Compelling Conversations:

Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics
for ESL learners and teachers

“Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure.”
- Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), American psychologist

INTRODUCTION

Do your students speak enough English?

Help your ESL students create meaningful - and memorable - conversations.

Ask more. Know more. Share more.

That's the philosophy behind Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. English language learners want to share experiences and insights on contemporary topics - and expand their practical and academic vocabulary. Quotations and proverbs, from differing points of view, also encourage discussions, model excellent communication, and develop critical thinking skills. Students hold longer discussions, learn about their classmates, and gain practical experience. Let's create better, deeper, and more enjoyable conversations - even in English!

You can create compelling conversations by asking simple, yet deep, questions like:

"To speak a true word is to transform the world."

- Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator

Compelling Conversations Is

• Excerpted monthly in Easy English Times
• Used by University of Southern California Conversation Club
• Listed in Alta ESL book catalog, the Delta Adult Education catalog and Spring ESL catalog.
• Available for easy download and use as a PDF for $18
• Reproducable PDFs allow you to pick and choose lessons for easy classroom assignments

"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it."

- Guatama Siddhartha (Buddah), Indian philosopher and founder of Buddhism

Four Ways to Get Compelling Conversations

This valuable resource provides hundreds of hours of compelling material for ESL conversation classes, private English tutors, international students, business professionals, EFL classrooms, and conversation clubs!

Join the conversation, use the book, express yourself, and speak with your students and conversation partners in English for hours.

Compelling Conversations:

• includes 45 chapters on a wide variety of conversation topics
• asks over 1350 questions encouraging ESL students to reflect and share
• features over 500 memorable quotations from ancient sages to modern writers
• introduces over 200 proverbs from around the world
• highlights 450 practical vocabulary words for ESL students
• can supplement other textbooks in EFL/ELL classrooms
• prepares English language learners for the conversation section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC)
• generates authentic discourse for English langauge tutors
• makes English language tutoring easy with self contained lessons
• provides enough material for an estimated 180 hours of class time
• ends each chapter with an "on your own" exercise for homework or self-study
• allows adult students to develop meaningful conversations in English
• deepens critical thinking skills for academic success and personal satisfaction
• encourages ESL students to share experiences and insights
• reduces ESL teacher stress with excellent ready made lessons
• created by the faculty advisor for the University of Southern California Conversation Partners Program.
• engages students and creates compelling conversations

"A wonderful source of materials triggering authentic (not stilted) communication."

- Dr. Sharon Myers
University of Southern California
American Language Institute

“This book is excellent! Both teachers and students love it. “

- Marina Goldshteyn, director of CES Adult Education Center

"I just wanted you to know that I loved using your book, Compelling Conversations."

- Regina Pabo, ESL community college teacher and tutor

Four Themed Sections are each available as downloadable PDF

Your Life 13 topics that people love to talk about in daily life.	Free Time 11 topics that people love to talk pastimes and pleasures.
Modern Times 10 topics that adults face in the 21st century.	Civic Life 11 topics that 21st adults encounter in our fast changing world.

Teaching ESL to Adults - An ESL tutor's website with resources for teaching adults ESL, including lesson plans, grammar tips, cloze exercises, English pronunciation tips, and ESL textbook evaluations.