30 Family Discussion Questions for Adult ESL Classes (A2 to C1)
November 2, 2026
Table of Contents
- Before you start
- 1. Who's in Your Family
- 2. Growing Up
- 3. Who Does What at Home
- 4. Family Gatherings
- 5. How Families Are Changing
- Mistakes your students will make
- Family lessons, if you want the full hour
Students can talk about their family from their first months of English, but the answer often stops after one sentence. I have one brother and my parents live in the north answers the question and closes it in the same breath.
These thirty questions are built to get past that sentence. They come in five sets: who is in the family, growing up, who does what at home, family gatherings, and how families are changing. Each set has one rule attached, and the rule is what keeps answers going past three words.
Family is also one of the most personal topics in any course, so every set carries a line marked Careful. A question that costs nothing in one class costs something in the next, and reading those five lines first takes a minute and saves an awkward twenty.
Ten to fifteen minutes a set, A2 through to C1. Every set is also in the free Family Conversation Cards below: the six questions as cut-out cards, the rule on a green card for the middle of the table, and the words the rule makes students reach for.
The five sets
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| The five rule cards in the deckSet 1 · Who's in Your FamilyDraw it, don't askYour partner draws your family while you talk, names and lines only, and may not ask a question. Then you correct the drawing.Set 2 · Growing UpTell their versionAfter each answer, your partner retells it the way your relative would tell it. You say what the relative leaves out.Set 3 · Who Does What at HomeThree sentences, then zoom inAnswer in three sentences and stop. Your partner picks one of the three and asks for the long version of that one.Set 4 · Family GatheringsThree ways outYour partner plays the relative who asks question 20 and won't take a short answer. Get out of it three different ways without being rude.Set 5 · How Families Are ChangingThree generationsAnswer each question three times: as your grandparents would have, as your parents would, and as you do. Then say where it changed.Free · printable PDFFamily Conversation CardsAll 30 questions below as cut-out cards, one page per set and numbered like this post. Each set has its green rule card for the middle of the table, the Careful line and a word strip with the language the rule asks for. Set 1 adds a family tree sheet for drawing while you listen, and page 8 puts all 30 on one page for online lessons.30 question cards5 rule cardsFamily tree sheetA2 to C1Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF |
Before you start
- Say that any question can be skipped. Say it once, at the start, and mean it. Students who know they can pass answer more, not less.
- Deal one set at a time. Each pair gets the eight cards of one set: the green rule card face up in the middle, the six questions face down, the white card for a question of their own. The word strip stays on the table.
- Model the rule once. Answer the first card yourself and let a student hold you to the rule. Pairs that have watched you do it will hold each other to it.
- One-to-one or online. You and your student both answer every card. Online, share page 8 of the PDF, which has all 30 questions and the five rules on one page.
1. Who's in Your Family
Who is in the family and how close they are. The easiest set to answer, and the easiest to answer in one flat sentence.
- Who is in your family, and which of them do you see most often?
- Who are you closest to, and who are you related to but hardly know?
- Which of them lives furthest away, and how do you stay in touch?
- Who in your family is most like you?
- Who holds the family together?
- Who in your family would you call first with good news?
1of 5A2-B1Pairs10 minFree printable · pages 2-3 The rule: Draw it, don't ask The partner draws the speaker's family while listening, names and lines only, and may not ask a single question. Then they show the drawing and the speaker corrects it out loud. Drawing makes the partner listen for relationships instead of waiting for their turn, and correcting a wrong drawing (No, Ana is my cousin, not my sister) pulls more English out of a speaker than describing a right one.
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Family Roots takes this set back a generation, into grandparents and what they did for a living, and it is where was and were stop being an exercise. If the class is short of the family words themselves, the Family Basics worksheet covers them, along with be close to and see each other often.
The full hour behind set 1 |
2. Growing Up
Childhood, and the stories a family keeps telling about it.
- What story does your family tell again every time it gets together?
- Who tells it, and who corrects them halfway through?
- What were you like as a child, according to your family?
- Do you agree with that description?
- What has a relative got wrong about you and never checked?
- Which rule from your childhood home do you still follow?
2of 5A2-B1Pairs10 minFree printable · page 4 The rule: Tell their version After each answer, the partner retells it the way the relative would tell it, in the relative's voice, and the speaker says what the relative left out. Every family story has a second version, and producing it is the work. It also lifts students out of the first person, which is where this topic usually gets stuck.
