esl conversation questions Archives

Travel ESL Conversation Questions

This is an excellent speaking activity for students when engaged in a conversation about travel, as well as for adult students in any program or one-on-one lessons. Travel words on the list include – journey, flights, destination, trip, license, accommodation, backpacking, international, leisure, and countries.

The free discussion worksheet for the topic of travel is anything but boring, and it’s guaranteed to pique your students’ curiosity. They may be inspired to go on vacation or organize group trips, especially when cheap flights are easily available on reputable websites such as sa.wego.com.

Students should be placed in groups or pairs, and they should take notes on what their partners say and answer.

Travel ESL Conversation Questions

Have you ever been abroad?
Where have you been?
Are you planning on going anywhere for your next vacation?
- If so, where?
- Who with?
- How long will you stay?
Are you afraid of going abroad alone?
Do you have any tips to get cheap flights?
Could you live in another country for the rest of your life?
Describe the most interesting person you met on one of your travels.
What was your best trip.
What was your worst trip.
Did your class in high school go on a trip together?
- If so, where did you go?
- How long did you stay?
- How did you get there?
Do you have a driver’s license?
Do you like to travel with children? Why or why not?
Do you like to travel with your mother? Why or why not?
Do you prefer summer vacations or winter vacations?
Do you prefer to travel alone or in a group? Why?
Do you prefer to travel by train, bus, plane or ship?
Do you prefer traveling by car or by plane?
Have you ever been in a difficult situation while traveling?
Have you ever been on an airplane?
- How many times?
- What airlines have you flown with?
Have you ever been to a foreign country?
Have you ever gotten lost while traveling? If so, tell about it.
Have you ever hitchhiked? If so, how many times?
Have you ever taken a package tour?
How do you spend your time when you are on holiday and the weather is bad?
How many countries have you been to? How many states?
How many times have you traveled abroad?
How much luggage do you usually carry?
If you traveled to South America, what countries would like to visit?
If you went to ___(Insert a country name)__, what kind of souvenirs would you buy?
If you were going on a camping trip for a week, what 10 things would you bring? Explain why.
What are some countries that you would never visit? Why would you not visit them?
What are some things that you always take with you on a trip?
What countries would you like to visit? Why?
What countries would you most like to visit?
What countries would you not like to visit? Why?
What country do you most want to visit?
- Why?
- Do you think you will ever go there?
What do you need before you can travel to another country?
What is the most interesting city to visit in your country?
What is the most interesting souvenir that you have ever bought on one of your holidays?
What languages can you speak?
What place do you want to visit someday?
What was the most interesting place you have ever visited?
What’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever been to?
When was the last time your traveled?
When you are on a long car journey do you play games or sing songs to occupy your time?
- What kind of games?
- What songs?
Where are you going to go the next time you travel?
- When are you going to go?
- Who are you going to go with?
- How long are you going to go for?
- What are you going to do there?
- What kind of things do you think you will buy?
Where did you go on your last vacation?
- How did you go?
- Who did you go with?
Where did you spend your last vacation? Your summer vacation? Your Christmas vacation?
Where will you go on your next vacation?
Would you like to take a cruise? Where to? With who?
Do you prefer traveling on a hovercraft or a ferry?
Would you prefer to stay at a hotel/motel or camp while on vacation?
Would you rather visit another country or travel within your own country?
Would you rather go to a place where there are a lot of people or to a place where there are few people?
Do you find more fulfillment from your leisure activities including vacations than from your job?
Do you think the type of vacation one takes reflects one’s social status?
What are popular tourist destinations in your country?
- Have you been to any of them?
- Which would you recommend if you could only recommend one? Why?
Do you prefer active or relaxing holidays? Why?
Which is better, package tour or a tour you organize and book yourself?
Why do you travel?
- Why do people travel?
Would you like to go back to the same place?
Did you find anything of particular interest? / Did you get attracted to anything special?
What are some benefits of travel?
- Why do people travel?
What is your favorite mode of travel?
Have you travelled in business class?
When you were a child did your family take a vacation every year?
Do you prefer a budget or first class hotel? Why?
Do you travel with a lot of baggage or do you like to travel light?
What is your favorite method of travel at your destination? Train? Bus? Boat? Bicycle? Backpacking?
What is the best kind of holiday for different ages of people? Children? Teenagers? Adults? Elderly people?
Do you think it is a good idea to travel with friends, or alone? How about with your family?
If you had $100,000, where would you go on holiday? How about if you had $10,000? What about $1,000?
Which countries have you travelled to?
Do you prefer hot countries or cool countries when you go on holiday
Who makes the decisions when your family decides to go on holiday
If you could choose one place to go this weekend, where would it be?
How do you browse for the best deals on flight tickets?
Has the airline ever lost your luggage? What happened?
On long flights do you usually walk around the plane to avoid health problems?
Have you ever read an interesting question in an in-flight magazine? What was it?
Is there any difference between young tourists and adult tourists?
Do you think tourism will harm the earth?

