Question of the day | ESL Conversation Lessons

Try something new for 30 days

I recently read the book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. In the book, the main character visits a library in a parallel dimension where each book represents one of her possible lives…should she have made different choices. The journey takes us into multiple different versions of this character, Nora Seed. She is a rock star, a mother, a glaciologist, an Olympic swimmer, a philosophy professor and the list goes on. In each life, Seed has the luxury of measuring the level of happiness and fulfillment the different paths procure her.

What if

It is the classic “what if”, question. Of course, it got me thinking of my own life. Then, instead of delving into regretted choices or getting depressed about what could have been, I thought of this TED talk by Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days. Since we cannot travel into parallel universes to see what could have been, Cutts’ idea is the next best thing.

Parallel Lives for 30 Days

We have all heard it before, we must step out of our comfort zone to grow…right? Cutt’s takes this to the next level with his self-imposed 30-day challenge. What I like about Cutt’s talk, is it gives a more tangible objective to this idea of trying new things. It may not be as profound as the Midnight Library, but it’s a start. After all, what’s 30 days?

Warm-up

What new thing would you like to try but haven’t yet?
What does it mean to “step out of your comfort zone”?
What are the benefits of doing new things? Any disadvantages?
What are the benefits of sticking with what you know? Any disadvantages?

The Video: Try something new for 30 days

Discussion Questions

Why does Matt think this is a good idea?
What did it change in his life?
What areas of our lives could we apply this to? Make a Mind Map…
Do you have any spontaneous ideas that you might like to try for 30 days?

What makes you feel grateful?

Let’s talk about gratefulness: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Level: A2, B1, B2, C1
Text comprehension
Handout 0.99$ on TPT

Language focus: prepositions, vocabulary building
Media: Article and video

Is it me, or does gratefulness seem to be the miracle serum of the millennium? Everywhere I look, someone is singing its praises. Instagram posts, articles, scientific and not-so-scientific, books, shorts, reels, TED talks, you name it, and there’s a gratitude champion behind it. Want to rewire your brain for happiness? Gratefulness. Hoping to live longer, control inflammation, push away degenerative brain afflictions? Gratefulness. It seems to be the miracle balm of our century.

Authenticity vs. Gratefulness

Don’t get me wrong.–I am authentically grateful for many, many things in my life. I have genuine awe for little things, like the poetry of the billowy plumes that float over buildings on cold winter days, the comforting hum of my family bustling around while I’m cooking dinner, my dog’s deep soul-soothing snores, and gossiping with my mother. And of course, the sun–how can you not be grateful for the sun?

But there are days when stress takes the wheel. Days where you watch loved ones slip away into Alzheimer’s, when people say goodbye to their pets, their friends, or–unthinkably–their children. On those days, life can be downright cruel.

And you know what, I think it’s ok to let it suck. To sit with the pain and be human–without the looming guilt of neglecting your gratefulness practice. Life can be heavy and you don’t always have to look for the silver lining.

When the Clouds Move Over

That said–and I think it needed to be said first–when the clouds part and life finds its way to a steady plateau, practicing gratefulness (or as I tend to think of it–hunting silver linings) can truly brighten a day that much more. I also believe in the “practice” of gratefulness much like one practices meditation or yoga. I think we have to make a conscious effort to see the little things that make us feel safe, happy and comforted. Otherwise is it all too easy to see the glass-half-empty version of our lives.

But mostly it is a fairly easy topic to generate thoughts–and discussion.

The lesson that follows features a simple yet insightful article by Positive Psychology. com. I chose it not because I want to turn this blog into a therapeutic resource (except for me), but because I hope you will find the language relatively accessible.

Warm Up

The article features the Iceberg of Gratitude. I would use this as a pre-reading exercise and perhaps do a quick word association.

Read the article: What is Gratitude and Why Is It So Important? by Tiffany Sauber Millacci, Ph.D.

You can download the Teachers Pay Teachers handout for comprehension questions, or simply use these discussion questions.

Discussion Questions

Why do you think some people feel disappointed instead of grateful?
How can gratitude make life better for you?
What is one thing you have that you consider a blessing?
Why is practicing gratitude difficult for some people?
Why do you think some people feel disappointed instead of grateful?
What are different ways you can express gratitude?

Why do new years resolutions fail?

Level: B1, B2, C1
Exercise: Comprehension questions included int he post

Language focus: past tense, future tense, behaviours, habits, modals
Media: Video

I know, I know…it’s a cliché to talk about New Year’s resolutions in January, but I think it still makes for a good introspective discussion. And if you angle it right, you are creating a great natural context to use the past and future tense.

