Oil conversation questions
This is an interesting discussion topic for upper intermediate-level learners and above. Like it or not oil plays a massive part in our daily lives and the ways the world is shaped. You can use the oil conversation questions as a simple speaking lesson or focus on only a few questions for a great debate activity.
There are some challenging terms for ESL learners on this printable that include – formed, located, supplies, globe, consumption, alternatives, oil spill, source, and pipeline.
The oil conversation questions are –
1 – What are 5 words that you would use to describe oil?
2 – Where does oil come from? How is oil formed?
3 – Is there any oil in your country? Where is it located?
4 – What happens to oil after people gather it? What can oil be turned into?
5 – Do you think the world’s oil supplies will run out one day? What will happen then?
6 – Which countries do you think have a lot of oil? Which countries use the most oil?
7 – How much does oil cost in your country? How much is a liter/gallon of gasoline?
8 – Why do you think that oil and fuel prices change so often?
9 – What is oil used for? How would your life be different if there was no oil?
10 – How is oil moved across the globe? What things are used to transport oil?
11 – What do you think of oil? Should oil consumption be stopped?
12 – What are some alternatives to oil that can create energy?
13 – What is the last news story you read or heard that was about oil?
14 – Does your country mostly import or export oil?
15 – How do the production and consumption of oil affect the environment?
16 – What happens when there is an oil spill? How do people try to clean them up?
17 – Have you ever gotten oil on your clothing? Were you able to wash it out?
18 – What do you usually do with old motor oil? Where does waste oil go?
19 – Oil is needed to make plastic, how would life be different without plastic?
20 – What kinds of plant oils do you know of? What are they used for?
21 – What kind of oil do you use for cooking? How much does it cost?
22 – What would you do if you found out your home was on top of a big oil source?
23 – Are there any oil pipelines in your country? How long are they?
24 – What oil companies do you know of? Which is the biggest?
25 – Would you like to work in the oil industry? Why or why not?
Oil idioms
Here are some oil idioms to share with your class after discussing the oil conversation questions.
To burn the midnight oil means to stay up late at night working or studying something. You might do this the night before an exam for example.
A snake oil salesman is a person who is not to be trusted. They will say anything to promote something that doesn’t work or get you to buy something useless.
If a person is said to be “no oil painting“, it means they are not beautiful at all and possibly quite ugly.