This is a sponsored blog post by sa.wego.com

Other resources:

ESL Travel Vocabulary Taboo Cards

ESL/EFL Vocabulary Activity: Travel Compound Nouns Dominoes

ESL Role Play Worksheet: Travel/Holidays

Food and Travel ESL Lesson: Interactive Online Lesson

ESL Conversation Lesson: Game Of Thrones And Traveling

Conversation Questions: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Conversation questions for practicing comparative and superlative adjectives.

1. We use comparatives to compare two things (or people).

This movie is more interesting than the one you chose.

Susie is smarter than her brother.

2. Superlatives are used, however, to show the difference between more than two things or more than two people.

This is the best ice cream I’ve ever had!

He is the fastest runner in this group.

One-syllable adjectives

If an adjective has only one syllable, we add –er to make the comparative form.

quick – quicker
nice – nicer
warm – warmer
cold – colder

We add –est to make the superlative form. Don’t forget that we use the definite article the with the superlative.

quick – quicker – the quickest
warm – warmer –the warmest
cold – colder- the coldest

There are some spelling changes with one-syllable adjectives. If there is one vowel followed by one consonant at the end of the adjective, we often double the consonant.

hot – hotter – the hottest
big – bigger – the biggest
thin – thinner – the thinnest

If the adjective ends in y, this often changes to i.

happy – happier – the happiest

If the adjective ends in e, we don’t add another e, just r.

fine -finer – the finest
nice – nicer- the nicest

Two-syllable adjectives and adjectives with more than two syllables

For two-syllable adjectives, we use more or most.

careful – more careful – most careful
bored – more bored – most bored

Some two-syllable adjectives can take –er or –est.

clever – cleverer – cleverest
quiet – quieter – quietest

Adjectives with two syllables that end in y usually can add –er or –est. We can also use more or most.

dirty – dirtier – dirtiest
pretty – prettier – prettiest
happy – happier – happiest

Some adjectives are irregular. There is no rule, we have to learn their forms.

good – better – the best
bad – worse – the worst
far – further – the furthest
little – less – the least
much – more – the most

Conversation questions superlative and comparative adjectives

Are you happier now than you were a year ago?
Do you agree with the following: ‘The more expensive, the better quality.’
Do you think vegetarianism is healthier than eating meat?
Is it better to be poor and happy or to be rich and unhappy?
Why is lying sometimes easier than telling the truth?
What would be more difficult for you, to spend a night alone in the woods or to give a speech in front of hundreds of people?
Does educated always mean more intelligent?
What is more dangerous, boxing or skiing?
Are teenagers lazier than they were 20 years ago?
What job is more demanding, a nurse or an engineer?
Which job is the most gratifying?
Describe the best holiday you’ve ever had?
What is the most surprising thing that has ever happened to you?
What’s the most difficult decision you’ve had to make?
When did you feel the proudest?
What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?
Describe the most delicious dish you’ve ever eaten.
Who is the smartest person you know?
Who inspires you the most?
What is the weirdest present you’ve got?

Download the conversation questions superlative and comparative adjectives here.

Other resources:

Funny Conversation Starters: 60 Questions

Storytelling Cards: Imaginative Card Game

Bundle of Role-play Activities

Bundle of Three Taboo Card Games

Food ESL Conversation Questions and Video Activity

This speaking and listening activity consists of a video warm-up activity and food conversation questions.

As a warm-up activity watch this video on the 15 best foods around the world. Have students take notes on each food as they watch.

What is it made of?
How was it prepared?
Where does it come from?
Have you ever tried that?

After you watch the video, put students in groups or pairs, and have them compare notes and discuss what foods from the video they’ve tried or would like to try.

A tip, whenever I need my student to work in pairs or teams, I use Random Team Generator. It’s super easy and convenient.

