Popular ESL Conversation Topics for English Practice

This activity for adults and teenagers contains five ESL conversation topics and fifty conversation questions. It starts with everyone’s most favorite topic: Tell me something about you. People love to talk about themselves, so let them! You can also watch this interesting Ted Talk about being ourselves. If you love Scottish accent as much as I do, watch also this.

Other included ESL conversation topics are Future, Society, Culture, and Environment.

The slideshow can be used as a resource for online teaching: share your screen on Zoom or other app when teaching online. Click on the full screen option in the top right corner of the slideshow and your whole group can discuss or if you want to use the activity in smaller groups, assign your students into breakout rooms and send them the PDF with the conversation questions before your lesson. During the lesson, pop into the breakout rooms to listen in and observe.

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Popular ESL Conversation Topics

You

1. Use five words to describe who you are. Explain.
2. What makes you happy?
3. Who is the most important person in your life?
4. Name three things you couldn’t live without.
5. What do you love about your life?
6. What do you hate about your life?
7. What would you like to change about your life?
8. Which character from a book/movie would you like to be and why?
9. What do you value in other people?
10. What do you like about yourself?

Future

1. Do you plan everything or do you like to be spontaneous?
2. Do you want to study at university? Why?
3. What would you like to do with your life in 10 years?
4. How do you think the world will change in 20 years?
5. Do you think humans will colonize space one day?
6. If you could know three facts about any specific time in the future, what would you like to know?
7. Would you rather travel to the future or the past?
8. What are you looking forward to?
9. What scares you about your future?
10. What would you say to your future 70-year-old self?

Society

1. In your opinion, what are the most serious issues in our society?
2. How would you describe your community?
3. How do you imagine the ideal society?
4. What values are important to you?
5. How do legal drugs harm our society?
6. How has society changed in the last 20 years?
7. Which changes in our society do you dislike? Why?
8. What is the influence of technology on our lives?
9. Have you ever broken any rules?
10. Which laws/rules should be changed? 

Culture

1. How would you define culture?
2. How is the culture of your country different from the others?
3. Is there any culture that you admire/like?
4. Do you think globalization can destroy the local culture?
5. Which aspects of different cultures can you find in your community?
6. Which part of your culture is the most important to you? Why?
7. Which customs and traditions are typical for your culture/region?
8. Is there anything about your culture that you don’t like?
9. What do people from different cultures have in common?
10. Which culture would you like to know more about?

Environment

1. Which environmental issue is, in your opinion, the most serious?
2. Can individual efforts make any change to improve the environment?
3. How environmentally conscious are you?
4. What can businesses do to behave more eco-friendly?
5. What do you think about Zoos?
6. What do you think about hunting?
7. How do you feel about the future of our planet?
8. Which industry is the most harmful to the environment?
9. If you could, what 3 laws would you introduce to protect the environment?
10. Do you think veganism is more eco-friendly than eating meat?

Other conversation resources:

Conversation Starters: 30 Interesting Conversation Questions Not Only For ESL Students

ESL Conversation Topics: 12 Mini Presentations

Role-play Scenarios for ESL: Discussing Different Topics and Situations, Even Vaccination!

ESL Vocabulary Activity Based on Taboo: Food