A topic sentence is the most important sentence in a paragraph. It tells the reader what the paragraph is about. If you don’t know how to write a topic sentence, your paragraph will probably be confusing. A well-written topic sentence can make your paragraph more interesting.
Writing basic topic sentences
This topic sentence worksheet helps students transform basic statements into clear paragraph openings. The examples show how to turn simple phrases like “The park has stuff” into precise previews that outline three key features. The practice section uses pictures to prompt students to complete structured sentences about food, movies, careers, travel, annoyances and computer use.
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Introduction to topic sentences quiz
Testing students’ knowledge of paragraph structure, this quiz focuses on topic sentence fundamentals. The seven multiple-choice questions cover definition, purpose, writing techniques, and common mistakes, with a complete answer key included.
This topic sentence practice sheet guides students through two key skills. Students first select the strongest sentences from groups of three options, then transform overly general statements into specific, meaningful topic sentences using clear examples as models.
Working backward from supporting details, this ESL worksheet teaches students to create strong topic sentences. Six sets of related statements help students identify main ideas and craft introductory sentences that effectively preview paragraph content.
This topic sentence practice offers a dual approach to paragraph structure. Students alternate between spotting topic sentences in completed paragraphs and crafting their own introductory statements for incomplete ones, with an answer key provided for self-checking. The passages range from personal essays about mothers to debates about school uniforms.
Daily routines and schedules is a popular topic focus for teaching the present simple, adverbs of frequency and adverbial phrases of time. It’s also a fairly easy topic for elementary students, though it can be adapted for higher levels.
1 Daily routine of a skyscraper window cleaner
Each of these exercise get a bit more advanced. This is a day in the life of a guy who cleans the windows of skyscrapers.
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2 Write a conversation exercise: routines and daily activities with dialogue and audio for a listening exercise
Write-a- conversation exercises work really well for many topics including routines and daily activities. This present simple exercise focuses on the language used for talking about routines and daily activities.
6 Elementary daily routine reading comprehension: a boy
This is an elementary present tense reading/listening comprehension exercise about a boy’s daily routine. It includes basic prepositions for talking about time, and basic transition words for describing a routine (as do the other reading exercises below).
An older elementary ESL exercise for brainstorming language to describe routines & daily activities in the present tense. Students can brainstorm individually, in groups, or as a class. Students use the verbal and visual cues to fill in the worksheet.
10 Do or Make ?? collocations exercise for daily routines (with answers)
Students match the verbs “do” or “make” with the nouns in the center of the worksheet.Then they match the collocations to the appropriate pictures. Once they have done this they use the collocations and their own ideas to write sentences at the bottom of the page
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2 Online shopping brainstorm/icebreaker
This is a fun way to start a class, and I think, especially for this topic.
Import/Export, Logistics, Tariffs and Scaling Language Exercises
21st March 2025
Tariffs and International Trade in 2025
Below are some examples of exercises from an extensive set of tariff related exercises including vocabulary, listening, reading and critical thinking activities. The complete set can be found on Substack.
Tariffs Visual Vocabulary
From heated trade negotiations on the news to rising prices at stores, tariffs impact everyone’s daily life in the 2020s. This engaging material helps students master crucial international trade vocabulary through vivid visuals that connect abstract economic concepts to real-world situations. By matching terms to relevant images, learners develop the language skills needed to discuss global economic relationships that directly affect consumer prices, job markets, and product availability in their communities – making this topic both academically valuable and personally meaningful.
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Tariffs and Job Creation
Do tariffs actually create jobs? This worksheet tackles a question that affects economies worldwide and appears regularly in news headlines. Students analyze a real economic case study about tariffs and employment, learning practical vocabulary about international trade along the way. The material presents both government claims and expert counterarguments, helping students understand different perspectives on trade policy. Through targeted comprehension questions, students learn to evaluate economic claims critically—a valuable skill whether they’re discussing news with colleagues, understanding business decisions, or following political debates about trade policies that impact their own lives and industries.
Behind every purchase lies a world of imports, exports, logistics and scaling. Through a variety of language exercises including vocabulary, listening, speaking and critical thinking, students learn how companies manage exports through customs, build logistics networks, and scale operations. The vocabulary of import procedures, logistics systems and scaling strategies shows how businesses transform from local sellers to exporters using supply chains, distribution and technology.
