Category: Uncategorized

Jobs and Careers Vocabulary, Listening and Speaking Exercises

31st July 2024

This is a selection of resources designed to assist teachers help English language learners improve fluency and self-expression for job interviews.

Online Job Interview preparation

These exercises are quite useful for students preparing for job interviews in the 2020s, particularly given the increased prevalence of online and remote interviews. They provide an overview of the unique aspects of online job interviews, which have become increasingly common in the 2020s. They help students adapt their interview skills to the digital age, preparing them for the realities of the modern job search process.

Brainstorming Online Interview Preparation Extract PDF

Online Interview Critical Thinking Activities Extract (PDF)

Brainstorming Employer Requirements in the 2020s

Brainstorming Employer Requirements helps students identify and align their skills with industry needs in the modern job market, emphasizing flexibility and digital competencies.

Download Extract PDF

Applying for Jobs Critical Thinking Exercises

Exercise 1: Which word is different?: Students identify the word that doesn’t belong in a group, enhancing their critical thinking and understanding of job-related vocabulary.

Exercise 2: Positive vs Negative Qualities for Job Applicants: Students categorize terms as positive, negative, or both, which helps them understand attributes valued by employers and those that may be detrimental.

Download Extract PDF

Expressing Opinions about Careers

A vocabulary and critical thinking exercise for discussing careers. 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.

(download PDF)

See the YouTube video

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 Elements of Employment -vocabulary & language (with answers)

  This is an  English  language  exercise  introducing and exploring the language and vocabulary of  careers and employment. Students try to match the vocabulary with the appropriate pictures. 

Elements of employment (PDF)

(see the YouTube video)

Job Interview Role Play lesson

This is a speaking and writing lesson for practicing job interviews. I’ve been using this exercise for years. I works smoothly and seamlessly as a pair work exercise in any size class. Each student chooses a a partner and they role play a job interview. One student is the company interviewer and the other student is the applicant. Then they switch roles. The interviewer can take notes. Finally, they write a short report from their interviews notes.

Job interview lesson (PDF)

 Job Enquiry by Telephone (with audio and answers)

       This is a listening/speaking telephone dialogue activity.  A job candidate telephones a company manager and asks about he requirements for a job position.  It includes language and vocabulary commonly used during the job application process. Students listen and try to complete the conversation.

Job enquiry conversation (PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

The Intern

This is a vocabulary listening and speaking exercise about a day in the life of an intern and contrasts it with university life.

(Download PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

Parts of Speech Exercise for Jobs and Careers

A parts of speech exercise to help develop students’ language skills.

(download PDF)

Job Interview Scenarios listening/speaking (with audio and answers)

     This is a listening/speaking lesson  for practicing job interviews. Students try to complete the job interview speech bubbles with their own ideas and then listen to the audio and compare answers.

Job interview scenarios (PDF)

(see the YouTube video)

Job Interview Expressions & phrases

This is an English language exploring further the language and vocabulary of job interviews. Students try to match the vocabulary with the appropriate pictures. Then they write sentences using the expressions.

Job interview expressions (PDF)

Related Resources for the Hospitality Industry

Expressing opinions

ESL listening exercises

Elementary jobs language exercises

Food, Restaurants and Cooking Home

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5  Airport and Airline Vocabulary and Language Skills Exercises with Answers

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5 Cool Advertising & Branding Vocabulary & Language Exercises

17 listening/speaking exercises for talking about technology

Job skills interview brainstorm and questions

     This is a  jobs skills interview lesson involving a brainstorm exercise and interview creation and role play activities to help graduating English language students prepare and role play the process of applying for a job. Students brainstorm vocabulary and write their own questions before doing an interview.

Job skills brainstorm (PDF)

Job interview adjectives

    This   exercise  introduces employment related adjectives. Students try to match the adjectives with the appropriate pictures.   

Job interview adjectives (PDF)

Career discussion questionnaire

     This is a  discussion  lesson  for talking about career paths. Students can interview classmates and try to decide what kind of career might meet their needs.  

