Conversation Questions
Eye Contact
A Part of Conversation Questions for the ESL Classroom.
- Do you make eye contact while you are speaking English?
- Why is making eye contact important?
- Is making eye contact important in your culture?
- What can you learn about a person by making eye contact?
- Can you think of some situations where eye contact should not be made?
- What is the difference between staring and making eye contact?
- Why is making eye contact important in a job interview?
- The eyes have been called "the window to the soul". What do you think that means?
- In USA culture we have many 'rules' about eye contact. These are unspoken
and most North Americans are not aware that we have rules.
- What is appropriate in your culture?
- What is appropriate in this culture?
- When you are telling some one something that you feel is important, what should your eye contact be.
- Is it OK if they look at something else while you are talking?
- Are there different rules for eye contact when you are addressing a person of higher status? Like the President or an elder?
- If you do not make eye contact what does that mean?
- If you make too much eye contact what does that mean?
- If you were in love what kind of eye contact would you make?
- If you were ashamed, what kind of eye contact would you make?
- If you were lying, or not telling the whole truth, what would your eye contact be like?
- If you were giving a speech or talking with a crowd what would your eye contact be like?
- If you are talking with a child and you think they are lying, do you think you could tell by looking at their eyes?
- How about an adult that you think is not telling the truth, could you tell by their eyes?
- What are the rules for males and females talking to each other?
- If a woman looks directly at a man is she being too forward or sexually aggressive?
If you can think of another good question for this list, please add it.
Thanks to Jerilyn Stewart who suggested this topic and contributed the first 33 questions in April 2008.
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