Tag: esl speaking resources

Icebreaker Questions for ESL Classroom

Icebreaker questions are a great speaking activity that can be used not only at the beginning of the new school year but whenever there is a need for a warm-up activity, group speaking activity, pair work, or a quick fun speaking activity.

This speaking activity contains 20 icebreaker questions for teenagers and adult learners. (16+, B1+).

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 conversation questions before your lesson. During the lesson, pop into the breakout rooms to listen in and observe.

Other speaking activities:

Conversation Questions Passive: ESL Speaking Activity

ESL Negotiation Role plays: 12 Real-life Situations

ESL Exam Speaking Picture Description and Questions

Taboo Card Games: Food, Health, Nature

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

Two Conversation Activities

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Icebreaker Questions

1. What food do you love that a lot of people might find a little odd?

2. If you could start a charity, what would it be for?

3. What topic could you give a 20-minute presentation on without any preparation?

4. Who is the most interesting person you’ve met and talked with?

5. What do you wish someone taught you a long time ago?

6. What subjects should be taught in school but aren’t?

7. What kind of challenges are you facing these days?

8. What do you highly recommend to most people you meet?

9. What was the last thing you were really excited about?

10. What does your perfect breakfast look like?

11. What are some of your favorite holiday traditions that you did while growing up?

12. If you could choose your dreams, what would you prefer to dream about?

13. What tells you the most about a person?

14. When is the most interesting period in history?

15. What is the best event you’ve attended?

16. What do you wish was illegal?

17. Would you ever try space tourism, if you had the money for it?

18. What are you grateful for?

19. What skill or talent would you most like to learn?

20. What culture would you like to learn more about?

Download

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

Conversation Questions Passive Voice: ESL Speaking Activity

Passive Voice Conversation Questions

Form: a form of the verb ‘to be'(used to change the tense) + past participle

Tense Active Passive
Present simple I make dinner. Dinner is made (by me).
Present continuous I am making dinner. Dinner is being made (by me).
Past simple I made dinner. Dinner was made (by me).
Past continuous I was making dinner. Dinner was being made(by me).
Present perfect I have made dinner. Dinner has been made (by me).
P.p. continuous I have been making dinner. Dinner has been being made (by me).
Past perfect I had made dinner. Dinner had been made (by me).
Future simple I will make dinner. Dinner will be made (by me).
Future perfect I will have made dinner. Dinner will have been made (by me).

The passive voice is used to change the focus of the sentence:

  • The villain was played by Ralph Fiennes

To show that who or what causes the action is unknown or unimportant or obvious:

  • My car has been stolen

In formal writing instead of using someone:

  • The information will be disclosed next week.

Watch the video and practice the passive conversation questions below.

Passive Voice WorksheetDownload

Conversation questions to practice passive voice

1) Have you ever been punished or made to pay for something that you did not do?

2) How would you handle integrating someone who had been frozen for 100 years into society?

3) How would your country change if children were allowed to vote?

4) Would civilization be better off if the internet had never been created?

5) Can you explain how glass is made?

6) What is the nicest thing that has been done for you?

7) Have you ever been awarded a prize?

8) What goal do you think humanity is not focused enough on achieving?

9) What traditions are kept in your family?

10) What’s the most difficult question you have ever been asked?

11) Have you ever been hurt by someone you trusted?

12) What 3 global issues should be solved right now?

13) What’s the best present you’ve ever been given?

14) What are the most popular foods eaten in your country?

15) Do you think children are spoiled these days? Why?

Other resources:

Conversation Questions Conditionals: ESL Speaking Activity

Conversation Questions: Present Perfect and Past Simple

Conversation Questions: Future Tenses

Conversation Questions Gerunds and Infinitives: ESL Speaking Activity

Bundle of Two Conversation Activities

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?
Popular Conversation Topics for (not only) Adults: 50 QuestionsDownload

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

ESL Role-play Worksheet: Food

In this post, you will find role-plays on various topics connected to food. With these role-plays, your students will be discussing the best dishes in the world, ordering food they don’t know, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of delivery and cooking, and choosing the best diet.

There is another restaurant-themed role-play activity I created some time ago, called At the restaurant, where students create their own restaurant menus and than role-play ordering in different “restaurants”, rotating and speaking to more partners. This role-play can be also done online, I did it with my students on Zoom some time ago, but it’s much in a real classroom. And it’s more fun.

But, here we are (some of us) teaching online and in need of a simple, straightforward role-play activities.

Emotional eggs

ESL Role-play Worksheet: Food

A1: Your friend wants to eat healthier and think that they should eat low fat and low sugar foods and drinks and use artificial sweetener instead of sugar. You disagree and you want to recommend another, healthier diet. Think about your arguments. Talk to your friend.

B1: You want to eat healthier and you think that you should eat low fat and low sugar foods and drinks and use artificial sweetener instead of sugar. Think about arguments to support your decision. Your friend wants to talk to you.

A2: Choose five dishes which you think are the best in the world. What are they made of? How do they taste?  Describe them to your partner. They will have their own list. Discuss your choices and try to persuade your partner that your list is better.  Finally, agree on ONE dish, which will be The Best Dish in the World.

B2: Choose five dishes which you think are the best in the world. What are they made of? How do they taste? Describe them to your partner. They will have their own list. Discuss your choices and try to persuade your partner that your list is better.  Finally, agree on ONE dish, which will be The Best Dish in the World.

A3: You love cooking and you don’t understand why your friend refuses to cook at home. Think of five arguments why cooking at home is better than eating in restaurants and ordering delivery. Try to persuade your friend to change their mind.