Career discussion questionnaire (PDF)

 

Related Resources:

7 Money and Finance Vocabulary Exercises

4 Worksheets Expanding Business English Vocabulary and Speaking Skills

4 Money and Finance Vocabulary and Speaking Worksheets

Business English Home

12  Business English Speaking and Language Skills Exercises

5 Cool Advertising & Branding Vocabulary & Language Exercises

 5 Describing Graphs Vocabulary and Language Exercises

Leadership potential interview/questionnaire

  Students interview a classmate about their leadership potential and write their opinions at the bottom of the page.  

Leadership potential questionnaire(PDF)

Essential Pronunciation Worksheets

1 Past tense endings: “ed”pronunciation exercises worksheet (with audio and  answers)

   Teaching and reminding students about past tense endings is a never ending battle for an English language teacher. If you teach in countries like Thailand, it is  like  a boomerang, a problem that always comes back with many students.  So this is an exercise to help students  understand, practice or review  the past tense endings  and the different kinds of pronunciation for the “ed” endings of verbs with different spellings. Students sort the verbs into the appropriate column. Students then write some sentences which they can be asked to say out loud.  Listen to the audio to practice and check pronunciation.

(download PDF)

(see past tense ‘ed” endings YouTube video)

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2 Past tense endings 2

Past tense endings  (PDF)

3  Final “s” sound endings pronunciation worksheet (with audio and answers)

    This is an ESL exercise to help students  understand  the pronunciation of the final  “s”. Students add the “s” endings and sort the words into the appropriate columns. Students then write some sentences which they can be asked to say out loud. 

Final “s” sounds worksheet (PDF)

Related Resources:

5 First Day of Class Activities

3 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class

7 Incredibly Useful Past Tense Teaching Activities

Listening exercises for ESL students

3 Final “s” and “es” sound

This is another exercise practicing or teaching the pronunciation of final “s” or “es” sound.

(download PDF)

download exercise 2

4  “ch” sounds pronunciation worksheet

    This is an ESL exercise to help students  understand  the different sounds of  “ch” in the English language. 

“ch” sounds worksheet (PDF)

(audio mp3 American woman)

American woman

5  “th” sound  pronunciation worksheet

    This is an ESL exercise to help students  understand  the pronunciation of the  “th” sound. Students sort the words into the appropriate voiced and voiceless columns. 

“th” sounds worksheet (PDF)

For more exercises go to the Pronunciation Home Page

Other resources

Import export and supply chain exercises

Writing Topic sentences

Daily routines, schedules and other present simple listening speaking activities

Comparative adjectives

 

Essential Business English Vocabulary Exercises and Worksheets

1st August 2024

The goal of this page is to help non-native English speakers improve their vocabulary skills and fluency in the language of business. With a variety of audio and video files, these activities provide an engaging experience to help enhance speaking and listening abilities.

Digital Business Skills

Theses exercises include brainstorming, matching activities and sentence completion tasks that help learners understand and apply various digital business concepts. Digital business skills have become increasingly crucial for job seekers in the 2020s. As businesses across all sectors continue to digitize their operations, employees who possess a strong grasp of digital technologies and strategies are in high demand. These skills not only make candidates more competitive in the job market but also enable them to contribute more effectively to their organizations’ digital transformation efforts.

Download PDF Extract

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Idioms for Running a Business

Understanding idioms is crucial for business English learners. The exercises provided, along with listening practice and video content, offer a comprehensive approach to learning these idioms. This multi-modal learning strategy helps reinforce understanding, improve retention, and provide context for proper usage.

