esl speaking
The 10 Best Questions to Break the Ice and Practice English
The following 10 questions will help you start a casual conversation in English and keep it going along an interesting line.
The first five questions will help you get to know people. These are simple questions that require simple answers and that give you information so that you can keep asking.
The last five questions will help you maintain a conversation and discover more about the person’s likes and dislikes.
1. What’s your name?
This is a basic question that can prompt an interesting exchange of information.
After the person answers, you can reply:
- “It’s a pleasure to meet you”
- “Where are you from?”
- “That’s an interesting name. Is it French, Indian, Russian…?”
2. Where do you live?
To keep the conversation going, you can ask:
- “How long have you lived there?”
- “Do you like it there?”
- “Do you live in an apartment or a house?”
3. What do you do?
You can find common ground with other people when you know what they do. After breaking the ice, you can follow with something like this:
- “Which company do you work for?”
- “How long have you had that job?”
- “Do you like your job?”
- “What’s the best/worst thing about your job?”
- “What do you like the most/least about your job?”
4. Are you married?
If the person answers “yes”, other questions to ask are:
- “How long have you been married?”
- “Where did you get married?”
- “What does your wife/husband do?”
- “Do you have children?”
If the answer is “no”, you may ask:
- “Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend?”
- “Do you like single life?”
- “Would you like to get married someday?”
5. Where are you from?
It is always interesting to know where other people come from, even more so if they are foreigners. Keep the conversation going by asking:
- “Where is …?”
- “How long did you live there?”
- “What is … like?”
- “Do you like it here?”
6. What do you like to do in your free time?
This is a great question to discover common interests. You can ask:
- “How often do you (eat out in restaurants, play video games, go to the opera, etc.)?”
- “Where do you (eat out in restaurants, play video games, go to the opera, etc.) in town?”
- “Why do you like (eating out, playing video games, going to the opera) so much?”
7. Can you play soccer/ tennis/ basketball/ etc.?”
Ask about any sport you personally like and are a fan of. Keep it going with:
- “Do you enjoy playing soccer/ tennis/ basketball/ etc.?”
- “How long have you played soccer/ tennis/ basketball/ etc.?”
- “Who do you play soccer/ tennis/ basketball/ etc. with?”
- “Would you like to get together sometime to play soccer/ tennis/ basketball/ etc.?”
8. What kinds of films/ food/ vacations do you enjoy?
This topic offers great opportunities to learn new things. Keep asking:
- “What’s the best place to see/ eat/ go on vacation?”
- “What’s your favorite kind of films/ food/ vacation?”
- “How often do you watch films/ eat out/ go on vacation?”
9. What do you do on weekends?
You can find new ways to have fun and even make a new friend. Keep the conversation going along the lines of:
- “Where do you go to …?”
- “Can you recommend a good place to (go shopping/ take my children for a swim/ go dancing)?”
- “How long have you done that?”
10. What kind of music do you like?
Find out more by asking:
- “Where do you go to listen to music?”
- “Do you play a musical instrument?”
- “Have you been to many concerts lately?”
You can use all of these questions in one conversation or use them separately to practice English outside of your ESL class, but remember that the most important thing when meeting people is to keep an open mind and enjoy the experience. This is the best way to learn!
If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our ESL blog as the original source).
Use English as a Native Speaker
Many call center recruiters know that the prospects with the most diplomas and certificates extended by the best English institutes are not always the ones that speak more fluently. This is due to a basic fact: usually, institutes focus more on writing and grammar than on speaking and listening skills, the reason being that most teachers were taught that way, and, as they are not native speakers, they don’t have good speaking skills themselves. This is, of course, the case in general, but there are always exceptions.
Call centers, among many other businesses, need people that know how to speak better than they write. Of course, overall knowledge, as covered in ESL lessons, is preferred, but recruiters know that oral communication is essential in today’s changing world. This means proficiency in verbal and listening skills, and any student that wants to progress with the English language should take this into serious consideration.
One of the biggest barriers English learners will face is their own language. Teachers get tired of repeating the same: “Think in English”. But most students find this impossible: they tend to think in their own language and then translate that into English. This creates, at least, two problems: one, is that the translation is literal (similar to what you would expect from Google Translator, for instance) and two, that the whole process takes double the time than what it would normally take if no translation were necessary.
Another big challenge is vocabulary and grammar. English is a dinamic language, and is expanded every day. Recently, for example, the term “Web 2.0″ was accepted as a new English term. Even if this is a commonly used term and most people know it, there are others that are not so well-known. Native speakers have daily access to words and learn everyday how to use new ones. People that don’t live in English-speaking countries have, however, fewer opportunities in this sense. But the great advantage English has, as opposed to other languages, is that there is a vast variety of audio and video material to get reference from and this way learn to listen and speak fluently. Of course, you should make sure the movies are not dubbed, but subtitled. In some countries, like Spain, movies are distributed officially without subtitles, that is, dubbed in Spanish by Spanish actors. This is meant to preserve their language. But if that’s your case, you can find online lots of movies, music, and videos in English, so that you can learn directly from the source and study different accents and ways of speaking, apart from the use of idioms and expressions of daily use.
Debating Your Way to Higher English Proficiency
The XXII edition of the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) was held from the 9th through the 19th of February in Athens, Greece.
Since 1988, the WSDC is a truly global debating competition for high school level debaters. Each participant country may send a three to five debater squad made up of full-time students of age 19 or younger. All debates take place in English, which is obviously a foreign or second language for most of the competitors. For an English speaker a debate is a challenge of mind deftness and oratory skills. For foreign English speakers, it is the ultimate test of language proficiency.
This year’s winner, the team from New Zealand, was integrated by Maria English, Holly Jenkins, Ben Kornfeld, Jen Savage, Tom Chen and Coaches Julia Fetherston and Kevin Moar. The subjects debated are not simple or non-controversial. This year included debates worthy of experienced statesmen and politicians, such as the pre-selection of human embryos, the use of civilian nuclear energy and privatization of public services.
The aims of the WSDC are stated as follows:
- To achieve excellence in debating
- To encourage debating throughout the world
- To promote international understanding
- To promote free speech
Every country is invited to participate in the WSDC, although debate team selection is left up to each country’s criteria. Most participants in this competition are students in bilingual schools and ESL students. Both private and public schools around the world promote certain programs such as debate competitions, Spelling Bee competitions, or preparation for the First Certificate in English test or the TOEFL to encourage students to excel in their English speaking, writing and reading skills.
While an international debate competition is certainly an exclusive engagement, debate competitions held in ESL programs are highly beneficial to the general learning experience of the student. Debating requires reflection and verbalization of sometimes complex arguments. The team work involved is also beneficial, as this engages students with different language proficiency levels and motivates them to reach a higher level of communication in English.
To organize your own debates for ESL or EFL practice, take the following into account:
- It’s best to have teams debate each other, as the teamwork experience enhances the learning experience
- Balance the English proficiency of each debating team, by including different proficiency level students in each competing squad
- Select controversial, but non-offensive subjects so as to engage every student into the discussion, without regard to his or her origin
- Draft a set of non-complicated rules to guide your competition; times allotted, forbidden argument tactics, for example
- -End the contest with a summary of every participating team’s best arguments. This could make for an excellent composition exercise
The most important thing is to have fun and make the experience one of true English language proficiency improvement.
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