Forming questions in English can be confusing. Don’t worry – I’m going to teach you a simple formula that works for asking questions in almost ALL the verb tenses! This formula is called QUASM: QU estion word A uxiliary verb S ubject M ain verb. Download 500+ English Phrases Look how QUASM works for forming questions in the following verb.
Want an extra boost to help improve your children’s or students’ English?
Even if your child or student is making good progress already, there comes a point when they’re most likely getting bored of drills and worksheets. Can you blame them?
While worksheets, drills and tests are sometimes necessary, playing games can be just as useful for children to learn.
In fact, children often need to have breaks from traditional classroom lessons. That’s where online resources come in. There are many websites out there to help children practice a wide range of skills, all without leaving the comfort of their own home.
The best part? Many of these websites are jam-packed with fun activities that children will keep coming back for more! Let’s not forget that many of these websites provide free content as well.
Most of these websites are mobile and desktop friendly, so if you wanted to have them practice on the go, you won’t run into any issues.
However, it’s important to realize that a list of websites you can use in the classroom or at home isn’t enough. You’ve got to get really involved in the learning process!
How Can Children Learn English Using Websites?
- Work Together, Learn Together. Adults forget sometimes that they need to model behavior they want to see in children. If your student or child never sees you being interested in using the resources you provide them, how can you expect them to be interested at all? Start off with exploring websites together and learning how to use the games or activities together. The more you’re involved with the learning process, the more your child or student will be motivated to explore on their own eventually.
- Find Topics That Interest the Student. Would learning about topics that don’t interest you motivate you to learn? Make sure you spend time with your children or students to figure out what they’re personally interested in the most, and cater website resources to what they like, as well as to what they need to work on the most.
- Make It Fun. Find some way, any way, to make websites as interactive as possible (because not all of them are set up for interaction). Try turning games into friendly competitions between adults and kids, and you might see that this can help revive interest in learning English.
- Go Outside. Sometimes all it takes is a change in scenery to motivate children. Take a mobile device or your laptop to places like a park, or even your back porch, and watch children get excited about practicing their English.
- Don’t Take Too Long. Children have shorter attention spans than adults. If you make them focus on something too long, they’ll lost interest. It’ll eventually feel like they’re being forced into an activity, and children will rebel against practicing their English. If you’re doing lessons, limit activities to 10 minutes or less. For activities where they’re reinforcing skills already learned, spend no more than 20 to 30 minutes a day doing these, depending on their age.
Now that you’ve got some tips to help children learn English, start with this list of websites below and soon you may well see your children’s English abilities dramatically improve.
1. Fun Brain
There are over 100 interactive activities here to help kids from preschool to grade 8 develop skills in English literacy. Not only that, but there’s a wide variety of books children can read directly on the website, such as “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
Even the arcade games allows children a chance to practice their reading in order to play games successfully. All the games are safe for kids, and they encourage children to manipulate the keyboard and mouse so they can learn to be independent on the computer.
Featured resource:Grammar Gorillas, a game where players have to recognize parts of speech to feed bananas to gorillas.
Tip for home use: Have your child pick a game from the arcade section and practice reading instructions so they can complete games independently.
Tip for school use: Pick an appropriate book or comic on the site to read to small groups or the whole class.
2. Breaking News English
All the materials on Breaking News English are based off news headlines and current events from around the world. Featuring 7 different reading levels for each news story, each lesson has up to 26 pages of activities and handouts to accompany each story. As an added bonus, users can complete online quizzes and download stories as mp3 files.
Featured resource:Speed Reading Activities. Choose from different news articles to help reading fluency.
Tip for home use: Have your child pick a story they’re interested in, or pick one for them based on their interests. Encourage your child to read by rewarding them with a corresponding game at the end.
Tip for school use: Break up class into reading abilities and read the same story with different levels. Students then can pair up or get together in groups of 3 to summarize the text and complete discussion questions together.
3. PBS Kids
It’s worth it to spend time digging through all the interactive resources that this website has to offer. Featuring resources such as writing contests, videos, apps and digital resources for educators, children will never tire of the wide variety of activities on this website.
