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Reporting verbs

This is an exercise for academic writing, or any kind of advanced writing. I’ve noticed over years that students just didn’t get “reporting verbs”. They had a lot of trouble introducing paraphrasing and quotations. I have never got around to doing anything about it before. But I’m pretty proud of this exercise. It makes a nice writing lesson to go along with essay writing activities that require doing some research. Bringing the research into an essay requires paraphrasing and quotations. Reporting verbs are often quite flexible and difficult to explain but this activity helps generate discussion and a better understanding of their various uses.

 

Reporting verbs (PDF)

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 1 Working from home vocabulary

Working from home uses some a fairly specific and often repeated set of words. So it makes sense to teach these words business English language students as these words increasingly appear in the media, in writing and in everyday conversations.

Working from vocabulary (PDF)

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 2 Working from home parts of speech

Working from home uses some a fairly specific and often repeated set of words. So it makes sense to teach these words business English language students as these words increasingly appear in the media, in writing and in everyday conversations.

Working from home parts of speech (PDF)

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3 Working from home reading comprehension

The movement to “working from home” affects so many aspects of people’s lives. Consequently, it is a great topic for teaching any aspect of the English language as it is likely to engage students interest.

Working from reading comprehension (PDF)

4 Working from home vocabulary (brainstorming and argument version)

This is such a good topic for discussions, arguments and debates that I made a second version (of exercise 1) with charts at the bottom for brainstorming the advantages and disadvantages of working from home versus working in the office.

Working from home vocabulary for brainstorming  (PDF)

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1 Past continuous Q and A

This is a  question and answer worksheet to help students understand how to use the past continuous tense. The pictures are story pictures with two actions happening at the same time. Students can use their imaginations to answer the questions while hopefully using the correct grammar.

 

Past continuous Q and A (PDF)

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2 Past continuous complete-the-sentence activity

This is a past continuous complete-the-sentence or sentence starter exercise to help students practice communicating about past events with their own ideas.

Past continuous sentence starters (PDF)

3 “Used to” Q and A

The past tense form “used to” is quite interesting as it it  is used to compare the past and present. Consequently, it can form the basis of of pretty interesting speaking activities and discussions.

“Used to” Q and A (PDF)

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 4 “Used to” speaking activity

I had to teach “used to” for the first time in ages and I remembered a cool speaking activity I got from a series of photocopiable books of communicative activities we used in the 1990’s. Astonishingly, I still have this set of books right next to my computer. I found the activity and adapted it into the speaking activity below. And it worked just as well as I remembered it. There is some kind of chemistry about talking about the past and present which is really engaging and fun. Uncorrected student’s answers are attached as an example.

“Used to” speaking activity (PDF)

 5  Past  tense and “used to”

I had to teach “used to” for the first time in ages and I remembered a cool speaking activity I got from a series of photocopiable books of communicative activities we used in the 1990’s. Astonishingly, I still have this set of books right next to my computer. I found the activity and adapted it into the speaking activity below. And it worked just as well as I remembered it. There is some kind of chemistry about talking about the past and present which is really engaging and fun. Uncorrected student’s answers are attached as an example.

Past tense and “used to” (PDF)

1 Common adverbs 1 (with answers)

This  exercise focuses on  common adverbs.     First, the students match the words to the pictures. Then they try to complete  sentences using the adverbs. This exercise uses pictures to help illustrate commonly used adverbs.

 Common adverbs 1 (PDF)

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1 Common adverbs 2 (with answers)

This  exercise is an alternative or extension of the one above.

 Common adverbs 2 (PDF)

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 1 Coronavirus: effects, testing and statistics

This exercise deals with some of the impacts and issues surrounding the coronavirus. It expands into vocabulary for dealing with a pandemic (a public health crisis) and an economic crisis.

Coronavirus: effects, testing and statistics  (PDF)

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2 Parts of speech for infectious diseases/coronavirus

This is a bit more challenging and advanced. It gets deeper into the grammar and language used to talk about a pandemic.

Parts of speech for infectious diseases/coronavirus  (PDF)

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“Working from home” vocabulary, discussion and comprehension

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3 Coronavirus lesson 2020

I have been teaching  the English language to medical technology students for many years so I have accumulated a lot of medical sciences related  materials. In particular, I have a good library of images relating to medical topics.  I realized that it would be quite easy to create a worksheet for the coronavirus.

 

Coronavirus 2020  (PDF)

 4 Coronavirus reading comprehension

This is another  exercise that focuses on the language of public health issues and the coronavirus.

 

Coronavirus reading comprehension  (PDF)

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 1 Expanding business English verbs 1

Expanding verbs for business English vocabulary is a pre-intermediate worksheet with vocabulary-picture matching and questions aimed at improving students’ language skills with enjoyable and relatable tasks.

