The Past
79 conversation questions and prompts
Choose a question or prompt. Share your thoughts or tell a story. Give details when you can.
Use the level groups as a guide when choosing prompts for your students.
A1
Beginner (A1)
11 questions
- What did you think was expensive when you were a child?
- What clothes did you wear for special days as a child?
- What did you draw when you were little?
- What did you collect when you were younger?
- What did you want to do by yourself as a child?
- Where did you hide things when you were a child?
- What sounds did you hate when you were a child?
- What did people wear in your old school photos?
- Which old photo made you laugh?
- What did you write in your school notebooks besides schoolwork?
- What old things did you find the last time you cleaned your room?
A2
Elementary (A2)
22 questions
- Did you use to have a pet?
- Who were some of your favorite sports stars in the past?
- Name some of your country’s famous sports stars of the past.
- What was your best memory from when you were a child?
- What is your earliest memory?
- What age seemed old to you when you were a child?
- What did you call something before you knew its real name?
- How did you know it was time to go home when you played outside?
- What small things did children trade when you were at school?
- What did you ask adults again and again when you were little?
- What seemed huge when you were little but was probably quite small?
- How did you write or decorate your name when you were younger?
- What old advertisement can you still remember?
- What did people in your family save to use again?
- How did people leave messages for each other in your home when you were young?
- What did you often buy in the past that you can no longer find?
- What did people do while they waited before they had phones to look at?
- How do you feel when you read messages you wrote years ago?
- Which old piece of clothing would you like to wear again?
- What can you still remember about a place you visited only once?
- Which part of your life has very few photos?
- What was an older person you know like as a teenager?
B1
Intermediate (B1)
30 questions
- Who used to be your hero when you were young?
- Which was better for you: elementary school, junior high school or high school? Why?
- What was your country like when you were a child?
- Do you think the past was better than the present? Why or why not?
- What were some of the benefits of living in the past?
- How was life in your country 100 years ago different from life today?
- As a child, what did you imagine adults did all day at work?
- What did you once pretend to like because other people your age liked it?
- What joke or kind of humor did you enjoy years ago that you don't find funny now?
- What did an adult say that you took too literally as a child?
- What small thing made someone seem rich or lucky when you were young?
- What rule did you invent for yourself as a child?
- What did you learn much later than other people your age?
- Which part of an ordinary day from years ago would you like to have a video of?
- When did you realize you were getting too old for a group or activity you had enjoyed?
- What old description of you do people still use even though you have changed?
- Tell us about an old object whose purpose you had to ask someone to explain.
- What used to come free with a purchase that you looked forward to getting?
- Which old-fashioned way of doing something do you use because you prefer it?
- Tell us about a fashion you liked the first time around and saw become popular again.
- What everyday sound do you hear much less often than you used to?
- What did people use to repair that they now tend to replace?
- What expressions did older people use that people your age rarely used?
- What did adults call a waste of time when you were young that they now enjoy themselves?
- Which photo would you show someone who wanted to know about your life five years ago?
- Which belongings from childhood do you think you'll never get rid of?
- When you visit a place from your past, do you prefer going alone or taking someone?
- What did you discover about your younger self by looking at old schoolwork?
- Looking back at a day you photographed, what do the pictures leave out?
- Which old photo would be fun to take again with the same people?
B2
Upper Intermediate (B2)
14 questions
- Which decision that felt unfair when you were younger makes more sense to you now?
- What did you once think you would never do, and what made you reconsider?
- What did someone do for you that you only appreciated years later?
- What seemed normal in the way you grew up until you heard about someone else's experience?
- Which choices about adult life seem more open now than they did to your parents at your age?
- What change did people around you predict would be a disaster but turned out to be harmless?
- Which things once seen as signs of being poor have become fashionable?
- What do older movies assume an audience will understand that needs explaining today?
- What once counted as dressing too casually that would attract little attention now?
- How do you feel about repairing an old object if that means removing the signs of how it was used?
- Which kinds of old belongings are worth keeping even when nobody remembers who owned them?
- How much would you want to know about a building's past before making it your home?
- What would make you keep an old letter after you no longer felt the same way about the person who wrote it?
- When someone remembers a time fondly but you found it difficult, how much do you want to share your experience?
C1
Advanced (C1)
2 questions
- How much of the freedom people remember from the past depended on nobody recording what they did?
- How much should discovering that a favorite memory is inaccurate change what it means to you?