Featured resource:“The Berenstein Bears.” The website section devoted to this beloved children’s book franchise includes videos and games featuring the titular characters.
Tip for home use: Explore the PBS Parents section where you can look into planning parties, and use it as a chance to have get-togethers to encourage English speaking activities and games. Children can practice listening to instructions in English from parents to complete crafts and recipes.
Tip for school use: Explore PBS Media, where PBS has teamed up with leading educational developers to provide free resources such as infographics, videos and interactive games to use in the classroom.
4. International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL)
Featuring one of the largest collections of free books for children, the website has made it so that anyone can access their books, even without registering. Users can search for books according to language, age level and genre. You can sign up for an account where you can bookmark books and save your favorites for later reading.
Featured resource:Featured Books, where you can find books that are recommended by a staff member, usually sorted by theme.
Tip for home use: Have your child read to you (or vice versa) before they go to bed at night. If they find a book they like, have them reading the same one for extra fluency practice.
Tip for school use: Have each student sign up for an individual account and save searches to use during independent reading time or during guided reading groups.
5. Literacy Center
Featuring over 150 million online games and printable activities for preschool children, the resources on this website aim to encourage playful learning for children. Resources include print writing practice and games to practice letters on the keyboard.
Tip for home use: Parents can help children practice their skills in the game section, and even in their home language (the site currently features Spanish, German, and French) as an added bonus.
Tip for school use: Hop on over to the Resources section, where teachers can tie in activities to the US Common Core standards for literacy.
6. Raz Kids
Although this website requires a subscription to access its full features, it’s worth it if you have multiple children or teach classes of varying literacy levels. You can print books according to levels and topics, create your own books and search for appropriate benchmark tests.
Featured resource:Headsprout, a supplemental program that helps non-readers or struggling readers with individualized lessons.
Tip for home use: Work with your child using the read-aloud texts before bedtime or while you’re on the go, during road trips or commutes.
Tip for school use: Create accounts for each student to keep track of progress and assign individual activities within the parameters of your class, or as a supplemental resource.
7. Literactive
This website features reading resources for children from preschool to first grade. There are guided reading materials and supplemental reading resources as well as phonic activities so kids can have fun while completing levels. Everything is developed by teachers and parents in the US, so you can rest assured that the resources have been tested.
Featured resource:Road to Reading. Download this program featuring interactive activities to help children develop phonemic skills.
Tip for home use: Register for a free account and download games for you and your child to play together.
Tip for school use: Download full resources for guided reading activities for your class.
8. Story Starter Jr.
Selected as one of the 10 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest Magazine, Story Starter Jr. generates a random story starter to get kids’ imaginations kick-started and help them to create a story of their own.
Tip for home use: Use the story starters to create pictures with your kid to practice reading comprehension.
Tip for school use: Use story starters for individual assignments or partner up to create stories to present to the whole class.
9. Scholastic Kids
One of the biggest book publishers, this website does not disappoint. Separated by resources for parents and teachers, Scholastic Kids features activities such as reading contests, interactive scrapbook games and printables.
Featured resource:Spelling Wizard. Adults can enter in spelling words and activities will be created to help children memorize their spelling lessons.
Tip for home use: Parents can start reading parent guides here to help their child get the most out of the resources on the website.
Tip for school use: Teachers can go over to the large selection of whiteboard activities where there are many interactive tools that can be employed for the whole class.
10. Highlights Kids
The website is equally as fun as the activities featured in their monthly print magazine. Resources include animated stories, a poetry maker and a section where kids can send in their work and be featured on the website.
Featured resource:Hidden Pictures, where children have to look for images hidden inside a larger picture.
Tip for home use: Play Hidden Pictures with your child to help with vocabulary building.
Tip for school use: Create listening and reading stations so students can listen along to different stories and poems.
Helping your child learn English can be fun if you provide them with the right stimulation and tools. Use any of the above websites, and you’ll be on your way to seeing happy and engaged students.
And One More Thing…
If you’re looking for even more fun ESL resources, check out FluentU! FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.
It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities. You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.
On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!
Sarah Li Cain is an international educator, children’s author and freelance commercial copywriter. She loves to find resources and find ways to continuously improve people through education and reaching their potential. You can find out more about her writing at her website.