Expanding business English verbs 1 (PDF)

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Subscribe to get full access to the latest and best resources from eslflow.com. There are no ads in the newsletter and you will receive entertaining, high quality, and up-to-date teaching resources regularly. And, if you subscribe to the paid option, you will be supporting the eslflow website. Moreover,  you will receive more high quality business English worksheets than are available on this website.

 2 Expanding business English verbs 2

This is another verb/collocation worksheet for business English vocabulary.  It follows the same format as the exercise above.

Expanding business English verbs 2 (PDF)

 3 Elements of office work

Elements of office work includes vocabulary and common expressions  with vocabulary-picture matching and relatable questions for business English students.

Elements of office work (PDF)

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 4 Expanding adjectives

Expanding adjectives for business English vocabulary is a pre-intermediate worksheet with vocabulary-picture matching and questions aimed at improving students’ language skills with enjoyable and relatable tasks.

Expanding business English adjectives (PDF)

 5 Expanding business English vocabulary 1 (with answers)

Expanding business English vocabulary is an intermediate worksheet with vocabulary-picture matching and questions aimed at improving students’ language skills with enjoyable and relatable tasks. It is a bit more advanced and challenging than the exercises above.

Expanding business English vocabulary (PDF)

 6 Expanding business English vocabulary 2 (with answers)

Another  intermediate worksheet with vocabulary-picture matching and questions aimed at testing students’ language skills with enjoyable and relatable tasks. It is a bit more advanced and challenging than the exercises above.

Expanding business English vocabulary  2(PDF)

1 Write a conversation exercise: greetings and introductions

I teach really large classes. One of the biggest problems in large classes is assessing students’ speaking and language abilities. I have found that this is a great way to assess students speaking skills as I teach through an elementary English language course.  At the end of  a  class I hand out the worksheets. The students create their own conversation or dialogue and come and perform the dialogue for me. I give each student a score. This exercise can be done every 2 or 3 classes and gradually you build up a really accurate picture of a students’ abilities.

Greetings and introductions (PDF)

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 2 Write a conversation exercise: family (with examples)

Talking about the families is another easy topic for dialogue/conversation writing for elementary English learners.

Write a conversation: family (PDF)

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3 Write a conversation exercise: routines and daily activities

Write-a- conversation exercises work really well for many topics including routines and daily activities.  I always get the students to perform just for me …not in front of the class..as they are more relaxed and I get a close up and personal look at their performance. Also, I can ask them to repeat the conversation easily if it is not fluent enough.

Routines and daily activities (PDF)

4 Write a conversation exercise: going out

“Going Out” is another good conversation topic. When students write these dialogues in pairs or small groups they automatically fall into a role play mode without any direction from the teacher.

Going out (PDF)

5 Write a conversation exercise: plans for the weekend

(with examples and audio)

“Plans for the weekend” is similar to the above but a little more advanced. It requires students to understand  language for talking about the future. But the good thing about these exercises is that students can choose words and phrases they can manage.

Plans for the weekend (PDF)

Plans for the weekend audio

 6 Write a conversation exercise: friendship

Of course, friendship is a great topic for getting students to use adjectives for personality and describing people.

Friendship (PDF)

 7 Write a conversation exercise: houses and neighborhoods

Of courses, it’s also fairly easy for students  to talk about their  houses and neighborhoods if they have suitable vocabulary. One of the things that surprised me when listening to students perform these conversation exercises was how quickly I could get through a class of fifty students. The students were using similar vocabulary in various ways which revealed their language and conversational abilities. And so it was easy to compare and assess the students.

Houses and neighborhoods (PDF)

 8 Write a conversation exercise: food and eating

One of the best conversation writing topics is food. Students instantly start creating fun role plays. Also, vocabulary around food and eating  brings in a lot of interesting pronunciation challenges.

Food and eating (PDF)

 9 Write a conversation exercise:  simple past tense

The past tense is quite challenging for elementary students. This conversation exercise gives students the opportunity to practice creating a conversation and get used to pronunciation of past tense endings.

Create a conversation- past tense (PDF)

 10 Write a conversation exercise:  health

Here, students have to write a health and illness conversation or dialogue. Writing a dialogue about health is one of the best ways to get students using health vocabulary, which can cause quite a few pronunciation problems.

Create a conversation- health (PDF)

 11 Write a conversation exercise:  start a business (with examples)

Staring a business is a popular topic with teenagers and university students. They have lots of ideas and opinions.

Create a conversation- start a business (PDF)

 12 Write a conversation exercise:  hotels

Most students have experience and opinions about staying in hotels. So it’s another good topic at an upper elementary (and above) level.

