The challenge that drives most conversation class lesson plans is how to fill 60 or 90 minutes with genuinely productive speaking practice while keeping preparation time under 20 minutes. New teachers often over-engineer conversation lessons with elaborate activities that produce little actual speaking. Experienced teachers sometimes under-prepare and end up with unstructured discussion that drifts.
The template below is designed to solve both problems. It's a reusable structure that works with almost any topic, any level, and any class size. The topic changes each lesson. The structure stays the same. Once students know the template, transitions take 10 seconds and energy goes into speaking rather than figuring out what's happening next.
YapYapGo is a classroom speaking practice tool for ESL and EFL teachers that handles the question delivery, timing, and pair rotation within the main speaking blocks. Here's the complete template.The 60-minute conversation class template
Phase 1: Warm-up pair (5 minutes)
Students arrive and begin speaking immediately. No registration, no admin, no review of last lesson. The question is on the board before the first student sits down.
The warm-up question: concrete, personal, quick to answer. "What was the most interesting thing that happened to you this week?" "What is something you've been thinking about lately?" "If you could change one thing about today, what would it be?" The format: students discuss with the person next to them. Two minutes, then you signal the end and ask two pairs to share one sentence each with the class. This is brief - 30 seconds total. Then move immediately to the next phase. Why it matters: the warm-up activates speaking from the first minute. Students who have already spoken once are less anxious about the main activities. Use a classroom countdown timer set to 2 minutes and display it at the front.Phase 2: Main speaking block A (18-20 minutes)
Three rounds of structured pair discussion, two partner rotations.
Round 1 (6 minutes): First question pair on the topic. Students discuss with their current partner for 3 minutes each way. Timer visible. Partner rotation 1: Students move to a new partner using your standing rotation method (one side of the room moves one seat, inner/outer circles, etc.) Round 2 (6 minutes): Second question pair, slightly more abstract or complex than round 1. Partner rotation 2: Rotate again. Round 3 (6 minutes): Third question pair - the most abstract or challenging of the three. Why three rounds with rotation? New partners bring new energy and prevent the comfortable silence that develops when two people have run out of things to say to each other. Three questions on the same topic allows students to deepen their thinking rather than skipping across unrelated topics. Preparation: if you're using YapYapGo, the questions are delivered automatically at the right level and the timer runs. If you're preparing your own questions, use the concrete-to-abstract progression: round 1 is always personal experience, round 2 is opinion with reasoning, round 3 is abstract or systemic.Phase 3: Vocabulary input (5 minutes)
Bring the class together after the first main block.
Ask: "What words or phrases did you need that you didn't have?" Collect answers on the board. Add 2-3 phrases you heard students struggle for while circulating.
Write them, explain briefly, give one example sentence from what you actually heard during phase 2. "I heard someone trying to say that something became normal over time - the phrase is 'it became the norm' or 'it gradually became accepted.'"
This is reactive vocabulary teaching - addressing gaps that appeared in authentic production. Students who needed these phrases moments ago are maximally motivated to learn them.
Phase 4: Main speaking block B (20 minutes)
A different activity format from phase 2. Choose based on your topic and class:
Option A: Structured debate. Assign positions on a statement related to the topic. 90 seconds per speaker, then free discussion. A debate timer handles the structure. Option B: Extended discussion. One more complex question, 5 minutes per pair, then pairs share their most interesting point with the class. Option C: Role play. A scenario related to the lesson's topic. Two characters, clear information asymmetry, 3-4 minutes. Option D: The opinion spectrum. Students physically position themselves and discuss with nearest neighbours on a statement related to the topic.The change of format between block A and block B is important. Students who have done structured pair discussion for 20 minutes are ready for a slightly different dynamic. The new format resets energy.
Phase 5: Debrief (7 minutes)
Whole class. Three elements:
Language from observation: 2-3 specific things you heard while circulating. Celebrate a phrase someone used well. Note a pattern worth fixing. Keep it targeted - not a comprehensive error analysis. The discussion outcome: "What was the most interesting argument you heard today? Did anything change how you think about this topic?" Students share briefly. This consolidates the cognitive work of the lesson. Preview: one sentence about next lesson's topic. This primes students' thinking between lessons and often generates genuine anticipation.The 90-minute version
Add a second warm-up after phase 3 (a brief low-stakes activity to re-engage after the vocabulary break), extend phase 4 to 35 minutes with two formats rather than one, and add a 5-minute pair reflection at the end: "What's one thing you want to remember from today's discussion?"
Adapting the template
For IELTS classes: replace phase 2 with Part 1/Part 2/Part 3 practice in sequence. Replace phase 4 with a second Part 3 practice session on a new theme. For business English: replace generic discussion questions with workplace scenarios and professional language focus. Phase 3 vocabulary becomes professional phrase building. For lower levels: shorten each round to 2 minutes, use simpler questions (concrete preference rather than abstract opinion), provide sentence starters on the board during all speaking phases. For mixed levels: pair lower and higher students for round 1 (higher students model extended answers), then separate levels for rounds 2 and 3 (each level works at appropriate depth).For the research behind why this structure works, see our post on how to structure a conversation class. For question resources across all topics and levels, YapYapGo provides automatic question delivery for the main speaking blocks. A random student picker manages the debrief sharing phase fairly.
Sources:
- Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson. - The PPP and ESA frameworks that inform lesson structure design.
- Nation, I.S.P. & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. Routledge. - Lesson structure for speaking classes: the evidence for what makes the difference.
- Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. - Lesson planning for communicative speaking classes.