Extract from PDF

See the video on YouTube

Contemporary business vocabulary

Learning contemporary business vocabulary, as highlighted in the PDF, is crucial in today’s rapidly evolving digital culture for several reasons:

1. Effective communication: Terms like “pivot” enable professionals to quickly convey the idea of changing strategy in response to market shifts. For example, a startup might say, “We need to pivot our business model to focus more on e-commerce.”
2. Adaptability: Understanding phrases like “headwinds and tailwinds” helps professionals discuss and adapt to rapidly changing market conditions. A manager might explain, “We’re facing headwinds due to supply chain disruptions, but the increased demand for remote work solutions is a significant tailwind for our software division.”
3. Digital transformation: Vocabulary such as “drill down” reflects the increasing focus on data analysis in digital-first businesses. An analyst might suggest, “Let’s drill down into the user engagement metrics to understand why our app retention rates are declining.”
4. Remote work culture: Phrases like “touch base” have become essential in managing remote teams and maintaining communication in virtual workplaces. A team leader might say, “Let’s touch base via video call next week to discuss project progress.”

By mastering this contemporary vocabulary, professionals can navigate the digital transition more effectively, collaborate better in modern work environments, and stay relevant in an ever-changing business landscape.

Extract from PDF

See the video on YouTube

Discussing a new project

This lesson focuses on essential vocabulary used for discussing new project. It’s been updated with audio and video files.

(download PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

Adjectives for a businessman

This vocabulary in this activity includes commonly used adjectives to describe personality and a business person’s personality in particular.

(download PDF)

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)

  Common Business English phrases/expressions 1 (with answers and audio)

  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. Then they can listen and try to write sentences using the expressions. Finally, they can ask/answer the questions.

Common Business English phrases 1 (PDF)

(video and audio mp4)

(video and audio mp4  YouTube)

 Business collocations worksheet (with audio and answers)

  This is a  business English  ESL exercise  introducing and exploring business collocations. Students begin by writing the words and phrases in the appropriate columns.  Then they write sentences using the collocations.  Then they can listen to the audio and check if they have all the collocations.

Common business collocations(PDF)

(video and audio mp4)

(video and audio mp4 YouTube)

   Elements of workplace activities (with answers)

  A lesson exploring language and expressions that describe workplace activities. It includes  a short  speaking activity that gives students the opportunity to use the language to express their own ideas.

Elements of workplace activities (PDF)

(see the video version on YouTube)

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.

Logistics vocabulary  (PDF)

(video and audio mp4 YouTube)

Common Business English phrases/expressions 2 (with audio and answers)

  This is another  elementary ESL exercise   for  practicing  common business English expressions by matching expressions and phrases to pictures and writing  sentences. 

Common Business English phrases 2 (PDF)

Working in a factory vocabulary worksheet (with answers)

    This is an ESL exercise  for teaching English expressions for working in a factory   Students match the expressions to the pictures.

Working in a factory  vocabulary  (PDF)

(YouTube video)

Related Resources

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Online shopping assistant reading comprehension

ESL Listening Activities Guide

4 Worksheets Expanding Business English Vocabulary and Speaking Skills

4 Money and Finance Vocabulary and Speaking Worksheets

Business English Home

12  Business English Speaking and Language Skills Exercises

5 Cool Advertising & Branding Vocabulary & Language Exercises

 5 Describing Graphs Vocabulary and Language Exercises

  Elements of  Business English vocabulary (with answers)

This is an ESL exercise   for  introducing or reviewing  common business English expressions by matching expressions and phrases to pictures.  Students use their language and critical thinking skills to match the common business English expressions and phrases to the pictures. As a follow-up the teacher might ask the students to create full sentences describing the activities taking place in the pictures.

Elements of business (PDF)

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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)

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)

Personality Adjectives/Vocabulary and Listening/Speaking Activities

16th February 2025

A wide range of teaching activities are useful for teaching the vocabulary of personality including: vocabulary-picture matching, personality surveys, word sorting  exercises  and role plays.

Describing a Businessman (with answers)

    This is an  ESL exercise for practicing the use of adjectives that  might be useful for describing a businessman’s personality and behavour.  Students match the adjectives to the pictures and if possible, try to make a sentence explaining why the adjective matches the picture. 

