28.07.2019
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  1. Esl Dialogues For Adults Pdf
  2. Easy English Dialogues For Beginners

Your adult students crave conversation more than anything else.

Easy Conversations The Ron Chang Lee Award for Excellence in Classroom Technology---- For ESL/EFL Beginners. ESL Robot - Free App on Smartphones. Daily Life (Part One) Daily Life (Part Two) Daily Life (Part Three) II.

Career-minded businesspeople, retirees and young adults itching to travel, immigrants living in a new country—they all want practical English that will keep them involved a meaningful discussion and not sidelined by the inability to engage.

A bit of conversation in the classroom goes a long way.

Listening, developing responses and putting critical English thinking caps on are among the trending skills that adult ESL students really want.

These are the skills that will let them get out there, survive on their own, navigate new places, meet new people and get anything done.

Give your adult students what they yearn for by utilizing a few, or all, of these fetching adult conversation lessons!

What Sets Adult Conversation Lessons Apart?

It is simple. Adult ESL lessons are often geared toward learning English for a specific purpose.

Career advancement is often the most common reason adult ESL learners will fill the seats of your classroom. There is usually a balance of these ladder climbers and general English learners (learning for learning’s sake) coupled with those who need English for conversation with family, friends, partners and natives met during travels.

As noted earlier, the element of travel may definitely be a motive for adults to take up English. You may have a handful of retirees breach your door’s threshold in search of vital travel English for their upcoming trip, or young adults ready to see the whole world. Pdf of the us constitution.

So, combining the business topics with more general interest topics will give your adult ESL students the essential skills they need to communicate effectively with foreign friends, family, colleagues and/or clients.

When teaching adult ESL students, it is important to focus on practical English vocabulary. You want your adult students to be able to communicate efficiently, be understood and have the vocabulary comprehension to soak up sentences they may have outside the classroom. You may need to introduce a few words or phrases that may not be so grammatically sound, but that is all right for your adult students.

It is also vital to focus on practical conversations in your adult ESL lessons. Think about your own personal conversations with colleagues, clients, friends and family. What do you talk about? What type of language or tone do you use in different conversational settings? Recording a few of your daily conversations could make a great deal of difference to you and your adult students when reviewing native English conversations in class.

How to Develop Conversation Skills with English Levels in Mind

During your career as an ESL teacher, you may find a myriad of diverse adult students, with diverse skills and needs, filling the spaces around your classroom table.

The degree of challenge you will implement in your adult conversation lessons will most certainly depend on your students’ levels.

The differences in vocabulary may not be so different, but the sentence construction and focus on grammar might be. For example, while focusing on the words “job” and “work” with your students, the context, depth and sentence structure for each word may vary. For example:

  • For beginner adult students: What is your job?
  • For intermediate adult students: Do you enjoy your job?
  • For advanced adult students: What is the single greatest joy of your current job?

You can see the difference in how you would interact with your students in conversation.

Regardless of the level of language you are teaching, the emphasis on introducing vocabulary with context and practical usage for the future is quite possibly the most foundational aspect of teaching adult ESL conversation lessons.

Let’s take a look at five wonderful ways to converse effectively with your adult students of different English levels using various topics.

1. Talking Jobs

This conversation lesson is exceptional for your beginner adult students. It implements key vocabulary that is easy to follow while discussing the target topics of work, jobs, likes and dislikes. The essential ESL skills that are built during this lesson include reading, listening, communication, informative discussion, vocabulary and developing questions and answers that bolster practical conversation.

You will first focus on the reading and listening comprehension involved in this activity. Your beginner students will read a short text, after you read it out loud first in order to develop listening skills vital to conversation.

Sample Text:

Tom is a banker. He works banking hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the National Bank of Ohio. Tom truly likes his job and attended university for his degree in finance and accounting. Tom really likes his colleagues. He likes working with them, and he likes discussing their weekend experiences on Monday morning with them too. Tom also likes the people who come to the bank, especially his regulars.

Sample Comprehension Questions:

  • What is Tom’s job?
  • Where does he work?
  • What does he like about his job?
  • Did Tom go to university for his job?
  • What did Tom study?

The simplicity of the comprehension questions is important for your beginner students. You want to keep them engaged without discouraging them with challenging questions right out of the gate. Here are a few more examples for this beginner conversation lesson here.

