I’ll never forget my first attempt at a “free talking” session with my A1 class.
I had twenty questions printed out. TWENTY. I’d spent the better part of an evening finding good conversation starters, organizing them by difficulty, and feeling pretty smug about my preparation. These were just backups, you know, in case there was a lull.
We had agreed on 15 minutes of free talking time.
I made it through all twenty questions in less than five minutes.
The remaining ten-minute lull felt like ten years. Students shifted in their seats. I smiled encouragingly while internally screaming. Someone coughed. The clock ticked so loudly I swear everyone could hear it.
You know that feeling, right?
When “Free Talking Time” Becomes a Hostage Situation
Here’s what happened: My students had requested daily free talking sessions. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Students ASKING to speak more English?
But if you’ve tried this with beginning-level students, you know the brutal reality. Loooong, agonizing silences. One-word answers. Everyone staring at you like you’re supposed to save them from this conversational nightmare you created (at their request).
Because here’s the thing…I thought free talking meant that the students would speak, to each other, without constant prompting…or at least that they would TRY to. And I figured that I could always ask questions to help get the ball rolling. But wasn’t FREE talking. It was question-answer ping-pong with me doing all the serves.
My first solution? More questions. Obviously, twenty wasn’t enough because they needed a lot more prompting than I had anticipated. I needed HUNDREDS.
So I went to the internet and searched for question lists. I bookmarked sites. I created documents. I had backup questions for my backup questions.
And it still didn’t help.
Students would answer with the absolute minimum required to technically qualify as a response. “Do you like pizza?” “Yes.” “What’s your favorite food?” “Pizza.” “Why do you like pizza?” “It’s good.”
Cool. Still have twelve eternities left.
The Yes/No Question Trap
After that disaster, I had a brilliant revelation: I was asking too many yes/no questions! That was the problem! I just needed to ask better questions—questions that REQUIRED longer answers.
So I switched to only asking information questions. “What did you do last weekend?” “Where do you want to travel?” “How do you usually spend your free time?”
Guess what they said?
“I stayed home.”
“Korea.”
“I watch movies.”
UUUUUGH, right? This was why I didn’t want to have “free talking”. But I still had all this time to fill. And students were still staring at me, waiting for the next question like baby birds waiting to be fed.
Stop Doing All the Heavy Lifting
Eventually—and I’m not going to admit how long this took me to figure out—I realized I was approaching this completely backwards.
I was doing ALL the preparation. ALL the thinking. ALL the question-generating. I was working ten times harder than my students during their requested so-called “free talking” time.
Just like we can’t learn English FOR our students, we shouldn’t be working harder than they are.
So I stopped.
Here’s What Actually Solved This Problem
I handed the question-creating over to the students.
But I needed a structure that would keep things moving without me having to orchestrate every single exchange. Something that would get students talking to EACH OTHER instead of just answering my questions.
So, I took out my Jenga game to give them someone to focus on other than their fear of speaking. Read more about using this game to create unlimited adult ESL games here.
Here’s how it goes:
Before the game starts: Students create their own list of 10-15 information questions they can ask classmates. I tell them not to work together because I want different questions from everyone.
Here’s how to play: Students take turns removing one block with one hand (my rules: don’t switch hands mid-turn and can’t take from the top four complete floors). After placing the block on top, that student asks one of their questions to any classmate they choose. That classmate answers, then asks the SAME question to another student. Then the next person takes their turn with the tower and asks a different question.
Here’s Why This Doesn’t Flop
Students are generating the questions, so they’re invested. They WANT to hear the answers because these are things THEY were curious about.
The game element removes the pressure. Nobody feels singled out or put on the spot. You’re just playing a game that happens to involve English.
And most importantly? Students are talking to each other, not performing for the teacher.
The first time I tried this, I sat back and watched students actually LAUGH during free talking time. They asked follow-up questions without me prompting them. They corrected each other’s grammar gently. They wanted to keep playing even after time was up.
Make the Speaking Activity Even More Useful
The first time you do this, I’d leave the topic completely open. It’s a great icebreaker—students ask about hometowns, favorite foods, hobbies, weekend plans. Everyone gets to know each other while you informally assess their speaking ability.
After that, I like to tie it to whatever we just covered in class. If we learned past tense, their questions need to use past tense. If we covered food vocabulary, questions should be about food. This lets them practice what they learned and gives me a real-time assessment of whether they actually got it.
Oh, and if you’ve got a big class, get more than one Jenga. I found that five was the maximum for a Jenga because more than that means students have a long wait for their turn.
And yeah, sometimes I tell them that if they knock over the Jenga tower, they have to sing a song or recite a poem in their first language. It raises the stakes just enough to make it exciting. ^_^
The Bottom Line
Free talking time shouldn’t mean you’re frantically generating questions while students give minimum-effort answers. Hand over the question-creating to students, add a game structure to keep things moving, and let them talk to each other instead of just responding to you.
Your students get conversation practice. You get to stop doing all the heavy lifting. And nobody has to sit through ten minutes of painful silence punctuated by teacher questions and one-word answers.
Of course, students won’t always want to create their own questions. Coming up with questions in another language takes real cognitive effort, and you don’t want to burn them out. But do you really want to spend all YOUR time creating questions? Check out my discussion topics line ↗ in my TpT store. I’ve got you covered with ready-made questions. Students can draw a card, choose who will answer, and read the question. Easy.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
