ESL Warm-Up Questions for Adults, A1 to C1

The first five minutes of a lesson set the tone for the next fifty-five. A good warm-up gets your student talking, shows you how they feel today, and leads into the topic you planned. Below are 75 questions for adult students, 15 for each level from A1 to C1, with a few tips for each level.

How to use a warm-up in a one-to-one online lesson

Keep it short. Five minutes is enough in a 60-minute lesson. In a conversation lesson you can take ten.
Pick two or three questions. Prepare four, in case one falls flat.
Put the questions on the screen. Reading the question helps lower levels, and it saves you from repeating it.
Answer one yourself first. Your answer is a model of the length and language you want.
Ask one follow-up. "Why?", "What happened next?" and "Can you give me an example?" turn a one-line answer into a conversation.
Don't correct much. Write down two or three mistakes and come back to them at the end of the lesson.
Link it to the lesson. If the lesson is about travel, ask about travel. If it practices the past simple, ask about last weekend.

A1 warm-up questions

At A1, students can answer with the present simple, be, can and like. Keep the questions about their own life: home, family, food, work and free time.

How are you today?
Where are you from?
Where do you live?
Do you live in a house or an apartment?
What's your job?
What time do you get up?
What do you have for breakfast?
What's your favorite food?
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
What's the weather like today?
What do you do on the weekend?
Can you cook?
What music do you like?
What's your favorite day of the week? Why?
Is there a park near your home?

Tips for A1: Accept short answers like "Yes, I can." Then help the student add one more piece: "Yes, I can. I cook pasta." Say your own answer slowly before you ask.

A2 warm-up questions

At A2, students can tell short stories in the past simple, talk about plans with going to, and compare things.

What did you do last weekend?
What did you have for dinner yesterday?
What are you going to do this evening?
Where did you go on your last vacation?
How do you usually get to work?
What's the best thing about your town?
Which do you like better, summer or winter? Why?
What do you usually do in the evening?
What are you watching on TV at the moment?
Who do you talk to most in your family?
What would you like to learn this year?
Have you ever cooked for a lot of people?
What was your favorite subject at school?
What's something you bought last month?
Do you prefer shopping online or in stores? Why?

Tips for A2: Past-tense questions work well, because everyone has a weekend to talk about. Listen for the verb forms, and note one or two wrong ones to practice later.

B1 warm-up questions

At B1, students can talk about experiences, give opinions with reasons, and use the present perfect, used to and simple conditionals.

How long have you lived in your home?
What's something you've wanted to do for a long time?
What did you use to do as a child that you don't do now?
If you had a free day tomorrow, how would you spend it?
What's the most useful app on your phone, and why?
Have you ever lived or worked in another country? What was it like?
What's a skill you'd like to learn, and how would you learn it?
What do you do when you feel stressed?
What's one place in your city that visitors should see?
What kind of news do you follow?
What advice would you give someone who is starting your job?
How has your daily routine changed in the last few years?
Do you think people work too much these days? Why or why not?
What always makes you laugh?
What are you looking forward to this month?

Tips for B1: Ask for reasons and examples. A B1 student who can say "I think so, because…" and then give an example is ready to move on. This is a good level to start asking the student to ask you a question back.

B2 warm-up questions

At B2, students can discuss more abstract topics, speculate about the future and talk about regrets with wish and conditionals.

What's something you've changed your mind about in the last few years?
If you could live in any decade, which one would you choose and why?
What do you wish you had known before you started your job or your studies?
How do you decide what to believe when you read the news online?
What's a habit you've been trying to build or break?
Which invention has changed everyday life the most, in your opinion?
Would you rather work from home every day or never? Why?
What makes a city a good place to live?
How do you think your job will change in the next ten years?
What's a difficult decision you've made, and how did you make it?
What do people in your country do that visitors find surprising?
Should schools teach young people how to manage money? What should they learn?
What would you do if you were offered your dream job in another country?
Which matters more to you in a job: the salary or the people you work with?
Which book, film or series stayed with you after you finished it?

Tips for B2: Push for longer turns. Ask the student to give both sides before they give their own view. Note useful phrases they almost had, such as "it depends on" or "on the other hand", and teach them at the end.

C1 warm-up questions

At C1, students can handle nuance, hypotheticals and argument. The questions can be more open and a little provocative.

What's a belief you hold that most people around you don't share?
To what extent does the language you speak shape the way you think?
What's a common piece of advice that you think is wrong?
How has technology changed the way people make friends?
Which part of your work would be hardest to hand over to AI, and why?
Which do you value more, efficiency or tradition? Can you think of a case where they clash?
Is it ever right to break a rule at work? Where do you draw the line?
What do you think future generations will criticize us for most?
How far should governments go to make people live healthier lives?
What's the most convincing argument you've heard recently, and what made it work?
What does success mean to you, and has that changed over time?
Is it possible to be completely objective about anything?
How would your life be different if you had grown up in another country?
Why are some people better at learning languages than others?
What's an everyday problem that nobody has solved properly yet?

Tips for C1: Listen for precision, not only accuracy. Teach hedging language like "I'd argue that…", "to some extent" and "that's not always the case". A good challenge is to ask the student to argue the side they disagree with.

From the warm-up into the lesson

The best warm-up questions point at what comes next. Choose questions that use the lesson's topic words or its grammar. A lesson on the present perfect with for and since can open with "How long have you lived in your home?" A lesson about moving abroad can open with "Have you ever lived in another country?"

Every lesson in SnappySchool's lesson library starts with a warm-up slide like this. You can look at a few to see how the questions lead into the topic:

You'll find more in the lesson library, from A1 to B2.

Questions

How long should an ESL warm-up be?

About five minutes in a 60-minute lesson. In a conversation lesson it can run to ten, because the talking is the point.

Should I correct mistakes during a warm-up?

Mostly no. The warm-up is for fluency and confidence. Write down two or three mistakes and come back to them at the end of the lesson.

How many warm-up questions should I prepare?

Prepare three or four and expect to use two or three. Some questions start a long answer, and some get one sentence.

What if my student only gives one-word answers?

Model a longer answer first, then ask a follow-up such as "Why?" or "Can you give me an example?" At lower levels, a sentence starter on the screen helps, for example "On the weekend I usually…".

ESL warm-up questions for adults, from A1 to C1