Adjectives for a businessman (PDF)

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   Personality Adjectives for Friends – listening and speaking (with audio and answers)

This is a listening/speaking exercise for personality vocabulary for describing friends and colleagues. Students listen to the audio and match the appropriate vocabulary to the pictures. The audio is a picture/conversation matching exercise. The video is a simpler vocabulary/matching exercise.

Personality vocabulary for friends (PDF)

(see the YouTube video of this activity)

   Create a Conversation: Personality

Writing a conversation exercises work really well for some topics and personality is one of the best. This works best with lower level students of course, but with advanced students you have to encourage them to build on their ideas.

Write a conversation: personality(PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

First Impressions (woman)

  This is a listening/speaking exercise for English language learners to talk about personality and first impressions. This exercises focuses on  a woman.  Students look at the pictures and try to create a story about how they got to know this  man.   

(download PDF)

(YouTube video)

First Impressions (man)

  This is similar to the exercise above. This exercises focuses on  a man. 

First impressions 1 (man) (PDF)

(YouTube video)

  Elementary Personality Vocabulary  and Speaking

Nearly all the  words used to talk about personality are adjectives. This makes it quite easy to teach. The only problems I have with elementary personality vocabulary are the words “fun” and “funny”. My students often use “funny” when they should be using “fun”. And then there is the problem of “fun”  often being used as a noun. But other than that….teaching  the language of personality  is …a lot of fun!

Elementary personality vocabulary(PDF)

Related Resources:

Relationships exercises home

4  romance, love and friendship lessons (PDF)

5 Intercultural Body Language, Gestures and Etiquette Language Exercises

 6  More Advanced Personality Vocabulary  and Speaking

The range of personality vocabulary becomes almost infinite the more you look into it. Here is a selection of more advanced vocabulary which can also serve as a pronunciation exercise for better students. Many  students have problems with words such as “enthusiastic” and “conscientious”. And other words that are tricky for some students include “weird” and “suspicious”.

More advanced personality vocabulary(PDF)

  7 Parts of Speech: Personality

When you look at the grammar of personality, it is quite interesting that  most of the words are adjectives. But it is worth helping students get to  know  the noun forms of these adjectives too.

Parts of speech for  personality(PDF)

Related Resources

Comparative Adjective Exercises and Worksheets

10 Adjectives Lessons

10 Jobs and Careers Language Skills Exercises 

6 Describing People and Appearance Vocabulary and Language exercises

10 Role Play Speaking Activities

7 Essential Speaking Activities for ESL Classes

3 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class

 

Elementary Personality Interview Speaking Lesson

This is an ESL speaking lesson for talking about personality. Students interview each other using the questions on the handout. They also ask for examples of each personality trait. Then they choose a job for the interviewee based on the answers they receive.

Personality interview speaking exercise  (PDF)

 

Personality adjectives dictation and other exercises

This is my favorite all-purpose and sustainable (ie. it never gets old and can be repeated endlessly – you just need new vocabulary and new pictures) teaching exercise .  It’s  a listening exercise, a vocabulary exercise and it’s suited to every size of class.  It can be used to introduce vocabulary. It can be used to review vocabulary.

Personality adjective and vocabulary exercises (PDF)

 

Personality vocabulary positive/negative sorting

In this vocabulary exercise students have to decide whether the personality adjectives are positive, negative or if they are sometimes positive and sometimes negative depending on the situation.

Personality vocabulary sorting  (PDF)

 

Personality vocabulary survey and speaking lesson

  This is an ESL   speaking and writing lesson  for  talking about personality. First,  each student chooses one  adjective. Then they write five survey questions that adjective. 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.

Personality survey  (PDF)

 

Leadership potential interview/questionnaire (more advanced)

  Students interview a classmate about their leadership potential and write their opinions at the bottom of the page.

Leadership potential questionnaire (PDF)

12 Essential Paragraph and Essay Writing Skills Exercises and Worksheets

Elementary paragraph  and essay writing skills include brainstorming  and outlining, as well as the ability to write attention getters, topic and support sentences.

1 Elementary academic paragraph writing lesson

 This is a bare bones elementary paragraph writing lesson for English language learners that aims to help them understand paragraph types and the components of a paragraph. It is particularly aimed at students who have vocabulary skills but almost no writing skills.  

 Elementary paragraph writing lesson (PDF)

 

2 Brainstorm worksheet cluster diagram

    This is a  brainstorming and academic essay planning worksheet for students writing essays. The best way to get ideas for  a paragraph or essay is to brainstorm with the  aid of  a graphic organizer. Students can freely associate ideas to a topic. This  allows them to be more creative and explore any path their minds might take.

Brainstorming worksheet cluster diagram (PDF)

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3 Outlining a basic paragraph

This is a paragraph outline worksheet to help students learn how to write a basic paragraph.

Paragraph outline worksheet (PDF)

4 Outlining an essay

This is an essay outline worksheet to help students focus on organization and planning when preparing to write essays.

Essay outline worksheet (PDF)

Related Resources:

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8 comparison/contrast templates and exercises

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3 kinds of exercises for teaching transitions

6 memorable narrative essay writing practice exercises (PDF)

6 delightful descriptive paragraph and essay writing exercises  (PDF)

5 Writing main idea sentences for essays or paragraphs (with possible answers)

In this worksheet students practice writing main idea sentences by looking at the pictures, and writing an appropriate main idea sentence. They should try to express themselves freely.

Main idea writing practice worksheet (PDF)

6 Attention getters (with pictures) for essays

Attention getters are essential at the beginning of a paragraph or an essay when you want to attract the reader’s attention. There are many kinds of attention getters but a few of the most common are anecdotes, quotation, provocative questions and surprising facts or statistics. Students can practice attention getters by looking at the pictures and trying to write an attention getter for each one.

Writing attention getters  (PDF)

7 Attention getters comprehension exercise

This worksheet is a good way to challenge students’ knowledge of different types of attention getters.

Writing attention getters  (PDF)

8 Kinds of attention getters writing exercise

This is another worksheet that tries to impress upon students the importance of good openings or attention getters.

Writing attention getters  (PDF)

9 Understanding support sentences

This support sentence writing worksheet can be used to test students’ understanding of both topic and support sentences.

Writing support sentences (PDF)

Adjectives Listening/Speaking/Vocabulary Exercises

The way to teach adjectives is to have a variety of  exercises. These can include:

• Positive/negative adjective sorting
• Picture matching: matching adjectives to emotions or situations
• Personality surveys
• Audio listening/speaking exercises help  give a better feel of the context

August 28th 2024

Brainstorming Basic Adjectives for Conversation

Matching everyday items and situations with basic adjectives helps students expand their descriptive vocabulary and grasp contextual meanings in English. The exercise presents common experiences for categorization using words like “exciting,” “challenging,” and “dangerous.”

Brainstorming Basic Adjectives

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Basic Adjectives for Conversation

Audio and picture/vocabulary matching makes this exercise multi-sensory, engaging both auditory and visual learning pathways. Students then complete sentences with personal ideas, applying these adjectives to their own experiences.

Basic Adjectives Wrap

  Common adjectives for describing people  (with audio and answers)

Students try to match the vocabulary to the pictures. Then they listen to the audio and match the items to the pictures and check that they matched the correct adjectives to the pictures.

Elementary adjectives for describing people (PDF)

Adjectives for the city (with audio and  answers)

       This is an  ESL listening/speaking/vocabulary exercise  for   adjectives for describing the city.   This uses a similar  format to the exercise above.  

Adjectives for the city (PDF)

Adjectives for life (with audio and  answers)

  This is another listening  activity for adjectives worksheet  to help students talk about everyday situations and  behavior through adjectives.      

Adjectives for life (PDF)

Adjective icebreaker

      This is  an excellent elementary  icebreaker for a lesson about adjectives.

Adjective icebreaker (PDF)

Related Resources:

3 Comparative Adjective Exercises and Worksheets

4 Exercises for Aspects of Nouns

Making Adverbs Beautiful

Ed/ing Adjectives

 Basic adjectives for things  (with answers)

 This is an ESL  exercise to help familiarize students with basic adjectives. Students match the adjectives to the pictures and write short sentences. This worksheet helps introduce, reinforce or review students’ knowledge of adjectives. And it helps improve their skills.