Examples from a comprehensive set of exercises about “scaling” have recently been added to this page. For the complete set visit my “Companies that Scale” post on Substack.
Types of Scaling Dialogue
From TSMC’s massive chip production facilities to Netflix’s ability to add millions of subscribers with minimal infrastructure, the evolution of business scaling fascinates students. This exploration of traditional versus digital scaling looks at both physical stores like Starbucks and digital platforms like Amazon. By comparing how Walmart optimizes its supply chain while Nike builds global brand recognition, students learn essential business vocabulary while analyzing growth strategies that shape their consumer experiences.
When companies get bigger, they gain some things but lose others. Take Amazon – they can deliver products almost anywhere in the world, but international shipping costs can be very high. Or look at Airbnb – they offer many different places to stay, but it’s harder to guarantee every room will be good quality. By looking at what these familiar companies do well and where they struggle, you’ll understand the real benefits and challenges of growing from a small business into a global company.
When we talk about companies getting bigger, we use certain word combinations that fit together naturally. Companies don’t just “make” growth – they “achieve scale” or “drive sustainable growth.” They don’t simply “use” technology – they “leverage digital infrastructure.” These special word partnerships help us explain exactly how businesses expand, from “gaining market share” to “maintaining competitive advantage.
Picture a shipping container’s journey: It starts with “procurement” of goods, moves through “customs barriers,” requires careful “inventory management,” and follows complex “supply chain” networks. Each step has its own special vocabulary – from “freight transport” to “cargo manifests.” These aren’t just random words – they’re precise building blocks that help us understand how global trade connects merchants worldwide.
Logistics (and shipping) vocabulary worksheet (with audio and answers)
This business English ESL vocabulary and listening exercise aims to help students understand logistics and shipping vocabulary. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures and then listening to the audio and write short sentences at the bottom of the page.
Good engaging listening exercises are essential for good English listening/speaking lessons and classes. Listening exercises can be created in variety of formats and for a variety of purposes. With new technologies it’s possible to create listening exercises for almost every kind of teaching activity. I try to add listenings to everything.
Below are some of the different kinds of listening techniques I’ve been developing over the last year. Some of these exercises are just teaching techniques I used in the classroom and discovered that they were easily adapted to online learning. Not only that, I realized I could edit and improve them if I converted them into audio files. If you want to download the files, you have to play them through completely one time.
1 Dictation (past tense vocabulary)
This is a dictation listening exercise to introduce students to vocabulary. Students match vocabulary and phrases to pictures as the teacher dictates past tense phrases using sentences to give context. This exercise is a great icebreaker and introduction to any set of vocabulary. It works brilliantly in the classroom. It also works really well as an online listening assignment.
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2 Match the vocabulary to the pictures ( adjectives for describing people)
The students have two tasks for this exercise. First they match the items to the pictures. Then they match the vocabulary to the pictures.
This is an elementary listening and note taking exercise for lower level students. Students can complete the note taking template after listening to the audio files.
How to be happy and optimistic How to have a better memory
4 Note taking (advanced: controversial topics)
This is a listening and note taking exercise for controversial topics. It’s done in the a discussion format with the teacher asking students for their opinions Students listen to the audio and take notes on the worksheets.
This listening exercise is a gap fill dialogue for greetings and introductions. Students listen and complete the conversation with the vocabulary in the box.
8 Listening for vocabulary and common expressions (business English)
This is an ESL listening/speaking exercise for practicing common business English expressions by matching expressions and phrases to pictures and writing sentences. First, the students match the expressions to the pictures.
Reported Speech and Indirect Requests Listening and Speaking Exercises
Indirect questions and reported speech are two aspects of English grammar that can be a little tricky. Practice with pictures and listening using multiple intelligences can help make lessons more entertaining and engaging.
1 Reported speech listening/speaking (with audio and answers)
Reported speech is an essential but sometimes overlooked aspect of English grammar. This is a fairly elementary exercise. Students can try to complete the speech bubbles. Then they can listen to the audio to compare answers.
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This is an indirect questions listening and speaking exercise and activity. Students try to complete the invitations conversations using the pictures and the vocabulary. Or students can listen to the audio and match the vocabulary and phrases to complete the questions.
