Success and Failure
69 conversation questions and prompts
Choose a question or prompt. Share your experience or opinion, and explain it when you can.
Use the level groups as a guide when choosing prompts for your students.
A1
Beginner (A1)
10 questions
- What do you often have to do twice?
- What is your most recent success?
- What is easy to start but hard to finish?
- How many mistakes are OK on a test for you?
- What big thing do you want to do in the next five years?
- How important is success to you?
- Do you feel successful now? Why?
- Are you afraid of failure? Why?
- Who do you tell about a big success?
- How long do you feel happy after a big success?
A2
Elementary (A2)
23 questions
- Describe a successful person.
- Talk about a time you failed at something you tried. Don’t talk about anything that will make you uncomfortable or embarrassed.
- What do you say when someone asks about a plan that did not work out?
- Tell me about a time someone said 'Well done' and you didn't expect it.
- Who do you talk to about your goals?
- Is it better to start working young or spend more years studying?
- What would you like to be the first person in your family to do?
- Is getting married an important goal for you? Why?
- Which big goal for your future have you changed?
- Who do you know who went back to school as an adult? What did they want to achieve?
- What did you learn outside school that helped you reach a goal in life?
- What goal took you years to reach?
- Tell me about an important chance you heard about too late.
- What do you think people your age want most from life?
- What did school teach you about success?
- Who has helped you get closer to a big goal in life?
- Is having your own home an important goal for you? Why?
- What makes it hard for young people to reach their goals in life?
- How do you celebrate a big success?
- After a failure, do you want to be with people or be alone?
- Are you proud of your effort, even when you fail?
- After a failure, do you try again quickly or wait?
- What do you do when someone says you cannot reach a goal in life?
B1
Intermediate (B1)
20 questions
- Is your idea of success the same as your parents’ idea of success?
- Can money buy happiness?
- How much pressure do your parents put on you to be successful?
- How much pressure will you put on your children to be successful?
- Have there been any failures that made your life better?
- When is the right time to give up and stop trying?
- Can you think of any famous people who failed spectacularly at something?
- Describe something that went well in practice and badly when it mattered.
- What used to feel like a big achievement but now feels ordinary to you?
- What did someone achieve that made you see them differently?
- What did you once want to be known for? How do you feel about that now?
- What kind of success would you prefer to keep private, and why?
- Tell me about a plan that went exactly as expected but was still disappointing.
- When has someone been more upset about your result than you were?
- How do you react when people keep bringing up something you did well years ago?
- Tell me about a chance to change your life that you turned down.
- Have you ever been offered an opportunity you did not feel ready for? What happened?
- Have you ever gone back to a life goal you had put aside for years? What brought you back?
- When have you had to choose between two good opportunities for your future?
- How much does knowing the right people matter when you want to get ahead in life?
B2
Upper Intermediate (B2)
14 questions
- Do you think people focus too much on appearing to be successful?
- How useful is money as a measure of success?
- Can you think of any famous quotes or idioms about success or failure? How true do you think they are?
- How much should one poor performance change your opinion of someone who usually does well?
- How can being successful at a young age make it difficult to try something different later?
- A person succeeds in one field and starts giving advice about everything. When would you listen?
- What makes a story about someone's failure sound honest to you?
- Why might someone feel embarrassed about a success they did nothing wrong to achieve?
- How does a person's age affect the way people judge their achievements?
- How much freedom do people your age have to start over after a failure in life?
- Someone does well at work but rarely sees their family. How successful would you say their life is?
- What achievements get too little respect compared with a successful career?
- Should a person who gets a job through family connections have to prove more than other people?
- How might your ambitions change if the people around you had much more money than you?
C1
Advanced (C1)
2 questions
- How should a public figure's apology change if their mistake helped them become successful?
- Is it fair to call someone 'self-made' if their family could afford to let them fail?