News and current events are great for getting students to talk about what’s happening in the world and how they consume information. These questions range from simple daily habits to deeper discussions about media literacy and journalism.
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)
- Where do you get your news from? Why do you prefer that source?
- What kind of news stories interest you the most? Why do you find them interesting?
- How often do you check the news? What time of day do you usually look?
- What’s the biggest news story in your country right now? Tell me about it.
- Do you like to watch the weather forecast? What do you check for?
- Do you listen to the news on the radio? When do you usually listen?
- What is the most popular news channel or newspaper in your country? Do you follow it?
- Do you follow any famous news reporters or journalists? What do you like about them?
- Have you ever seen something funny or strange on the news? What happened?
- Do you ever watch the news with your family or friends? What do you talk about?
- What kind of news do you see the most on social media? Do you trust it?
Elementary (A2)
- Do you read news on your phone or on a computer? What’s good about each?
- Have you ever been in a place where something was on the news? What was it?
- Who do you like to talk about the news with? Why?
- Do you watch local news or international news? What’s the difference?
- Have you ever seen breaking news happen live on TV? What happened?
- What’s the most surprising news story you’ve heard recently? Why did it surprise you?
- Do you check the news before work or school? Why or why not?
- What news topic do you know the most about? Why do you follow it?
- Have you ever changed your plans because of something you heard in the news? What happened?
- What kind of news stories make you feel happy? Why?
- Have you ever seen yourself or someone you know on the news? What was the story?
Intermediate (B1)
- How important is it for people to follow the news?
- Do you think that news agencies sometimes tell lies to make a story more popular? Why or why not?
- Do you think the news is too depressing? Why or why not?
- What do you think about how the news is reported in your country?
- Should news be more entertaining or informative? Why?
- Would you ever consider getting a job in the news industry? Why or why not?
- Have you ever stopped following the news for a while? What did you think of that?
- Do you trust the news more when you see video of it? Why?
- Should news websites be free or should people pay for news? Why or why not?
- Do you think 24-hour news channels are good or bad for society? How so?
- What makes a news story go viral? Give me some examples.
- If you could be a journalist for one day, what kind of story would you want to cover? Why?
- Do you think children should watch the news? At what age should they start?
- How do you decide if a news story is true or not? What do you look for?
- Is reading news comments online a good thing or a bad thing? Why do you think so?
- How often have you changed your opinion about something after reading the news? How did that happen?
Upper-Intermediate (B2)
- How much do you trust newspapers, television news, and news from the internet? Which is the most reliable source of information?
- How has technology changed the way we consume news? How has it changed how the news is reported?
- What is the purpose of news companies in society?
- Should journalists be allowed to protect their sources even when it involves crimes? Why or why not?
- Is it better to get your news from one trusted source or from many different sources? What are the downsides of each?
- Do you think news about disasters in other countries affects people enough to make them help? If not, why not?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of citizen journalism compared to professional journalism?
- How do news alerts and notifications affect people’s mental health and stress levels? How often do you experience this yourself?
- What role do news aggregators and algorithms play in shaping what people know about the world? How is that different from traditional editors?
- What are the trade-offs between breaking news quickly and reporting it accurately? How should news organizations balance these?
- When people only follow news sources they already agree with, how does that change the way they see the world?
- Compare how the news covers events in wealthy countries versus poorer countries. Why do you think those differences exist?
- What happens to a society when people stop trusting the news? Have you seen this happening anywhere?
- How do news companies decide what stories are important enough to report? What factors do you think influence those decisions?
- Big news stories often dominate for days, but then people quickly forget and move on to the next thing. Why does this happen, and how does it affect whether real problems actually get solved?
Advanced (C1)
- How do politics and elections change what news is reported and how it’s presented? What tensions does this create between informing the public and influencing them?
- In what ways do news organizations both expose government wrongdoing and depend on government access? How does this paradox shape what gets reported?
- News companies need to make money to survive, but they also have a duty to inform the public honestly. How do these two goals conflict with each other, and when does the pressure to make money win?
- News algorithms show people stories based on what they have clicked on before. How might this technology be shaping what entire societies believe and care about without people even realizing it?
- During wars and major crises, journalists risk their lives to report from dangerous places. What gets lost when the news only comes from a safe distance, and how does that change the way people react to suffering?
- When a famous person is accused of a crime, the news reports on it before there is a verdict. How does media coverage affect whether someone is seen as guilty or innocent, and can this ever be undone?
- Some countries have state-owned news channels, while others rely on privately owned media. Both systems have serious problems. What are the dangers of each, and is there a way to get truly independent news?
- AI can now write news articles, create realistic fake videos, and even clone people’s voices. How will people be able to tell what is real from what is fake in 10 years, and what happens if they can’t?
- When news focuses on individual stories rather than systemic issues, how does it shape public understanding of problems like poverty or crime? What gets lost and what gets gained?
- Local news often reports on crime, accidents, and community events, but rarely covers the slow, everyday changes that reshape a neighborhood over years. Why do dramatic one-time events get so much more attention than gradual change, and what do communities miss because of this?