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Conversation Questions Conditionals: ESL Speaking Activity

Conversation Questions Conditionals: First, Second, Third Conditional

First Conditional

If you don’t go to work tomorrow, what will happen?
What will you do if it rains tomorrow?
What will you do if you learn perfect English?
What will you do if a colleague is rude to you?
What will you do when you retire?
What will happen when we continue polluting the Earth?
What will happen if stop using plastic bags?
What will happen if______________________?
What will you do if______________________?

**Looking for more activities? Try 120 Conversation Starters and One-Minute Talk activity.**

esl taboo card game — **Looking for more activities? Try 120 Conversation Starters and One-Minute Talk activity.**

Second Conditional

What would you do if an alien from outer space landed their spaceship in your
garden?
If there suddenly was no internet, how would the world change?
How would you spend $100 000 in 12 hours?
What would you do if you could fly?
If could go on holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go?
If somebody hit you in the face, what would you do?
If you survived a plane crash in the jungle, how long would you survive?
If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would that be?
If it was possible, would you like to have your own clone?
What would you do if_____________________________?
What would happen if_____________________________?

Third Conditional

If you had been born in a different country, what would have been different in your life?
What would you have done if you had found out you were a lost child of a European monarch and a successor to the throne?
How would your life have been different if you had been growing up with 9 siblings?
If you could have studied something else, what would that have been?
How would your life have changed if you had done something different that one time?
What would have happened last weekend if you had partied all night long?
If you had been born as a child of a Hollywood celebrity, how would your childhood have been different?
If you had been born Quasimodo, how would your life have changed?
If you had been born with 6 fingers on each hand, how would that have changed your life?
What would have happened if_____________________________________?
What would you have done if______________________________________?

Download here>>>>>Conditionals Speaking Activity

Other speaking activities:

ESL Speaking Activity: Business English Role Plays

No-prep Speaking Activity: Warmer And Filler For ESL Classes

32 Inspirational And Creative Job Interview Questions For ESL/Business English Students

ESL/EFL Speaking Activity: Role Play Debate

32 Inspirational And Creative Job Interview Questions For ESL/Business English Students.

Great speaking activity for older students when teaching jobs, or for adult students in Business English classes, or for your one-to-one lessons.

These questions are everything but boring and I can guarantee that they will spark interest in your students.

The questions are real interview questions compiled from different websites.

Enjoy!

Download the FREE PDF>>>>>Inspirational And Creative Job Interview Questions

ESL/EFL Speaking Activity: Role Play Debate

I do a lot of speaking activities with my older students. We do a lot of simulations, discussions, role plays, games, etc. and this ESL debate is one of them.

One of the activities I do is an argumentative debate where they can utilize everything they’ve learned, and another great thing about this activity is that it combines writing and speaking. It can also be used as a warm-up for argumentative essay writing.

You can use your own topics according to the vocabulary you’ve been teaching or you can use the topic cards below.

Each pair of students gets the same topic with either Agree or Disagree information. I usually assign the topics randomly. They’ll have a couple of minutes for preparation, I recommend that they write brief notes and if possible, to do some quick online research. Another modification can be that you give them the topics for homework so they can prepare more thoroughly. It depends on the level of the students and the difficulty of the topics.

When they are ready, let them talk in pairs, circle and monitor. When they finish, have a short feedback discussion with them:

Were they able to persuade their opponent?

What arguments did they use?

Download the free PDF here>>>Role Play Debate Topics

Will Your Students Steal A Car?: ESL/EFL Simulation Activity

This ESL simulation activity is for a group of four students, B1-B2 level, 15+ age.

I find it’s best to use this activity after teaching crime vocabulary, and after teaching some basic concepts of peer pressure, argumentation, and manipulation. What I like about this activity is that the character cards don’t tell the students what decisions they should make, it’s purely their choice.

Pages: 12

Picture Based Speaking Activity For ESL/EFL Classes

I got the idea for this ESL picture speaking activity after we came across a well-known photograph in our textbook, and I was surprised how many students didn’t know it. Sure, young people are overwhelmed with photos all day long. Take Instagram for example, but it is usually photos of celebrities, fashion, food, Starbuck cups, you get the idea.

Another thing is that they often have no clue about history although they have to study it at school. What they are more interested in is the future; final tests, university, jobs, family.

I wanted to teach them something about the past, show them real, raw photos that deal with many issues that still resonate today. I chose 10 iconic photos, but you can add more that are more local or more significant for your country. This activity is a great starter for discussion about human rights, democracy, and equality, which are things that our modern society still struggles with.

I recommend you use this activity with students 16+ as the photos may be disturbing for younger students.

Teacher’s Sheet

Instructions

1. Use this material after a lesson on photography, global issues,
human rights, etc.

2. Hand out the Student’s Sheets and explain the Ss that they will see 10
iconic photographs. They will finds vocabulary in the handout that can be
associated with the pictures. This serves as a warm up, and help in case they
don’t know anything about the pictures. Pull up the pictures on the
interactive whiteboard, or any equipment that you use. Show them each
picture for approx. 30 seconds. In this phase do not let the Ss to talk or share
any knowledge they might have.

