Popular Resources
Vocabulary exercises for food & restaurants
English language teaching ideas for ordering in & talking about restaurants
Food Restaurant Game
NEWS Story Lessons Plans for ESL
Courses
News story lesson plan (Pilgrims)
Giving directions communicative teaching idea
Directions lesson idea
1 Elicit answers and vocabulary
Car get in or get on ??
Bus get in or get on…..?
Road (look at the map..)
elicit vocabulary…
go along, up, down, cross, go past, turn right…etc.
eg. “I want to go from ….to………..so first I………”
Building elicit vocab such as “take a lift”
……………”go upstairs”…….escalator…… “in front of” etc. ..
through a mini role pay….you as ignorant customer in department store and a student as information assistant.
2 Speaking in groups
Choose yourself as “First” and 4 other capable students to be:
Next, Then, After that, Finally
1. Model a situation
“First, go to the bus stop opposite….” (some place everyone knows)….the “Next” student picks up the story……. they can go anywhere
2. Model another situation
“First go into…”( a building ie. airport, hotel , department store)
3. Finally, put the students in groups to do the above……..
First,…….
Next,……..
Then,……..
After that,…..
Finally,….…
Celebrations—festivals-lesson
Celebrations & Festivals lesson
This is an ESL speaking and writing lesson for practicing basic language for talking about celebrations and festivals. First, students complete the sentences with the vocabulary at the bottom of the page. Then they ask and answer questions about the different celebrations and festivals.
Related Cultural Resources:
5 intercultural body language, gestures and etiquette language exercises (PDFs)
Body language and gestures vocabulary exercises
8 Entertaining and Merry Christmas Vocabulary and Speaking Exercises
Family related vocabulary worksheet (PDF)
Family-Related Vocabulary Worksheets
1 Write a conversation exercise: talking about families
Talking about the families is another easy topic for dialogue/conversation writing for elementary English learners. This exercise includes 3 example conversations and one conversation (audio file) that can be used as a listening activity.
Write a conversation: family (PDF)
2 Family vocabulary matching exercise
A family vocabulary and picture matching exercise and worksheet focusing on words used to describe aspects of family relationships.
3 Essential family vocabulary
A dictation exercise. Dictate the words and the students write the words on the pictures. Or the students can match the vocabulary from the last page.
4 Family/relationship survey speaking activity
A fun and reliable elementary present simple tense speaking activity for a large class. The great thing about it is that it works at really elementary levels. The teacher models the activity using the survey template drawn on the board. Students then move around the classroom talking to at least five other students. During the survey part of the activity the teacher is free to monitor the students and also participate, having an opportunity to speak to students individually. As the students are finishing their surveys, the teacher can write a model report on the board.
5 Brainstorming family vocabulary
An icebreaker to see how many family related words know.
Grammar-time-lines-with-pictures.html
Tenses practice with timelines worksheets
These worksheets aim to help students understand the different tenses using timelines, particularly the past, perfect and continuous tenses.
Tenses practice with timelines 1 (with answers)
Tenses practice with timelines 2
Tenses practice with timelines 3
Related Resources
ESL Listening Activities Guide
Comparative adjective exercises
Teaching Gerunds and Infinitives
10 Adjectives Exercises Including Adjectives for People and Things
6 Picture-Based Present Continuous Worksheets (PDF)
8 Preposition Exercises for Location, Time and Movement (PDF)
5 Useful Passive Voice Practice worksheets
7 Incredibly Useful Past Tense Simple Teaching Activities (PDF)
Champagne Story lesson
Champagne Story
INTRO This is a communicative story creation activity that can be adapted to
any holiday or festival in the year.
STEP 1 Draw a brainstorm template on the board. (see Below).
STEP 2 Brainstorm sets of words or write up pre-prepared sets of words. Actually, I like to mix the two together as it enables me to use target vocabulary and the brainstorm can be funny and spontaneous, warming the students to the activity.
SET A
reindeer Santa Claus shepherd 3 wise men angel
SET B
lost hamburger Year 2030 elephant broken heart
SET C
Bangkok sunrise Xmas Eve Thai dancing carol
SET D
earthquake broke confused complain disagree
etc……………………………………………………………….
STEP 3 You need a set of words per 3 students. Also, remember a good story needs at a minimum 2 characters and a dilemma or bizarre situation.
STEP 4 To elicit the vocab I often ask questions like…
“What’s the name of a person in this class?”
(putting students into the stories adds a lot more fun to the activity)
“Give me a number”
or ” Give me a negative adjective”
Supposing you wanted to do a Christmas lesson you might select or elicit the words as in the sets above.
STEP 5 Once you have sets of about 6-8 words form the students into groups of three and tell them to write a short story. I always model a crazy story to get them
in the mood. Supposing they had the words below:
MIDNIGHT, CARDS, DECORATE, GHOST, FRED FLINSTONE, CHRISTMAS EVE
you might tell the story;
“At midnight on Christmas Eve Fred
Flintstone couldn’t sleep. He remembered he had
forgotten to put his cards with his presents
under the tree. So he went downstairs and suddenly
he was wide awake. There was something white
decorating the tree ……..”etc
STEP 6 After the stories are finished stick the word sets to the walls around the classroom . One of the authors of the stories will stay to field questions while the other two will walk around the room to ask questions. To make this fun and a
game give play money to the people answering questions. The questioners can
only ask Yes and No questions and if they receive a “Yes” they will receive
some money. It’s a good idea to elicit or drill Yes and No questions first. For example questions that could be asked for the story above might include:
Did Fred Flintstone decorate a Christmas tree?
Was Fred Flintstone at home?
Did this story take place on Christmas Eve? etc.