Food conversation questions

Do you eat to live or do you live to eat?
Which food did you hate as a kid?
Which food did you love as a kid but hate now?
If you could only eat three meals for the rest of your life what would you eat?
What kind of sweets do you like?
What is your favorite snack?
What do you think about cooking shows?
Do you think it’s important to know how to cook?
What is your favorite fast food?
What food would you choose to eat as your first meal after a year abroad?
What food would you choose as your last meal?
What is your favorite condiment?
What food do you eat in your country when celebrating something or during holidays?
Who are better cooks, men or women?
What is your favorite cuisine? What do you like about it?
What is the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
What is the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?
Do you prefer to eat at home or eat out?
How healthy is your national cuisine?
What is the best cuisine in the world?

Download: Food ESL Conversation Questions

Need more food resources?

ESL Role-play Worksheet: Food

At The Restaurant: ESL Pair Work and Role Play Lesson

Food Taboo Cards

20 Fun Discussion Questions for (Not Only) the ESL Classroom

I don’t know about your corner of the world, but here in Central Europe summer has arrived with full force. It’s scorching hot. I finally understand the 3-hour siesta they have in some countries. Who would want to move, or think in this heat? So I cut my students some slack, we play scrabble and have fun. The testing is over, the school term ends in a few days, field trips have been canceled because of Covid-19, there is not much left to do. And did I mention it’s boiling hot and our building doesn’t have AC? Right, so let’s have som fun.

This speaking activity contains 25 fun ESL discussion questions for teenagers and adult learners. (16+, B1+). It is best for small groups or as a pair-work.

The slideshow can be used as a resource for online teaching, just 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 discussion questions before your lesson. During the lesson, pop into the breakout rooms to listen in and observe.

Slideshow

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1. What’s the closest thing to real magic?

2 .Who is the messiest person you know?

3. What will finally break the internet?

4. What’s the most useless talent you have?

5. Where is the worst smelling place you’ve been?

6. What celebrity would you rate as a perfect 10?

7. What’s a body part that you wouldn’t mind losing?

8. What is the dumbest way you’ve been injured?

9. Which fictional character would be the most boring to meet in real life?

10. What are the best and worst purchases you’ve ever made?

1. If you had to change your name, what would your new name be, and why would you choose that name?

2. What are some things that sound like compliments but are actually insults?

3. What’s your biggest screw up in the kitchen?

4. What’s the worst commercial you’ve recently seen? Why is it so bad?

5. What is the craziest thing one of your teachers has done?

6. When did you screw everything up, but no one ever found out it was you?

7. What elements of pop culture will be forever tied in your mind to your childhood?

8. If you could know the absolute and total truth to one question, what question would you ask?

9. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this week?

10 .What ridiculous thing has someone tricked you into doing or believing?

20 Fun Questions to Discuss in the ESL ClassroomDownload

The questions for this activity are used with the kind permission of C.B. Daniels of Conversation Starters World.

Other ESL resources:

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

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives: ESL Speaking Activity

30 Hypothetical Conversation Questions for ESL Students

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives: ESL Speaking Activity

ESL Exam Speaking Picture Description and Questions

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

These interesting and deep conversation starters are not only intended for ESL students but also for everyone who would like to start chatting with a stranger, neighbor, colleague, someone they fancy, partner, friend.

No matter how well you know somebody, these deep conversation starters will help you connect with them even more. You will get to know them better, and at the same time, you will learn something about yourself.

This activity contains 60 questions and a YouTube video, so students can practice listening as well as speaking.

Reccommeded for ages 16+ and B1+

The slideshow can be used as a resource for online teaching: share your screen on Zoom or another 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.

The questions for this activity are used with the kind permission of C.B. Daniels of Conversation Starters World.

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30 Deep Conversation Starters

If you could learn the answer to one question about your future, what would the question be?
What smell brings back great memories?
If you opened a business, what kind of business would it be?
Where and when was the most amazing sunset you have ever seen?
What is something you are obsessed with?
What do you do to get rid of stress?
What three words best describe you?
What would be your perfect weekend?
Who had the biggest impact on the person you have become?
What is the most annoying habit someone can have?
Where is the most beautiful place you have been?
What do you do to improve your mood when you are in a bad mood?
What’s your favorite way to waste time?
What do you think of tattoos? Do you have any?
What is something popular now that annoys you?
When was the last time you worked incredibly hard?
Who in your life brings you the most joy?
Are you very active, or do you prefer to just relax in your free time?
What’s the best / worst thing about your work/school?
If you had intro music, what song would it be? Why?
What were you really into when you were a kid?
If you could have any animal as a pet, what animal would you choose?
Are you a very organized person?
What is the strangest dream you have ever had?
How often do you stay up past 3 a.m.?
Which is more important, having a great car or a great house? Why?
What do you bring with you everywhere you go?
If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
What is something that really annoys you but doesn’t bother most people?
How should success be measured? And by that measurement, who is the most successful person you know?