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
One key goal almost every adult ESL student shares is gaining the ability to speak English with others.
Luckily, they come to the classroom with a unique advantage. They have life experience.
And, unlike younger students, they’ve typically already achieved a high level of proficiency in their native language.
They want to speak English as well as they speak their own native language—so what better way to speak English like their native language than to speak about the very same things that they speak about on a daily basis?
ESL speaking activities work even better when they speak about their own personal recollections, thoughts and ideas on these topics too!
Sure, games and interactive exercises definitely work—so, you can always do some fun activities with them. But when it comes to improving confidence and fluency, sometimes you just can’t beat a fine discussion. You know, a discussion like the ones they regularly have in their own language!
Breaking out discussion questions like the ones below, questions about everyday things, works well because these types of questions really get the brain thinking, relate directly to the students on a familiar level and can even incite some fascinating discussions between students, all while you sit back and listen!
These topics can all be used for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners! Just choose the questions that are the right level of simplicity or complexity for your students based on your knowledge of their skills. You could even mix up the example questions any way you’d like.
Ask the students these questions yourselves to get conversations started, or pass them out on worksheets for students to ask each other.
1. Hobbies
Everybody has hobbies, and everybody loves talking about them. Hobbies could be passions too, you know. Some simple questions to ask include:
- What are your hobbies?
- Why do you like your hobbies so much?
- How often do you do these hobbies?
- How long have you been doing these hobbies, and how did you get started?
- What hobbies did you used to have, but now do not?
- Is it important to have hobbies? Why/why not?
2. Time
As people get older, their perceived value of time increases, so it’s a practical topic that everyone has something to say about. You could ask questions like:
- How much free time do you usually have?
- How important is time to you?
- If you had more free time, what would you do?
- “Time is money.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
- How do you feel about time that is wasted?
3. Sleep
As people get older, they start to appreciate a good night’s sleep more and more. This topic is often a favorite for all. Some example questions are:
- How much sleep do you usually get?
- Why do some people sleep well while other people do not sleep well?
- What do you do when you have trouble sleeping?
- What time do you usually go to sleep? What time do you usually get up?
- Have you ever slept in a strange place that was not a bed?
4. Music
Everybody loves music and most people feel very strong emotions towards it—especially when it comes to the music that they love (or hate) most. Some simple questions to ask could be:
- What types of music do you like/dislike?
- How do certain kinds of music make you feel?
- What types of music come from your country?
- What’s your favorite song/album/artist?
- What music is popular in your country right now?
5. First Dates
Unless you’re teaching in a place where arranged marriages are the thing to do, talking about first dates gets everybody interested. We’ve all been there. You could ask questions like:
- How many first dates have you had?
- How do you feel about first dates?
- What is a common first date like in your country?
- What is the best/worst first date experience you’ve ever had?
- What makes a good first date in your opinion?
6. Work
Lots of people work and have lots to say about it. I mean, if you’re spending about a third of your waking hours at work, you may have lots to say. Some good questions are:
- What work do/did you do?
- How do/did you like the work?
- What is your dream job?
- What work is common in your city/area/country?
- What is your general view about work? Why?
7. Risk
Everyone feels a certain way about risk. Some are risk-oriented, others are risk-averse. Talking about risks seems to generate some good conversation. You could ask questions like:
- What is your definition of risk?
- Are you a risk taker? Why/why not?
- What are the advantages/disadvantages of taking risks?
- What risks do you come across in your work/life?
- What risks have you taken in your life?
8. Food
Food is possibly the most universal topic of them all and everyone loves to discuss what they eat. This is also an ideal topic for beginners because the vocabulary is usually pretty simple. You could use questions like:
- What is your favorite food? Why?
- What food comes from your country?
- How do you feel when you eat food?
- What foods do you dislike? Why?
- Where do you usually get food from?
9. Motivation
Whether or not the students are a motivated bunch, motivation is a good topic to discuss in order to inspire your students. Some example questions are:
- How motivated are you in general?
- What motivates you to do things?
- What is the best motivator to succeed?
- What do you do when you feel demotivated?
- What is a good way to motivate others?
