Aliens

Everyone has opinions about UFOs and life beyond Earth, which makes this topic reliably engaging. These questions work well for practicing conditionals and hypothetical thinking.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. Do you know what UFO stands for? Have you ever heard a story about one?
2. What is your favorite alien from a movie? What makes them your favorite?
3. What is the scariest alien movie you have seen? What made it so scary?
4. Where do aliens live? What does that place look like?
5. If an alien came to your city, what three places would you show it?
6. What sounds do aliens generally make in movies? Give me some examples.
7. Are aliens usually good or bad in movies? What are some examples?
8. Do you think aliens will have the same number of eyes, arms, and legs as humans? Why or why not?
9. Do you think aliens have pets? What kind?
10. What is the funniest alien you have seen in a movie or TV show? Why was it funny?

Elementary (A2)

1. Have you ever seen a UFO, or do you know someone who has? What happened?
2. How many planets do you think are in our galaxy? How about the universe? Do you think some of them have life?
3. What colors do you think aliens are? Why?
4. Where is the best place to see aliens? Why?
5. What is the strangest alien you have seen in a movie or TV show? What made it so strange?
6. What do you know about Area 51? What do people say about it?
7. Have you ever looked at the stars at night? What do you think about when you look at them?
8. Have you ever had a dream about aliens? Tell me about it.
9. Have you ever been to a place that people say has aliens or UFOs? What was special about it?
10. Do you think aliens would be taller or shorter than humans? Why?
11. Do you think there is water on other planets? Why is water important for life?
12. What animal from Earth do you think looks most like an alien? Why?

Intermediate (B1)

1. Do you believe there is other life in the universe? How about intelligent life?
2. What do you think aliens might look like?
3. Do you think aliens have ever visited Earth? Why or why not?
4. Do you think humans will travel to another planet in your lifetime? Why or why not?
5. Do you want to meet an alien or do you want to stay away from aliens? What’s good about each?
6. Do you think aliens are friendly or dangerous? Why?
7. If you could visit another planet, which one would you choose? (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc.) Why?
8. What would you do if you saw a UFO? Why would you do that?
9. What food from Earth would you give an alien to try first? Why that one?
10. If you went to space, what would you miss most about Earth? Why?
11. What do you think makes a good alien movie? Give me some examples.
12. Do you think aliens would be more advanced than humans or less advanced? Why do you think so?
13. How do you feel about the idea of humans living on other planets? Is it common in your culture or country to talk about this?
14. Do you think the search for alien life is getting better or worse? Why do you think so?
15. Should governments share everything they know about UFOs with the public? Why or why not?
16. If you saw a UFO tonight, who is the first person you would call? Why?
17. Should we try to contact aliens, or is it safer to stay quiet? Why or why not?
18. If scientists found simple life like bacteria on Mars, would that change your life in any way? How so?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. If aliens did come to a country and met with the government of that country, what do you think would happen?
2. Why are humans so fascinated by aliens?
3. How do you think we or aliens will get to other star systems like our own? (If we traveled at the speed of light, the nearest star with planets that we know of is 10.5 years away.)
4. Do you think it would be good or bad if humans met aliens? What are the downsides of each?
5. What do you think would happen to the world economy if we discovered intelligent alien life? Give me some examples.
6. How has science fiction about aliens influenced real scientific research? What do you think about those changes?
7. What are the ethical implications of colonizing other planets if there is already life there? How should we balance exploration with respect for existing life?
8. Compare the scientific approach to finding aliens with the popular culture approach. What are the differences?
9. What are the psychological reasons that people report seeing UFOs? How much does belief affect perception?
10. How has the way people think about aliens changed over the last 50 years? What do you think caused those changes?
11. Compare how aliens are shown in American movies versus movies from other countries. What differences do you notice?
12. Some scientists say we should not try to contact aliens because it could be dangerous. Others say we should. What are the strongest arguments on both sides?
13. How might an alien civilization that is millions of years more advanced than us view humanity? What would they think of our technology, our conflicts, and our culture?
14. If we found alien life but it was only simple organisms like bacteria, would that be as important as finding intelligent life? What would be different about each discovery?
15. How do conspiracy theories about aliens and UFOs spread in the age of social media? Are they more harmful or harmless? What makes you think so?
16. In what ways has the commercialization of space exploration — by companies like SpaceX — changed the conversation about searching for alien life? Is this shift driven more by science, profit, or national pride?

Advanced (C1)

1. How might the confirmed discovery of intelligent alien life simultaneously unite and divide humanity?
2. What tensions exist between humanity’s desire to find alien life and the potential risks of making contact? How do scientific curiosity and self-preservation pull us in opposite directions?
3. To what extent do our portrayals of aliens in popular culture reveal more about human fears and desires than about what extraterrestrial life might actually be like?
4. How do the politics and power dynamics between nations shape the way different countries approach the search for extraterrestrial life? Who controls the conversation, and why does that matter?
5. If an alien civilization had fundamentally different values and concepts of morality, how would that challenge our assumption that ethics are universal? What would that mean for how we communicate with them?
6. Why might governments keep information about UFOs classified even if there is nothing extraordinary to hide? What does this reveal about the relationship between secrecy, public trust, and institutional power?
7. How does the Fermi Paradox — if the universe is so vast, why haven’t we found aliens yet — force us to reconsider assumptions about intelligence, technology, and the survival of civilizations?
8. What does humanity’s persistent belief in alien visitation despite lack of evidence reveal about the relationship between rationality, hope, and the need for external validation of human significance?
9. How do religious and scientific worldviews handle the possibility of alien life differently, and what happens when these frameworks collide? Can they coexist, or must one give way to the other?
10. How might discovering that we are truly alone in the universe affect humanity differently than discovering that alien civilizations exist everywhere? What would each scenario do to our sense of purpose and identity?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions