Silence: a teacher’s greatest enemy. And although you’d imagine that a silent classroom must be the sweetest sound in the world to teachers, without 30 or so children screaming ‘miss’ into your ear (an image we can all relate to), silence is the last thing you want in an ESL classroom.
Getting the conversation flowing and learners interacting is essential so children can develop their speaking and listening skills. It also makes children feel more at ease in the classroom and more comfortable engaging in the lesson. Finally, it helps to create a positive learning environment where everyone feels they can contribute.
So how to break this impenetrable wall of silence? By having a store of handy English conversation class topics for teaching. We’ve gathered some great topic ideas that you can use to start conversations for adults or children in your ESL conversation lessons.
These are great for breaking through silences and helping your learners to develop their conversational vocabulary and speaking skills. So, check out these 35 different English conversation class topics for teaching with questions you can use as prompts to give your learners.
35 English Conversation Class Topics for Teaching
- Family
- What family members do you live with?
- What family members are you close to?
- Do you have any siblings?
- Friends
- Who is your best friend?
- What do you and your friends do together?
- What’s your favorite memory you’ve shared with a friend?
- Holidays
- Where is your favorite place to go on holiday?
- Where would you go if you could go worldwide for a holiday?
- What is your favorite holiday experience?
- Games
- What are your favorite games to play at home?
- Do you prefer video games or board games?
- Do you think playing games are good for you? If so, why?
- Shopping
- What is your favorite thing to buy?
- How often do you go shopping?
- Do you like/dislike shopping? Why?
- Home Town
- What’s your area like?
- Do you like where you live? Why?
- What’s the best/worst thing about where you live?
- Future
- Where do you see yourself in ten years?
- What do you think will change in the next 100 years?
- What do you most want to achieve in your life?
- School
- What’s your favorite subject? Why?
- What’s your least favorite subject? Why?
- What’s the best thing about going to school?
- Jobs
- What do you think the best job is? Why?
- What jobs do your family members have?
- What job do you think you’ll have when you’re older?
- Food
- What’s your favorite food?
- What’s your least favorite food?
- What would you choose as your last meal?
- Environment
- What’s bad for the environment?
- What can we do to help improve our environment?
- Why do people care about the environment? Why is it important?
- Health
- Have you ever been ill? How did it feel?
- What things can we do to stay healthy?
- What happens when you’re ill? Who looks after you, and how?
- Restaurants
- What’s your favorite restaurant? What kind of food does it serve?
- Describe a bad restaurant experience.
- If you had your restaurant, what would it be like?
- Sports
- Do you enjoy playing sports? Why?
- What’s your favorite/most minor favorite sport?
- Do you enjoy watching sports? Why/why not?
- Superpowers
- What superpower would you have if you could have any?
- What would the world be like if there were real superheroes?
- Would you rather be a superhero or a supervillain?
- Money
- What would you buy if you had all the money in the world?
- Is money important? Why?
- Can money be a bad thing?
- Would You Rather
- Would you rather be an astronaut or an actor?
- Would you instead learn how to fly a plane or a rocket ship?
- Would you rather live under the sea or in space?
- Gifts
- What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
- What’s the worst?
- Do you enjoy giving gifts? Why?
- Weather
- Do you prefer it when it’s warm or cold?
- Do you like the snow? Why?
- What’s your favorite summer memory?
- Films
- What’s your favorite film genre? Why?
- What’s your favorite film?
- Who would you choose if you could pick any film character?
- Books
- Do you enjoy reading? Why?
- What’s your favorite type of book?
- Why is reading perfect for you?
- Celebrations
- Do you celebrate your birthday? How?
- What is your favorite festival/celebration?
- What would it be for if you could create your own national holiday/festival/celebration? What would happen?
- Feelings
- When was the happiest you’ve ever been?
- When was the angriest you’ve ever been?
- What scares you the most?
- Aliens
- Do you think aliens exist?
- If aliens made contact with you, what would you do?
- Would you rather live in space with aliens or stay here on Earth?
- Seasons
- What’s the best season?
- What’s the worst season?
- Describe the differences between each season.
- Hobbies
- What do you like to do in your spare time?
- If you could take up a new hobby, what would it be?
- What hobby have you had in the past that you don’t do anymore? Why don’t you do it?
- Television
- What’s your favorite TV show?
- What do you like about watching TV?
- Who is your favorite TV show character?
- Desert Island
- Who would it be if you lived on a desert island with one person?
- Which three items would you take to a desert island and why?
- What would be the hardest thing about living on a desert island?
- Music
- Do you enjoy listening to music? What kind?
- How does listening to music make you feel?
- Who is your favorite artist/singer?
- Birthdays
- Do you enjoy celebrating your birthday? Why?
- How did you spend your last birthday?
- How would you spend your next birthday if you could choose to do anything in the world?
- Dreams
- What’s the last dream that you can remember? What happened to it?
- What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?
- What’s the best dream you’ve ever had?
- Animals
- What’s your favorite animal, and why?
- If you could be any animal, which would it be, and why?
- Would you rather be an animal or a human? Why?
- The Supernatural
- Do you believe in ghosts? Why/why not?
- Do you know any good ghost stories?
- If you were a ghost, where would you haunt?
- Celebrities
- Do you have a favorite celebrity? Who is it, and why?
- Do you think celebrities are essential? Why?
- Would you like to be a celebrity? Why/why not?
- Fears
- What are you most afraid of and why?
- Can you describe a time when you faced fear?
- Why do you think we develop fears of certain things? Why don’t we all have the same worries?