B3: You don’t cook and you prefer to eat out or order something online. Think about five reasons why eating in restaurants and ordering delivery is better than cooking. Your friend wants to talk to you.

A4: You are on an exotic holiday and would like to try some local food so you go to a local restaurant that doesn’t have an English menu. You don’t know any of the dishes on the menu, so you have a lot of questions about the ingredients, spices, texture. You also have a food allergy(choose one ingredient you’re allergic to). Decide if you like anything and if yes, order it.

B4: You work as a waiter in a small restaurant specializing in local, exotic cuisine. Your next customer is a tourist who has a lot of questions. Describe your most popular dishes in a very appetizing way. Try to sell him as many dishes as possible.

ESL Role play Worksheet: FoodDownload

Try other role plays:

ESL Negotiation Role-plays

ESL Role-plays: Nature and Environment

ESL Exam Speaking Picture Description and Questions

This ESL exam speaking task based on picture description and questions will help students prepare for a number of international exams, as well as local school leaving examinations – e.g. Matura.

In many English exams including FCE students will have to talk about/describe pictures. The format varies, the examination paper can contain a pair of contrasting photos, several photos on the same topic, etc.

These two practice tasks are monothematic as they focus on the topic of Places and Jobs, respectively.

The practice exam paper contains two contrasting pictures and description prompts/discussion questions.

ESL Exam Speaking: Jobs

Jobs

  1. Describe and compare the pictures. What do you see?
    What is happening?
  2. What are the people in the pictures doing? What jobs do they have?
  3. What skills and education do you need for the jobs depicted?
  4. What personal qualities are important to have to be good at those jobs?
  5. Do you need any special tools or equipment for that job?
  6. Do you think those jobs are well paid? Why?

Which job would you choose and why? What is your dream job? What skills and education would
you need to get it?

ESL Exam Speaking: Places

Places

  1. Describe and compare the pictures. What do you see?
    What is happening?
  2. What countries do you think are in the pictures?
  3. Have you ever visited similar places? If not, would you
    like to? Why?
  4. What could you do in places like that? Would you need
    any equipment for those activities?
  5. What kind of people do you think live in places like that?
    Why?

Which place would you prefer to visit? Why?

Download the PDF for easy printing

Exam Speaking Practice : PlacesDownload
Exam Speaking Practice: JobsDownload

Picture Based Speaking Activity For ESL/EFL Classes

Picture Prompts for Speaking and Writing: An ESL Activity

No-Prep ESL Picture Description Speaking Activity

12 ESL Negotiation Role-plays: Real-life situations

We want to teach our students real-life skills, don’t we? It sure is nice to read Shakespeare and discuss metaphors, but it is not what our ESL/EFL/EIL (or whatever you call it) students need. They need to practice their speaking skills in a way which resembles real-life situations as closely as possible.

Again, which situation is a 16-year-old teenager most likely to experience?

  1. Imagine you are the CEO of a big company and you need to make an important decision.
  2. You are a 16-year-old teenager and you want to talk to your friend about a problem you have.

You get my point.

What skill do we apply every day? The skill teenagers apply every day with their parents, teachers, friends? The skill that can be immensely beneficial at work and that can improve not only our working but also our private relationships?

Negotiation.

A negotiation, simply put, is a compromise. Two or more parties come together, have a discussion, and reach an outcome that addresses the needs of everyone involved. Sounds much less threatening when it’s put like that, doesn’t it?

We’ve put together 12 ESL negotiation role-plays based on real-life situations. Situations teenagers experience every day. When using these role-plays, students will learn how to:

  • prepare for everyday negotiations
  • look at real-life situations from a different perspective
  • know their goals
  • prepare to accept not to get everything
  • identify non-negotiables
  • adapt their strategy
  • ask questions
  • listen

Here is one of the negotiation role-plays you can find in the ebook.

A You have too much on your plate right now and you need help with your English essay assignment which is due on Friday. Ask your classmate for help. What would you be willing to do for them if they helped you? Think of the things you are willing to offer:
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B Your classmate needs your help with the English essay assignment which is due on Friday. You might consider helping them if they can provide the right incentives. Think of four things you want for helping them(can’t be money):
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If they agree with three of the four, you might consider helping them.

Download the PDF ebook 12 ESL Negotiation Role-plays here or click on the picture below.

Other speaking resources:

Balderdash Speaking Game
Unfinished Sentences Speaking Activity
Reported Speech Activity
Photo description

Unfinished Sentences ESL Speaking Activity

Unfinished sentences ESL speaking activity is great for revising grammar, as a warm-up or a conversation starter.

It can be used with groups of various sizes as well as in one to one classes.

 

Finish the sentence. Tell your story.

1. I was very surprised when__________________________________________________.

2. What I value most about my friends is_____________________________________.

3. I really regret_______________________________________________________________.

4. One of my favourite childhood memories is_______________________________.

5. I could never_______________________________________________________________.

6. For one million dollars I would____________________________________________.

7. What I really hate is________________________________________________________.

8. My favourite place is_______________________________________________________.

9. I couldn’t live without______________________________________________________.

10. If I could I would__________________________________________________________.

11. Next weekend I’m going to_______________________________________________.

12. Global warming is_________________________________________________________.

13. Three most important global issues are___________________________________.

14. Veganism is________________________________________________________________.

15. People nowdays___________________________________________________________.

16. In my free time I love______________________________________________________.

17. I wish______________________________________________________________________.

18. In the future I______________________________________________________________.

19. Last year I learnt___________________________________________________________.

20. I admire____________________________________________________________________.

Download Unfinished Sentences ESL Speaking Activity

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