The questioners walk around the class trying to make as much money as possible. Don’t let the answerers reveal the details of their stories. Keep this as a “finale” to
the class. Get everyone to sit down and the teacher or a student will read the
stories. This is fun because a great deal of suspense should have been generated
by the questioning.
Related Resources:
Past Continuous and “Used to” Exercises
10 Adjectives Exercises Including Adjectives for People and Things
6 Picture-Based Present Continuous Worksheets (PDF)
8 Preposition Exercises for Location, Time and Movement (PDF)
5 Useful Passive Voice Practice worksheets
Language and Speaking Activities for Songs and Music
Language and Speaking Activities for Songs and Music
1 Elements of songs & music vocabulary (with answers)
This is an English language listening/speaking exercise helping students learn language used to discuss music and songs. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures and then complete the sentences at the bottom of the page.
Elements of songs & music (PDF)
2 Music likes/dislikes (elementary)
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.
3 Talking about music (with answers)
This is an English language exercise helping students learn language used to discuss music and songs. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures and then ask their classmates the questions at the bottom of the page.
Related Resources:
3 Exercises for Talking about Movies
10 Role Play Speaking Activities
11 Classroom Debate and Discussion Language Activities
5 Complaints and Annoyances Language and Speaking Activities
5 First Day of Class Activities
Talking about shopping speaking activity for ESL students
Speaking and Vocabulary Activities for Shopping
August 11th, 2023
Shopping is one of those topics that easily engages students if you have good exercises at the right level. Teaching activities might include: shopping role plays, dialogues about shopping experiences, and exercises matching shopping vocabulary words with pictures or definitions.
1 Bargaining
This is a lesson about shopping and bargaining at a market. It includes vocabulary/picture matching, brainstorming, a gap fill dialogue and open-ended questions.
Bargaining gap fill video (YouTube Shorts)
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2 Gift shop conversation and role play
A gift shop customer – salesperson role play is nice because there are so many kinds of gifts and a variety of interesting and creative conversations can be created by students.
3 Expressing opinions about shopping
A vocabulary and critical thinking exercise for shopping. Students use the words at the bottom of the page to complete the sentences and then agree/disagree with the statements and give reasons for their choices.
3 Talking about shopping
This is an elementary ESL speaking exercise for practicing language useful for talking about shopping. Shopping is a great topic for English language students as it is universally accessible. Using pictures with the questions gives context. The vocabulary at the bottom of the page can be matched to the pictures as an icebreaker. Students can discuss and answer the questions in groups or in pairs.
4 Common expressions for shopping (with audio and answers)
This is an elementary ESL shopping expressions and vocabulary listening/speaking exercise for practicing language useful for talking about shopping. Shopping is a great topic for English language students as it is universally accessible. Using pictures and audio gives context.
Common expressions for shopping (PDF)
(video mp4) (video mp4 on YouTube)
5 Common expressions for shopping 2 (with answers and audio)
This is a slightly more advanced ESL shopping expressions and vocabulary listening/speaking exercise. I often like to make some pictures similar with subtle distinctions so students have to use their critical thinking skills.
Common expressions for shopping 2(PDF)
6 Common shopping conversations (with answers)
This is a fairly elementary exercise. It challenges students to understand the context of each picture and complete the speech bubbles.
Common shopping conversations (PDF)
7 Brainstorming icebreaker for shopping: meanings of colors
A really nice breaker for shopping is brainstorming the meanings and associations of colors. This is a pretty fun and engaging way to start a class.
Brainstorming the meanings of colors(PDF)
8 Fashion and shopping word map
This is an elementary brainstorming exercise that aims to elicit some vocabulary and warm up the students for a lesson about fashion and shopping. Try to get as much vocabulary as possible on the word maps from the students and then ask them to complete the questions at the bottom of the page. Then they can ask and answers questions in pairs or groups.
Fashion and shopping word map(PDF)
9 Talking shopping 2
This is a really easy elementary exercise for pretty low level English language learners to talk about shopping. Students match the words and expressions to the pictures and then have short conversations.
10 Fashion choices and preferences brainstorm and speaking
This is a more advanced exercise for students to talk about shopping choices and preferences. Students match the words and expressions to the pictures and then have short conversations. Once again try to get as much vocabulary as possible on the word maps from the students and then ask them to complete the questions at the bottom of the page. Then they can ask and answers questions in pairs or groups. The students also need to understand how to use “Do you prefer…?” and “Would you rather…?”
Fashion choices and preferences brainstorm (PDF)
Related Resources
Online shopping listening/speaking and vocabulary exercises
3 Clothes, Accessories and Fashion Vocabulary and Speaking Exercises
5 Cool Advertising & Branding Vocabulary & Language Exercises
6 Describing People and Appearance Vocabulary and Language Exercises
7 Brainstorming and Speaking Activities for Routines, Interests and Hobbies
dogoplay
Do/go/play brainstorm
Get the students to practice asking and answer questions.
EXAMPLE:
When do people play tennis?
Where do some people go scuba diving?
Why do many people play golf?
Etc.
Present simple tense worksheet
Present Simple Exercises and Worksheets
Common verbs 1 (with audio)
This is an elementary ESL exercise for learning common verbs by matching verbs to pictures and writing sentences. First, the students match the words to the pictures. Then they try to write sentences using the words.
Present simple sentences (with audio)
This is an elementary ESL exercise for practicing the present simple tense. Students look at the pictures and write suitable sentences using the verbs under the pictures in the present simple.
Present simple sentence writing (PDF)
Common verbs 2 (with audio)
This exercise is similar to the one above.
Related Resources:
Parts of speech for present simple
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
12 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class