A1: make speaking possible before making it open-ended
Beginners need a narrow communicative space. Use visible options, sentence starters, pictures and repeated question frames. Good A1 tasks include choosing between two plans, describing a simple routine, ordering from a short menu, identifying a person or asking for basic information.
The activity should still contain a real choice. A learner can communicate meaningfully with limited language if the task is designed around language they actually have.
A2: add variation and small problems
At A2, keep support but introduce consequences. Ask students to plan a weekend with constraints, solve a travel problem, compare apartments, react to social situations or decide what to do when a plan changes.
The language remains concrete, but the learner now has to combine known forms rather than repeat a single model.
B1: require reasons and narrative
B1 tasks should push beyond short answers. Use ranking activities, personal stories, dilemmas, recommendations, hypothetical plans and role-plays where each person has different information or priorities.
A useful test is whether the student must connect several sentences to complete the task. If every response can be one sentence, the activity may not be creating enough discourse.
B2 and above: design for nuance, not just difficult topics
Advanced conversation does not require talking about geopolitics every week. Complexity can come from ambiguity, competing values, register, persuasion, uncertainty or incomplete information.
Ask students to defend a position and then switch sides, negotiate a compromise, distinguish what is probable from what is merely possible, or reformulate the same message for a friend, client and formal audience.
The level changes the support, not only the topic
The same theme can work across several levels if the linguistic demand changes. Travel at A1 can be choosing a destination from three options. At B1 it can be planning under a budget. At C1 it can be debating tourism policy or negotiating conflicting priorities.
When building a conversation library, tag activities by the language operation they require, not only by topic. That makes it much easier to choose a task that fits what the student can actually do.