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.

Activities

21st Century Reading 4: Creative Thinking and Reading with TEDTALKS

Laurie Blass
VITAL 428.4 Bla

This book was created through a partnership between TED, a nonprofit dedicated to spreading ideas through short, powerful talks, and National Geographic Learning. 21st Century Reading provides the ideal forum for English learners to make connections with topics ranging from science to business to global issues. 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.


50 Scatter Sheets: ESL Activities and Discussion Questions to Warm Up the Class, Introduce a Theme, Activate Vocabulary and Improve Fluency

ESLGamesBox
VITAL 428.24 Fif

Use Scatter Sheets to bring vocabulary to life. This A4-sized book contains fifty themed Scatter Sheets, each accompanied by a worksheet and discussion questions to help cement your students' learning.


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

Larry Pitts
428.24 Pit

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


American Manners and Customs: A Guide for Newcomers 1

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 is for intermediate ESL students, as well as middle school, high school, and adult ESL students. American Manners and Customs enhances social interactions, helps newcomers avoid embarrassments, explains cultural customs, and builds vocabulary. 


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 Brainstormers! Ready-to-Use Games and Activities that Make Language Skills Fun to Learn

Maureen Umstatter
VITAL 428.24 Ums

A unique collection of over 180 fun-filled, ready-to-use activities, English Brainstormers! helps build the skills students need for test-taking and overall academic success. These activities make learning enjoyable and stimulating while covering the entire English curriculum, including grammar and mechanics, literature, research, and more.


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
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. 



Larry Pitts
428.24 Pit

With 50 role plays that span a wide variety of topics, teachers will almost always be able to find a role play that fits with any lesson topic with ESL Role Plays. Inside are role plays that cover everything from government regulations to messy roommates.


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.


Read All About It 1

Lori Howard
VITAL 423.1 New
Series: Read All About It Series 1-2

Read All About It provides readings based on a variety of materials for adult and young adult ESL students.


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.


Speaking of Values: Conversation and Listening

Irene Schoenberg
VITAL 428.34 Sch

Speaking of Values stimulates conversations about cultural and personal beliefs. Step by step, students build confidence in their ability to express themselves in English while developing vocabulary, pronunciation, and critical thinking skills. Includes compact disc (CD) in the back of the book.


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.


What's Up? Book 1: Integrated Skills and Culture for Adults

Kathleen Olson
VITAL 428.24 Ols
Series: What's Up? Series 1-3

What's Up? is a 16-unit book written for adult students. Each unit presents many activities that build skills and knowledge of U.S. culture for adults in three volumes.


Strategies

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.


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.


Five-Minute Activities: A Resource Book of Short Activities

Penny Ur
VITAL 428.24 Ur

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


Games for Language Learning

David Betteridge Wright, Michael Buckby
VITAL 428.24 Wri

Games provide meaningful and enjoyable language practice at all levels and for all age groups. They can be used to practice any of the skills—speaking, listening, reading, and writing—at any stage of the learning process, from controlled repetition through guided practice, to free expression. This revised edition has been restructured to enable busy teachers to navigate it with ease and select the activities most suitable for their classes.



James R. Morgan, Nancy Douglas
428.24 Get

Get Started, Foundations in English provides true beginners with the skills needed for confident communication. Learners build a solid foundation in the grammar, vocabulary, and skills needed to achieve everyday communicative tasks like greeting people and asking for directions.