5 ESL Speaking Activities for Students Who Refuse to Talk
You ask a speaking question. The room goes silent. You smile. They smile. Everyone smiles. Nobody speaks.
If your ESL students refuse to talk, the problem is not always motivation and it is not always their English level.
Sometimes the task simply feels too open, too public or too risky. Students have been asked to speak, but they have not been given enough support to start.
The good news is that a few small changes to task design can reduce pressure, build confidence and turn an awkward silence into real communication.
What you’ll learn
- Why some students stay silent even when they know the language
- How to lower the pressure of speaking tasks
- Five practical ESL speaking activities you can use straight away
- How to structure tasks so students speak before they panic
- Why confidence often needs to come before fluency
Why ESL students sometimes refuse to speak
A quiet student is not necessarily an unmotivated student. Speaking another language in front of other people can feel risky, especially when students believe every mistake will be noticed.
Open questions such as “What do you think?” may sound simple to a teacher, but they require students to generate an idea, organise their language and speak publicly almost instantly.
A better approach is to reduce the number of decisions students need to make. Give them choices, thinking time, useful language and a safer first audience.
1. This or That, But Why?
Give students two simple choices: tea or coffee, beach or mountains, studying alone or studying with friends.
Students choose one option and explain why. The choice itself is not the important part. The explanation is what creates meaningful speaking.
Higher level: “I prefer coffee because it helps me concentrate in the morning.”
Structure the task carefully: show the options, give students ten seconds to think, let them answer with a partner and only then invite a few students to share with the whole class.
Pair first, class second. This matters because reacting to two clear options is much easier than inventing an answer from nothing.
Add sentence starters such as “I prefer ___ because ___” or “In my opinion, ___ is better because ___.” A small amount of language support can make an enormous difference.
2. One-Minute Expert
Give each student a straightforward topic such as a favourite food, a useful app, a bad holiday or a place they want to visit.
Give them one minute to prepare three ideas. They do not need full sentences. A few useful notes are enough.
Students then speak to a partner for one minute while the partner listens and asks one follow-up question.
Notes: Maps. Easy to use. Helps when travelling.
“I think Google Maps is a useful app because it helps me when I travel. I can find restaurants, bus stops and hotels.”
The key ingredient is preparation time. Many quiet students are not refusing to speak. They are refusing to panic in public.
For beginners, reduce the speaking time to 30 seconds. For stronger students, increase it to two minutes. During the first round, focus on fluency rather than correcting every mistake.
3. Find Someone Who — With a Follow-Up
Most ESL teachers know the classic “Find Someone Who” activity. Students move around the room asking questions such as “Do you have a pet?” or “Do you like spicy food?”
The problem is that the activity can quickly become a race to collect names rather than a genuine conversation.
Fix that by requiring one follow-up question every time a student gets a “yes”.
“Yes.”
“What is its name?”
Instead of simply writing “Linh has a pet”, students might record “Linh has a cat called Mango.” Now they have to listen for real information rather than simply ticking boxes.
Before the activity begins, drill a few useful follow-up forms such as “What kind of…?”, “When did you…?”, “Why do you like…?” and “How often do you…?”
4. Opinion Corners
Choose a statement such as “Homework is useful”, “Mobile phones should be allowed in class” or “Games are the best way to learn”.
Label four areas of the classroom: strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. Students move to the corner that matches their opinion.
Once there, they discuss three simple prompts: Why are you here? What is one reason? Can you give an example?
Movement changes the energy of the lesson, while the small-group discussion gives students a safer environment in which to develop their ideas.
Before anyone speaks to the whole class, ask each group to choose its strongest argument. The student who shares is then presenting the group’s idea rather than carrying all the pressure alone.
5. The Bad Answer Game
This is especially useful when a class is shy, tense or simply has the energy of a damp sandwich.
Ask a normal discussion question, but tell students that their first job is to give the worst possible answer.
Bad answers: Never study. Sleep in every lesson. Only learn one word.
Real answers: Practise a little every day. Speak whenever you can. Review new vocabulary.
Bad answers work because they remove the pressure to be correct. Students can play with language, laugh and take a small social risk without worrying about perfection.
Once they have spoken badly on purpose, speaking normally often feels much easier. Always model the first silly answer yourself so students immediately understand that the activity is meant to be playful.
What makes these speaking activities work?
- They reduce pressure. Students begin with partners, groups or clear choices rather than immediate public performance.
- They provide thinking time. Students can organise ideas before they have to speak.
- They include useful language support. Sentence starters and question forms remove unnecessary difficulty.
- They create repetition. Students get several opportunities to use similar language in meaningful ways.
- They encourage real listening. Follow-up questions make students respond to what another person actually said.
- They make speaking feel achievable. Confidence grows when students experience small successes.
Need more ready-to-use ESL activities?
Get practical classroom resources from Inspire and add more speaking, vocabulary and lesson ideas to your teaching toolkit.
Get Free ESL ResourcesSpeaking confidence starts with better task design
Telling students to “speak more” is not a teaching strategy. It is a desired outcome. Teachers still need to build the pathway that helps students get there.
That pathway might include ten seconds of thinking time, a useful sentence starter, a partner rehearsal or the chance to hear someone else’s idea before speaking. These supports may look small, but they reduce the mental load of speaking considerably.
It also helps to separate fluency practice from correction. When students are attempting to express an idea, constant interruption can make them more cautious. There are times for accurate language work and times when students simply need space to communicate.
Strong speaking lessons also create genuine reasons to listen. A task becomes more communicative when students need information from another person, respond to an opinion or ask a follow-up question rather than simply reciting an answer for the teacher.
Over time, these repeated low-pressure successes can change how students feel about speaking English. They begin to see speaking not as a public test of everything they know, but as something they are capable of doing.
Final thoughts
If your students refuse to talk, start by changing the task rather than blaming the silence.
Give choices. Give thinking time. Use follow-up questions. Let students move. Lower the pressure. Add humour when it helps.
If you want one activity to try first, start with This or That, But Why? It is simple, flexible and works in the first few minutes of almost any ESL lesson.
Speaking confidence grows when students feel safe enough to try. Design for that first, and fluency has a much better chance to follow.
Bring more practical speaking activities into your classroom
Explore Inspire’s free teaching resources for classroom-ready activities, ideas and materials designed for real ESL lessons.
Explore Free Teaching Resources