Adjectives for things (PDF)

More common adjectives for people (with answers)

        This is an ESL  exercise to help familiarize students with basic adjectives for describing people. Students match the adjectives to the pictures and write short sentences. Pictures engage the attention of students and they also encourage  students to use critical thinking skills.

Adjectives for people (PDF)

Related Resources:

 

   Personality Adjective Survey 

  This is an ESL   speaking and writing lesson  for  learning  adjectives. Each student chooses an adjective and writes five survey questions using his/her adjective. They then walk around the class asking their questions and noting down their answers. Finally, they write a short report from their survey  question answers. This is a fun communicative exercise that allows students to mix freely.

Personality Adjective Survey (PDF)

Adjective Gallery teaching idea

    This is a fun,  creative and communicative ESL  speaking activity for   adjectives. Each student gets one or more slips of paper, chooses an adjective, draws some kind of picture or cartoon about an  adjective (of  their choice or assigned by the teacher) and then writes a multiple choice question about the picture. They can write the correct answer on the back of the slip of paper. When all the students are finished the students can walk around quizzing other students or the slips of paper can be handed around. 

Click here for the Adjective Gallery  PDF file 

Everyday adjectives

    This is an ESL exercise   for  learning and  using common, everyday adjectives . Students match the the adjectives to the pictures is an enjoyable and fun way to learn adjectives. . First, the students match the words to the pictures. Then they try to short conversations using the words. 

Everyday adjectives (PDF)

Adjectives for a businessman (with answers)

    This is an  ESL exercise for practicing the use of adjectives that  might be useful in business English.  Students match the adjectives to the pictures and if possible, try to make a sentence explaining why the adjective matches the picture. 

Adjectives for a businessman (PDF)

10 First Day Activities for an ESL Class

10th August 2024

Brainstorming Greetings and Introductions

This English exercise focuses on categorizing greetings and introductions. It covers formal and informal expressions for greetings and introductions, as well as conversation starters. Students match phrases to categories and are encouraged to add their own examples.

Download PDF Extract

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Greetings and Introductions Critical Thinking Exercises

The critical thinking exercises consist of two parts: identifying mismatched words in related groups and categorizing expressions as polite, impolite, or neutral. Students learn to recognize appropriate language for different social situations. The exercise helps develop understanding of context and tone in communication. It aims to improve students’ social interaction skills in English.

Download PDF Extract

Greetings and Introductions Pronunciation Practice

Download PDF Extract

Elementary Vocabulary Dictation

This visual vocabulary/picture matching exercise provides context and allows students to connect vocabulary with real-world scenarios and concepts. It’s an effective way to reinforce language learning, especially for visual learners.

Download PDF

 Introductions conversation (with answers and audio)

This is model dialogue for practicing language useful for greetings and introductions. Students listen and complete the conversation with the vocabulary in the box.

Introductions conversation (PDF) 

(see the YouTube video)

“Getting to know you” conversation/ listening exercise (with  audio and possible answers)

  This is another elementary and introductory speaking skills and listening exercise to encourage students to write their own “getting to know  you” questions and answers.

Getting to know you (PDF)

(see the YouTube video)

Greetings & introductions vocabulary exercise

This is an elementary ESL exercise for practicing language useful for greetings and introductions. Students try to match the greetings and introductions with appropriate pictures.

(download PDF)

Greetings and introductions conversation 2

This is another elementary gap fill conversation exercise.

(Download PDF)

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.

Family relationship survey (PDF)

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Eslflow’s listening activities

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10 Really! Elementary ESL classroom icebreakers

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8 Invitation and Request Dialogues for Everyday Scenarios

 Getting to know you survey speaking activity

  This another fun and reliable survey speaking activity for a large class. It’s a little bit more advanced than the activity above. The teacher models the activity using the example questions and a survey template drawn on the board. Students are then encouraged to write their own questions. 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.   

