Searching for conversation topics for your ESL class? Keep your ESL students talking with our comprehensive list of conversation starters, selected to reflect the dynamic and ever-changing world we live in. This list is updated regularly as news stories appear.
TEFL Warmer Questions for 2025
MEMORIES
- Tell me about a special place you have visited. Why did it make such an impression on you?
- Tell me about your best holiday experience.
- Tell me about some of the holidays that you used to have as a child.
- What is your favourite season and why? Tell me some memories of this season for you.
FUTURE
- Tell me about somewhere you would like to visit in the future and why.
- Is there anything you would like to learn in the future, just for fun?
PERSONAL
- What is your philosophy about how to live a healthy life?
- Do you prefer to live in the countryside or the city and why?
- Are talented people born or made, do you think?
- Are you a night-owl or an early-bird and has that influenced your life?
- Have your tastes changed as you have got older? If so, how?
- Are you superstitious and is there anything you do for good luck?
YOUR CITY
- What are the ‘must-sees’ and things to avoid for tourists who come to your city?
- What is the biggest problem in your city? What would you do about it, if you were mayor?
- Around Europe mayors are pedestrianising city centres or limiting car access. What are the pros and cons of this policy and would it work in your city?
ART AND HISTORY
- Do you like art? Tell me about your favourite artist.
- Tell me about your philosophy about interior design.
- If you could time travel to any period in history, when would it be and why?
- Tell me about a historical figure, writer, artist or inventor you admire. Tell me about their life story.
FOOD
- Tell me your favourite recipe. Can you tell me how to cook it step-by-step?
- What dishes in your country does everyone know how to cook?
SHOPPING
- ‘Shrinkflation’ from the words ‘shrink’ and ‘inflation’ expresses the phenomenon when food manufactures shrink packets of food to maintain profit margins rather than increasing the price. Is this happening in your country and can you tell me about it?
- Since the increase in inflation, discount supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl have exploded in popularity in the UK. Is this similar in your country and tell me about supermarkets in your country.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE INTERNET
- What are the benefits and challenges of AI for society, and will it affect jobs?
- How has the pandemic accelerated technological change, do you think?(cashless payments, banking apps, working from home, has bureaucracy got easier?)
- Do you have nostalgia for any old technology and if so, which ones?
- Are you a techno-optimist or a techno-pessimist, or something in between?
- Australia has just banned social media for children under 16, what are your thoughts about this and should social media be regulated in any way?
- Has the internet changed your sector, and if so, in what way?
TV AND MEDIA
- How have streaming platforms changed music, film and TV series, do you think?
- With the popularity of subscription models for TV, music, software and car leasing do you think it will soon be normal not to own much more than basic items? Quote: World Economic Forum 2021: ‘You will own nothing and you will be happy.’
- Tell me about terrestrial TV in your country: is there a mix of state a private broadcasters and what is your opinion about this? Also, what is the future of terrestrial TV in the face of streaming platforms like Netflix?
HEALTH
- The UK imposed a sugar tax on soft drinks such as Coco-cola and Fanta to help fight obesity. What do you think of this policy and is it the job of governments to influence the diets of people or should it be a personal choice?
- The UK has recently introduced a law banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2009 – for the rest of their lives. What do you think of this policy and would it work in your country?
SOCIETY
- Retirement age in the developed world is increasing and in Denmark has just reached 70. Is it practical or right to keep raising the age as we live longer or is there a limit?
- Are there differences between the expectations, attitudes and lifestyles of the different generations, do you think? And if so, what are they?
- In light of climate change and the energy crisis, what is your opinion of alternative sources of energy such as renewable energy and nuclear?
- If you were the minister of education, what polices would you implement to improve the education system.
- In the last years TED Talks have become 6 minutes shorter on average. Speakers have said this is because audiences no longer have the attention span to listen to a full-length talk. Have attention spans got shorter? How has this happened? And is it possible to get this ability back?
- By 2035 the EU and the UK will have banned the sale of new fossil fuel cars, will we be ready to transition to EVs?
TEFL Lesson Plans
For detailed TEFL lesson plans check out the following pages:
