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Adelaide ESL Meetup - All Discussion Questions
The discussion questions below have been created by Thor May to encourage English speaking practice in a bi-weekly meetup. The question-core approach for speaking appears to work well. The process of creating questions is itself one of the most empowering skills that anyone can practice in any language. Thor May contact: thormay@yahoo.com
Notes: 1. English as a Second Language Meetup site: https://www.meetup.com/ESL-English-practice-meet-up-group/ 2.
This group now also has a Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1678127882281980/?ref=bookmarks [The general discussion topics are more complex than the ESL discussion topics on this ESL page (http://byeways.net/thormay2/esl-meetup-discussion-topics/ )] 4. Articles on many topics by Thor May at : https://independent.academia.edu/ThorMay
TOPICS (linked to starter questions)
Topic 137 What are the steps for ... [doing X] 25 March 2022
Topic 136 What You See Is Not What You Get 11 March 2022
Topic 135 Children say: "When I grow up" - What did you want to do? 25 February 2025
Topic 134 What Can Money Buy? 11 February 2022
Topic 133 What's Crazy? Who's Crazy? 28 January 2022
Topic 132 Too Hot? Too Cold? Too Windy? 17 December 2021
Topic 131 For and Against 3 December 2021
Topic 130 Big ChangeS Are Coming... 19 November 2021
Topic 129 Popular? Or Independent? Or Don't Care? 5 November 2021
Topic 128 What a Coincidence ! 22 October 2021
Topic 127 Complaining in English 8 October 2021
Topic 126 Telling Lies for Fun 24 September 2021
Topic 125 Your Turn to Give Some Advice (1) - Study/Work Overseas? 10 September 2021
Topic 124 Olympic Spirit 27 August 2021
Topic 123 Stupid, Smart, or Common Sense? 13 August 2021
Topic 122 Fortune Favours the Brave
30 July 2021
Topic 121 What Do You Buy? 16 July 2021
Topic 120 A Dreamer or a Practical Person? 2 July 2021
Topic 119 Tell Me Something I Don't Know 18 June 2021
Topic 118 What is a friend? What is an enemy? Do you need either? 4 June 2021
Topic 117 Getting a Job or Dropping
Out? 21 May 2021 Topic 116 When People Don't Understand You 7 May 2021
Topic 115 Funny, strange, upsetting, pleasing, inspiring, frightening, touching ... 23 April 2021
Topic 114 The Best Teaching and Learning 9 April 2021
Topic 113 Your Big Dream 26 March 2021
Topic 112 Health, Exercise & Diet 12 March 2021
Topic 111 Ceremonies and Celebrations 26 February 2021
Topic 110 Buying and Selling 12 February 2021
Topic 109 29 January 2021 What do you notice? What don't you care about?
Topic 108 11 January 2021 Are You "The Last of the Big Spenders?"
Topic 107 11 December 2020 Memories of 2020, Hopes for 2021
Topic 106 27 November 2020 Buyer and Seller
Topic 105 13 November 2020 The First Time I ... did that ...
Topic 104 30 October 2020 What Drives You, Really?
Topic 103 16 October 2020 I’m Pretty Good at This, But Hopeless at That
Topic 102 2 October 2020 Life Hacks (Short cuts for easier living)
Topic 101 18 September 2020 Being Yourself and Being Your Age
Topic 100 4 September 2020 Language Learning
Topic 99 21 August 2020 What Can Australia Do Better? [Covid-19 suspension 7 August 2020]
Topic 98 24 July 2020 Possessions - Do you need them?
Topic 97 10 July 2020 Surprising Things Happen
Topic 96 25 June 2020 (Online) Challenge - Give a 3 Minute Speech Online
Topic 95 11 June 2020 (ONLINE) Life in Adelaide - The Good and the Bad
Topic 94 28 May 2020 (ONLINE) The Future of Travel
Topic 93 14 May 2020 (ONLINE) Is it Safe? Who cares?
[Temporary Suspension of ESL Program because of the Covid-19 Virus]
Topic 92 6 March 2020 Teach Me How To
Topic 91 21 February 2020 Value for Money
Topic 90 7 February 2020 Doing Yourself a Favour
Topic 89 24 January 2020 Emergency! Catastrophe! What Next?
Topic 88 10 January 2020 The Places People Live
Topic 87 13 December 2019 Love, Hate, Tolerance and Prejudice (.. humour?)
Topic 86 [29 November 2019] Do You Really Believe That?
Topic 85 15 November 2019 Bits & Pieces of Language
Topic 84 1 November 2019 Hopeless Situations
Topic 83 18 October 2019 Time or Money?
Topic 82 4 October 2019 What is your cultural fit?
Topic 81 20 September 2019 Getting it done - Part 2: Groups big & small
Topic 80 6 September 2019 Getting it done - Part 1: Just You
Topic 79 23 August 2019 Touch, Smell, Taste, Hear, See - Which is your favourite?
Topic 78 9 August 2019 Feelings, Emotions
Topic 77 26 July 2019 Motivation - What Drives You, Really?
Topic 76 12 July 2019
Kinds of Work and
Where you can do them Topic 75 28 June 2019 Habits - Good
and Bad Topic 74 12 June 2019
Different Kinds of People (practice giving opinions) Topic 73 17 May 2019
Opportunity
Knocks Topic 72 17 May 2019 Stupidity is really interesting
Topic 71 3 May 2019 You Are A Tour Guide
Topic 70 19 April 2019
The Good & The Bad Topic 69: 5 April 2019
Getting Bigger,
Getting Smaller, Coming Closer, Going Further Topic 68 22 March 2019
Explain Your
Answer to Logical Questions Topic 67 8 March 2019 Now You are an Interviewer!