Now that your students have a handle on Tom’s job and can answer questions relating to it, open the floor for them to discuss their work. This is when the practical conversation comes into play.

Ask them about their work. Even if you have already discussed these topics, your students are much more warmed up this time around. You can also record the follow-up discussion and discuss that with your students later.

Sample Conversation Questions:

  • Would you like Tom’s job? Why or why not?
  • Do you like your job? Why or why not?
  • What do you like about your work?
  • What don’t you like about your work?
  • What are some different jobs done by your colleagues?

2. Grocery Shopping

Conducting a grocery shopping ESL lesson with your adult students may seem elementary, but it is a daily task that is actually a large part of how your student may navigate simple conversation.

If your students begin to doubt your abilities when you mention this lesson, thinking it seems like far too simple a topic to need covering in class, take those students to the grocery store—or make up a faux grocery store in your classroom with printed pictures and food items—and begin asking them multiple questions in English. They will soon find the importance of such a seemingly simple lesson.

For this conversation lesson, you will need to build a dialogue surrounding grocery shopping. Maybe you could even record your next shopping experience with a friend or family member to get some more creative ideas as well, capturing things that naturally unfold during a routine shopping trip.

Communication, dialogue, vocabulary building and snappy English thought are all ESL skills represented in this wonderful conversation lesson for your adult students.

Sample Dialogue:

A: What do we need to get?

B: I forgot our shopping list at home.

A: Are you serious? Don’t joke with me.

B: I did, I am really sorry. Can’t believe I did that again.

A: Well, I think we need carrots, chicken, butter…

B: And milk and eggs, don’t forget those.

A: Right!

B: Should we get ice cream?

A: Remember the last time we got ice cream? It was delicious, but we ate too much!

The value of this example dialogue is to show your students how many questions and answers are commonly found in English conversation. People will often ask you things, from the small to the very, very big.

It also highlights areas of not so proper grammar, but is still how many native English speakers converse.

Sample Comprehension Questions:

  • What are these people doing?
  • What did they forget to bring to the store?
  • Have they forgotten the shopping list before?
  • What did they need to buy?
  • Do they want ice cream?

Once you and your students have built a solid foundation of understanding with these questions, practicing with a few great dialogue scripts, like this similar example you can also use, takes it all to a real-world level.

As suggested before, at this point you could accompany your students to a grocery store or create a pretend grocery store in your classroom. Either way, this is a great environment to begin a natural, free-flowing discussion surrounding shopping, cooking, what they eat normally or any other related topic that comes to mind.

Sample Conversation Questions:

  • What do you normally get for food?
  • Do you buy everything for the week? For the month? Or do you shop daily? Why?
  • How do you choose your carrots, peppers, chicken?
  • Do you normally shop alone or with someone? Why?
  • Have you ever talked to anyone at the grocery store, and what did you talk about?

3. Superstitions

This conversation lesson has plenty of discussion opportunities built into it.

Discussing superstitions, especially the bizarre ones, can bring about all sorts of colorful conversations. This lesson is excellent for your intermediate adult students with a focus on new vocabulary, discussion, reading, listening, opinions, storytelling and creative English expression.

First, you will want to set the stage for the superstition communication to take place. It is possible that your students know what superstitions are, but have never known the word to describe them until now.

Sample Conversation Questions:

  • Do you believe in superstitions?
  • Do you believe in luck?
  • Are there certain people, places, things or events that are lucky or unlucky?
  • Do you believe in ghosts or spirits from another dimension?
  • What are some superstitions from your culture?
  • What is the most strange, unbelievable superstition you have ever heard?

Since superstitions are rarely discussed in English classrooms, the vocabulary and conversation will evoke some serious English brain fuel to get things moving in the right direction. However, once it does, everything will begin to flow smoothly and so will the conversation!

Once the concept of superstition is developed, begin introducing some new superstitions that will provoke more discussion between students.

Pair your students up and give each pair a worksheet with several superstitions and their meanings. Each superstition will have a few questions your paired up students can utilize to spark up practical and inventive conversation.

