A selection of English ESL talk for a minute printables

Let students pair up and have them talk for 10 minutes using the upload. It has two pages with questions and a picture.

Quickie 2A/B

Get the FREE PDF here with Teacher's Notes and Poem Writing activity here ..





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This is a great speaking activity to develop fluency for talking about Valentine’s day. Students take turns choosing a question to ask another student in their group. The other student must answer the question and aim to speak for at least 1 minute to ensure they get lots of speaking practice.  This task is followed by a ‘write your own Valentine’s poem’ activity.





We have a teacher’s copy (including teacher’s notes) and a student version which you can email to your class for online lessons.





Level:  This is suitable for B1-C1 level students.





Time:  45 mins +





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Valentine's Speaking Task

IN FCE SPEAKING TEST, PART 2, candidates have to talk for a minute about a pair of photographs. Here are some phrases to help them! FIRST PUBLISHED BY MYSELF IN THE ESLPRINTABLES WEBSITE IN NOVEMBER 2011.

USEFUL PHRASES TO COMPARE  PHOTOGRAPHS

With this board game students will practice speaking about familiar topics (house, family, favourites etc). Although this board game was designed with lower-level learners in mind, it could be very useful for higher-level groups as well in order to consolidate vocabulary and improve fluency as most topics are vital for having a friendly chat with strangers. You could also set a minimum speaking time (say 30 seconds for Elementary students and 1 minute for Intermediate students) depending on your class. I also strongly suggest you encourage other students to ask follow-up questions in order to keep the conversation going.

Board Game - Let's Talk About (Elementary)

I introduced the lesson by asking students to talk to their partner for 2 minutes (or 3) then I had them change partners and talk again for 2(3) minutes. Afterwards they reported what their partners said. 



Next we explored the small talk topic with a listening gapfill. 

Afterwards students worked together to complete the various activities. 



This lesson was designed for a 2 hour class of adult intermediates. 

It seems simple, but the students really enjoyed practicing small talk. 

Conversation lesson on small talk and finding something to talk about

This is a B1-level reading activity designed for teenage girls, focused on the topic of social media and the pressure to be perfect. The article explores how social media creates unrealistic expectations, why people compare themselves to others, and how to feel more confident in real life.

The worksheet includes a relatable and age-appropriate reading text, followed by comprehension questions, discussion prompts, and a vocabulary matching task with seven key words from the article. Suitable for students around 15 years old.

Ideal for reading practice, conversation classes, or as part of a lesson on self-image, mental health, or teen life.

Skills practiced: reading, vocabulary, speaking, emotional awareness
Level: B1
Estimated time: 45 minutes

The Pressure to Be Perfect

This is a good icebreaker for new students to get to know each other. The idea of this game is for each student to get to talk to as many colleagues as possible and find out pieces of information about them.

I have a mixed class (starters and movers) so this activity is appropriate for them. They enjoy this type of activity and they can complete it in about 15-20 minutes. After they have completed the task, we discuss about what their answers.

Question Chart

CL game quiz & exchange or as a One minute speaking Group of 3. student A draws a card and speaks for one minute about the question. Student B tracks time and student C asks questions in case student A runs out of things to say before time is up. The 21 cards can easily be extended with more questions.



Talking with a classmate CL

This is a mingling role play activity for intermediate to advanced students. There are 12 character profiles. Each profile has a strength and weakness and they must promote themselves to the other students so they do not get voted off the boat/island. I like to make the students vote every 10-15 minutes. Students who are voted out still participate by sharing talking and listening to others and sharing their opinions for who should be kicked out next, but they cannot vote or promote themselves anymore. This is a lesson I created for our schools 'extra speaking lessons' that are offered once a month. They are usually 60 minutes lessons where the goal is to get students to practice speaking 100% of the class.

Boat/Island Survival Mingling Role Play Activity

This ‘Olympic Sports Activity’ is great for building Olympic sport vocabulary while developing fluency in describing things. It also provides an opportunity for practising relative clauses. Students take turns describing the sports on their card to a partner, and their partner must guess which sport they are describing.


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Olympic Sports Activity

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

World Laughter Day is the 5th of May!

This is a great speaking activity to develop fluency and improve vocabulary when talking about humour. Students take turns choosing a question to ask another student in their group. The other student must answer the question and aim to speak for at least 1 minute to ensure they get lots of speaking practice. There’s also a follow-up homework activity.


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Let's Talk about Humour

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

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how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

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how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

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how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

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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

95 Talk for a minute English ESL worksheets pdf & doc