Description
Your adult ESL students know Christmas and New Year's Eve. But do they all know about Diwali? Eid? Lunar New Year? Día de los Muertos? Those might get you some blank looks or a surprisingly passionate conversation. These 60 holiday discussion cards tap into that mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar, giving your intermediate to advanced students something genuinely worth talking about.
International students are living a cultural experience, not just a language lesson. Holidays are a natural entry point into big topics: family, religion, tradition, money, food, time. This set covers all of it. Some questions work as quick warm-ups. Others will run your class right to the bell.
WHAT'S INSIDE:
✅ 60 holiday-themed conversation cards, each printed one per card and ready to cut apart for small group discussions
✅ Questions ranging from accessible warm-up prompts to deeper topics that push intermediate and advanced students to really think and explain
✅ Teacher suggestion page with tips on how to use the cards and links to additional resources
✅ Easel version with one discussion prompt per slide for whole-class display. No printing, no cutting, no problem.
HOW TO USE THESE CARDS
Before class, flip through the cards and pull out the ones that fit your group best. You don't have to use all 60 at once. A handful of well-chosen prompts beats a stack nobody gets through.
Introduce the activity by giving students a little context. What holiday or cultural tradition does this question touch on? A one-minute setup goes a long way before you send them off to talk.
Put students in pairs or small groups and give each group one or two cards. Let them run with it. If the conversation stalls, have a follow-up question ready... or better yet, train your students to ask the follow-up questions themselves.
When the energy is right, bring it back to the full class. Have groups share what surprised them, what they disagreed on, or what they learned about each other's holiday traditions. That's usually where things get interesting.
Want a paperless option? Use the Easel version to put one question up at a time for a whole-class discussion. Works great when you want everyone focused on the same prompt instead of splitting into groups.
THIS WAS CREATED FOR YOUR ADULT ESL STUDENTS
Intermediate to advanced adult ESL students have plenty of opinions about holidays: their own, their new country's, and everyone else's. What they often don't have is a ready-made question to get them started. These cards give them that. The range of prompts means you can ease in with something light or go straight for the topics that generate real debate. They also work well as writing prompts or impromptu speaking topics when you need to switch things up.
GRAB IT AND GO
Download, print, cut, and you're ready. Laminate if you want them to last. Or skip all of that and use the Easel version instead. Either way, you've got 60 conversation starters on one of the richest, most culturally layered topics your students will ever discuss.
Questions? Drop them in the Q&A section.
If you teach conversation classes regularly, take a look at my Adult ESL Discussion Topics MEGA Bundle. It pulls together over two thousand discussion questions across 28 themes, so you'll always have something on hand when a conversation stalls or you need to fill time.
For more topics, click here.
You may also be interested in Expressions for Opinions to ensure that your adult ESL students can use a good variety of expressions to ask for and give opinions.
Highlights
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Description
Your adult ESL students know Christmas and New Year's Eve. But do they all know about Diwali? Eid? Lunar New Year? Día de los Muertos? Those might get you some blank looks or a surprisingly passionate conversation. These 60 holiday discussion cards tap into that mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar, giving your intermediate to advanced students something genuinely worth talking about.
International students are living a cultural experience, not just a language lesson. Holidays are a natural entry point into big topics: family, religion, tradition, money, food, time. This set covers all of it. Some questions work as quick warm-ups. Others will run your class right to the bell.
WHAT'S INSIDE:
✅ 60 holiday-themed conversation cards, each printed one per card and ready to cut apart for small group discussions
✅ Questions ranging from accessible warm-up prompts to deeper topics that push intermediate and advanced students to really think and explain
✅ Teacher suggestion page with tips on how to use the cards and links to additional resources
✅ Easel version with one discussion prompt per slide for whole-class display. No printing, no cutting, no problem.
HOW TO USE THESE CARDS
Before class, flip through the cards and pull out the ones that fit your group best. You don't have to use all 60 at once. A handful of well-chosen prompts beats a stack nobody gets through.
Introduce the activity by giving students a little context. What holiday or cultural tradition does this question touch on? A one-minute setup goes a long way before you send them off to talk.
Put students in pairs or small groups and give each group one or two cards. Let them run with it. If the conversation stalls, have a follow-up question ready... or better yet, train your students to ask the follow-up questions themselves.
When the energy is right, bring it back to the full class. Have groups share what surprised them, what they disagreed on, or what they learned about each other's holiday traditions. That's usually where things get interesting.
Want a paperless option? Use the Easel version to put one question up at a time for a whole-class discussion. Works great when you want everyone focused on the same prompt instead of splitting into groups.
THIS WAS CREATED FOR YOUR ADULT ESL STUDENTS
Intermediate to advanced adult ESL students have plenty of opinions about holidays: their own, their new country's, and everyone else's. What they often don't have is a ready-made question to get them started. These cards give them that. The range of prompts means you can ease in with something light or go straight for the topics that generate real debate. They also work well as writing prompts or impromptu speaking topics when you need to switch things up.
GRAB IT AND GO
Download, print, cut, and you're ready. Laminate if you want them to last. Or skip all of that and use the Easel version instead. Either way, you've got 60 conversation starters on one of the richest, most culturally layered topics your students will ever discuss.
Questions? Drop them in the Q&A section.
If you teach conversation classes regularly, take a look at my Adult ESL Discussion Topics MEGA Bundle. It pulls together over two thousand discussion questions across 28 themes, so you'll always have something on hand when a conversation stalls or you need to fill time.
For more topics, click here.
You may also be interested in Expressions for Opinions to ensure that your adult ESL students can use a good variety of expressions to ask for and give opinions.
