OVERVIEW & OBJECTIVES

This ESL lesson plan on the keys to having better conversations offers engaging activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for intermediate B1/B2 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Discuss their conversation skills, strengths, and areas they would like to improve.
• Build vocabulary related to charisma, warmth, curiosity, and conversation skills.
• Watch a video with practical tips for stronger, more natural conversations.
• Practice follow-up questions and strategies that help conversations develop naturally.
• Put their conversation skills to work through a structured partner discussion.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

The lesson begins with self-assessment and discussion of conversation skills before students explore the ideas in the video and apply them in extended conversation practice.

Students first look at a social situation and consider why one person seems easy and enjoyable to talk to. They discuss whether they see themselves as good conversationalists and whether they feel charismatic or approachable when they talk to others.

Next, students assess a list of conversation skills and choose two strengths and two areas they would like to improve. These include asking good questions, listening carefully, using humor, opening up, creating a warm atmosphere, and giving other people space to speak. They then consider situations in which these skills are especially important.

To finish the section, students discuss the difference between being interesting and being interested in a conversation. They also recall a memorable conversation and consider what made it work well.

VIEWING ACTIVITY

Students watch an engaging video about what makes people charismatic and easy to talk to. It looks at the balance between warmth and competence and offers practical ideas for remembering names, showing curiosity, and keeping conversations moving.

Before watching in detail, the class considers what it means to appear warm or competent in conversation. Students then complete a True / False task and correct the false statements based on ideas from the video.

A second task asks students to give short answers about several key points, including the risks of too much warmth or competence, a strategy for remembering names, ways to show curiosity, and how to keep a conversation going. The video also introduces the idea of conversational threading and the value of being interested in the other person rather than trying too hard to seem interesting.

VIEWING FOLLOW-UP

After the video, students discuss which tips they found most useful, what helps people connect, and which topics they personally find easy or difficult to talk about.

They then work with short statements from different speakers and focus on effective follow-up questions. For the first situations, students choose the better question and explain their choice. For the remaining situations, they create two possible follow-up questions of their own.

Finally, students choose which of the conversation scenarios they would most enjoy taking part in and explain why.

PUT YOUR CONVERSATION SKILLS TO WORK!

Students choose several conversation starters from two categories: everyday topics and more fun or personal topics. They can also add questions of their own before exchanging their selected questions with a partner.

During the conversations, students follow a clear set of goals. They try to keep each exchange going, ask follow-up questions, show warmth and curiosity, use humor when appropriate, apply conversational threading, share personal information, and give their partner enough space to talk.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS CONVERSATION STARTERS ESL LESSON

• Gives teachers a ready-made framework for natural and extended classroom conversations.
• Helps students move beyond basic questions and create more meaningful exchanges.
• Provides clear models of effective follow-up questions and conversation strategies.
• Combines useful listening practice with personal discussion and partner interaction.
• Offers flexible conversation starters that teachers can reuse with many student groups.