Sample Conversation Questions Based On Common Superstitions:

  • It is bad luck to put your hat on a bed. Have you ever put your hat on a bed? Do you do that a lot? Do you believe in this superstition? Will you put your hat on a bed now that you know about this superstition?
  • To avoid bad luck, you should knock on wood when good fortune is brought up. Have you seen anyone do this? Have you done this before? What would you knock on if you can’t find wood? Do you believe in this superstition?
  • A ringing ear means someone is thinking about you. Do you think this is true? How will this change your perspective when your ear rings?
  • Breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck. Have you ever broken a mirror? Do you believe in this superstition? Why or why not?

You could even fold a personal writing activity into this lesson, having students dictate their conversation partners’ answers to the questions. You can utilize these great superstition examples for developing this lesson plan further.

4. Career Cache

This lesson is similar to the beginner lesson previously discussed. However, this lesson is more concentrated for listening comprehension, a valuable ESL skill in communication, and wonderful for your intermediate adult students.

The ESL skills involved in this conversation lesson include listening, communication, English thought and expression when answering questions during discussion.

For this lesson, you will need to develop a few short paragraphs explaining different people’s careers, similar to the previous beginner conversation lesson on jobs and work, but more robust in description.

First you will read the short career captions, having your students listen only. This will allow them to hone those vital listening skills! There are plenty of excellent examples you can draw from on the Internet, like this one, to make this lesson a home run for your adult students.

Sample Text:

Harry is a firefighter and he loves his demanding job. Harry wakes up very early in the morning, at around 5 a.m. on the days he works and drives 30 minutes to the fire station in downtown Los Angeles. He needs to know a lot about different firefighter techniques and tools. He also needs to have basic medical knowledge for emergencies. He really likes his fellow firefighters, especially Larry, his best friend. They completed firefighter training together. Harry works 24 hours straight and is then off of work for two days.

Sample Comprehension Questions:

  • What does Harry do for work?

Esl Dialogues For Adults Pdf

  • Does he like his job?
  • What does Larry do for work?
  • At around what time does Harry need to get up on working days?
  • Does Harry like his colleagues?
  • What skills does Harry need to perform his job effectively?
  • How long is Harry’s shift at the fire station?

You can develop several of these career-minded paragraphs and comprehension questions. After a few, let your students develop a short paragraph about their careers and have them read them out loud to you or to partners.

Break them down into pairs (if they are not already in pairs) and have them listen to each other’s job descriptions while they read them aloud again. Then they should take turns asking each other questions about those job descriptions.

Then your students can ask you a few comprehension questions to spark more conversation during this communicative conversation lesson.

5. Coffee Table Controversy

This conversation lesson is perfect for your advanced students ready to discuss current events that may be controversial and trending on various news outlets.

The ESL skills your advanced adult students will gain from this exceptional communication building lesson are reading, listening, English expression, critical English thought, vocabulary and advanced grammar. You may even find it useful to add a few idioms or phrasal verbs as well, depending on your students’ comfort levels.

First you will need to find a controversial issue that may be of importance to your students. It is always a wonderful idea to find a topic that relates and/or will be of interest in order to keep your class engaged. You can use utilize the below example or check out this link for more great ideas.

Sample Text:

The overfishing of the Pacific Ocean has become a very serious debate over the last few decades. Asian countries have been the brunt of much negative press after fishing vessels in the Pacific pull up giant whales for the fishery market. Many North American and European activists are wholeheartedly against the business of catching and killing whales for food. However, many Asian countries maintain that it is part of their culture and subsistence practices.

Sample Conversation Questions:

Easy English Dialogues For Beginners

  • Does your culture eat any food that may be controversial to other cultures? What kind of food? Have you had this experience?
  • Do you think it is right for whales to be killed for food and/or science? Why or why not?
  • What are your thoughts about other countries trying to stop the Asian fish industry from catching whales? Do you think it is just, or is it an intrusion on their culture?
  • Do you think catching whales for food is the same as beef markets in North America and Europe?

Developing conversation lessons for your adult ESL class is essential to the growth and success of your students, both in language learning and professionally.

They will have the exceptional support and knowledge of you while they navigate practical adult conversations that will keep them in the discussion at work with colleagues and clients.

Your students will also develop faster response times to questions and begin honing their listening skills as conversations happen in real time, just like a native speaker.

And One More Thing…

Searching for fun, authentic videos to introduce your students to English conversation? Check out FluentU!

It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities. You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”

It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

The full FluentU video library is available on any computer or tablet, and users can even download the app at the iTunes and Google Play store.