Did you know that January comes from the Roman God Janus. He had two faces: one facing back to reflect on the past and one facing forward to think about the future. Watch this PBS video snippet about why New years resolutions fail (3.22 min.).

Warm up

Get the brain juices going with this question: what was the wackiest resolution you have ever taken? e.g. exercise twice a day, quit drinking red wine forever, get a pet, etc. If you need some inspiration, check out this list. 63 Funny New Year’s Resolution
Then make some predictions: What are some of the features of new years goals that make them difficult to achieve?

The Video: PBS Learning Media Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail

It is a relatively short video so depending on the level of your students you could watch the whole thing or cut it up.

Video Comprehension Questions

First, do a Tell Back of the video and write down all the key vocabulary and concepts.
Why do resolutions fail?
What are the “psychological traps” that make resolutions difficult?
Why can making resolutions be bad for us?
How can we make “smart” resolutions? In other words, what are the features of good resolutions?
What do you think about the presenters’ t-shirt (I threw that in just for fun)

General Discussion

What are some of the things you did last year that surprised you?
What obstacles did you overcome?
What were some changes that happened in your life?
What were some good books you read?
What were some good deeds you did?
What are some things you would like to do this year?
Are there any changes you would like to make?
Anything you would like to learn?
What are your personal or professional goals?

If you want to do something a little different, you could also have students create a quick mind map of the year and talk about it after they get a few ideas down.

Have a great lesson!

I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for supporting eslconversationlessons.com and wish you a great year full of fruitful discussions. Discussion is the tie that bind us together and breaks isolation, depression and puts our ideas in the collective. Mélanie

What is your comfort food?

What is your comfort food? I dare you to NOT think of the answer. Too late? I bet your favourite dish is already in your mind. Maybe you are even seeing a memory or a person attached to this dish. Is it something your mother made when you were sick? Something you eat at Christmas? Is it sweet or salty?

Healthy…probably not

Chances are your comfort food is not too healthy. Right? Generally speaking, comfort foods are hardy, starchy and fatty. All great words that describe food. And that is exactly what you will find in this Insider Food video featuring 20 different people from 20 different cultures describing their comfort food.

But it makes me happy

Food makes people happy, conjures memories, and heals us when we are sick or sad and is often the heart of most celebrations. It is also a super fun thing to talk about. It ties in food, feelings, events and people, thus a nice integrated vocabulary exercise. The perfect Whole Language exercise.

While you listen

This video is chalk-a-block full of vocabulary, so I made a Google docs handout available through Teachers Pay Teachers to help collect the essential ideas. Or you can try this cool interactive worksheet. Of course, if you are working with more advanced students, you might want to ditch the handout and just let the students note what they can. Rember you can turn the CC on and slow down the video.

Pre Discussion

Just to get the food words flowing, do a Mind Map
What is your comfort food?
Why?

The Video: 20 Comfort Foods From around the world

Discussion

Which story did you find the most interesting?
Which dish have you tried?
Which dish would you like to try?
What do most of the dishes have in common?
What were some of the reasons the dishes were considered comforting?

How would you describe yourself? Here are 16 Personalities full of juicy descriptor words

Level: B2, C1
Questions embeded in the activity

Language focus: adjectives, descriptors, personal traits
Media: interactive quiz (reading)

How would you describe yourself? Tell us about you? Why hire you rather than someone else? Could you tell the class a few things about yourself? From job interviews to cocktail parties, this question can crop up in so many places. Yet whether I ask it or answer it, it always seems to create a moment dead air that can be a little awkward.

Being in the Spotlight

Even if it’s a pretty basic question, it does require that you expose yourself. And if you don’t want to expose yourself, well that kind of exposes you anyway. In other words, if you answer you have to say stuff, and if you don’t, well that says something too. That challenge basically boils down to the whole introvert, extrovert, ambivert dimension (see the lesson for more on that).

I Need More Word-Thingies

The second challenge in answering is of course vocabulary–which is what makes it a great ESL conversation lesson. This question will inevitably trigger the need for adjectives and descriptors. Once you have used up the garden variety, “I’m a hard-working person”, “I am perseverant” (because most language learners are), “I am sensitive”, even a native speaker may be at a loss for something to say. Or the opposite might happen, so many things start tumbling out of your mouth, you don’t know what to choose and when to stop.

A Little Preparation and Practice Never Hurt

I’m not saying we should prepare a one-size-fits-all speech that we learn by heart and recite anytime we are asked…that would be weird. But full disclosure, I myself have put some thought into this question and I do sometimes practice in my head…yep. I even have a first day of class version, a job interview version and a small talk version.