5 Celebrity interview: advanced reported speech with academic reporting verbs (with audio and answers)
This is a more advanced reported speech exercise for listening/speaking or writing students. I’ve noticed that even quite good students often have trouble using a variety of reporting verbs. In this exercise, students listen to a interview with a celebrity and write sentences using the specified 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.
Working from Home vocabulary and language exercises
“Working from home” is a great topic for English language classes. In the current circumstances nearly everyone has some experience of working from home. So it’s a great discussion topic, and it could also used for classes involving giving opinions, making comparisons (home vs office), teaching argumentative writing or discussing technological change. It also has its own fairly specific set of vocabulary.
1 Working from home vocabulary ( with audio and answers)
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.
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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.
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.
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.
The past continuous is one of the tenses used to tell stories as it helps describe actions and events happening at the same time in the past. And “used to” is interesting because it is used to compare the past and present.
1 “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 listening/speaking activities and discussions.
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2 Talking about childhood
This is a gap fill conversation and listening/speaking exercise about childhood featuring “use to/used to” to help English language students talk about the past.
This is a question and answer and listening/speaking 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 listen and answer the questions while hopefully using the correct grammar.
This is a past continuous complete-the-sentence or sentence starter exercise to help students practice communicating about past events with their own ideas.
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.
Adverbs are quite fun to teach with photos that convey meaning and context. Moreover, pictures and listening exercises help make grammar lessons more entertaining.
1 Amazing adverbs (with audio and answers)
A listening/speaking activity for adverbs. It is quite fun teaching adverbs with pictures and audio. Students try to match the adverbs to the pictures and complete the sentences. Then they can listen to the audio.
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2 Common adverbs 1 (with audio and 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.
This exercise is an alternative or extension of the one above. This is a bit a bit different in that audio conversations are not sequential. Students have to match the audio items to the pictures. So they have to listen to the audio and identify the context. Personally, I prefer this kind of exercise.
Drug Development, Viruses and Vaccines Vocabulary and Speaking Lessons
29th January 2025
Drug Development Visual Vocabulary
Drug development vocabulary has become increasingly relevant in our daily lives, especially given recent global health events. This worksheet helps students understand the key vocabulary related to how drugs are developed, tested, and distributed. From initial breakthroughs in the lab to final FDA approval, students learn terms that explain each step of the drug production process.
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Vaccines and public health are topics that affect everyone’s daily lives. This worksheet taps into students’ personal experiences with vaccines while building essential vocabulary about medical science. Through discussing their views on pharmaceutical research, immunity, and global health, students practice expressing opinions and giving reasons – valuable skills for both academic and real-world English conversations. The audio file helps practice listening skills too.
Drug Development Dialogue
In this listening activity, two researchers discuss a breakthrough in cancer drug development. Their informal conversation explores the drug’s promising trial results, testing phases, and potential timeline for approval. Their natural dialogue covers key vocabulary in pharmaceutical development – from experimental trials and efficacy rates to side effects and contamination protocols. The discussion reveals not only the technical aspects of drug development but also the careful balance between optimism for new treatments and the rigorous testing required to ensure patient safety.
The world of clinical trials has moved from medical journals into our everyday conversations, making it an essential topic for English language learners, particularly those studying in the field of medical sciences. This worksheet features a clinical trial dashboard that breaks down complex medical research into clear, digestible sections. The combination of technical terms and everyday language helps learners participate confidently in discussions about medical research and healthcare innovation, whether they’re reading news articles or talking with healthcare providers.
The topic of viruses and vaccines has become a central part of our daily conversations, making it an ideal subject for ESL students to build their English skills. This worksheet helps learners express their views on everything from medical breakthroughs to pharmaceutical research, using vocabulary they encounter in news reports, doctor’s visits, and public health discussions. This exercise can be used as a critical thinking exercise and/ or as a listening activity.
The race to develop the COVID-19 vaccine combines groundbreaking scientific discovery with a deeply human story of persistence against overwhelming odds. This worksheet follows Dr. Katalin Kariko’s journey from a determined scientist facing constant rejection to becoming a pioneer in mRNA vaccine technology. Through her story, students explore both the technical breakthroughs that made the vaccine possible and the personal challenges she overcame – from immigrating with just $100 hidden in a teddy bear to years of grant rejections and career setbacks. Her eventual success demonstrates how scientific innovation often requires not just brilliant ideas, but also the resilience to keep pursuing them when others don’t believe in their potential.
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.
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.
