Essential Academic Vocabulary Lessons IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC
Academic vocabulary can be pretty tough to teach. A variety of exercises including picture matching, sentence writing and gap fill exercises can make for a rewarding lesson. Recycling, reinforcing and reviewing using multiple intelligences is the best way to teach vocabulary. Academic vocabulary is essential for students attempting to pass the IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC tests.
This is an exercise for introducing or reviewing the following academic vocabulary that might be used to talk about education and learning: aptitude, boundaries, capable, ethical, challenges, advance, enforce, criticism, assess, hesitate, acknowledge, issue, discouraged.
This is an exercise for introducing or reviewing the following academic vocabulary to discuss the qualities of and relationships between colleagues and employees : favoritism, exemplified, unenthusiastic, attend, outline, workplace, potential, perceived, executives, function, realized,responsibility, admiring, resolved, perspective, appointed, conflict.
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This exercise includes vocabulary exercises for business communication including office client and customer relationships: inflexible, strategy, developing, schedule, chaos, organized, allow, cautiously, approach, associate, embrace, impressed, morale, client, biased.
This worksheet includes vocabulary for talking about people and social behavior: stimulate, anecdote, stifle, norms, forgotten, trends, stumble, stifle, innovation, incentive, recognize, colleagues, facial, enthusiasm.
Academic vocabulary exercises for a miscellaneous collection of words related to various aspects of corporate or academic life: exchange, encounter, acquaintance, deviate, norm, expand, inspired, purchase, fabric, identify, structure, perspire, prodigy, recall, scraps.
Handout 7 includes more advanced vocabulary often used in discussions, debates and controversies: genetic, obstacle, identical, adverse, alterations, controversy, superfluous, substantial, avoided, reaction, hurdle, ethics, commodity, optimal, disturbed, examined, modification.
Handout 8 includes Business English related vocabulary that might be used for talking about colleagues and careers: attitude, radical, stand out, commute, career, rigorous, devote, hang around, peers, loyalty, weird, cut back, stable, dared.
Handout 9 is a more random set of words encompassing probability and social issues : reunion, synthetic, probability, mandatory, interactive, deprived, inconceivable, inadvertently, “face to face”, exploit, alert, adopt, adhesive.
Handout 10 is another fairly random set encompassing words that might used to talk about business, relationships and power : regret, obsession, invest, intensity, integral, ingredient, beneficiary, fundamentals, era, dominate , collapsing, brutal, funding, apex, ambition.
Brainstorming is a fantastic classroom activity. It works really well as an icebreaker. It is a great way to get students engaged. It can also heIp get the teacher get deeper into a topic with the participation of the class. And it is a wonderful way to assess and make use of the collective knowledge of the class.
1 Blank cluster diagram
The blank cluster brainstorming and organizing worksheet is ready for use on any topic. It’s great for extremely free range brainstorming. Students can freely associate ideas to a topic. However, I prefer brainstorming templates that are custom designed for specific topics (as can be seen below). I find these much more interesting.
Snappy and short icebreaking brainstorms are really useful for starting a class with new or elementary students. It’s a great way to to immediately engage with students and assess their abilities. Moreover, it’s a good way of getting students to contribute without putting them under much pressure.
Sometimes when you are introducing a specific topic to a class, it’s really useful to use cues to get things going. The cues can be verbal or visual or a combination of both. It really helps guide the brainstorm along a particular path. These brainstorms can become quite extended and bring out a lot of ideas and language.
The guided brainstorm is similar to brainstorming with cues but it’s useful when you want to aim for something specific like an essay title. And if you are teaching argumentative essay writing to students learning the English language, it’s useful to create a guided brainstorm template. This might meangetting students to complete sentences with certain ways and generating an essay question or title for a specific topic.
6 Brainstorming pros and cons (debates and discussions)
Of course, one of the best brainstorms in the classroom is the brainstorming of pros and cons of an issue. The range of ideas of a class working together can be quite surprising.
With huge image libraries these days, it’s quite easy to put together a collection of images focused on very specific topics. This really helps to get students thinking and it’s also surprising as students interpret pictures in different ways.
Some of the most popular brainstorm templates are for academic writing formats, including classification and cause/effect. These help students organize their ideas logically.
Transportation and Getting Around Exercises and Worksheets
1st September 2024
This page focuses on transportation-related communication skills for English as a second language (ESL) learners. Here, we explore important topics such as understanding diverse types of transportation, giving and receiving directions, and navigating the practical language associated with getting around in English-speaking environments.