Hungry for Words

If you are hungry for words, one of my students recommended this great psycho-quiz called 16 Personalities. I use it in a job searching workshop to train students to answer the famed “tell me about yourself” interview question. The site is super well done, full of varied adjectives and descriptors and the questions are succinct, thought-provoking and fairly simple.

Warm-up

Read through the personalities with your students
Clear up any vocabulary issues
Have them predict which personality correcponds to them

Le quiz: 16 Personalities

Discussion

What personality are you?
Say 5 to 6 descriptor words you don’t usually use, but that you really identify with
Are there any aspects of the description that you disagree with?
Can you give examples/anecdotes from your life that demonstrate this personality type?

Can I learn English by watching TV?

In my experience as a second language teacher, I can’t tell you how many times I have come across people who tell me “I learnt Spanish with Pedro Almodovar movies”, or “I learnt English watching Friends“. Some people have this uncanny superpower of learning a complex interactive communication system such as language, by passively observing people on screen speaking what I can only imagine is gibberish (at first).

Bastarda!

I have personally tried this approach with Italian. I was told to put the subtitles to the spoken language, no translations as a crutch. I was told to start with small repetitive words and observe the body language. After a while, I was supposed to notice repetitive expressions and word chunks (in the second language vernacular). But, and I think you can see where I’m going with this, I got frustrated after the first hour. Clearly, this was not a good approach for me. But as the Whole Language Approach would advocate, you have to dive in and use authenticity as a motivational leverage. Right?

I must admit I was indeed motivated to resemble the main character’s searing ability to placate her cheating lover in Italian (adultery being a common theme in Italian movies), but aside from cursing “bastarda” I couldn’t string together a convincing burn in Italian from watching movies. So how as adult learners, can we re-acquaint ourselves acquiring language in this immersive almost invasive method? The short answer is we can’t (except for the admirable outliers), but the mid answer is ‘scaffolding’.

Scaffolding is Key

In education, scaffolding is known as the support we put in place to make a difficult task manageable. In other words, you don’t modify the task per se, but you modify the introduction to the task, how to interact with the task and what you want to get out of the task. For example, with my Italian movie, I could view a list of key vocabulary beforehand and see that vocabulary in context. While watching the movie, I could ask simple comprehension questions that also leverage body language, and after the task, I could review the questions and vocabulary and set up simple conversation tasks that put that vocabulary into action.

Mauril: an application that has it all

Too much work you say. I hear you. So the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) has done it for you in its Mauril application. This amazing application (and website) uses original clips from TV programs, news broadcasts, and series and adds the scaffolds. You can search your material by vocabulary point, or functional use (e.g. introductions, job interviews, etc.). Each lesson comes with a vocabulary list, clip, and comprehension questions. Or you can simply suggest it to your students as a self-directed learning tool. It is truly the whole package. FYI it is also available in French.

Which “Friends” character are you?

I know, I know, pretty cheesy. But if there is one thing I learnt from teaching overseas, the television series Friends is everywhere. So if you need a relaxing frivolous lesson, here it is.

Pre discussion

Which Friends character do you relate to most?
Which is your least favourite and why?
What personal characteristics can you associate with each character?
Which ones describe you best?
Why do you think this series was so popular?

The Quiz: Which Friends character are you?

If you have multiple students I suggest you do this quiz in pairs. Of course, you will need a computer, tablet or smartphone…

https://heywise.com/quiz/which-friends-character-are-you

How exactly does gender work?

Books have been written about it, alcohol-based dinners never go without it, and more recently, we are digging into what defines it. Put simply, what are the differences between men and women? This TED talk by biologist Karissa Sanbonmatsu really got my attention. First of all because she presents some of the new discoveries from epigenetics and research in DNA that explain the differences between men and women from a biological perspective. Gotta love science. This lesson is filled with tons of scientific vocabulary to describe how DNA works to create gender differences.

However, here is the twist, Sanbonmatsu, a transgender scientist, also talks about the challenges she faced through her struggle with her own identity. This content is layered and complex. On one hand the objective is to help science-based students become more verbal with DNA related vocabulary–an important corner stone topic for biologists. But beyond that, the speaker pulls in the social challenges of the “old boys club” that exists in the scientific community as well as the very misunderstood transgenderism.

Pre discussion

What are some of the theories you have heard about the differences between men and women?
Do you think there are differences?
What does it mean to be transgender?