Stephen Seifert is a writer, editor, professor of English and adventurer. With over 8 years of teaching experience to students worldwide, he enjoys the many aspects of culture and traditions different from his own. Stephen continues his search for writing inspiration, boldly enjoying life to the fullest.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.

One key goal almost every adult ESL student shares is gaining the ability to speak English with others.

Luckily, they come to the classroom with a unique advantage. They have life experience.

And, unlike younger students, they’ve typically already achieved a high level of proficiency in their native language.

They want to speak English as well as they speak their own native language—so what better way to speak English like their native language than to speak about the very same things that they speak about on a daily basis?

ESL speaking activities work even better when they speak about their own personal recollections, thoughts and ideas on these topics too!

Sure, games and interactive exercises definitely work—so, you can always do some fun activities with them. But when it comes to improving confidence and fluency, sometimes you just can’t beat a fine discussion. You know, a discussion like the ones they regularly have in their own language!

Breaking out discussion questions like the ones below, questions about everyday things, works well because these types of questions really get the brain thinking, relate directly to the students on a familiar level and can even incite some fascinating discussions between students, all while you sit back and listen!

These topics can all be used for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners! Just choose the questions that are the right level of simplicity or complexity for your students based on your knowledge of their skills. You could even mix up the example questions any way you’d like.

Ask the students these questions yourselves to get conversations started, or pass them out on worksheets for students to ask each other.

1. Hobbies

Everybody has hobbies, and everybody loves talking about them. Hobbies could be passions too, you know. Some simple questions to ask include:

  • What are your hobbies?
  • Why do you like your hobbies so much?
  • How often do you do these hobbies?
  • How long have you been doing these hobbies, and how did you get started?
  • What hobbies did you used to have, but now do not?
  • Is it important to have hobbies? Why/why not?

2. Time

As people get older, their perceived value of time increases, so it’s a practical topic that everyone has something to say about. You could ask questions like:

  • How much free time do you usually have?
  • How important is time to you?
  • If you had more free time, what would you do?
  • “Time is money.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
  • How do you feel about time that is wasted?

3. Sleep

As people get older, they start to appreciate a good night’s sleep more and more. This topic is often a favorite for all. Some example questions are:

  • How much sleep do you usually get?
  • Why do some people sleep well while other people do not sleep well?
  • What do you do when you have trouble sleeping?
  • What time do you usually go to sleep? What time do you usually get up?
  • Have you ever slept in a strange place that was not a bed?

4. Music

Everybody loves music and most people feel very strong emotions towards it—especially when it comes to the music that they love (or hate) most. Some simple questions to ask could be:

  • What types of music do you like/dislike?
  • How do certain kinds of music make you feel?
  • What types of music come from your country?
  • What’s your favorite song/album/artist?
  • What music is popular in your country right now?

5. First Dates

Unless you’re teaching in a place where arranged marriages are the thing to do, talking about first dates gets everybody interested. We’ve all been there. You could ask questions like:

  • How many first dates have you had?
  • How do you feel about first dates?
  • What is a common first date like in your country?
  • What is the best/worst first date experience you’ve ever had?
  • What makes a good first date in your opinion?

6. Work

Lots of people work and have lots to say about it. I mean, if you’re spending about a third of your waking hours at work, you may have lots to say. Some good questions are:

  • What work do/did you do?
  • How do/did you like the work?
  • What is your dream job?
  • What work is common in your city/area/country?
  • What is your general view about work? Why?

7. Risk

Everyone feels a certain way about risk. Some are risk-oriented, others are risk-averse. Talking about risks seems to generate some good conversation. You could ask questions like:

  • What is your definition of risk?
  • Are you a risk taker? Why/why not?
  • What are the advantages/disadvantages of taking risks?
  • What risks do you come across in your work/life?
  • What risks have you taken in your life?

8. Food

Food is possibly the most universal topic of them all and everyone loves to discuss what they eat. This is also an ideal topic for beginners because the vocabulary is usually pretty simple. You could use questions like:

  • What is your favorite food? Why?
  • What food comes from your country?
  • How do you feel when you eat food?
  • What foods do you dislike? Why?
  • Where do you usually get food from?

9. Motivation

Whether or not the students are a motivated bunch, motivation is a good topic to discuss in order to inspire your students. Some example questions are:

  • How motivated are you in general?
  • What motivates you to do things?
  • What is the best motivator to succeed?
  • What do you do when you feel demotivated?
  • What is a good way to motivate others?

