A selection of English ESL conversation starter ppt slides

Every slide has a debate statement. Students must state if they agree or if they disagree. They must then explain why they agree or disagree. This helps generate debate and discussion.

Agree or Disagree

A speaking activity among ESL students and teachers.

This could be use as a warm-up conversation where in your students just got home from job and you don't want to start with the lesson proper.

DAILY LIFE CONVERSATION

I intended these quotes to serve as discussion starters in a class about big questions. Feel free to keep whichever quote you like best, or feel would serve best to spark a discussion. Think beforehand about what you would ask about your favorite quotes.



As a starter, you can ask students to first finish the sentence: "Life ..." or "Life is ..." 



You can also practice the second conditional by asking students to finish sentences about how they would live their life if they were various people, or in a various situations, e.g.



If I were a homeless person, I would …

If I were dying, I would …

If I were rich, I would …

If I were my teacher, I would …

If I were born the opposite gender, I would …

If I were gay, I would …



Bless up,

Kisdobos

Life. Discussion starter

The objective of this lessons is to have the students describe what they see. The pictures are photoshopped and they can use lines as: it looks like, I think that, there is, there are, etc. It is supposed to be an interactive lesson, in which the teacher and the student can talk about what the student is describing and what he thinks about the picture.

Describe what you see

I made a 30 question PowerPoint presentation on America. (Obviously things differ depending on what part of the country you are from. You can always change an answer if you do something differently in your state.) 

American Culture Quiz

I made 30 questions about board, card, tabletop, and dice games. If the students don't know what some of the games are you can explain them. Then have them explain some games from their country that you've never heard of. 

GAMES Conversation Questions

This PowerPoint contains prompts by way of images and suggestions to build up on selected  themes for public speaking. Individuals may be asked to speak solo after a  conversation within the group based on the topics  referred to by the images. The speaker may be permitted to use the mouse and speak on topics prompted by the ideas. 

Public Speaking Practice With  Prompts

This is a powerpoint presentation I prepared for my conversation class (intermediate onwards). It contains some vocabulary activities, discussion questions, and a short video. The spinning wheel at the end is meant to work as a "Speak for a minute about..." activity). It took me several classes to complete the whole set of activities, as everybody had something to say!

I suggest using different types of grouping for the various activities.

IMPORTANT:

My class is quite relaxed, we're pretty much the same age and we get on well, but the situations to give advice nearly at the end might not be appropriate for some groups.

Relationships: conversation class for adults

Restaurant Dialogue with Vocabulary for China middle and high school students.  After warm up, introduce new food vocabulary (modify at will), and use discussion questions.  Practice the dialogue together and have several groups rehears in front of the class, then introduce new language, have students write their own food dialogues.  The flavors bitter/salty/sweet can be useful if they don't know those yet,

Western Food Dialogue and Vocabulary Slides

ESL Conversation Class. I created this slide for pair working, but you can use it as you want. ^^ It has 9 questions about birthdays. I hope you will have fun :)

Birthday Conversation

Designed as an intercultural lesson, however this is suitable for general English also. Good for levels B1-C1, a complete lesson with warmer, discussion and a link to a video. 

Culture and stereotypes

A Jeopardy quiz to test A1-A2 pupils on topics: family, food, school and shopping. 25 fun questions on 4 topics, some are timed. The Jeopardy quiz supports the first 4 topics of the 24 PowerPoint conversation topics at www.activeenglish.cz

Jeopardy quiz (A1): famiily, food, school, shopping

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

For personal or classroom use only. Uploading on other internet sharing platforms or any commercial use NOT PERMITTED. Share Alike.

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Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License

how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

60 Conversation starter English ESL powerpoints