Health and wellbeing questions work well for ESL speaking practice because they're personal without being too private. Everyone has a relationship with their own health, opinions about healthcare, and stories about trying (or failing) to live more healthily.
Here are 50 questions organised by CEFR level.
YapYapGo is a free speaking practice tool for ESL classrooms that includes health and lifestyle as a discussion topic category, with questions matched to age and level. For tips on keeping conversations going once they start, check out what to do when students run out of things to say.A2 Elementary (questions 1–10)
- What do you do to stay healthy?
- Do you exercise? What kind of exercise do you do?
- How many hours do you sleep each night? Is it enough?
- Do you eat breakfast every day? What do you usually have?
- Do you prefer cooking at home or eating out?
- What is your favourite sport to watch or play?
- Do you drink enough water?
- Have you ever tried a new sport or fitness activity?
- Do you think you have a healthy lifestyle?
- What food do you think is the healthiest?
B1 Intermediate (questions 11–25)
- How has your attitude to health changed as you've got older?
- Do you think people in your country are generally healthy?
- Is it the government's job to make people healthy, or is it a personal responsibility?
- How important is mental health compared to physical health?
- Would you rather exercise alone or with other people?
- Do you think social media affects people's body image?
- How do you deal with stress?
- Should unhealthy food have warning labels like cigarettes?
- Do you trust health advice you find on the internet?
- How has fitness culture changed in recent years?
- Do you think health insurance should be free for everyone?
- What's harder - eating well or exercising regularly?
- How much do you think sleep affects your daily performance?
- Would you try a new diet if a friend recommended it?
- Do you think schools do enough to teach children about health?
Tool tip: YapYapGo's Topic Discussion mode pairs students automatically with level-appropriate health questions. The question bank tracks what each class has discussed, so you never repeat a conversation.
B2 Upper-Intermediate (questions 26–40)
- To what extent should employers be responsible for their employees' mental health?
- Is the wellness industry genuinely helpful or mostly marketing?
- How does economic inequality affect access to healthcare?
- Should pharmaceutical companies be allowed to advertise directly to consumers?
- How has the pandemic permanently changed people's attitudes to health?
- Is "clean eating" a positive movement or a form of disordered thinking about food?
- Should there be a tax on sugary drinks and junk food?
- How does screen time affect mental and physical health?
- Is it ethical to charge more for health insurance if someone has unhealthy habits?
- How should society balance individual freedom with public health?
- What role should technology play in healthcare?
- Is burnout a personal problem or a systemic one?
- How has the conversation around mental health changed in your lifetime?
- Should alternative medicine be regulated?
- How can cities be designed to promote healthier lifestyles?
C1 Advanced (questions 41–50)
- "Health is a class issue, not a personal choice issue." How far do you agree?
- To what extent has the medicalisation of everyday life - treating normal human experiences as conditions to be treated - gone too far?
- How should we weigh personal liberty against collective public health, given what we learned from recent pandemics?
- Is the pursuit of optimal health becoming a new form of moral virtue - and if so, what are the consequences for those who can't or don't conform?
- How does the intersection of gender, race, and socioeconomic status affect health outcomes?
- Should governments prioritise prevention or treatment in their health spending?
- Is the global pharmaceutical industry fundamentally broken, or is it working as designed?
- How should we think about the ethics of genetic screening and its implications for disability and diversity?
- "Mental health awareness has increased, but actual access to treatment hasn't." Is awareness without action performative?
- If you could redesign your country's healthcare system from scratch, what would you prioritise?
Free tools for your next lesson
- Topic Generator - Random conversation questions by category
- Classroom Timer - Countdown timer with colour cues for activities
- Student Picker - Pick random students with a slot-machine animation
Sources:
- Long, M. (1996). The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition. Handbook of Second Language Acquisition.
- Storch, N. & Aldosari, A. (2013). Pairing Learners in Pair Work Activity. Language Teaching Research.