Work

ESL discussion questions about the world of employment.

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  1. Do you have a job? Do you enjoy it?
  2. How long do you plan to stay in your current job?
  3. Why did you choose your profession?
  4. What is your dream job?
  5. Do you enjoy job interviews? Are you good at them?
  6. Does working hard make you feel good?
  7. Do people in your country work too hard or not hard enough?
  8. Do you think human beings are hard-working or lazy by nature?
  9. Would you work long hours? Would you do overtime?
  10. How many hours a week should people work?
  11. Which professions are the highest paid? Why is this?
  12. Can you think of any professions which are paid too little?
  13. How should we decide how much to pay people?
  14. Aside from earning money, what is the purpose of work?
  15. What would life be like if we didn’t have to work?
  16. Should the government help people who are unemployed? How?
  17. Are there any jobs which should only be for men? What about for women?
  18. Should women be paid the same as men for doing the same job?
  19. What is the retirement age in your country? What should it be?
  20. How much is the state pension in your country? Is it enough?
  21. Do you think that housework and raising a family count as real work?
PDF (Individual)
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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 work ESL discussion questions

It is recommended that you download the work 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 work 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 work 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 work 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 work 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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