Understanding directions
Practicing map reading and direction-giving enhances ESL learners’ spatial vocabulary and practical language skills. This exercise uses a fictional “Urban Oasis City Map” to familiarize students with commonly used language for giving directions.
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Giving directions – walking
This is an elementary listening/speaking exercise for giving directions to someone who is walking to a destination. This exercise will help students navigate new environments and communicate effectively with native speakers.
This exercise uses illustrations, each one corresponding to a phrase. The students’ task is to match these images to the related phrases, thereby reinforcing their understanding of vocabulary in an engaging and visual way. This worksheet encourages students to become familiar with key phrases used in everyday scenarios, making them comfortable and confident when communicating directions in English.
The central activity here requires students to match pictures with the corresponding vocabulary terms, enhancing their recognition and understanding of thirteen different types of transportation. These include automobiles, cable cars, caravans, cruise ships, ferries, helicopters, light rails, limousines, camper vans, ultralights, speedboats, off-road vehicles, and hovercrafts.
Using transportation vocabulary & speaking exercise for English language learners and others who need to get around the city and communicate in English.
This is an English language exercise helping students to practice frequently asked travel and transport questions. Students try to write suitable questions for the various parts of a train and a plane ticket.
Terrific Travel and Tourism Language and Vocabulary Lessons
1 Talking about travel and culture speaking lesson
This is an ESL speaking and writing lesson for practicing basic language for talking about travel and culture. First, students complete the sentences with the vocabulary at the bottom of the page. Then they give their own opinions about what they like and dislike about traveling.
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This is an ESL speaking for discussing travel. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures. Then they rank their preferences for the various types of travel experience. Finally, they discuss their preferences.
3 Brainstorming the pros/cons of traveling alone or traveling in groups
This is an exercise for discussing the advantages/disadvantages of traveling alone or traveling in groups . Students look at the pictures and then try to write down their ideas. Then, on the third page of the PDF, they can organize their ideas for a discussion or an essay.
This is an English language exercise exploring language commonly used in various traveling situations. Students try to imagine what is being said in each situation and fill in the speech bubbles. Then listen to the audio.
This is an ESL speaking and writing lesson for giving opinions about tourism and travel. First, students write five survey questions about advertising. There are some examples of questions at the top of the first page of the PDF. When they have written five questions, they can walk around the class asking classmates their questions and noting down their answers on the worksheet. Finally, they write a short report from their survey question answers. This is a fun communicative exercise that allows students to mix freely.
Public health and safety vocabulary and literacy exercises focusing on language used to talk about common public health situations and vocabulary for protective and safety equipment used to maintain health standards.
1 Elements of Public Health vocabulary worksheets (with answers)
This is an English language exercise introducing vocabulary commonly used in public health. Students try to match the vocabulary with the appropriate pictures.
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2 Safety in the lab (health and safety equipment) vocabulary worksheet (with answers)
This is an English language exercise introducing vocabulary commonly used to talk about health and safety equipment.
3 Poisons and toxins vocabulary worksheet (with answers)
This is an English language exercise to practice vocabulary commonly used to talk about poisons and toxins. Students try to match the vocabulary with the appropriate pictures.
6 Cracking Complaints and Annoyances Language and Speaking Activities
1 Calling to complain (gap fill and answers)
This is a “calling to complain”telephoning language exercise to help English language learners practice expressions and phrases used in everyday phone conversations. Students can try and complete the dialogues and then listen to the audio to check/compare their answers.
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3 More everyday annoyances
This speaking activity for English language students aims to encourage them to freely express their feelings and opinions.
This is an ESL speaking exercise for discussing everyday complaints and annoyances . Students match vocabulary to the pictures. Then they can ask each other the the questions at the bottom of the page.
This is a second ESL speaking exercise for talking about everyday annoyances. Students match the phrases on the left to the appropriate pictures. Finally they can have a conversation using the questions at the bottom of the page as a guide.
7 Housing complaints, annoyances and problems (vocabulary and speaking with answers)
“Housing complaints’ is a slightly more advanced activity for talking about housing . Students match vocabulary to the pictures. Then they can ask each other the the questions at the bottom of the page.