10. Beauty

Beauty is one of those topics that’s conventionally more geared toward women than it is to men. However, anyone can appreciate beauty in all its forms, and anyone can recognize the importance of the concept of beauty in our cultures, societies and behaviors. Plus, men might surprise you by caring to chime in on beauty, looks and grooming.

This makes it a good topic to discuss to get some opinions and various views within a group of students. You could ask questions like:

  • What is “beauty”?
  • What/who do you consider beautiful?
  • What does “inner beauty” mean to you?
  • Do you consider artificial beauty (cosmetic surgery) to still be beauty? Why/why not?
  • How do you feel about the emphasis that people put on beauty these days?
  • What would you tell your children about beauty?

11. Crime

Crime may not be on the top of people’s lists of favorite topics but it’s something that’s talked about. Depending on your adult students’ life experiences, it may be something that has affected their lives. Learning to discuss it could help your students out in the long run. Good discussion questions are:

  • Is crime a big problem in your city/country?
  • Have you ever been a victim of crime?
  • What crime is common in your city/country?
  • What would you do if you noticed a crime being committed?
  • How is the law enforcement in your city/country?

12. Love

Everybody loves love and most people have had some firsthand experience they’d like to talk about. It’s another one of those universal topics that gets the conversation going. Even if it’s not about romantic love and heartbreak, students can talk about familial love with their parents and children, as well as love between friends. Questions like these are good:

  • What is love?
  • Who/what do you love?
  • What good/bad experiences have you had with love?
  • Can you be too young to be in love? Why/why not?
  • How do you feel about love?

13. Goals

We all have goals and talking about them actually gets us more encouraged to do something about them. Sharing goals is also a good thing to help get them done. A good set of questions is:

  • What are your current goals in life?
  • How do you plan to reach your goals?
  • How often do you set goals for yourself?
  • What goals have you set and achieved in the past?
  • How do you feel when you reach your goals?

14. Dreams

We all have dreams, sometimes on a nightly basis, and talking about them is a great discussion topic for classes as they inspire students to be creative and even whimsical. Great questions for this topic include:

  • What kinds of dreams do you have?
  • What do you think dreams mean?
  • How much of your dreams do you remember? Why?
  • What is your opinion on premonitions? Are they real?
  • What are examples of memorable dreams you have had?

15. Restaurants

Along with eating, everybody loves talking about their favorite eateries and restaurants. Some students could even relate to each other with their choices and views. Good questions include:

  • How often do you go to restaurants?
  • What is your favorite restaurant? Why?
  • What do you usually order at a restaurant?
  • What is the restaurant experience like in your country?
  • Have you ever worked in a restaurant?
  • If you owned a restaurant, what kinds of food would you serve?

16. Cooking

Cooking is another topic that may allow for some good conversation. Most people in most countries do a good amount of cooking. A few good questions could be:

  • In your home, who usually cooks?
  • How often do you cook?
  • How well do you cook? What can you cook well?
  • What are the advantages/disadvantages of cooking?
  • What food would you like to learn how to cook?
Esl

17. Money

If there is a topic that everyone loves deep down, it has to be money. People love talking about money. Well, may not if they’re broke—but even if they are, it’s a good, relatable topic that gets conversations going. Great questions include:

  • How well do you manage your money?
  • Why do some people have money problems?
  • What are some good ways to make money?
  • What would you do if I gave you $20/$2,000/$2,000,000?
  • How often do you save money? Why?

18. Shopping

This one is a personal favorite for many. Shopping is becoming more and more prevalent and brings out some zest in some people. They just love shopping! Others feel strongly the other way—very few people are completely neutral on this topic. A few good questions are:

  • Do you enjoy shopping? Why/why not?
  • What is your favorite shop? Why?
  • In your city, where is a good place to go shopping?
  • How do you feel about online shopping?
  • How do you think shopping will be like in the future?

19. Plans

Everybody makes plans and discussing them could even influence the class to start making plans of their own! A few example questions include:

  • How often do you plan things? Why?
  • What are your plans for (________)?
  • What are your plans for your English?
  • What do you think of this quote? “Having no plan is a plan to fail.”
  • Do you have any back-up plans?

20. Books

Books make for a good discussion topic because most people enjoy a good book.