The Video: The Biology of Gender

There are really two aspects in this video mashed up together. 1) Sanbonmatsu shares the science of gender. 2) Sanbonmatsu talks about the reactions of her scientific community towards transgenderism.

I would first untangle each aspect.

What does the latest research tell us about gender?
What is the behaviour of our DNA?
How is Sanbonmatsu contributing to a society of tolerance inclusion?
Why does Sanbonmatsu expose the scientific community as being especially hard on her choices?
Do you think there are other social circles where transgenderism is more difficult?
What about less difficult?

I leave you with that for the weekend…have a good one.

Mel

Do you have a job or a mission?

Level: B2-C1
Discussion questions included in the post

Media: Video
Language focus: jobs, hypotheticals, modals

Do you have a job or a mission?

Celeste Headlee, a trained opera singer turned radio show host, has some rather interesting insight to share about the difference between a job and a mission. She also has a lot to say about how we get stuck focusing on our education and job expectations. But if you think she gives the same old spiel about finding your passion, being brave and embracing your true calling, you would be wrong. She knows we all have mortgages, rent, food, and stuff to pay for. Moreover, she also knows that finding your passion is complicated, changing, and doesn’t always match the needs of the market. Thankfully, she is not going to tell you to quit your job or sit at the top of a mountain to meditate.

Practical vs. Ideal

This is the third post on this series on jobs and careers. So far we have gone through some basic vocabulary and explored what jobs are out there and then saw some fun ways to go about choosing. In this post, we will take a more analytical approach and explore the skills connected to jobs. We are going to exercise our mental flexibility and examine the components of various jobs or fields and see how they can apply to other jobs and fields.

Warm up

What do you think is the difference between a job and a mission?
How many job-related skills can you name? e.g. if you are a teacher, that means you have skills in public speaking, pedagogical design, presentation design, audience analysis, planning, leadership etc.

The Video: TED Don’t find a job, find a mission

Discussion questions

Do a Mind Map or recap of all the main points of the talk (see our list)
What do you do? What are the skills involved in your job?
Do you like your job? What do you like and don’t like?
What things do you look for when looking for work?
If you were to do something completely different, what would it be?

Would you rather text than talk?

Would you rather text or email than talk?

It’s just so easy. I don’t have to interrupt anyone, I can write while I’m in the moment, I don’t have to hold anything in my memory, I don’t even have to wait my turn to talk. When the thought appears, I can just shoot a message off and my counterpart can react when it is convenient for them. In some cases, with my more talkative friends (and family members) a digital message is the only way I can get a word in edgewise.

Plus, I can re-read, check my tone or make sure I didn’t word anything in an insensitive way. I can edit. Digital communication allows me to put forth my best self. Great stuff…right?

Sherry Turkle is not so sure. Her TED talk Connected but Alone? takes a good hard look at what digital communication may be doing to us. We have all heard that technology may be making us more isolated, so beyond this statement, just how it is doing that? Turkle gets right under the hood of our communication habits and puts forth some thought-provoking concepts that definitely gave me pause.

This lesson is definitely for more advanced students. I did this with a mixed class of high-level and lower-level students and the lower level were a bit lost. However, I still recommend using first language material as much as you can to get their ears and minds used to native speaking. Once they get over focusing on what they don’t understand and focus on what they do, they will increase their ability to get into the English-speaking community.

Pre discussion

Let’s hypothesize…Why do you think Turkle thinks texting and emailing are making us more isolated?
Make a pros and cons list for digital communication
What is the difference between isolation and solitude?
What is the difference between friendship and companionship?

The Video: TED Sherry Turkle: Connected but Alone?

There is a ton of stuff to talk about here. And rather than try to Tell Back everything Turkle says (although you are free to do that), I would jump right into the discussion with some of the following key ideas:

“We want to customize our lives and control where we put our attention”
“We are getting used to being alone…together”
“We are compromising companionship for friendship”
“We have an illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship”
“We can’t get enough of each other, at a distance, in amounts we can control”
“We use technology to manage our relationships in ways we can comfortably control”
Technology is satisfying 3 basic fantasies:
- We can put our attention where we want it to be
- We will always be hear
- We will never be alone
“Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved”
“I share therefore I am”
“Connection is creating isolation”
“We need to cultivate the capacity for solitude”
“We need to build a self-aware relationship with technology”

And I could go on and on pulling quotes from this video. Turkle is articulate, astute and a fantastic social analyst.

I am ready to admit that I am getting caught in the fray of convenience, but short of stopping (which is not going to happen) Turkle has helped me see where I might be more self-aware.

I hope you enjoy talking about this as much as me and my students.