Childhood

ESL discussion questions about our early years.

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  1. What is your earliest memory?
  2. What is the best memory you have from childhood?
  3. Were you a well-behaved child or a naughty one? Why?
  4. Did you enjoy going to school? What did you think of your teachers?
  5. What were your biggest fears as a child?
  6. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
  7. Did you have a favourite toy as a child? What was it?
  8. Aside from your parents, who had the biggest impact on your childhood?
  9. At what age does a child become an adult?
  10. Do you think that children today are spoilt?
  11. Do today's children need more discipline in school and in the home?
  12. Are today's children mollycoddled by their parents and teachers?
  13. What impact do you think smart phones and social media have on childhood?
  14. To what extent should children choose what they eat?
  15. How much money should you spend on a child on their birthday?
  16. How much does it cost to raise a child?
  17. Your childhood days are the best days of your life. Do you agree?
  18. Do you think that childhood today is more difficult than in the past?
  19. How old should a child be before they go out on their own?
  20. What is the most irritating thing that children do?
  21. Show me the boy of 7 and I will show you the man. Do you agree with this?
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PDF (Pairs)
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PDF (Threes)
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PDF (Cards)
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Other topics you may be interested in...


General Topics

Air Travel, Animals, Appearance, Art, Childhood, Cinema, Crime, Eating Out, Education, Environment, Ethics, Fame, Family, Fashion, Food, Football (Soccer), Friendship, The Future, Globalisation, Health, History, Holidays (Vacations), House and Home, The Internet, Language, Language Learning, Life, Literature, Marriage, The Media, Money, Music, Personality, Politics, Religion, Romance, Science, Shopping, Smartphones, Sport, Technology, Time, Town and City, Transport, Travel, University, Video Games, War, Weather, Work.


Business Topics

Advertising, Brands, Building Relationships, Change, Communication, Competition, Consultants, Crisis Management, Cultures, Customer Service, Employment Trends, Ethics, First Impressions, Human Resources, International Marketing, International Markets, Job Satisfaction, Leadership, Management Styles, Marketing, Mergers and Acquisitions, Money, New Business, Online Business, Organisation, Project Management, Raising Finance, Risk, Strategy, Success, Team Building, Training, Travel.


Grammar Topics

Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous, Past Simple, Past Continuous, Used to, Have to, Going to / Pres. Continuous, Going to / Will, Comparatives, Superlatives, First Conditional, Second Conditional, Third Conditional, Mixed Conditionals, Should, Should have, Can, Could, Can / Could / Be able to, Is done / Was done, Being done / Been done.

How to use the childhood ESL discussion questions

It is recommended that you download the childhood ESL discussion questions in PDF format using one of the links above. The best way to encourage classroom interaction is to download and print the childhood discussion questions in the 'pairs' or 'threes' PDF format and then divide the questions by cutting along the dotted lines. This allows students to take turns asking and answering the childhood discussion questions in groups of two or three. Alternatively, you could use the 'cards' format to distribute the questions to any number of students to ask and share.

It is advisable to prepare students for using these discussion questions by first introducing them to the topic of childhood in an interesting and engaging way. An anecdote, quiz question or a related image or video could all be used to achieve this. Depending on the level, it may also be necessary to pre-teach any challenging vocabulary related to childhood contained in the discussion questions.

For more ESL discussion questions, see this site's main page. There are discussion questions on a range of topics including general, grammar and business English topics.

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