Hello, I'm an English teacher (ESL) for adult learners and my student's are really unresponsive, and it's making me become really defensive and annoyed because nobody ever answers me. For example today I was teaching them the word 'guilty' and I explained what it meant, then I asked them 'Would you feel guilty if you ran over your neighbours puppy?' to see if they understood and nobody even said yes or no, and it's like that throughout the whole class. Nobody talks to each other even though their level of English is quite good. I am a young teacher and I'm very bubbly and friendly, I make sure to give them an opportunity to speak and practice, they're just really unresponsive and I'm beginning to loose respect and motivation for them because I'm beginning to think they're stupid. But I think it might be something I'm doing wrong, any suggestions, advice or guidance would be greatly received !!!!! Thankyou. x x x

You could try doing engaging exercises, where they have to participate. Also, you could address your questions to specific individuals rather than the group as a whole. That would probably yield more responses.

Also, be aware that the more anxious you become over their passiveness, the less enthusiastic they'll be to participate! So don't let yourself get down about it! Just keep at it

There is a couple of useful articles on this topic in the ICALwiki. Specifically check:

Ideas for Mini Debates

Compelling Conversations

ESL Debates

Rau'l Castro says Cuba is willing _ to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners. "We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss," Cuban President Rau'l Castro said Thursday at a summit of leftist Latin American leaders in Venezuela. CNN (C)

Try some stuff like "Famous Quotations and Famous lines" from TV shows that might interest them to become responsive and effective.

Try to look on this website:

www.CompellingConversations.com
http://www.esl-book.com

You can learn a lot from it.