ELICIT As a class elicit a few problems you can have with these companies and any others you can think of: Home improvement company Mobile phone service Mail order company Travel service Car dealer Bank STEP 1 On the board write “MAIL ORDER COMPLAINT MENU” then ask around the class for sample complaints. Write them on the board. The board might look like this: MAIL ORDER COMPLAINT MENU shipment never came got the wrong order goods were broken expensive delivery charges bad customer service not the same as in the ad no instruction manual etc….etc STEP 2 Put students in groups of 3 and have ready an A4 sheet of paper for each group. Each sheet of paper has a heading similar to the following: MAIL ORDER COMPLAINT MENU HOME IMPROVEMENT COMPLAINT MENU MOBILE PHONE SERVICE COMPLAINT MENU etc…etc Each group of students then chooses one of the complaints topics and begins to write complaints as you modeled on the board. STEP 3 Rotate the complaint menus every 3 or 4 minutes so each group gets to work on each menu. In this way they get a feel for the different kind of complaints. STEP 4 Once the menus have rotated right round the class or the sheets of paper are full of complaints tell the students to stop writing and model the final part of the activity – the roleplay. Pick up one menu (Travel Service Complaint Menu) and address a pair of students saying……… STUDENT A(CUSTOMER COMPLAINER): Good day, may I see the complaints menu….. STUDENT B(TRAVEL SERVICE): Certainly here you are………. STUDENT A (CUSTOMER COMPLAINER): Yes, well first I’d like to complain about your guide…..he was very impolite…… STUDENT B(TRAVEL SERVICE): Well,…..I’m sorry but he is new….. STUDENT A(CUSTOMER COMPLAINER): Secondly, I’d like to complain about the bus..it was too old……… STUDENT B(TRAVEL SERVICE): Yes..but you chose the cheap tour…etc. STEP 5 Finally, select one student out of each group to be the complainer. Give this student one of the complaint menus. The students then begin to role play. An excellent way to get students to rotate to other groups is to play the “Scissors, paper, rock” game. The loser moves to another group.
4 Tantalizing Telephone Dialogue Exercises for Business English
Telephoning and messaging communication skills in businesses and offices are perhaps more important than ever before. There are many common expressions that students can learn to help them gain telephoning skills fluency .
1 Elementary telephone expressions (with answers)
This is a fun introductory exercise for English language learners that helps them become familiar with telephoning expressions and vocabulary.
2 Making an appointment telephone conversation (with answers)
This is a dialogue or role play exercise for students s to practice creating complete telephone conversations . Students use the cues in the boxes to write appropriate conversations.
This is a telephoning exercise for English language learners to practice using elementary language necessary for simple telephone calls. Students complete the speech bubbles with appropriate language and expressions.
3 Business socializing, requests and talking on the phone (with answers)
Another telephoning exercise for English language learners to practice using elementary language necessary for business socializing and making phone calls. Students complete the speech bubbles with appropriate language and expressions.
Collocations and phrasal verbs are critical to fluency in the English language. Once students start to get a hold of the ways words are joined together in conversation and in texts they are well on their way to being competent communicators.
30th June 2024
1 Common phrasal verbs 1
This is an introduction or review worksheet for common phrasal verbs. Students match the phrases to the pictures and answer the questions.
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2 Husband/wife phrasal verb role play and /or listening activity(with audio and answers)
This is an English ESL role play exercise for practicing phrasal or two part verbs. Students complete the conversations with suitable vocabulary. Then they can listen to the audio, compare answers and carry out the role play.
This is another listening/speaking worksheet for common phrasal verbs. This exercises focuses on the two ways in which phrasal verbs can be used (Eg. “I pick up the book” and “I pick up the book.”). Students listen and completer phrases and answer the questions.
I think the do/go/play collocations exercise is probably the most elementary collocation exercise given to students. It’s ok but usually focuses on sports, just for simplicity, I guess. Most of my students aren’t that interested in sports, so I like to change it a little. I also make it a little more difficult by teaching that “do” and “go” can often be used with the same nouns (eg. do/go shopping). Sometimes they are interchangeable and sometimes they are used for slightly different meanings. This makes it a bit more difficult but more accurately reflects the real world.
The do/make collocation exercise is probably the most useful and important elementary collocation exercise. These are verb-noun combinations that students really need in order to communicate in English.
There are so many verb-noun combinations that can help students improve their fluency. I’m in the process of creating many more of these. “Have” and “take” are two other basic verbs with many useful collocations.
8 Take or have or break ?? collocations exercise (with answers)
Students match the verbs “take” or “have” or “break” with the phrases scrambled at the top of the worksheet. Once they have done this they use the collocations and their own ideas to write sentences at the bottom of the page.
The exercise below is for exploring students’ knowledge of imperatives and collocations. Depending on the level and ability of the students, a teacher may ask students to work in groups or work independently. It is often surprising to learn which expressions students are and are not familiar with.
Brainstorming, outlining and exercises help students to order processes in a logical format and introduce students to process paragraph and essay writing.
