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ESL Conversation Topic — Biographies

Written by Robert Vance on May 8, 2008 – 5:20 am

Level: Beginner to Advanced

This ESL conversation topic will give your voice a rest and help your students to have some fun getting to know one another better.

Warmup: Talk about the concept of a ‘biography.’ Depending on the level of your students, you can introduce the vocabulary word ‘autobiography’ to them. Explain that for this class, they will be interviewing each other and giving a short oral biography. Hand out a copy of the following questions and ask students to interview each other. When they have finished, ask your students to recap the bios of their partners in front of the rest of the class.

Child Hood
1. Where were you born?
2. What are the names of your parents?
3. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
4. Who was your hero growing up?
5. What is your earliest childhood memory?
6. What school did you go to?
7. What was a major event that occurred during your childhood? (something good or bad is ok)
8. What was your favorite subject in school?
9. What was your worst subject in school?
10. Did you play any sports when you were a child?
11. When you look back on your childhood, was it mostly a happy time or a sad time?

Teenage Years:
11. Were you popular as a teenager? Did you have many friends?
12. Were you a good student? Did you enjoy studing in the Senior Middle School?
13. Did you have a boyfriend or girlfriend in high school? Did your parents know about it?
14. What is a major event that occurred during your teenage years?
15. Did you have a foreign teacher in your school. If so, did your contact with the foreign teacher help you to improve your English?
16. When you look back on your childhood, was it mostly a happy time or a sad time?
Adult Years:
17. When do you think that you became an adult? What events happened to make you an adult?
18. What is something about being an adult that you did not expect?
19. Are you married? If not, do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?
20. What are your future plans in life? Do you have any big dreams?
21. If there is one thing that you could change about your past what is it?