Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics- An Engaging ESL Textbook for Advanced Students

I've been using this book in a couple of ESL conversation classes and it has worked wonders. Every lesson is organized the same way, first introducing the topic with a lot of different questions, then presenting useful vocabulary followed by more conversation starters along the same line where students can practice these new words, and finally a plethora of quotes for discussion. There are 45 topics to choose from and one alone, in an upper intermediate to advanced class will take you two or three lesons to get through if done thoroughly. I own several ESL conversation textbooks and this one is easily the one I've gotten the most from. As the title suggests, the conversations do become compelling. Don't be fooled by the index; at first I thought some of the topics listed on it were boring, but on looking over the questions I thought they were well thought-out and can easily be used to start interesting conversations. If you are going to buy one book to use in ESL conversation classes, let it be this one. You won't regret it.

A friend of the author asked me to review Compelling Conversations, and I am glad to do it because this is a truly excellent book. I've taught ESL to adults in East Los Angeles for eighteen years and came across this book just a couple of years ago. I wish I'd known about it sooner. I has become indispensable. It stands head and shoulders above the many other conversation books I've bought and used or considered using with my students. With little or no preparation, students can open this book and start speaking in pairs or groups. With a little creativity on the part of the teacher--warm up and follow up activities--and an ESL class or a conversation class can easily spend two hours working with a single chapter. The discussion questions are well-worded and the themes are accessible to a majority of students. Each list of questions is accompanied by a selection of related vocabulary words and quotations. You certainly get your money's worth in so far as the amount of material provided in this book and, again, the quality of the material is excellent. This wonderful book is for advanced level students. The author's equally wonderful book entitled Compelling American Conversations is fundamentally the same but presented at a more intermediate level (fewer questions per topic and easier language).

I was thrilled to open this book & find assembled for me all the open-ended questions I might have thought of, had I found enough hours in the day! A great resource for a Conversational English class. Loved the quotations & proverbs, from many ethnicities: really provoked responses by students! Yeaah! This book is stuffed with ideas to use for class openers. I bought this from Amazon.com,"used, like new" - it's in perfect condition & worth every penny!

I grabbed this up for the Kindle and I've got to say it's a great resource to have for a teacher on the go. So few texts of quality have made the move to digital format, but I'm glad Compelling Conversations took the jump. Whether you have an iPad or any other device, it's really nice just to pop it open and find topics that you can hit the floor running with for your students. A lot of people have left reviews claiming how good this book is, and I can't agree more. It uses proverbs and quotations in a way that's fully engaging for the students and gets them to go beyond their comfort zone while still having fun. This book is the perfect example of the old "Trick Your Students Into Learning" maxim. Students will use this to have fun while at the same time challenging their speaking skills. The only problem area is with the formatting, but that seems to be pretty standard across all Kindle books. It's getting better, but for me the content is king here.

This volume provides endless lists of famous quotations that allow students to create and compose their thoughts. Unfortunately, it does not provide actual reading or comprehension activities that I need.

We just started working in this workbook and have covered 3 chapters. The questions are representative of U.S. English & culture, but could be used for any English-speaking country. The questions are abundant and stimulate good conversation, apply to various age groups, and the vocabulary is up-to-date. The vocabulary items are well-chosen, the quotes are excellent as they represent a variety of views and tones, and some require a high level of interpretation because of U.S. culture or history. The humor is wonderful. The chapters are all set up in the same way, but the topics are so well-chosen that I don't think it will become repetitive. For variety, I am supplementing with other types of exercises based on the themes: listening comprehension, writing and reading comprehension.

My wife … who is a “Certified ESL Instructor” swears by this book as it has many useful group exercises.

Compelling Conversations is one of my top teaching tools. I have been an ESL tutor of adults for over 3 years, and a classroom ESL instructor for over 4 years. I purchased this book 3 years ago and absolutely LOVE it, and use it daily with the students I tutor, and have also used it in my classroom settings as well. There are a wide range of topics, and the flow of the discussion questions is very natural and lends itself to great conversation. My students really look forward to the conversation section of our tutoring sessions, and have told me that with the chapters in this book, they always learn new words, idioms, and proverbs, in a very relaxed, natural way. I also like the fact that these conversations help to build our friendships too. I would HIGHLY recommend this book!!

Not quite sure about compelling but exactly what I was looking for. It's the book I could never be bothered to write. Perfect for when half the class doesn't turn up and you need to make a lesson on the fly - enough questions to fill an hour lesson. Don't be put off by the "advanced" bit in the title. With a small group or private students almost any level could handle this.

I usually use the questions in my classes or just to practice my ENglish I really liked it a lot!

There is something here for everyone. You can use advanced vocabulary of your own choice in all these activities. It is limitless and will help you in all teaching activities.

I really enjoy using this book with my advanced ESL clients i.e. overseas workers and immigrants that have been here a while. It has great topics, excellent quotes and interesting questions to round out the discussion. Again - as the title suggests - this is great for advanced conversation practice and cultural discussions.

The conversation activities are clearly marked for learning level and there are many activities to choose from for a conversation group for Esl users