Deep Conversation Questions Not Only For ESL StudentsDownload

Watch a video with 25 deep questions

Another activity you can do with your students is to watch a video with 25 questions similar to the questions above. These, as you will find in the video, are used in therapy and can help you to get to know people on a deeper level.

It’s a ten-minute video and it’s divided into chapters so when you click on a chapter you will see the particular question he is answering and the questions will also appear in the video, so you can pause the video and students can discuss it, either individually or in groups.

Other speaking resources:

Conversation Questions: Present Perfect and Past Simple

ESL Conversation Topics: 12 Mini Presentations

50 ESL Conversation Questions for Teenagers and Adults

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives: ESL Speaking Activity

Phrasal Verbs Activity and Exercises, Conversation Questions and PDF Worksheet

Conversation Questions: Future Tenses

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives: ESL Speaking Activity

We use gerunds (verb + ing):

After certain verbs – I enjoy drawing
After prepositions – I drank a beer after running.
As the subject or object of a sentence – Jogging is good exercise

We use ‘to’ + infinitive:

After certain verbs – We decided to buy the house.
After many adjectives – It’s easy to do it.
– I came to London to work in a restaurant.

We use the bare infinitive (the infinitive without ‘to’):

After modal verbs – I can see you in the afternoon.
After ‘let’, ‘make’ and (sometimes) ‘help’ – The teacher let us go home after the test.
After some verbs of perception (see, watch, hear, notice, feel, sense) – I watched her feed the birds.
After expressions with ‘why’ – why waste time in the bar?

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives

1. What food have you never eaten but would really like to try?

2. What have you stopped doing recently?

3. What is something you always intended to do but never found the time/money?

4. What would be the best thing you could reasonably expect to find in a cave?

5. How do you make yourself sleep when you can’t seem to get to sleep?

6. What’s something you really resent paying for?

7. What social stigma does society need to get over?

8. What movie can you watch over and over without ever getting tired of?

9. When doing sports have you ever risked hurting yourself?

10. When was the last time you immediately regretted something you said?

11. As a child, what did you think would be awesome about being an adult, but isn’t as awesome as you thought it would be?

12. What kinds of things do you like to cook or are good at cooking?

13. What do you enjoy doing that you are embarrassed about?

14. When you are old, what do you think children will ask you to tell stories about?

15. What kind of people do you avoid meeting?

16. Have you ever refused to help someone?

17. When was the last time you decided to do something unexpected/crazy?

18. What do you hope to achieve in the future?

19. How often do you appreciate other people for helping you?

20.Have you ever denied doing something even if you did it?

Conversation Questions Gerunds and InfinitivesDownload

Similar resources:

ESL Reported Speech Speaking Activity: Gossip

120 Discussion Starters

Speaking Activity: 120 Topics

30 Hypothetical Conversation Questions for ESL Students

Here is another set of conversation questions, this some for more advanced students as the questions are hypothetical, so it requires a knowledge of conditionals and a certain level of creativity. I’d recommend it for 16+ (B1, B2, C1). The questions for this activity are used with the kind permission of C.B. Daniels of Conversation Starters World.

As usual it this conversation activity consists of a slideshow for remote teaching and a downloadable PDF for easy printing.

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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1. If you were a transformer, what vehicle would you turn into?

2. What laws would you abolish if you could? What laws would you create?

3. If extra lives were a thing in the real world, how would you get them?

4. If you were a food, what food would you be?

5. What animal would be way better if it was covered in scales?

6. If you could design a planet, what would your perfect planet look like?

7. What would be your strategy for a zombie apocalypse?

8. If you could be the CEO of any company, what company would you choose?

9. What two animals would you like to switch the sounds they make?

10. Would you want to permanently feel zero pain if given the chance?

11. What cartoon world do you wish you could live in for a week?

12. What do you wish grew on trees?

13. What weird thing would you make socially acceptable if you could?

14. If every time you snapped your fingers, you would instantly be transported to a random point in humanity’s timeline, would you snap your fingers? If so, how often?

15. If you were perpetually surrounded by one aroma (besides your natural smell) which you and everyone around you could smell, what would it be?

16. If you could level up any aspect of yourself (i.e., strength, intelligence, charisma, etc.) but you had to decrease another aspect of yourself by the same amount, what aspects would you increase, and which would you decrease?

