35 English Conversation Class Topics for Teaching

Getting the conversation flowing and learners interacting is important so that 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. It helps to create a positive learning environment where everyone feels they can contribute.

Here, we’ve gathered together some great topic ideas that you can use to start up some conversations in your ESL conversation lessons for adults or children.

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 different questions you can use as prompts to give to your learners.

Are you in rush? Don't worry! You can download these converstation prompt cards to start up some converstaions in your class! 

Conversation Game: Have a Conversation Cards

35 English Conversation Class Topics for Teaching

1. Family

• What family members do you live with?

• What family members are you close to?

• Do you have any siblings?

These flashcards will also helps your ESL learner to describe their family members.

Family Members Flashcards

2. Friends

• Who is your best friend?

• What do you and your friends do together?

• What’s your favourite memory you’ve shared with a friend?

3. Holidays

• Where is your favourite place to go on holiday?

• If you could go anywhere in the world for a holiday, where would you go?

• What is your favourite holiday experience?

4. Games

• What are your favourite 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?

5. Shopping

• What is your favourite thing to buy?

• How often do you go shopping?

• Do you like/dislike shopping? Why?

For beginner ESL learners, you could check out this Silly Dialogues Activity to improve speaking fluency.

Silly Dialogues for Beginner ESL Students

6. Home Town

• What’s your area like?

• Do you like where you live? Why?

• What’s the best/worst thing about where you live?

7. 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?

8. School

• What’s your favourite subject? Why?

• What’s your least favourite subject? Why?

• What’s the best thing about going to school?

If you look for Conversation prompts for back to school for ESL, this resource is brilliant for you!

Back to School ESL Conversation Cards [Kids, B1]

9. 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?

Tese flashcards are helpful for ESL when talking about jobs! 

Common Jobs Word Flashcards

10. Food

• What’s your favourite food?

• What’s your least favourite food?

• What would you choose as your last meal?

If you’re looking for more ways for your learners to have some conversation practise, you can check out these handy Question Cards.

Question Cards For Conversation Practice

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. Restaurants

• What’s your favourite restaurant? What kind of food does it serve?

• Describe a bad restaurant experience.

• If you had your own restaurant, what would it be like?

14. Sports

• Do you enjoy playing sports? Why?

• What’s your favourite/least favourite sport?

• Do you enjoy watching sports? Why/why not?

15. Superpowers

• What superpower would you have if you could have any?

• What do you think the world would be like if there were real superheroes?

• Would you rather be a superhero or a supervillain?

For a fun game to practise conversation skills, check out this Conversational Snakes and Ladders Game! Games are a great way to keep learning engaging and fun.

Conversational Snakes and Laddersd

16. Money

• If you had all the money in the world, what would you buy?

• Is money important? Why?

• Can money be a bad thing?

17. Would You Rather

• Would you rather be an astronaut or an actor?

• Would you rather learn how to fly a plane or a rocket ship?

• Would you rather live under the sea or in space?

This resource is also fantastic to do Would You Rather Game! 

Would You Rather...? PowerPoint Game

18. Gifts

• What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

• What’s the worst?

• Do you enjoy giving gifts? Why?

19. Weather

• Do you prefer it when it’s warm or cold?

• Do you like the snow? Why?

• What’s your favourite summer memory?

20. Films

• What’s your favourite film genre? Why?

• What’s your favourite film?

• If you could pick any film character to be, who would you choose?

You could use this Film Review Template with your learners to further develop their language skills on that topic. You could use this worksheet as a conversation starter, asking learners to discuss what they’ve written and why.

Film Review Writing Template

21. Books

• Do you enjoy reading? Why?

• What’s your favourite type of book?

• Why is reading really good for you?

22. Celebrations

• Do you celebrate your birthday? How?

• What is your favourite festival/celebration?

• If you could create your own new national holiday/festival/celebration, what would it be for? What would happen?

23. Feelings

• When was the happiest you’ve ever been?

• When was the angriest you’ve ever been?

• What scares you the most?

24. 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?

25. Seasons

• What’s the best season?

• What’s the worst season?

• Describe the differences between each season.

You can take a look at these weather and seasons resources to further develop learning around the topic.

26. 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 any more? Why don’t you do it?

27. Television

• What’s your favourite TV show?

• What do you like about watching TV?

• Who is your favourite TV show character?

28. Desert Island

• If you had to live on a desert island with one person, who would it be?

• Which three items would you take to a desert island and why?

• What do you think would be the hardest thing about living on a desert island?

29. Music

• Do you enjoy listening to music? What kind?

• How does listening to music make you feel?

• Who is your favourite artist/singer?

These music instruments cards are also fantastic to prompt convsation! 

Music Classroom Resource Labels

30. Birthdays

• Do you enjoy celebrating your birthday? Why?

• How did you spend your last birthday?

• If you could choose to do anything in the world, how would you spend your next birthday?

To focus more on the topic of birthdays, you could check out this Birthday Party Scene Writing Stimulus Picture to further develop learners’ vocabulary.

Birthday Party Scene Writing Stimulus Picture

31. Dreams

• What’s the last dream that you can remember? What happened in it?

• What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?

• What’s the best dream you’ve ever had?

32. Animals

• What’s your favourite 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?

33. 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?

34. Celebrities

• Do you have a favourite celebrity? Who is it and why?

• Do you think celebrities are important? Why?

• Would you like to be a celebrity? Why/why not?

35. Fears

• What are you most afraid of and why?

• Can you describe a time when you faced a fear?

• Why do you think we develop fears of certain things? Why don’t we all have the same fears?

For another fun speaking activity, check out this great video below!

And if you’re also looking for helpful ESL conversation activities, you can check out this video.

We hope that these ESL conversation lessons for adults and children have inspired some engaging conversations in your classroom. And, depending on the ability level of your learners, you could always add more complex questions, or even simpler ones. These topics are just a great starting point for you to get those mouths moving. And hopefully, you’ve also picked up some handy resources along the way for you to use in class to support these topics.

If you’re looking for any extra tips for your ESL learners, you can check out our range of videos, created by experienced ESL teachers. Or check out our incredible range of resources, sorted by ability level, skill and topic.