Here are my top five ESL small talk activities
Number one is three in a row. So I would put students into pairs and then each pair matches up with another pair
So each group would have four students, two teams of two. And then I would have a grid, a five by five grid, and I would write a bunch of topics
on the board that people would kind of do for small talk. So like maybe getting to work, hobbies, weather, sports, weekend plans, all those things, kind
of the latest TV shows, whatever. And then students would do paper, rock, scissors and the winning team, they get to choose the
first square. So maybe they would choose like hobbies. The other team would have their cell phone and they would do a timer for one minute
And the team that chose that hobby square, their challenge is to talk about hobbies for
one minute without stopping. If they're successful, they get to put an X on that square or an O, whatever that is
One team would be X, one team would be O. And the goal is to get three in a row
So after they're done, they put their X on there and then the other team would choose a square and they have to talk for one minute
All right, the second small talk activity is a cocktail party. So I try to replicate real life as much as possible in my classroom
So to kind of warm this activity up, I would get students to shout out some topics that
people might talk about at a party. So maybe they would talk about their kids, they would talk about their weekends, maybe
their upcoming holidays. Maybe they complain about the weather, they talk about the sports team
And then I would also get students to shout out some things that you shouldn't talk about. So for example, asking someone how old they are, talking about politics, religion, kind
of like controversial things like maybe like abortion, I don't know, whatever
You just want to avoid those controversial topics. So that's fresh in students' minds
And then I get students to kind of give me some examples of ways they would start a conversation
So they would shout out some examples, like for example, maybe, do you have any weekend
plans or do you have any holidays coming up, whatever. So that's also fresh in students' mind
And then I say, OK, we're going to practice. So all the students will stand up and then they can just mingle around the classroom
having little small talk conversations with everybody. And so I would also tell students that the goal is not to be stuck talking to someone
for the entire 10 minutes or 15 minutes, however long we do this activity
But the goal is to mingle and kind of talk to everybody. So I'd also talk about ways to politely end a conversation
So I would say I encourage students to maybe talk to someone for maybe two minutes or three
minutes and then move on and talk to someone else. So if I notice students are stuck talking to the same person, I would just kind of tap
them on their shoulder and say, OK, go talk to someone else now and kind of just give
them a gentle reminder about that. All right, the third activity is the expert
So everyone likes talking about things that they know a lot about
So I get students on a piece of paper to write down three things that they are very knowledgeable in
So maybe it's like cooking Korean food, playing softball and pro tennis, something like that
watching pro tennis. And then I get them to choose maybe the one or two topics that they think other people
might be most interested in. After that, I put students into pairs and they would have their little paper with the
two maybe topics that they think other people are most interested in circled
And then I get those two students to have a conversation for four or five minutes about
the topics on their piece of paper. Once they're done that, I get them to switch and then they can talk to someone else
So this is a very nice introductory activity. The fourth small talk activity is telling a story
So people at parties or at work, whatever, love to tell stories
And it's a kind of a nice way to get to know someone and to share your personality
So I have a little story prompt. So for example, maybe your most embarrassing moment or a funny story from when you were
in middle school or high school, something from when you were growing up, maybe your
favorite holiday, whatever that is. And I give students a little bit of time to prepare their story
So I don't want them to write sentence by sentence, but they can write a few little notes about the points that they're going to cover
Then I put students into groups of four and they would tell their story to the group
And so the first person is telling their story, everyone, the other three people are listening
And then at the end, those other three people have to ask a follow-up question. And then of course the person has to answer
Then the second person tells their story and then so on it goes
And the fifth small talk activity is to give students some conversation starters
So if you tell students, okay, do small talk with your partner for five minutes, I mean
you're probably going to have a lot of silence in your class because there just isn't really enough information or structure to that class
Instead I like to give students some conversation starters. Of course I encourage like kind of free-flowing conversation, follow-up questions, but then
they also have those conversation starters if they get stuck. So I would have, for example, like holiday, upcoming holiday plans, or what did you do
last weekend? What's your plan for tonight? What do you think about the weather
Do you follow the Edmonton Oilers or whoever your local sports team is
That kind of thing. So that is it for my small talk activities for your ESL classroom
If you like these ideas, please be sure to check out my book, 101 ESL Activities
I'll put the link up there and please hit like, subscribe, and I'll catch you next time