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Childhood Stories is an hour built out of exactly this: the stories families retell, and the language that makes a short one land.
The full hour behind set 2 |
3. Who Does What at Home
Chores, bills and birthdays: who does what at home, now and when the students were children.
- Who does the cooking in your home, and who does the dishes?
- Who pays the bills, and who remembers the birthdays?
- How was the work at home divided when you were a child?
- Which job at home does nobody notice until it isn't done?
- Who looks after the oldest and the youngest people in your family?
- If one person stopped doing their jobs for a week, who would the family miss most?
3of 5B1-B2Pairs10 minFree printable · page 5 The rule: Three sentences, then zoom in Each answer is three sentences, and then the speaker stops. The partner picks one of the three and asks for the long version of that one alone. Compressing and then expanding on demand is a real skill, and B1 classes almost never practice it, because most speaking tasks only reward saying more.
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The Family Members and Their Roles worksheet is the B1-B2 hour behind this set, with the language for who does what in a household: rely on, look after and sharing the work.
The full hour behind set 3 |
4. Family Gatherings
The big family get-together, and the questions relatives ask at it.
- Which family get-together do you look forward to most, and which do you dread?
- What does your family always ask that you have stopped answering properly?
- What do relatives assume about your life that is not true?
- What subject does your family quietly avoid at the table?
- What would you rather be asked instead?
- What object has been passed down in your family, and who will get it next?
4of 5B1-B2Pairs10 minFree printable · page 6 The rule: Three ways out The partner plays the relative who asks question 20 and will not take a short answer. The speaker has to get out of it three different ways without being rude. Three is the number that matters: one way out is a reflex, and three means finding new language. Put the three routes on the board first: answer a different question, turn it back on the asker, be honest but brief.
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Surviving Family Dinner is the hour this set rehearses for, with the real phrases for changing the subject and staying pleasant about it. For question 24, Family Heirlooms has people explaining why an object passed down to them matters.
The full hour behind set 4 |
5. How Families Are Changing
Duty, care and choice: the questions families are answering differently now. Groups of three or four this time.
- What does a family owe its adult children?
- What do adult children owe their parents?
- Who should look after older relatives, and who decides that?
- Is choosing a pet instead of a child a smaller decision, or just a different one?
- Has the old division of work at home come back, or did it never leave?
- Should a family have any say in a person's career or partner?
5of 5B2-C1Groups of 3-415 minFree printable · page 7 The rule: Three generations Every question is answered three times: as the student's grandparents would have answered it, as their parents would, and as they do. Then they say where the answer changed and what changed it. Take all the grandparent answers around the group first, before any present-day one, or students quietly bend the older generations toward their own view.
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Two lessons sit behind this set. Dogs Are The New Kids puts numbers on question 28, and Tradwife Trend argues one side of question 29 at length. Read the article before you teach it, so you know where your class is likely to land.
The full hour behind set 5 |
Family Conversation CardsThe 30 cards, five rule cards, the family tree sheet and the one-page screen version, in the order of this post.Download the free PDF |
Mistakes your students will make
Teacher's reference Slips to listen for in family conversations
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Family lessons, if you want the full hour
These are already planned and ready to teach. The two worksheets are the quickest to drop into a lesson, because they come with a teacher's copy.
| Level | Lesson | What students do |
| A1-A2 | Family Roots | Grandparents, what they did for a living, and was and were |
| A1-A2 | Have Got | Worksheet: have got and has got for family and looks |
| A2-B1 | Family Basics | Worksheet: the core family words and the phrases around them |
| A2-B1 | Childhood Stories | Funny childhood stories, and how to tell a short one well |
| A2-B1 | Surviving Family Dinner | Nosy questions, changing the subject and staying polite |
| A2-B1 | Family Heirlooms | Objects families keep, and the reasons people give |
| A2-B1 | Dogs Are The New Kids | Why so many younger adults choose a dog instead |
| B1-B2 | Family Members and Their Roles | Worksheet: who does what in a household |
| B1-B2 | Tradwife Trend | A return to traditional roles at home, argued both ways |
| B1-B2 | White Lies | The lies teenagers tell their parents, and whether any are harmless |
| B2-C1 | Dear Teenage Me | Two letters from adults to the teenagers they used to be |
| B2-C1 | Speak Like Fleabag | An awkward family dinner on TV, read for its pauses and short replies |
