SPANISH CONVERSATION STARTERS #1

ADVANCED BEGINNER SPANISH CONVERSATION STARTERS INTERMEDIATE SPANISH

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This set of Spanish conversation starters features 100 starters in question format, suitable for advanced beginner Spanish to intermediate Spanish students. Speaking is a language skill that learners tend to find very challenging, and increased engagement with language that requires them to both reproduce language they are already familiar with, and to be creative with that language in order to produce new language is integral to successful language learning.

The questions focus largely on the present tense, with some examples of tenses such as preterite and conditional. I like to include tenses we may not have formally covered, as the activity is not solely about practicing language, but also about actively learning it. I encourage students to look for cues and clues in the questions themselves, and this certainly enables them to engage with new or unknown language successfully, and to progress in their learning.

Questions formats are varied, to ensure maximum opportunity to work with the different ways to ask questions in Spanish. Some questions seek to elicit very similar information, but are asked in different language: this avoids learners simply parroting learned responses to fixed prompts.

I remind students that it is not necessary to tell the truth - the purpose is to create and produce accurate and realistic language. Students can prepare their responses in as much detail as possible on the accompanying planning sheet, remembering that these are conversation starters, so that once they have responded, they should then say something to keep the conversation going.

The cards work particularly well as ice-breakers at the beginning of the school year. They’re also great as both entrance and exit tickets, and also for five-minute refreshers, which I use quite frequently during the school year. In the preparation phase, having access to bilingual dictionaries and / or the internet, this can be really helpful. These tools can help them prepare detailed responses to questions in ways that do not necessarily always focus on their own life and experiences.

The starters broadly address the following themes:

• personal information
• family & routines at home
• hobbies & free time
• likes & dislikes
• local environment
• food & drink
• school & studies
• sport & healthy living
• countries & languages
• weather & seasons

¡MUCHAS GRACIAS Y BUEN APRENDIZAJE!