Topic 66 22 February 2019
How Do You
Learn - Videos, Books, Doing or Just Talking? Topic 65 8 February 2019
Keeping Fit - Is
It Worth the Trouble? Topic 64 25 January 2019
Something Won,
Something Lost Topic 63 11 January 2019
Plans for
the year and more Topic 62 14 December 2018
Holidays Topic 61 30 November 2018
Cars and Getting to Work Topic 60 16 November 2018
Animals
and Plants Topic 58 19 October 2018
What
are you afraid of?
Topic 56 21 September 2018
How
Expensive is Australia, Really? Topic 55 7 September 2018 What can you safely talk about with strangers?
Topic 54 24 August 2018 What Do These Aphorisms Mean? Do You Agree With Them? Think of a Reply.
Topic 53 10 August 2018 The Hardest Things to Do
Topic 52 27 July 2018
Are you lazy? Topic 51 13 July 2018
How well should you
speak English? Topic 50 29 June 2018 People I like, and the others ...
Topic 49 15 June 2018
What makes
you laugh and cry? Topic 48 1 June 2018 Spare Time - Do You Have Any?
Topic 47 18 May 2018 I don't understand this place!
Topic 46 4 May 2018 Why do people stop learning (.. Do they?) Topic 45 20 April 2018 Tourism
Topic 44 6 April 2018 Seasons
Topic 43 23 March 2018
Help me to buy a
house and furnish it Topic 42 9 March 2018
What I've always
wanted to do
Topic 41 23 February 2018
Interviews - for
jobs and other things
Topic 40, 9 February 2018
Sell it to me
! English for persuading people
Topic 39 25 January 2018
What do you notice?
Topic 38, 12 January 2018
What will
you eat, what do you refuse?
Topic 37x*: 9 December 2017:
Out and About
Topic 36: 9 December 2017: Love them or hate them? - Gadgets, Cars, Machines, Toys ..
Topic 35: 24 November 2017: Having fun - what does fun mean for you?
Topic 34: 10 November 2017: Getting from here to there
Topic 33: 27 October 2017:
How Has Your Life Changed?
Topic 32: 13 October 2017: Appearances - What can you tell about a person just by looking at them?
Topic 31: September 29 2017:
Shops and Shopping
Topic 30: September 15 2017:
Friends, Acquaintances, Colleagues
Topic 29: September 1 2017: A New Country - Internal & External Migration
Topic 28: August 18 2017 Good and Bad Manners - When is it rude to be rude?
Topic 27: August 4 2017: The Art of Conversation
Topic 26: 21 July 2017: Opinions - giving opinions, keeping quiet, disagreeing, agreeing to differ ..
Topic 25: July 7 2017: Work you can get, and work you want
Topic 24: 23 June 2017 -
Pretend to be someone else - "The most Interesting and Puzzling Questions for a Chameleon"
Topic 23: 9 June 2017
-
Surviving the Human Jungle – liars, cheats, thieves, animals in the forest
Topic 22. 26 May 2017 : Money !!
Topic 21. 12 May 2017 :
Do you
really believe that !? Topic 20. 28 April 2017 : Travelling (2)
Topic 19. 31 March 2017 : Making Questions About a Topic
Topic 18. 17 March 2017 : Playing “Devil’s Advocate”
Topic 17. 3 March 2017 : Teach me something!
Topic 16. 17 February 2017 : How does your thinking change with time and experience?
Topic 15. 27 January 2017 :
The
Meaning of Travel (1)
Topic 14. 13 January 2017 : Plans for the New Year
Topic 13. 16 December 2016 : Diet, exercise, having a long and happy life
Topic 12. 2 December 2016 : The Environment
Topic 11. 18 November 2016 : Why do I think like this?
Topic 10. 18 November 2016 : A Day in Your Life – compare countries
Topic 9. 21 October 2016 : Crime and Punishment – compare countries
Topic 8. 7 October 2016 : Work Culture
Topic 7. 23 September 2016 : Food! Tell us exactly how to prepare your favourite dinner
Topic 6. 9 September 2016 : Practice comparing things
Topic 5. 26 August 2016 : Task: Demonstrate how to do something
Topic 4. 19 August 2016 : INVESTIGATION! How to ask questions
Topic 3. 1 August 2016 : Talk About An Interest You Have
Topic 2. 18 July 2016 : English for Persuasion
Topic 1. 4 July 2016 : Disagreeing in English
Convention centre inquiry (27 September 2017)
Professional bio: Thor May has a core professional interest in cognitive linguistics, at which he has rarely succeeded in making a living. He has also, perhaps fatally in a career sense, cultivated an interest in how things work – people, brains, systems, countries, machines, whatever… In the world of daily employment he has mostly taught English as a foreign language, a stimulating activity though rarely regarded as a profession by the world at large. His PhD dissertation, Language Tangle, dealt with language teaching productivity. Thor has been teaching English to non-native speakers, training teachers and lecturing linguistics, since 1976. This work has taken him to seven countries in Oceania and East Asia, mostly with tertiary students, but with a couple of detours to teach secondary students and young children. He has trained teachers in Australia, Fiji and South Korea. In an earlier life, prior to becoming a teacher, he had a decade of finding his way out of working class origins, through unskilled jobs in Australia, New Zealand and finally England (after backpacking across Asia to England in 1972).
Adelaide ESL Meetup - All Discussion Questions ©Thor May 2018
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