10. Beauty
Beauty is one of those topics that’s conventionally more geared toward women than it is to men. However, anyone can appreciate beauty in all its forms, and anyone can recognize the importance of the concept of beauty in our cultures, societies and behaviors. Plus, men might surprise you by caring to chime in on beauty, looks and grooming.
This makes it a good topic to discuss to get some opinions and various views within a group of students. You could ask questions like:
- What is “beauty”?
- What/who do you consider beautiful?
- What does “inner beauty” mean to you?
- Do you consider artificial beauty (cosmetic surgery) to still be beauty? Why/why not?
- How do you feel about the emphasis that people put on beauty these days?
- What would you tell your children about beauty?
11. Crime
Crime may not be on the top of people’s lists of favorite topics but it’s something that’s talked about. Depending on your adult students’ life experiences, it may be something that has affected their lives. Learning to discuss it could help your students out in the long run. Good discussion questions are:
- Is crime a big problem in your city/country?
- Have you ever been a victim of crime?
- What crime is common in your city/country?
- What would you do if you noticed a crime being committed?
- How is the law enforcement in your city/country?
12. Love
Everybody loves love and most people have had some firsthand experience they’d like to talk about. It’s another one of those universal topics that gets the conversation going. Even if it’s not about romantic love and heartbreak, students can talk about familial love with their parents and children, as well as love between friends. Questions like these are good:
- What is love?
- Who/what do you love?
- What good/bad experiences have you had with love?
- Can you be too young to be in love? Why/why not?
- How do you feel about love?
13. Goals
We all have goals and talking about them actually gets us more encouraged to do something about them. Sharing goals is also a good thing to help get them done. A good set of questions is:
- What are your current goals in life?
- How do you plan to reach your goals?
- How often do you set goals for yourself?
- What goals have you set and achieved in the past?
- How do you feel when you reach your goals?
14. Dreams
We all have dreams, sometimes on a nightly basis, and talking about them is a great discussion topic for classes as they inspire students to be creative and even whimsical. Great questions for this topic include:
- What kinds of dreams do you have?
- What do you think dreams mean?
- How much of your dreams do you remember? Why?
- What is your opinion on premonitions? Are they real?
- What are examples of memorable dreams you have had?
15. Restaurants
Along with eating, everybody loves talking about their favorite eateries and restaurants. Some students could even relate to each other with their choices and views. Good questions include:
- How often do you go to restaurants?
- What is your favorite restaurant? Why?
- What do you usually order at a restaurant?
- What is the restaurant experience like in your country?
- Have you ever worked in a restaurant?
- If you owned a restaurant, what kinds of food would you serve?
16. Cooking
Cooking is another topic that may allow for some good conversation. Most people in most countries do a good amount of cooking. A few good questions could be:
- In your home, who usually cooks?
- How often do you cook?
- How well do you cook? What can you cook well?
- What are the advantages/disadvantages of cooking?
- What food would you like to learn how to cook?
17. Money
If there is a topic that everyone loves deep down, it has to be money. People love talking about money. Well, may not if they’re broke—but even if they are, it’s a good, relatable topic that gets conversations going. Great questions include:
- How well do you manage your money?
- Why do some people have money problems?
- What are some good ways to make money?
- What would you do if I gave you $20/$2,000/$2,000,000?
- How often do you save money? Why?
18. Shopping
This one is a personal favorite for many. Shopping is becoming more and more prevalent and brings out some zest in some people. They just love shopping! Others feel strongly the other way—very few people are completely neutral on this topic. A few good questions are:
- Do you enjoy shopping? Why/why not?
- What is your favorite shop? Why?
- In your city, where is a good place to go shopping?
- How do you feel about online shopping?
- How do you think shopping will be like in the future?
19. Plans
Everybody makes plans and discussing them could even influence the class to start making plans of their own! A few example questions include:
- How often do you plan things? Why?
- What are your plans for (________)?
- What are your plans for your English?
- What do you think of this quote? “Having no plan is a plan to fail.”
- Do you have any back-up plans?
20. Books
Books make for a good discussion topic because most people enjoy a good book.
