ESL Speaking Activities

Looking for engaging ESL speaking activities that get students communicating? Explore our growing collection of ready-to-use speaking resources for adults and older teenagers, including conversation questions, speaking games, role plays, communicative grammar practice and topic-based activities.

Many resources combine vocabulary or grammar development with structured speaking practice, helping students build confidence before moving on to pair work, group discussions and more open-ended communication.

Start with some of our favourite ESL speaking activities, chosen to showcase the range of communicative resources available. You’ll find conversation questions, fluency activities, speaking games, functional English, topic-based lessons and communicative grammar practice across a variety of levels.

Free ESL Speaking Activities

Looking for free ESL speaking activities? Explore downloadable resources for adults and older teenagers, including conversation questions, fluency activities, functional English, grammar speaking practice, discussions and presentations.

Register for a free TEFL Lessons account to download these activities and access our wider collection of 100+ free teaching resources.

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ESL Conversation Questions & Activities

Get students talking with engaging ESL conversation questions and activities for a range of levels. Students can share experiences, express opinions, discuss interesting topics and build confidence communicating in English.

Choose from general conversation questions, topic-based discussions and level-specific ESL conversation activities from A1 to C1.

Talk for a Minute ESL Speaking Activities

Build fluency and confidence with our Talk for a Minute activities. Students choose a topic and speak for up to one minute, making these flexible ESL speaking exercises ideal for pair work, small groups, warm-ups or extra fluency practice.

Choose from a wide range of topics, including food, travel, school and study, everyday activities and ‘how to’ prompts.

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ESL Speaking Games

Make speaking practice more interactive with our ESL speaking games for adults and older teenagers. Students can practise vocabulary, grammar and functional language while communicating with their classmates.

Choose from Taboo games, board games, guessing activities, grammar games and other communicative activities for different levels.

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Functional English Speaking Activities

Help students communicate confidently in everyday situations with practical functional English speaking activities. These resources introduce useful language and give students opportunities to practise it through pair work, conversation and ESL role plays.

Practise real-life situations such as ordering in a café, shopping for clothes, making complaints, giving advice, asking for and giving directions, taking part in discussions and attending job interviews.

Topic-Based ESL Speaking Activities

Explore speaking activities for ESL students covering a wide range of engaging topics, including travel, food and drink, sport, health, relationships, nature, entertainment, education and shopping.

Our I Can Name… series builds useful topic vocabulary before students use the new language in structured speaking practice. The series includes accessible options for beginners and lower-level learners, as well as resources for higher levels, giving students the language and support they need before moving into freer speaking.

Our Let’s Talk About… lessons are ideal for more extended speaking practice. They typically build or review vocabulary through definition-matching activities before moving on to conversation questions and discussion tasks, and many finish with a game to recycle the language and keep students talking.

Grammar Speaking Activities

Help students move beyond controlled exercises and use grammar in meaningful communication with our ESL grammar speaking activities. These resources give learners opportunities to practise target structures through questions, pair work, discussions and other communicative speaking tasks.

Practise a wide range of grammar, including past, present and future forms, conditionals, reported speech, relative clauses, the passive voice, comparatives, gerunds and infinitives, pronouns, prepositions and more.

ESL Presentation Activities

Build students’ confidence speaking in front of others with our ESL presentation activities for a range of levels. Students can plan and deliver short talks, research and present a topic, or work together on longer presentation projects.

Activities range from accessible topics such as presenting information about your country to mini-presentations, research-based tasks and advanced projects such as pitching a business idea. Some lessons also use reading or listening texts as models and input for presentations, helping students develop ideas, organise information and prepare their own spoken response.

Seasonal ESL Speaking Activities

Bring seasonal and cultural topics into the classroom with our seasonal ESL speaking activities. Encourage students to share experiences, compare traditions and express their opinions while developing their speaking skills.

Explore conversation questions and speaking tasks for occasions such as Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day, with additional resources for other international events and celebrations throughout the year.

How to Use ESL Speaking Activities in Class

Speaking activities work best when students have a clear reason to communicate and enough language to complete the task successfully. A little preparation before the activity — and effective monitoring while students are speaking — can make a big difference to both participation and fluency.

Prepare Students to Speak

Before starting an activity, check that students understand the task and have the vocabulary or grammar they need. Pre-teach essential language where necessary and consider giving students a few minutes to think about their answers or make brief notes before they begin. This can be particularly helpful for lower-level or less confident speakers.

Use Pairs and Small Groups

Pair and small-group work gives students much more speaking time than whole-class activities. Demonstrate the task first, make sure students know what they need to do, and encourage them to ask follow-up questions rather than simply working through a list of prompts.

Monitor Without Interrupting Fluency

Move around the classroom and listen while students are speaking. Avoid correcting every mistake as it happens, as frequent interruptions can disrupt fluency and make students more reluctant to speak. Instead, note recurring errors, problems with the target language and useful examples of language you hear.

Use Delayed Error Correction

After the speaking task, write a selection of sentences you heard on the board and ask students to identify and correct the errors together. You can also highlight examples of particularly good or effective language. Immediate correction can still be useful when an error prevents communication or when accurate use of a particular structure is the main aim of the activity.

Extend the Speaking Practice

Don’t necessarily stop when students complete the task. Ask them to change partners, report something interesting they learned to the class, add follow-up questions or repeat part of the activity. Repeating a speaking task with a new partner can help students speak more confidently and fluently the second time.

ESL Speaking Activities FAQs

What are some good ESL speaking activities?

Good ESL speaking activities give students a genuine reason to communicate rather than simply repeat language. Conversation questions, role plays, speaking games, information-gap activities, discussions, presentations and communicative grammar tasks can all work well. The best activity will depend on your students’ level, interests and the language you want them to practise.

Which ESL speaking activities work best with beginners?

For beginners, choose activities with clear instructions, familiar topics and plenty of language support. Vocabulary-based activities, simple question-and-answer tasks, picture prompts and structured role plays work particularly well. Pre-teaching key vocabulary and giving students time to prepare can also make beginner ESL speaking activities much more successful.

How can I get quiet ESL students to speak more?

Start with pairs rather than asking students to speak in front of the whole class. Give them preparation time and make sure they have the vocabulary and structures needed for the task. Topics students can relate to and clear speaking goals can also help. As confidence grows, students can move into small-group discussions and more open-ended activities.

How can I make ESL speaking activities more communicative?

Give students a purpose for speaking, such as finding out information, making a decision, solving a problem, reaching an agreement or learning something about their partner. Encourage follow-up questions and natural responses rather than having students simply take turns reading questions from a worksheet.

Are your ESL speaking activities available as PDFs?

Yes. Our ESL speaking activities are available as downloadable PDFs, making them easy to print and use in face-to-face classes. Many resources also include fillable fields for students completing activities on screen.

Where can I find free ESL speaking activities?

You can find a selection of free ESL speaking activities above, including conversation questions, grammar speaking practice, functional English, fluency activities and presentations. Register for a free TEFL Lessons account to access these and our wider collection of 100+ free ESL teaching resources.

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Save lesson-planning time with ready-to-use resources for teaching adults and older teenagers. Members get access to our growing collection of speaking activities, grammar and vocabulary lessons, worksheets, games, listening activities and more, with new and updated materials added regularly.

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