English Speaking Topics: 150 Ideas for Extempore, JAM and Impromptu Speeches

Being given a topic and asked to speak, straight away, is one of the hardest things in a second language. It happens in school extempore competitions, in JAM rounds, in interviews and in spoken English tests. This page gives you 150 topics to practise with, grouped from easy to hard, and then the part most lists leave out: five ways to give any answer a shape, a one-minute sample, how many words to aim for, and a routine for practising on your own.

Extempore, JAM and impromptu: what is the difference?

All three mean speaking without a written script. What changes is how long you get to think, how long you speak, and the rules.

JAM takes its rules from the BBC radio game Just a Minute: speak for sixty seconds with no hesitation, no repetition and no deviation from the topic. Many school and college versions relax “repetition” to mean repeating an idea or phrase rather than any single word. Extempore is more forgiving: you get a short time to plan, and you are judged on content, structure and delivery as well as fluency.

Easy English speaking topics for beginners

Start here if you are at a beginner or lower-intermediate level (about A2 to B1). Every topic is about your own life, so you never have to search for ideas, only for words.

1. Your daily routine
2. Your favourite snack
3. The best day of your week
4. A friend you have known for a long time
5. Your favourite room at home
6. A festival your family celebrates
7. What you do at the weekend
8. Your favourite place to sit and relax
9. A street you walk along often
10. A game you loved as a child
11. A film or series you would watch again
12. A pet you have, or would like to have
13. Your favourite subject at school
14. How you get to school or work
15. The best birthday you remember
16. Your favourite time of day
17. What you ate for breakfast today
18. Someone in your family you admire
19. A song you never get tired of
20. Your plans for the next holiday
21. The best meal you have ever eaten
22. A hobby you would like to start
23. An app you use every day
24. Rainy days: love them or hate them?
25. A shop or market you often visit

Extempore topics for students

These are the kind of short titles set in school and college extempore rounds. Before you speak, turn the title into a question (“Mobile phones in the classroom” → “Should phones be allowed in class?”) and decide your answer. That one step gives the whole talk a direction.

1. Mobile phones in the classroom
2. Online classes or classroom learning?
3. Why reading books still matters
4. Social media: a boon or a bane?
5. Keeping our cities clean
6. Plastic: why is it so hard to give up?
7. The role of young people in building a nation
8. Do exams test real learning?
9. Sport should be part of every school day
10. Artificial intelligence and the jobs of tomorrow
11. Saving water starts at home
12. Women in leadership
13. Time management for students
14. Digital payments in everyday life
15. Fast food and young people’s health
16. Road safety for teenagers
17. Peer pressure
18. A skill or a degree: which matters more?
19. Is coaching culture good for students?
20. Online friendships: are they real?
21. Talking openly about mental health
22. Why science should be fun
23. Tree-planting drives: do they work?
24. Respect for elders in a modern world
25. Cyberbullying
26. My role model
27. The power of positive thinking
28. Climate change in our daily lives
29. Gadgets: are we too dependent?
30. Discipline: the key to success?

JAM topics (just a minute)

JAM topics are short and often a little odd, because the fun is in finding a full minute to say about “pockets”. Think of three angles quickly: what it is, a memory or story about it, and an opinion or a joke.

1. If I could be invisible for a day
2. Tea or coffee?
3. Mondays
4. The last thing I searched for online
5. A world without mobile phones
6. My secret superpower
7. Pockets
8. Umbrellas
9. Traffic jams
10. If animals could talk
11. Selfies
12. The perfect Sunday
13. Alarm clocks
14. Chocolate
15. Queues
16. Shoes
17. The colour yellow
18. My dream holiday
19. If I were the principal for a day
20. Rain
21. Mirrors
22. Lifts and escalators
23. Street food
24. Cartoons
25. Notebooks

Impromptu speech topics

Impromptu topics are usually questions. They reward a quick, honest answer followed by one good story. Do not try to cover everything: one point, told well, beats four points rushed.

1. What is the best advice you have ever been given?
2. If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
3. What would you do with a free plane ticket for tomorrow?
4. What is a smell that brings back a memory?
5. What would you do with an extra hour every day?
6. Which invention would you uninvent, and why?
7. What does success mean to you?
8. If you could live in any decade, which would you choose?
9. What small thing makes a big difference to your day?
10. Which season would you delete if you could?
11. Would you rather be famous or rich?
12. What makes a good neighbour?
13. If you could master one language overnight, which would it be?
14. If you could add one public holiday, what would it celebrate?
15. Which is better: a plan or a surprise?
16. What would you tell your ten-year-old self?
17. What makes a place feel like home?
18. Should everyone learn to cook?
19. What is the most overrated thing in the world?
20. If you could change one thing about your city, what would it be?
21. What is the best way to spend a rainy afternoon?
22. Is it better to be early or exactly on time?
23. What talent do you wish you had?
24. What job would you do for free?
25. What will people laugh at about us in 50 years?