When you read, your mind is filled with new images, feelings, ideas and thoughts. Books also empower and educate people, so your adult students may believe in the value of books. It can be immensely satisfying for adult students to share how they feel about reading. Some questions to ask are:
- Do you like books/reading? Why/why not?
- What kind of books do/did you like?
- What is your favorite book? Why?
- What was the last book you read?
- Do you believe reading books/literature is more important than reading stuff online? Why/why not?
21. Sports
Now comes a topic that more men may favor, but it’s still good for classes since female spectators are on the rise. Some students may also have children that enjoy sports! A few good examples are:
- Do you like sports? Why/why not?
- How often do you exercise/play sports?
- Did you play any sports as a child?
- What sport/physical activity is popular in your country?
- What is your opinion on professional sports?
22. Life
Life discussions go on in all languages and English is no exception.
Practicing discussions on life is a good topic to cover since everyone has their own views and thoughts on the ubiquitous subject. You could bring up questions like:
- What is the meaning of life?
- How is your life going up to this point?
- What do you think happens after life?
- What important life lessons have you learned?
- If tomorrow was your last day to live, what would you do?
23. Television
Television is one of those topics that everyone has an opinion about. The irony of it is that even though more and more programming is viewed on computers and tablets, television is still a hot topic classes love to discuss. Good questions include:
- How often do you watch TV?
- Should everyone have a television in their home?
- What is the best way to watch television: On a television set, computer, tablet or phone?
- What television programs are popular in your country?
- What do you think will be the future of television?
- What is your opinion on television?
- If you had your own TV show, what would it be like?
24. Learning
Learning is like nature—it’s all around us, even on a subconscious level. Our brains are built to absorb, filter and store information. Discussion about learning could actually stimulate some English learning amongst the students! A few questions that are suitable are:
- How important is learning? Why?
- Besides English, what are you currently learning?
- What things are you good/bad at learning? Why?
- What would you most like to learn?
- What is the most difficult part of learning? Why?
25. Movies
Like television, talking about movies is a topic that has something to be said by everybody. I mean, who doesn’t watch movies? A few good questions to be asked could be:
- What was the last movie you saw? How was it?
- What is your favorite movie? Why?
- How are the movies in your country? What are the best ones?
- How often do you watch movies in English?
- If there were a movie about your life, what kind of movie would it be? Why?
26. Games
Games are fun and everybody enjoys fun, no?
But in all seriousness, talking about games gets discussion more geared towards past tense, which gives the students a fond sense of nostalgia. Some simple questions could be:
- What is your favorite game ever?
- What games did you play as a kid?
- What games are popular/came from your country?
- How competitive are you when it comes to games?
- What games do you still play now? Why?
27. Computers
The year is 2019 and you can’t go a day without talking about computers. A greatly universal topic that could have students discussing quite a few things, which could all relate to real life too! Great questions on this could be:
- Describe your computer at home/work.
- What do you usually use a computer for?
- Do you like computers? Why/why not?
- What was the first computer you ever had like?
- What do you think will be the future of computers?
28. Problems
Even though nobody likes to talk about problems, per se, everybody still talks about their problems to other people! Problems are actually a good topic for discussion since they could help others relate to each other and even present solutions too. A few fine examples of questions are:
- How do you deal with your problems?
- What problems do you come across in your work or life?
- Do you feel that problems are opportunities? Why or why not?
- What was the last problem you solved and how did you do it?
- “Problems don’t matter. Solutions do.” Do you agree or disagree?
So that’s the list of discussion topics you could use with your ESL classes. Depending on their skill levels, you can feel free to make the questions a bit easier or more challenging.
The best topics are those that are talked about in the students’ own native language (everyday things) and the best questions are usually open-ended as opposed to something that could be answered in a word or two.
It’s also best to avoid topics that could offend students like death, sex, politics and religion—but that’s certainly something that varies from classroom to classroom.
These topics may even inspire you to come up with some of your own, as you’ll begin to understand your students on a deeper level and knows what works and what doesn’t.
Happy discussing!
Oh, and One More Thing…
If you like getting adults highly engaged in learning English, you’ll love using FluentU in your classroom. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.
It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities.
You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.
On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.