparatively under-researched, and where research has also tended to focus on the problems rather than the communicative achievements of non-native speakers. A detailed analysis of the conversations under discussion, which were recorded by the participants themselves, showed that they all flowed smoothly, and this was in large measure due to the ways in which topic shifts were managed. The paper will focus on a very distinct type of topic shift, namely that of topic transitions, which enable a smooth flow from one topic to another, but which do not explicitly signal that a shift is taking place. It will examine how the non-native speakers achieved coherence in the topic transitions which they initiated, which strategies or procedures they employed, and show how their initiations were effective in enabling the proposed topic to be understood, taken up and developed. It therefore adds to our understanding of the interactional achievements of international speakers in informal, social contexts.