English Conversation Groups

Have fun teaching English as a New Language. These resources have practical activities for teaching conversational English in a group setting. Help your students learn practical phrases, vocabulary, and conversation strategies to improve their communication skills.


Compiled by:
Audra L.
21st Century Reading

Laurie Blass
VITAL 428.4 Bla
Series: 21st Century Reading: Creative Thinking and Reading with TED Talks

Using TED Talks as the springboard to share ideas, this new four-level reading series shows learners how to understand and respond to ideas and content in English.


39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: for Teenagers and Adults

Jackie Bolen
VITAL 428.24 Bol

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities provides more than three dozen ideas to use in the classroom. The highly detailed descriptions will show teachers exactly how to use the activities during lessons.


1,000 Conversation Questions: Designed for Use in the ESL or EFL Classroom

Larry Pitts
VITAL 428.24 Pit

This book contains more than 1,000 conversation questions spanning 100 topics targeted towards intermediate or advanced ESL or EFL students.


Activities, Games, and Assessment Strategies for the World Language Classroom

Amy Buttner Zimmer
VITAL 428.24 Zim

This bestselling book is filled with fun activities to engage students in learning a world language. No matter what language or grade level, this text provides a variety of learning tools, from quick warm-up exercises to longer games and group activities.


American Manners and Customs: A Guide for Newcomers

Elizabeth Claire
VITAL 428.24 Cla
Series: American Manners and Customs Series 1-3

American Manners and Customs is an anthology of 22 easy-to-read articles from Easy English NEWS, our award-winning newspaper for newcomers.  American Manners and Customs enhances social interactions, helps newcomers avoid embarrassments, explains cultural customs, and builds vocabulary. Find all three books in the series here. 


Basic Conversation Strategies: Learning the Art of Interactive Listening and Conversing

David Kehe, Peggy Dustin Kehe
VITAL 428.34 Keh

Basic Conversation Strategies is a prequel to the intermediate-level Conversation Strategies. One significant difference is that Basic Conversation Strategies has an important listening component. Conversation is, after all, not just speaking—it also involves listening, and a major part of the approach in this book includes training learners to be good listeners.


Conversation Inspirations: Over 2400 Conversation Topics

Nancy Ellen Zelman
VITAL 428.4 Zei

Conversation Inspirations has been used all over the world and includes more than 2,400 topics ranging from the universal (e.g., human nature and interpersonal relationships) to the culturally vital (e.g., cutting edge issues in North American society). Some of the great variety of topics include applying for a job, politics, sports, technology, and more.


The Dice Book: Speaking and Writing Activities for English Language Learners

Kevin McCaughey
VITAL 428.34 Mcc

The Dice Book features 112 activities using "dice frames"—six prompts for saying something and reacting in small groups. It's simple, fast, and easy to do! There are three main types of frames: open-ended speaking, grammar, and vocabulary.


English Conversation Made Natural: Engaging Dialogues to Learn English

Language Guru
VITAL 428.34 Eng

With English Conversation Made Natural, you can immerse yourself in real conversations that tell an authentic story through a variety of dialogues. Along the way, you'll also find several basic scenarios from daily life to improve your or your students' English language abilities.


English U.S.A. Every Day: A Fun ESL Guide to American Culture and Language

Gilda Martinez-Alba
VITAL 428.24 Mar

English U.S.A. Every Day helps familiarize immigrants and ESL learners with American culture and language in a fun, lighthearted way. Readers will learn about everything from finding a job or locating an organic grocery store to facts about American culture and enjoying night life. 


ESL Games for the Classroom: 101 Interactive Activities to Enagage Your Students with Minimal Prep

Michael DiGiacomo
VITAL 428.24 Dig

Every lesson needs a conversation starter. Whether teachers want to warm up a class, emphasize a particular grammar or vocabulary lesson, or wrap things up with a fun twist, ESL Games for the Classroom offers interactive classroom activities that require little to no prep work to make learning fun. 


ESL Role Plays: 50 Engaging Role Plays for ESL and EFL Classes

Larry Pitts
VITAL 428.24 Pit

With 50 role plays that span a wide variety of topics, you’ll almost always be able to find a role play that will fit your lesson topic. Inside are role plays that cover everything from government regulation to messy roommates.


Five Minute Activities: a Resource Book of Short Activities

Penny Ur, Andrew Wright
VITAL 428.4 Ur

Five Minute Activities is a collection of over 100 ideas for the foreign language classroom, all of which can be used effectively with little or no preparation. The collection offers a convenient reference for established activities and an introduction to a large number of new ones.


Great Debates for ESL/EFL: 39 Important Debating Topics for English Learners

Jackie Bolen
VITAL 428.34 Bol

Get students talking with these 39 important debating topics that consist of an icebreaker, the debate question, three common positions, vocabulary, and 10 discussion questions. It's the ultimate book for intermediate-advanced speaking or conversation classes with teenagers or adults.


Interactive Dictations

Judy DeFilippo, Catherine Sadow
VITAL 428.24 Proling

Interactive Dictations is a low-intermediate to intermediate level text that's intended to improve the listening, speaking, and writing skills of ESL students. Each dictation is preceded by an introduction and vocabulary/pronunciation work, then followed by a variety of discussion topics. 


Language is Served: Games, Writing Prompts, and Other Language Arts Activities on the Yummy Topic of Food

Cheryl Miller Thurston
VITAL 428.0071 Thu

Language is Served includes word games, writing prompts, lessons, and writing activities that involve research, creativity, and application of skills studied in class. Activities include "Cheesy Rhymes," "Appetizing Antonyms," "Sizzling Synonyms," "Dishing up the Internet," and "Overstuffed Sentences." The author uses a sense of humor to teach serious writing skills and to engage students in playing with words and language—an important step in learning how to use the English language skillfully.


Ready, Set, English! 225 Ready-to-Use Starter Activities for Grades 6-12

Sandra McTavish
VITAL 428.00712 Mac

This practical resource gives new and experienced English teachers over 225 reproducible one-page activities to help students build a wide range of skills across the English curriculum. The activities are presented in an exciting variety of formats and can be used in any order to supplement and enrich teaching and learning.


Talking with Americans On and Off Campus: Conversations for Listening and Speaking

Anne Siebert
VITAL 428.34 Sie

Talking with Americans On and Off Campus consists of 24 conversations between an American and an English Language Learner (ELL), which are meant to introduce American idioms and colloquial phrases to ELL students for both on-campus and off-campus situations.


World English

John Hughes
VITAL 428.24 Hug
Series: World English

With World English, learners experience the world through content and ideas from National Geographic and TED, providing the motivation to talk about what's most important to them. Find level 1 and 2 in the series here. 


Zero Prep Activities for All Levels: Ready-to-Go Activities for In-Person and Remote Language Teaching

Laurel Pollard, Michal Marell, Natalie Hess
VITAL 428.24 Pol

Zero Prep is a transformative guide for teachers of any language looking to increase learning and engagement while decreasing preparation time. The new second edition of this classic time-saving book features newly added activities for today’s language “classroom” and includes adaptations throughout the book for online and remote instruction.