1 Writing topic sentences for process essays (with possible answers)
This exercise helps students learn how to write topic sentences for process essays. Students look at the pictures and try to write appropriate topic sentences.
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2 Brainstorming processes for process essays
This is a brainstorming exercise for ideas for a process essay. It is a good icebreaker and a nice way to ease into the topic.
This exercise helps students understand how to write an outline for a process essay. Students match the scrambled sentences on the Page 2 to the appropriate part of the essay outline.
5 Process essay topic and support sentence exercises
This exercise helps students become familiarized with process essay topic and support sentences. Examples are given at the top of the worksheet and students complete the exercises lower down.
This is a worksheet describing the job application process. Students look at the pictures and write appropriate sentences for each step of the process.
Students match the vocabulary to the online order graphic. This exercise helps students become familiar with the language, vocabulary and expressions of online order processing.
Mastering Medical English: Enhancing Language Skills for Healthcare Professionals
Welcome to “Mastering Medical English”! This webpage offers a diverse range of downloadable PDF exercises, listening materials, video exercises, and speaking activities to facilitate effective learning.
Why is it important to learn English in the medical sciences?
In today’s interconnected world, proficiency in English has become a vital asset for healthcare professionals. English serves as the lingua franca of the medical community, allowing effective communication among healthcare providers, researchers, and patients from diverse linguistic backgrounds. By acquiring English language skills specific to the medical sciences, students can improve their ability to:
1. Collaborate with Multicultural Teams: In medical settings, professionals often work alongside colleagues from different countries and cultures. Effective English communication fosters seamless teamwork, enabling efficient patient care, research collaboration, and the exchange of knowledge and best practices.
2. Enhance Patient Care: Accurate communication between healthcare professionals and patients is crucial for accurate diagnosis, treatment, and ensuring patient safety. Understanding medical terminology, conveying instructions clearly, and empathizing with patients’ concerns are vital elements of patient-centered care.
3. Access Cutting-Edge Research: The medical sciences are continuously evolving, and the latest advancements are often published in English. Proficiency in English empowers students to access scientific literature, stay updated with breakthroughs, and contribute to the global medical community.
4. Pursue Global Career Opportunities: English proficiency opens doors to a wide range of international job opportunities in the medical sciences. Whether it’s participating in medical conferences, working in multinational healthcare organizations, or pursuing advanced studies abroad, strong English skills provide a competitive edge in the global job market.
Our Resources:
To equip both teachers and students with the necessary tools for success, our webpage offers a rich array of resources:
1. Downloadable PDF Exercises: Access a variety of exercises designed to reinforce medical vocabulary, grammar, and communication skills. These exercises can be easily printed and used for in-class or self-study sessions.
2. Listening Materials: Students listen to medical terminology used in various contexts.
3. Video Exercises: Explore a collection of educational videos focusing on commonly used medical terminolgy. These videos not only enhance vocabulary acquisition but also provide valuable insights into the real-world application of English in medical contexts.
4. Speaking Activities: Encourage interactive learning with a range of speaking exercises that simulate common medical scenarios. Students can practice giving presentations, role-playing patient consultations, and engaging in group discussions to boost their oral communication skills.
By utilizing these comprehensive resources, ESL teachers can empower their students to confidently communicate and effectively apply English in the dynamic field of the medical sciences.
Remember, mastering medical English is not only about linguistic proficiency; it is also about delivering quality healthcare and making a positive impact on patients’ lives. Let us embark on this exciting journey of linguistic growth and professional development together!
1 Common verbs for medical treatment listening speaking worksheet (with audio, video and answers)
The “Common Verbs for Health and Medical Treatment” worksheet is designed to improve English language learners’ vocabulary and understanding of medical and health-related terms. This interactive resource includes listening and matching exercises where learners pair vocabulary with corresponding pictures, and complete sentences using the given verbs. It also features an array of questions designed to elicit personal experiences related to health and medical issues, such as relieving a headache or consulting a medical professional. The worksheet includes vocabulary relating to different health scenarios and actions, such as prevention of infection, diagnosis of illness, admission to a hospital, adjusting medication, receiving a vaccine, monitoring vital signs, and experiencing stress-induced headaches. It covers a broad range of verbs and medical situations to facilitate a comprehensive learning experience.
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2 The experiment vocabulary introduction
The “Experiment Vocabulary” worksheet aims to enhance scientific vocabulary comprehension. The activity involves matching terms and expressions such as ‘adding’, ‘estimate’, ‘length and width’, ‘steady’, ‘tiny’, ‘measure’, ‘scales’, ‘lower’, ‘counting’, ‘ratio’, ‘less than 50 mls’ to corresponding images. Additionally, the worksheet offers multiple-choice questions that require students to choose the correct term corresponding to given options.
