A selection of English ESL conversation printables

I give the article for homework. 

The next class we check homework and talk about vocabulary and expressions. 

Students then work together in discussing and completing the various activities. 

This lesson was designed for a 2 hour class for adult intermediates. 

Conversation lesson on saving and money

Print these conversation cards to get your students speaking English. It is called name 5 things. On the card there is a word and the students have to name 5 things that relates to the word. Hope you enjoy.

Conversation Game Cards- Name 5 things

Conversation worksheet. Students are presented with 12 characters and must choose only 5 to take with them to a new planet to restart humanity. Then they must compromise with their partner to choose 5, and then again in a group of 4. (Pyramid discussion).

Each character has positive and negative points, such as the racist farmer/hunter, or the violent chemist. 

Written by a native English speaker and useful for multiple purposes (descriptions, law and order, civilisation, debate techniques, suggestions, opinions, comparative adjectives, superlatives etc.)

Contains instructions and also a possible follow-up activity in which students role-play being on a damaged hot-air balloon approaching a desert island, and students must argue to their peers why they will be useful. Then there is a vote on who will be cast into the ocean!

Conversation: Moving to a New World

Various conversation activities focusing on complaining and blaming language. 



My students seemed to really enjoy this lesson, we all laughed a lot! It was great for working on intonation. 



This lesson was designed for a 2 hour conversation class for adult intermediates. 



Sorry.. this one got really messed up changing to Doc file.. You'll have to fix it in some places. 

Conversation lesson on complaining and blaming 

Conversation starters for list A and list B.

Trinity GESE Grade 10: Conversation Starters

A 21 page action adventure role play set in a zombie apocalypse.

Students will need to use debate and conversation skills to navigate a town and hunt for supplies.  They will talk to random survivors and need to press them for information.  They will need to make informed decisions on tactics and above all STAY ALIVE!

Full solution with game rules, conversation cards, game tokens included.

Map for the game needs to be downloaded here:http://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables_page?id=55614

Zombie Apocalypse debate/conversation role play

It's that time again... all my students are going out of town and missing class, but no one can tell me why! 



This mini lesson gives some English language information about the Korean holiday Chuseok.  

Students answer questions about the reading and then discuss the things they do on Chuseok 



The reading/listening is on the front and questions/discussion is on the back, cut the paper in half and... mini lesson! 



This lesson was designed for a 1 hour class of adult High Beginners and Pre-intermediates. 

Mini Conversation lesson on Korean Chuseok

These can be used in a number of ways.  They were made to set-up a sushi-line conversation in which students practice past simple, present continuous and comparatives.  For example, "73 years ago, people used giant computers.  These days, people are using smaller, faster and cheaper computers."

*Please note that these were made for Thai students, so you might need to change the images to make them more culturally appropriate.

Now and Then Comparison Conversation Cards

Talking about the future lesson.  50 minutes conversation lesson for high school boys.  Adaptable material.  Lesson plan, conversation worksheet, music video activity, and matching activity.  

Future Tenses Gangnam Style Conversations Lesson 

A pain to prep, but it was so worth it.



First we studied the American tall tale about Paul Bunyan. They loved it! Then students worked together to complete the various activities. 



Each student should have a different 2nd page with a different prompt for the story writing. I gave students about a minute before making them pass the story to the next group member. Groups were about 3-4 Ss in each. Each person should be writing on a story at all times. 

They couldn't talk, but laughed the whole time. Wish I had recorded some of the stories they came up with :)  



This lesson was designed for a 2 hour class of adult intermediates. They loved it :) 

Conversation lesson on Stories and Storytelling

The article came from BreakingNewsEnglish, but it has been heavily edited to suit my students. 


I give the article for homework. The next class we do For/Against as a warmer. Then we do the gap fill, vocabulary, and questions. 


Afterwards students work with partners or in groups to complete the various activities. 


The group activity at the end is better for smaller classes. If your class is larger then you might want to check out my murder mystery document. 


This lesson is designed for a 2 hour class. 

Conversation lesson on crime and punishment

Find the killer using communication and giving smart questions. Work with the information given to find the culprit. Teamwork is highly recommended, designed for multiple players.

Murder Mystery Conversation Game - Part 1

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)

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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

1,549 Conversation English ESL worksheets pdf & doc