Over the years, I have taught many EFL/ESL conversation classes. At times, it has been tough to get students to have a conversation in English. For that reason, I’ve come up with a free EFL/ESL conversation activity that creates numerous entry points for EFL/ESL students to enter into a conversation in English. It’s called “Conversation Starters”.
Step 1: Choose a theme/topic to be discussed.
Step 2: Take a piece of paper and cut it into horizontal strips. Write a discussion statement on each strip. Come up with at least ten discussion statements. For example, a topic could be “school” and a discussion statement could be “everybody learns at school” or “all teachers know how to teach”.
Step 3: Divide the group into subgroups of no more than six people. Give each subgroup two or more discussion statements.
Step 4: Have students discuss the statements with members of their subgroup. Allow sufficient time for each participant to participate.
Step 5: Walk around and observe each subgroup. Write down any grammar or vocabulary mistakes and/or any improvements that could be made. Go over them with the whole group after students have finished discussing their statements.
Step 6: Invite subgroups to pass their statements to the next group and repeat steps 4 and 5.
Step 7: Pick one of the themes/topics and open up a conversation.