Opinion and debate topics (intermediate to advanced)

For upper-intermediate and advanced speakers (about B2 to C1). Each topic has two real sides, so you can practise giving a view, a reason and a fair word for the other side, all in under two minutes.

1. Is it better to study in your own country or abroad?
2. Should museums be free for everyone?
3. Can you trust online reviews?
4. Is it fair that famous athletes earn more than nurses?
5. Should every street have a cycle lane?
6. Does advertising do more harm than good?
7. Is it better to rent a home or to buy one?
8. Should children learn to manage money at school?
9. Do video games teach useful skills?
10. Is it rude to use your phone during a meal?
11. Is it better to travel alone or with friends?
12. Is it better to grow up with brothers and sisters or as an only child?
13. Is it important to keep traditions alive?
14. Should everyone retire at the same age?
15. Is learning history useful in daily life?
16. Do we rely too much on maps on our phones?
17. Should young people do a year of community service?
18. Should friends ever lend each other money?
19. Should shops stay open 24 hours a day?
20. Is social media making people less patient?
21. Are exams the fairest way to choose university students?
22. Should robots do dangerous jobs instead of people?
23. Is it better to specialise early or to try many things?
24. Should public transport be free?
25. Is it ever right to tell a white lie?

“Tell me about a time” topics

Interviewers and spoken tests love these, because a story shows your past tenses, your linking words and your ability to keep going. Answer each as a short story with a beginning, a turning point and an end.

1. A time you returned something someone had lost
2. A time you fixed something that was broken
3. A time you were proud of yourself
4. A time you forgot something important
5. A time you cooked for other people
6. A time you missed a bus or train
7. A time you had to wait a long time
8. A time you were really nervous
9. A time you worked in a team
10. A time someone surprised you
11. A time you won or lost a game
12. A time you were late
13. A time you received good news
14. A time you disagreed with a friend
15. A time you saved money for something
16. A time you visited somewhere new
17. A time you used English outside a classroom
18. A time technology let you down
19. A time you laughed until you cried
20. A time you changed a habit

Five ways to shape any answer

Most people stop speaking because they run out of things to say, not words. A framework fixes that: it tells you what comes next. Learn these five and you can pick one in the first few seconds of any topic.

Which framework fits? A quiz

Read the topic and choose the framework that fits it best. Speed matters here: in a real round you have a few seconds to decide.

A one-minute sample answer

Topic: Mobile phones in the classroom. Framework: PREP. This answer is 121 words, about one minute at a relaxed pace.

Notice what makes it work: the answer comes in the first sentence, the example is specific (a real lesson, not “phones are useful for many things”), and the last line repeats the view in new words.

How much to say: speaking time and word count

Most people speak at about 120 to 150 words a minute when they are thinking as they go. Use the table to plan how much content you need.

Phrases that keep you talking

These phrases do two jobs: they connect your ideas, and they give your brain a second or two to find the next sentence.

How to practise English speaking alone

You do not need a partner. You need a timer, the voice recorder on your phone and ten minutes a day.

1. 1. Pick a topic at random

   Close your eyes and point at one of the lists above, so you cannot choose an easy one.

2. 2. Think for 15 seconds

   Choose a framework and one example. Nothing more.

3. 3. Record one minute

   Speak until the timer ends. Do not stop to correct yourself.

4. 4. Listen back once

   Count your “um”s and notice where you ran out of things to say.

5. 5. Record it again

   Same topic, fixing one thing. The second take is almost always better, and that is the point.

After each recording, tick what you did. Your ticks are saved in this browser, so you can watch them fill up over a week.

Speaking on the Duolingo English Test

Everything above is direct practice for the Duolingo English Test, where every speaking task is a short talk with no script, recorded at your computer. Each task maps to one of the formats on this page:

The habits are the same: answer first, add a reason and an example, keep going through small mistakes and finish cleanly. The DET speaking practice page has prompts written for each of these tasks and a timed speaking section test, and a full mock test puts all four tasks together with the rest of the exam. More on the format in how to describe a picture and on phrasal verbs and idioms that make spoken English sound natural.

Questions people ask

What are some good English speaking topics?

Everyday topics you can talk about without notes: your daily routine, a festival your family celebrates, the best advice you have been given, a time you returned something someone had lost, whether public transport should be free, and what makes a place feel like home. Good topics are open, personal or debatable, and big enough for a minute of talk.