The “Describing Graphs for Medical Science” worksheet helps learners expand their vocabulary pertaining to trends and changes typically described in medical and scientific graphs. It requires students to match certain words and phrases, like ‘peaked’, ‘decrease sharply’, ‘increase slightly’, and ‘fluctuate a lot’ with corresponding images. Furthermore, it presents a series of fill-in-the-blank multiple choice sentences that describe scenarios related to healthcare, such as changes in patient’s blood pressure, pharmaceutical stock prices, and medication effectiveness. Each scenario has multiple-choice options for the missing term. The worksheet aims to build students’ confidence in describing and interpreting graphically presented data in medical science contexts.
“Common Phrasal Verbs for Medical Science” is designed for English language learners who want to familiarize themselves with prevalent phrasal verbs used in a healthcare setting. The worksheet weaves a visual narrative, encouraging learners to match given phrasal verbs with corresponding imagery, aiding in the comprehension and retention of each phrase. It further includes a series of scenarios pertaining to different medical situations, where learners fill in the blanks with the appropriate phrasal verbs from multiple choices. The verbs addressed in this worksheet include ‘bring over,’ ‘take off,’ ‘pull up,’ ‘put up,’ ‘put in,’ ‘plug in,’ ‘tear out,’ ‘press down,’ ‘get on,’ ‘take out,’ ‘pull out,’ and ‘put away.’ From the context of a pharmacist posting new information, a patient removing their shirt for an X-ray, to storing a new shipment of medication, the activity delivers practical exposure to the use of these phrasal verbs in real-life healthcare communications.
Dive into the world of pharmaceutical logistics with our interactive PDF worksheet, “Logistics for medication and pharmaceuticals.” This resource serves to nurture English language skills while simultaneously introducing key concepts related to the healthcare sector. Initially, learners are invited to link visuals with healthcare and logistics-related terminologies such as “patient,” “medication,” and “shipment,” offering an immersive and contextual understanding of the language. The latter section encourages learners to complete sentences by inserting suitable words from a given list, stimulating comprehension of pharmaceutical procedures and interactions, from home delivery and order placement to negotiation with pharmaceutical companies. This novel approach to language learning blends linguistics and industry-specific knowledge, fostering a multifaceted language experience.
This worksheet looks at the functions of the brain – fostering creativity, producing emotions, regulating appetite, and encoding memories. It encourages learners to examine their brain’s strengths and weaknesses and the effects of their habits on its functionality. It includes a matching task linking the brain’s functions to corresponding visuals and a fill-in-the-blank segment highlights functions such as language learning and neurotransmitter regulation.
Engaging students in thought-provoking discussions on viruses, vaccines, and the broader medical field, this English language learning PDF worksheet broadens learners’ vocabularies by prompting them to match words to corresponding statements (gap fill), including “immunity,” “clinical,” and “deadly.” Students are also encouraged to express their opinions on nine distinct statements about the role of vaccines, the nature of viruses, the economics of pharmaceuticals, and personal experiences with side effects.
11 Venipuncture and health check vocabulary exercises (with answers)
This worksheet focuses on vocabulary associated with venipuncture and routine health checks. It includes a pictorial matching task, aligning words and phrases like “dizzy”, “gauze”, and “withdraw the needle” with their corresponding images. The worksheet then challenges them with a multiple-choice section that tests their understanding of contextually used terms like “bandage”, “insert”, and “release”. In the final activity, learners write a sequential guide on the process of drawing blood, using relevant terms including “syringe”, “vein”, “tourniquet”, and more.
The worksheet is designed to help English language learners build their vocabulary around scientific adjectives. It features an activity where learners match these adjectives (like “flammable”, “soluble”, “malleable” etc.) to corresponding pictures. Following this, learners are instructed to sort the adjectives into comparative categories. Finally, students are asked to compose five unique sentences using each adjective in comparative form, demonstrating their comprehension and ability to use the words in context. An example provided in the worksheet is: “Oil is more flammable than water.”
“Basic measuring vocabulary” includes vocabulary commonly used for talking about amounts, sizes and quantities in medical science situations such as in a laboratory.
This is an elementary ESL exercise for practicing language useful for describing medical and health occupations. Students try to complete the sentences with their own ideas. There is some useful vocabulary at the bottom of the page.
This is an elementary English language exercise introducing medical tools vocabulary. Students try to match the vocabulary with the appropriate pictures.
