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Unleashing the Power of Sports and Exercise Vocabulary for ESL Learners

As sports and exercise play a significant role in the lives of millions worldwide, mastering this vocabulary will not only enable students of the English language to engage in meaningful conversations, but it will also open doors to a myriad of social and professional opportunities. From breaking the ice with strangers to discussing fitness goals with friends, or even exploring job opportunities in sports-related industries, the language of sports and exercise is an indispensable tool for ESL learners. So, let’s dive in and explore the exciting world of sports and exercise vocabulary together, and unlock the power of language for a healthier, more connected future!

23rd July 2024

Paris 2024 Olympics lessons

Find a collection of vocabulary and critical thinking exercises about the Paris Olympics here.

1 Expressing opinions about sport

A vocabulary and discussion activity about playing and watching sports. This is a listening/speaking exercise for English as a second language students to practice expressing opinions about sport.

(download PDF)

See the video on YouTube

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2 Health benefits of sport and exercise

A pre-intermediate exercise for introducing vocabulary useful for talking about sports and exercise.

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3 Interview with a famous athlete (2022)

Not all students love sport, but for those that do, this is a great exercise. They can watch/listen to the model role play(which can also be used as a listening exercise) and then create a role pay about their sports hero.

(download PDF)

See the video on YouTube

4 Brainstorming the benefits of sports and free time activities

A great way to start a class talking about exercise, sport and health benefits.

(download PDF)

5 Talking about sport questionnaire worksheet

This is a discussion and vocabulary  exercise to help students learn or review common sporting vocabulary and discuss sport, exercise and health.

Talking about sport (PDF)

6 Basic sport phrases worksheet (with answers)

This is an exercise students to help learn common sporting phrases. Students match the phrases to the pictures and write short sentences.

Body sport phrases (PDF)

7  Sport vocabulary sorting

This is an exercise students learn or review common sporting vocabulary. Students sort the words into the appropriate columns.

Sport vocabulary sorting (PDF)

8 Basic sport vocabulary (with answers)

  This is another  exercise students to help learn  common sporting vocabulary. Students match the words to the pictures and write short sentences.

Basic sport vocabulary  (PDF)

9 Sports discussion and opinion exercise

This is a pair work speaking exercise for students to give their opinions about sport. Students fill in the left hand columns with topics of their own choosing. Then they write their own ideas in the middle column. Finally, they interview their partners and fill in the third column.

Sport opinion exercise  (PDF)

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ESL Listening Activities Guide

Using opinions, anecdotes, quotations and statistics

Writing opinions and anecdotes in academic essays

This is a worksheet to help students practice writing opinions and anecdotes. Students look at the pictures and try to write an appropriate opinion and anecdote for each one.

(download PDF)

Using quotations and statistics

This is a worksheet to help students practice using quotations and statistics.

(download PDF)

Cause/Effect Writing Exercises and Worksheets

1 Causes & effects of noise

This is an introductory cause-effect worksheet for English language learners. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures and then complete the exercise at the bottom of the page.

(download PDF)

2 Causes and effect of stress

The topic for this worksheet is “stress”. The exercise is similar to the one above.

(download PDF)

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Future Tense Exercises : Plans, Predictions, Schedules and more

2nd January, 2025

Conversational, visual and audio cues can help convey to students the primary uses of the future tense. Conversational cues give students communicative practice. Images containing action can be used for predictions.  Moreover, teaching  with the aid of audio can help students engage more deeply with the future tense. Also, calendars are used for plans and schedules.

Future tense role play

This lesson plan teaches students to talk about upcoming events using present continuous tense. A reference guide shows the basic grammar pattern, followed by two practical exercises where students match cultural images with vocabulary and complete a natural conversation about festival plans. The activities blend grammar practice with cultural elements around Indian food and entertainment.

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Future tense grammar review

This future tense exercise set presents five clear steps in tense formation. Real-world contexts like office moves, weather reports, and technology updates help students progress from basic form selection to question construction.

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Plans and predictions listening

Practicing three future forms, this exercise pairs images with dialogues about everyday plans and predictions. Students complete gaps in conversations about apartment hunting, retirement plans, deadlines, and lifestyle changes while learning when to use ‘will,’ ‘going to,’ and present continuous.

Download PDF extract

Expressing opinions about the future

This future life worksheet prompts students to express their opinions on major life decisions. The exercise pairs visual cues with sentence stems about getting jobs, buying homes, starting families, and living abroad, encouraging learners to practice future forms while reflecting on personal goals.

Download PDF extract

What are your plans?

Matching daily activities with images helps students familiarize themselves with vocabulary used to talk about future plans. The worksheet pairs nine everyday scenes with phrases like “bake cupcakes” and “visit relatives,” followed by personal questions about upcoming weekend and travel plans. Sample answers model natural responses about leisure activities and daily tasks.

(Download PDF)

Basic future tense – conversational practice

These exercises include sets of future tense conversational questions, along with multiple potential responses and a follow-up question for each. This practice aims to help ESL (English as a Second Language) students improve their understanding and usage of the future tense in English. Students can familiarize themselves with various contexts where the future tense is commonly used, such as discussing plans, making predictions, and expressing intentions.

This is a structured exercise, with questions, possible responses, and follow-up questions, that allows students to get a more comprehensive understanding of how future tense conversations flow.

Future tense – going to conversational questions (PDF)

Future tense – will conversational questions (PDF)

Future tense – going to vs will conversational questions (PDF)

Future perfect – conversational practice

More advanced students can practice conversations using the future perfect with the questions below as a guide or starting point. I’ve added a chart to show how the future perfect works.

Future perfect Q and A (PDF)

Plans and predictions 2 (with audio and answers)

The two most basic uses of the future tense are for plans and predictions. This exercise includes some common situations when the future tense might be used: talking about the weather, economics (money), careers and immediate actions.

Plans and predictions (PDF)

Talking about plans with  “going to” survey

“Going to” is the most basic form of the future tense usually taught to students learning the English language. This is a good speaking activity that encourages students to speaking a personal way about the future.

“Going to” (PDF)

Making predictions with “will”

Making predictions is a pretty engaging exercise. And I think this survey-type activity is an excellent way to have a discussion class. Moreover, it can work at fairly low levels.

Making predictions with “will” (PDF)

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Predictions survey

This is a speaking and writing exercise for English language learners to practice using the future tense. Students write 5 questions about the future using the questions at the top of the page as an example. Then they interview 5 students and write a short report about their survey. Click on the image below or the link to download the PDF file.

Predictions survey (PDF)