What is an extempore speech?

A short talk on a topic you are given on the spot, usually with a minute or two to prepare and two or three minutes to speak. In an extempore competition, judges mark your content, structure and delivery. The best approach is to turn the topic into a question, answer it in your first sentence, and support it with one or two examples.

What is the difference between extempore and impromptu speaking?

Extempore usually gives you a short preparation time, often a minute or two, and a talk of two or three minutes. Impromptu means speaking with almost no preparation, often for one to two minutes. In practice the words are often used loosely, so check the rules of your round before you start.

What is JAM in English speaking?

JAM stands for Just a Minute, a speaking game based on the BBC radio show of the same name. You speak on a topic for sixty seconds without hesitating, repeating yourself or wandering off the topic. Many colleges use it in events and interview warm-ups because it tests fluency and quick thinking.

What are good JAM topics?

Short, everyday or slightly unusual topics that let you be creative: Mondays, umbrellas, traffic jams, tea or coffee, if animals could talk, the perfect Sunday, street food, alarm clocks. The list on this page has 25. Think of three angles fast: what it is, a story about it, and your opinion.

What are the three parts of an impromptu speech?

An opening that answers the topic in one sentence, a middle with one or two points each backed by an example or a short story, and a closing line that returns to your answer. Even a one-minute talk sounds organised when it has these three parts.

How long is an impromptu speech?

Usually one to two minutes. Speaking clubs such as Toastmasters run their Table Topics at about that length, and JAM rounds are exactly one minute. At a relaxed pace of 120 to 150 words a minute, a one-minute talk is roughly 120 to 150 words.

What should I talk about in a 1-minute speech?

Something you know from your own life, so all your effort goes into the English. Pick one clear point, one reason and one specific example, then end with a sentence that returns to your point. Topics such as a hobby you would like to start, a street you walk along often or the best advice you have been given work well.

How do I start an extempore speech?

Answer the topic in your first sentence. “Mobile phones should be allowed in class, but only for learning” is a stronger start than “Today I am going to talk about mobile phones”. If you want a hook, use a short question or a one-line story, then give your answer straight after it.

How can I speak on any topic without preparation?

Use a framework so you always know what comes next: PREP (point, reason, example, point) for opinions, past-present-future for change, problem-cause-solution for issues, situation-action-result for experiences, and what-where-why for descriptions. Practise choosing one in the first few seconds, and keep a few examples from your own life ready to reuse.

How do I stop saying “um” when I speak?

Replace it with a silent pause, which sounds more confident than a filler. Record yourself for a minute and count the “um”s, then repeat the same topic aiming for fewer. Learning a few phrases that buy time, such as “Let me think about that for a moment”, also helps.

What are easy speaking topics for beginners?

Topics about your own life: your daily routine, your favourite snack, what you do at the weekend, a friend you have known for years, your favourite place to relax, a street you walk along often. You already know what to say about them, so you can focus on the words and sentences.

What are good extempore topics for college students?

Topics with two sides that students know well: online classes or classroom learning, a skill or a degree, artificial intelligence and jobs, social media as a boon or a bane, talking openly about mental health, and whether exams test real learning. Each lets you give a view and back it with an example.

How do I practise English speaking alone?

Pick a topic at random, think for 15 seconds, record yourself for one minute without stopping, and listen back once. Note one thing to fix, such as fillers or a missing example, and record the same topic again. Ten minutes a day of this builds fluency faster than reading about speaking.

How many words is a one-minute speech?

About 120 to 150 words for most people speaking at a relaxed pace while thinking. A two-minute talk is roughly 240 to 300 words and a three-minute talk 360 to 450. Plan your content by points rather than words: one point with an example fills about a minute.

What should I do if my mind goes blank mid-speech?

Pause, breathe, and repeat the topic in your own words: “So, the question is whether…”. Then give an example from your own life, which is always easier to recall than an argument. Listeners forgive a short pause far more than a long silence or a sudden stop.

What are some funny impromptu speech topics?

Topics that invite a story or a light opinion: the most overrated thing in the world, which invention you would uninvent, what people will laugh at about us in 50 years, if you were the principal for a day, or your secret superpower. Humour works best when it still answers the question.

Which Duolingo English Test speaking tasks are like extempore speaking?

Read, Then Speak and the Speaking Sample are closest: you read a prompt, get 20 to 30 seconds to plan, and speak for up to 90 seconds or 3 minutes. Interactive Speaking is closer to impromptu speaking, with short answers to questions in a conversation, and Speak About the Photo is a description task. See the DET speaking practice page.

Quick reference: English Speaking Topics at a glance

Walk into the DET already knowing the room.

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