3. After they finish, show them the pictures again, this time a bit longer. Tell
them to write anything they know, or can guess about the pictures.

4. Discuss.

Answer Key

The 1968 Olympics Human Rights Salute was a political demonstration conducted by African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony on October 16, 1968 at the 1968 Summer Olympics in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. During the ceremony they turned on the podium to face their flags, and to hear the American national anthem. Each athlete raised a black-gloved fist, and kept them raised until the anthem had finished. In addition, Smith, Carlos, and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all wore human rights badges on their jackets.
Young Charlie Chaplin
Famine in India under British rule 1870s
The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station in New Jersey, US. Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen).
Beatles, The Beatles’ album, Abbey Road, features the Beatles walking across the northwestern zebra crossing on the intersection of Abbey Road and Grove End Road
Florence Owens Thompson was the subject of Dorothea Lange’s famous photo Migrant Mother(1936), an iconic image of theGreat Depression
Young Joseph Stalin
Phan Thị Kim Phúc is the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken at Trảng Bàngduring the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. The well-known photo, by AP photographer Nick Ut, shows her at nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.
Thích Quảng Đức was aVietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigonroad intersection on 11 June 1963. Quang Duc was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the monk’s death.
Muhamad Ali

Students’s Sheet

You will see 10 pictures. Write number of the picture next to the word which you associate with the picture.

Dictator

Actor

Poverty

Survivor

Famine

Democracy

Protest

Independence

Pulitzer Prize

Dictatorship

War

Human rights

Sacrifice

New York

Do you know anything about the pictures? Write what you know next to the number of the picture.

10.

Download the photos in PDF format>>>>>>Iconic Pictures

Teacher’s Sheet>>>>> Iconic Pictures Teacher’s Sheet

Student’s Sheet>>>>> Iconic Pictures Student’s Sheet

Other speaking activities you might want to try:

Speaking Resource for ESL/EFL Teachers: Creative Storytelling

Speaking Resources for ESL/EFL Teachers: Picture Prompts

28 ESL/EFL Conversation Starters to Spark Conversation

Group Activity For ESL/EFL Classes: Famous Stories With A Twist!

My students love creative activities, especially the younger kids and teenagers are always thrilled when we play a game or do some acting. I did this activity with students from 14 to 19 years. It was always a success. The best thing is, there is almost no prep and you can do it the whole lesson, or shorter versions as a warm-up.

This activity is a cross of telling a story, inventing your own and acting. I use famous stories with three or more characters so the kids can work in small groups. Then I assign the story and let them draw a card with a specific genre.

So, for example, we can have the story of Shrek and the genre is a documentary. We have three main characters: Shrek, Fiona, Donkey. If needed we could add one extra character: Gingerbread Man, or Puss in Boots. Then I give the students some time to prepare, usually 10 minutes. After that, they take turns in acting their stories, as a theatre troupe :).

You can download the activity with my stories here or prepare your own, using stories well known in your culture.

Download >>>>>>>> Stories with a Twist

Extra activity: if your students don’t know the stories or the characters in the stories, don’t tell them. Let them use their phones or school computers to do their own research.

Picture Prompts for Speaking and Writing: An ESL Activity

Picture description activities can be rather boring after some time and it occurred to me that usually, the pictures are not very creative. I came up with an idea of how to spice it up a bit. The picture prompts for speaking and writing in this activity are unusual, imaginative and I hope they will spark some entertaining stories.

I recommend to use it with students 16+, it best works with young adults. It could be used with stronger Intermediate students, Upper Intermediate and Advanced.

As a variation, you can use it as writing prompts.

Download the PDF>>>Picure Prompts for Speaking and Writing

ESL Picture Description: Exam Skills Practice

I put together picture prompts on different topics that can be used when practicing general speaking with your students or preparing them for various certificates and exams. I will later add more resources on different topics.

Download the PDF >>>>ESL Picture Description: Exam Skills Practice

Similar resources

ESL Picture Storytelling Activity

Picture Based Speaking Activity For ESL/EFL Classes

Picture Prompts for Speaking and Writing: An ESL Activity

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Vocabulary Posters – Idioms and Collocations.

I have neglected my blog in the past couple of weeks, mostly due to my duties at the school where I teach. Staff meetings, entrance exams, school leaving exams, paperwork…and at the end of the day, no energy for creativity, or even thinking.

Hopefully, I will have more time in the following weeks and then, in the summer! (I plan to write articles and create activities, worksheets and posters during the summer holidays. Well, after a week or two of complete reboot 🙂 )

Until then, enjoy two vocabulary posters, and have fun learning and teaching English!

Meanwhile, have a look at my older articles: –>>>3 Board Games You Can Use In The Classroom –>>>ESL Role Play Worksheet: Travel/Holidays –>>>At The Restaurant: ESL Pair Work and Role Play Lesson –>>>Media/Entertainment Vocabulary Card Game Based on Taboo –>>>28 ESL/EFL Conversation Starters to Spark Conversation —>>> Business English Vocabulary Card Game | Forbidden Words