Create a conversation- hotels (PDF)

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 13 Write a conversation exercise:  “used to” (compare past and present)

Here, students have to compare the past and present using “used to”. It’s a fun and interesting conversation writing exercise for students with some fluency.

Create a conversation- “used to”(PDF)

 14 Write a conversation exercise:  problem/solution

Here, students have to compare the past and present using “used to”. It’s a fun and interesting conversation writing exercise for students with some fluency.

Create a conversation- problem solution (PDF)

1 Daily Activities Speaking Activity

This is one of the most basic speaking activities to get students practicing with the verb “to do”. Students ask other students about their daily activities. (Download PDF)

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Subscribe to get full access to the latest and best resources from eslflow.com. There are no ads in the newsletter and you will receive entertaining, high quality, and up-to-date teaching resources regularly. And, if you subscribe, you will be supporting the eslflow website.

2 Do you….”So do I” and “Neither do I”

Another exercise to get students speaking a little bit. And it also introduces them to negative and positive agreement. (Download PDF)

3 Elementary Job Suitability Interview

This is a great way of familiarizing students with some useful adjectives in a personalized way. Students have to interview their partner and then match their personal preferences with a suitable job. (Download PDF)

4 Roommate Interview

This is similar to the exercise above but it is using the verb “to be” and further expands students knowledge of adjectives. It’s also a really personal and quite funny exercise as students have to asses their partners/friends as possible roommates. (Download PDF)

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5 Personality Adjective Survey

This is a bit more advanced than the two exercises above. It also focuses on adjectives It can be really successful in a talkative class. The adjective list can be greatly expanded on if the students are up to it. Sometimes I have assigned each student or a pair of students an adjective and found this a way of getting a great variety of questions and talking going on in the classroom. (Download PDF)

6 Shopping Speaking Activity

Shopping is a great topic for any elementary English language lesson. This is a simple way to get some speaking done and getting students to practice using the verb “do”. (Download PDF)

7 Talking Shopping

This is a little more advanced and a little more interesting than the exercise above. It explores shopping vocabulary in a matching exercises and the students create short conversations. (Download PDF)

8 Movie Brainstorm and Speaking

Movies usually (in my experience) get students motivated. Students have to match movie genres to the pictures and then think of movie titles for each genre. Then they can ask their partners the questions at the bottom of the page. (Download PDF)

9 Music Brainstorm and Speaking

This exercise explores genres of music and asks students about their musical preferences. Similar to the speaking activity above, it is a great way to start off a class. (Download PDF)

1  Icebreaker: brainstorming meanings/examples/situations

Another good icebreaker technique is to brainstorm aspects (good, bad etc.) of a particular topic. My topic here  is “taking risks”. So I tried to brainstorm many  kinds of risks. This is a  good icebreaker for adjectives and/or vocabulary associated with safety and danger. (see page 2 for example answers) This exercise can be adapted for any level and could be used 2 or 3 times  a term before it comes boring (I think!?),

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2  Job and career icebreaker/brainstorm

This brainstorm exercise can also be done as  preparation  for a job interview speaking activity.

3  Humor icebreaker

There probably couldn’t be a much easier way to start a class than brainstorming things that make you laugh!

4   Are you honest?

An almost failproof icebreaker is the survey. Surveys that relate to students’ personal  lives easily engage their attention. It works as a comprehension and short discussion exercise. It’s a great way to introduce topics that relate to honesty.

5  Ranking icebreaker: 

“What would you do if you won one million dollars?”

Ranking icebreakers are a surefire way to engage students. They can be used for a whole range of topics. One good topic is  money and spending preferences.

6  Ranking icebreaker: 

“Success”

Another  good  ranking topic is ways to be successful.

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7  First impressions icebreaker (for adjectives or past tense)

This is a fun icebreaker than can be applied to certain topics: describing people, branding (business), the past tense adjectives etc.

8  Brainstorming advertising likes/dislikes

This doesn’t look like much but it’s cool! Students’ these days have strong opinions about online advertising and will come up with lots of examples (see the second page of PDF for a sample of student answers)

9  Social responsibilities icebreaker (and a student’s answers)

This is a good icebreaker for more advanced students studying social issues. The example shows how it challenges their knowledge of vocabulary

10 First day icebreaker: personal information

“Getting to Know You” is a pretty obvious idea. It’s a personal information exercise and allows the teacher to assess the student’s abilities. The only trouble I’ve had with this exercise is matching the questions to the student’s level of ability. The questions below seem to me to be suitably generic and have worked flawlessly in any elementary class I’ve taught so far (Thai students, Chinese students).

