A selection of English ESL debate, argumentation printables with discussion starters, speaking cards, speaking practice

Discussion starters, speaking cards

Debate, argumentation

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

There are 16 cards in this upload. The questions are dilemmas (What would you do if..) that students need to answer. The cards can be cut out, laminated og you can print them and give one page to each student in pairs of two. 

SPeaking Cards -What would you do if....

Pyramid conversation discussion. Contains instructions. Students work alone to pick 3 items they'd take to a desert island (from a list of mostly useless objects). Then they must compromise with a partner and choose 3 together. Then once again in a group of 4. Works well with opinion vocabulary (I think we should; perhaps we ought to... etc.) and conditionals (if we were to take the sheep, we could..) and many other possible ways.

It will need some modification for younger learners, as one of the pictures is vodka.

Conversation: Desert Island Objects

Useful vocabulary, conversation questions and matching exercises on the topic of alternative versus conventional medicine.  This can be used in conjunction with Tim Minchin's Storm The Animated Movie (which contains swearing)

Alternative Medicine Conversation Class

Conversation starters for list A and list B.

Trinity GESE Grade 10: Conversation Starters

You can use these cards in any agreement / disagreement activity from a book or a photocopy of your choice. Select those expressions you want, print them out in red, green, yellow and blue sheets of paper. Those expressions which mean strong disagreement should be printed on a red sheet; the ones which mean strong agreement, on a green sheet; the ones which imply a mild agreement or disagreement, on a yellow one; and those expressions which are neutral, on a blue sheet.

Make students face a dilemma, a question, a problem, the need of a choice, etc. Spread the cards on the table in front of them. The colours may help students recognise the type of expression they need in every occasion, but it’s not compulsory.

AGREEMENT - DISAGREEMENT CARDS

This one starts the same way as my exercises for SWOT analysis and the job-search worksheets but it also has a debate at the end with debating cards included. Good practice for students of business English or geeks that love TV shows. There is an answer key for the final mix and match exercise but everything is pretty subjective. Be prepared to field questions on vocab after each student reads their sections aloud in class.





Strength and Weakness Adjectives - TV - Exercise and Debate

This worksheet is to begginers to revise what they have already learned during the English classes.

There are twenty questions about question words, present simple, adverbs of frequency, can/can't, past simple and how much and how many.

There isn't a solution.

Begginers Conversation Questions

This is an idea I took from an FCE coursebook when I lost the original. It involves two groups of students - one group owns a house with spare rooms and the other group is looking for a place to live. 

The first group must come up with rules (You must not smoke; Parties are allowed; You needn't cook for everyone) etc. while the other group thinks of questions to ask when they meet (Can we smoke? Are we allowed pets? etc.)



Then they meet and chaos ensues while they argue over rules, and ultimately, decide whether they would live together.

New Housemates - Roleplay

This worksheet is designed to provide learners with a brief history of the festival Halloween and a ghost story. They are then tested on their understanding of the text as well as asked to discuss what various text means. There is then are then discussion questions at the end along with a word-search. 

Halloween - reading and comprehension

This is a complete class. It should last about and hour and a half. First, there is a reading done in the style of Part 1 of the Reading and Use of English section of the FCE exam although, having done it a few times already, I have to say it's vocabulary is more akin to CAE. This is followed by a debate relating to the reading. There is then a dice game relating to traffic stops by police. There then follows a short role-play. An answer sheet is provided for the first part. Thank you to Esther for suggesting the idea.





Traffic Lights FCE/CAE practice - With Debate, Game and Role-Play

In this card game, students will pick a card and correct (if need be) the statement on the card. This game is all about accuracy and form and no emphasis is placed on fluency. 

Find the mistake- "expressing opinions" card game

Questions to get students thinking about Imagination and Knowledge; may be used as a written activity or to have an oral debate in the classroom. Part I works like a warm up; part II needs a little research on the web; part III is helps in the debate itself.

32 Debate, argumentation, Discussion starters, speaking cards, Speaking Practice English ESL worksheets pdf & doc