17. If humans lost the ability to see all colors except one, which color would you want to survive?

18. If you were a dictator of a small country, what crazy dictator stuff would you do?

19. If you could put wings on any species of animal, what animal would you choose?

20. How would the world be different if zeppelins had caught on and were the dominant form of air travel?

21. Every day 12 things appear in your backyard, they are random, but all start with a letter of your choosing. What letter do you choose?

22. If when you died, you could cease to exist or wander the earth forever, never being able to interact with anything, which would you choose?

23. If you could move anywhere and still have a livable wage, where would you like to move?

24. If you could get a ticket to any show or event, what would you want a ticket to?

25. If you could go back in time and give your parents advice before you were born, what advice would you give them?

26. If everyone was mentally incapable of lying, how would that change the world?

27. If you could be invisible, but it would mean being permanently invisible, would you want to be?

28. If you had to do a dance that had never been done in the history of mankind or be killed, what kind of dance would you do?

29. If you could erase one thing from existence, even the memory of the thing, what would it be?

30. If you were required by law to get a full body tattoo, what would you get tattooed over your entire body?

30 Hypothetical Conversation QuestionsDownload

Other resources to practice speaking:

ESL Vocabulary Activity. Forbidden Words: Health

ESL Vocabulary Activity Based on Taboo: Food

ESL Travel Vocabulary Taboo Cards

12 ESL Negotiation Role-plays: Real-life situations

ESL Speaking Activity: Conversation Cards

Conversation Questions: Present Perfect and Past Simple

Present perfect vs. simple past

Present Perfect Simple	Past Simple
Unfinished actions that started in the past and continue to the present: I‘ve known my wife for fifteen years (and I still know her).	Finished actions: I knew* my friend Anne for fifteen years (but then she moved abroad and we lost touch).*
A finished action in someone’s life (when the person is still alive or it’s a life experience; e.g. J. K. Rowling has written many books.): Jamie has been* to Japan five times.*	A finished action in someone’s life (when the person is dead): My grandmother went* to Japan three times.*
A finished action with a result in the present: I‘ve lost my phone! (The result is that I can’t make phone calls).	A finished action with no result in the present: I lost* my phone last month. I was annoying* but now I have a better one. (I lost it month ago, it’s a closed chapter in my life.)
With an unfinished time word (this week, this month, today): I‘ve seen my parents this month.	With a finished time word (last week, last month, yesterday): I saw* my parents last week.*

Conversation Questions: Present Perfect and Past Simple

1. Did you do anything interesting last weekend?

2. Have you ever done something dangerous?

3. How old were you when you learnt to ride a bike? Who taught you?

4. Have you ever ridden a horse or other animal?

5. What did you like about your previous school/job?

6 How long have you studied English? Why did you decide to study English?

7. Which countries did you visit last year? Which did you like the most and why?

8. Have you ever met anyone famous?

9. Did you have a hero when you were younger?

10. What is the most unusual food you have ever eaten?

11. What did you eat for breakfast?

12. Did you like reading when you were a kid?

13. What’s the most interesting movie you’ve ever seen?

14. When did you eat dinner yesterday? What did you eat?

15. Have you ever broken a bone? How did it happen?

16. What didn’t you like to do when you were younger? Why?

Download Conversation Questions: Present Perfect and Past Simple

Other resources

ESL Speaking Activity: Conditional Discussion Questions

What? When? Where? Asking Questions ESL Activity

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

No Time? 10 No-prep ESL Activities, Warm-ups and Energizers

Tag: esl conversation questions

Travel ESL Conversation Questions

Other resources:

Conversation Questions: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

One-syllable adjectives

Two-syllable adjectives and adjectives with more than two syllables

Conversation questions superlative and comparative adjectives

Download the conversation questions superlative and comparative adjectives here.

Other grammar questions:

Other resources:

Food ESL Conversation Questions and Video Activity

Food conversation questions

Download: Food ESL Conversation Questions

20 Fun Discussion Questions for (Not Only) the ESL Classroom

Slideshow

Other ESL resources:

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

30 Deep Conversation Starters

Watch a video with 25 deep questions

Other speaking resources:

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives: ESL Speaking Activity

We use gerunds (verb + ing):

We use ‘to’ + infinitive:

We use the bare infinitive (the infinitive without ‘to’):

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives

Similar resources:

30 Hypothetical Conversation Questions for ESL Students

Other resources to practice speaking:

Conversation Questions: Present Perfect and Past Simple

Present perfect vs. simple past

Conversation Questions: Present Perfect and Past Simple

Other resources