(Download PDF)

11 Brainstorming verbs and basic collocations: icebreaker for present simple and routines

This is another exercise that can be used with a variety of present simple exercises. I can be used to elicit language for making present simple questions or talking about routines. It helps to give the teacher a idea of the range of the students’ vocabulary. And it’s a useful way to get some vocabulary on the board for question writing activities.

(Download PDF)

12 What do you do on Mondays ?: icebreaker for parts of the day/days of the week

This exercise is another great exercise for really elementary students that doesn’t demand too much of them. It’s a good way to get into teaching the days of the week and prepositions.

(Download PDF)

13 Everyday brainstorm: icebreaker daily activities and routines

This brainstorm activity explores vocabulary associated with routines and time. I walk around the class asking students “What do you do everyday in the morning?” , “What do you do once a week?” etc. It’s a nice, friendly way to start a class.

(Download PDF)

14 Circle of frequency: icebreaker for adverbs of frequency

Following on from the previous exercise, this icebreaker can be used used to introduce and familiarize students with verbs adverbs of frequency. You might ask students questions like “What do you sometimes eat at a department store?” or “What do you often do on weekends?”.

(Download PDF)

15 Pictures icebreaker: icebreaker for present continuous, routines and daily activities

For me, activities using pictures are perhaps the most consistently successful of anything I do in the classroom. They can be used in so many ways. They force students to think and use their imaginations. And they are open to interpretation which can often lead to unexpected discoveries about meaning or culture or individual differences.

(Download PDF)

16 Shopping brainstorm word map: icebreaker for talking about shopping

Shopping is a pretty fundamental topic in elementary textbooks. And it’s pretty easy to get students engaged and bring out some vocabulary with the exercise below.

(Download PDF)

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5 Elementary Conversational Expressions Exercises

5 First Day Activities for an ESL Class

10 Really! Elementary ESL classroom icebreakers

7 Essential Speaking Activities for ESL Classes

12 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class

8 Invitation and Request Dialogues for Everyday Scenarios

17 Types of food: sorting icebreaker for introducing the topic of food

Sorting icebreakers work well for many topics. This is the  most elementary and popular icebreaker for introducing the topic of food.

(Download PDF)

18 House and furniture: icebreaker for discussing where you live/your house

Some icebreakers are so simple you might feel a fool for not having thought of them before. I certainly have. Brainstorming things…furniture …items…adjectives ..etc that might be used for parts of the house. What a no-brainer! But I didn’t think of it for 30 years of teaching. Icebreakers like this are great for setting up question writing exercises. Once the board is full of vocabulary, you can give a couple example questions, “What kind of furniture do you have in your living room?/ Do you have a big bed?/ Do you have a microwave in your kitchen etc…..” and ask students to create their own questions around the vocabulary.

(Download PDF)

19 Job/ Careers/ Work Brainstorm and Icebreaker

Another really straightforward and easy brainstorm is a jobs brainstorm. This works with pretty much any level as even the most elementary students can name jobs. A really, really easy way to start a class.

(Download PDF)

20 Colors and their meanings

Brainstorming about colors is an easy icebreakerl. You could almost use this icebreaker anytime but perhaps it could be good for introducing adjectives or for topics like fashion and advertising.

(Download PDF)

21 Brainstorming places around town

Another useful and east brainstorming and icebreaking activity is brainstorming places around town. Like “Colors” this exercise is painless and usually fun and often leads you down some interesting paths.

(Download PDF)

1 Elementary greetings, introductions and basic communication skills exercise (with answers)

This is a great exercise for a really elementary class. It can be used as an icebreaker, an introduction or a review of very basic communications skills. I usually use these exercises at the end of my classes. Because they are visually attractive I find many students latch onto them without being instructed. Often we have quite interesting discussions about different interpretations some of the pictures.

(Download PDF)

 

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2 Common expressions for everyday socializing/living (with answers)

Another slightly more advanced exercise exploring the language students might encounter in everyday social interactions.

(Download PDF)

3 Elementary expressions for going out (with answers)

This worksheet focuses on language used when people go out shopping and socializing.

(Download PDF)

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9 Super Elementary Speaking Exercises

5 Elementary Create a Conversation Exercises for Speaking Classes

5 Elementary Conversational Expressions Exercises

5 First Day Activities for an ESL Class

10 Really! Elementary ESL classroom icebreakers

7 Essential Speaking Activities for ESL Classes

3 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class

8 Invitation and Request Dialogues for Everyday Scenarios

 4 More expressions for talking to and about people (with answers)

This exercise focuses a little more on fashion and describing people.

(Download PDF)

5 Elementary expressions for eating and talking about food (with answers)

And here is some essential language used when people are eating, talking about food or going to restaurants.

(Download PDF)