When you read, your mind is filled with new images, feelings, ideas and thoughts. Books also empower and educate people, so your adult students may believe in the value of books. It can be immensely satisfying for adult students to share how they feel about reading. Some questions to ask are:

  • Do you like books/reading? Why/why not?
  • What kind of books do/did you like?
  • What is your favorite book? Why?
  • What was the last book you read?
  • Do you believe reading books/literature is more important than reading stuff online? Why/why not?

21. Sports

Now comes a topic that more men may favor, but it’s still good for classes since female spectators are on the rise. Some students may also have children that enjoy sports! A few good examples are:

  • Do you like sports? Why/why not?
  • How often do you exercise/play sports?
  • Did you play any sports as a child?
  • What sport/physical activity is popular in your country?
  • What is your opinion on professional sports?

22. Life

Life discussions go on in all languages and English is no exception.

Practicing discussions on life is a good topic to cover since everyone has their own views and thoughts on the ubiquitous subject. You could bring up questions like:

  • What is the meaning of life?
  • How is your life going up to this point?
  • What do you think happens after life?
  • What important life lessons have you learned?
  • If tomorrow was your last day to live, what would you do?

23. Television

Television is one of those topics that everyone has an opinion about. The irony of it is that even though more and more programming is viewed on computers and tablets, television is still a hot topic classes love to discuss. Good questions include:

  • How often do you watch TV?
  • Should everyone have a television in their home?
  • What is the best way to watch television: On a television set, computer, tablet or phone?
  • What television programs are popular in your country?
  • What do you think will be the future of television?
  • What is your opinion on television?
  • If you had your own TV show, what would it be like?

24. Learning

Learning is like nature—it’s all around us, even on a subconscious level. Our brains are built to absorb, filter and store information. Discussion about learning could actually stimulate some English learning amongst the students! A few questions that are suitable are:

  • How important is learning? Why?
  • Besides English, what are you currently learning?
  • What things are you good/bad at learning? Why?
  • What would you most like to learn?
  • What is the most difficult part of learning? Why?

25. Movies

Like television, talking about movies is a topic that has something to be said by everybody. I mean, who doesn’t watch movies? A few good questions to be asked could be:

  • What was the last movie you saw? How was it?
  • What is your favorite movie? Why?
  • How are the movies in your country? What are the best ones?
  • How often do you watch movies in English?
  • If there were a movie about your life, what kind of movie would it be? Why?

26. Games

Games are fun and everybody enjoys fun, no?

But in all seriousness, talking about games gets discussion more geared towards past tense, which gives the students a fond sense of nostalgia. Some simple questions could be:

  • What is your favorite game ever?
  • What games did you play as a kid?
  • What games are popular/came from your country?
  • How competitive are you when it comes to games?
  • What games do you still play now? Why?

27. Computers

The year is 2019 and you can’t go a day without talking about computers. A greatly universal topic that could have students discussing quite a few things, which could all relate to real life too! Great questions on this could be:

  • Describe your computer at home/work.
  • What do you usually use a computer for?
  • Do you like computers? Why/why not?
  • What was the first computer you ever had like?
  • What do you think will be the future of computers?

28. Problems

Even though nobody likes to talk about problems, per se, everybody still talks about their problems to other people! Problems are actually a good topic for discussion since they could help others relate to each other and even present solutions too. A few fine examples of questions are:

  • How do you deal with your problems?
  • What problems do you come across in your work or life?
  • Do you feel that problems are opportunities? Why or why not?
  • What was the last problem you solved and how did you do it?
  • “Problems don’t matter. Solutions do.” Do you agree or disagree?

So that’s the list of discussion topics you could use with your ESL classes. Depending on their skill levels, you can feel free to make the questions a bit easier or more challenging.

The best topics are those that are talked about in the students’ own native language (everyday things) and the best questions are usually open-ended as opposed to something that could be answered in a word or two.

It’s also best to avoid topics that could offend students like death, sex, politics and religion—but that’s certainly something that varies from classroom to classroom.

These topics may even inspire you to come up with some of your own, as you’ll begin to understand your students on a deeper level and knows what works and what doesn’t.

Happy discussing!

Oh, and One More Thing…

If you like getting adults highly engaged in learning English, you’ll love using FluentU in your classroom. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.

It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities.

You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”

It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.