Getting to know you (PDF)

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Language Skills for the Digital Age

Artificial Intelligence Lessons

Fabulous Food and Eating Listening, Speaking and Vocabulary Lessons

January 3rd, 2024

Below are a collection of food and eating related vocabulary, listening, speaking, brainstorming, and grammar activities designed to help students develop English language skills.

1 Restaurant complaints

What is going on in the pictures? What problems do the customers want to complain about?

(download PDF)

See the YouTube video

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2 Shopping list for food role play (elementary)

This is a role play between 2 room mates talking about the food items they need for their house or apartment. It includes basic vocabulary for food, and also countable and uncountable nouns.

(download PDF)

See the video on YouTube

2 Taste and nutrition lesson

This is a lesson that explores the language of taste and nutrition with a variety of exercises including vocabulary and critical thinking exercises.

Download PDF

3 Celebrity chef interview

This is role play and listening/speaking exercise.

(download PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

4 Bad restaurant role play

Bad restaurant is a listening speaking and role play exercise for talking about restaurant food and service.

(download PDF)

(See the YouTube video)

5 Talking about food conversation

A listening/speaking and writing-a-conversation exercise for upper elementary students.

(download PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

6 Introduction to ingredients

This is a fun way to start a class and introduce the vocabulary for ingredients to English language learners. Get students to watch the video or listen to the audio and write the vocabulary on the pictures on the PDF worksheet. Or you can just dictate the words randomly.

(Teacher’s sheets)

(Student’s worksheet)

(YouTube video)

Related Resources for the Hospitality Industry

7 kitchen and cooking vocabulary listening/speaking exercises

Food, Restaurants and Cooking Home

8  Hotel Vocabulary and Speaking Skills Exercises

5  Airport and Airline Vocabulary and Language Skills Exercises with Answers

5 Intercultural Communication Language Exercises and Worksheets

5 Cool Advertising & Branding Vocabulary & Language Exercises

7 Talking about food and eating vocabulary dictation

This is a similar format to the exercise above but it’s for talking about  food and eating.

Talking about food (PDF- teacher)

Talking about food (PDF- student)

(see the YouTube video)

 8 Restaurant dialogues speaking and listening worksheet (with audio answers)

This is an English language exercise to help students prepare to work in a restaurant or just learn about common restaurant exchanges so they are prepared to travel abroad or eat out with English language speakers. Students attempt to complete the dialogues. Then they can listen to the conversations and compare their answers.

Asking for information: restaurant dialogues (PDF)

(Youtube video of this exercise)

 9 Elementary  food conversation listening/speaking worksheet

Students can listen to the audio dialogue and complete the conversation. They can practice the conversation  or create their  own  conversation.

Food conversation dialogue (PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

Elementary  food conversation

10 Ordering in a restaurant listening activity and conversation worksheet (with audio answers)

This is a  fun “Ordering in a Restaurant” gap fill speaking activity for an English language  class.   Students listening to audio and  complete the conversation. Then the students can practice  the conversation, perform role plays and/or write their own “Ordering in a Restaurant” dialogues.

Ordering in a restaurant dialogue (PDF)

11 Common expressions for talking about food (listening/speaking with answers and audio)

    This  is a vocabulary, listening  and speaking activity for using common expressions to talk about food and eating. Students match the sentences the pictures and answer the questions.  The listening activity could be done first or last. The students listen to the short conversational exchanges and match the letter of the item to the pictures.  

Common expressions for talking about food (PDF)

12 Talking about food and eating vocabulary dictation 2

Another vocabulary and common expressions listening exercise.

Talking about food dictation 2 (PDF)

13 Listening and speaking skills worksheet: restaurant troubles (with audio and answers)

For this exercise students listen to the conversations and match the items (A-I) to the pictures. Then they listen to the short exchanges again and try to complete the speech bubbles. This kind of exercise encourages students to expand their vocabulary and improve their listening skills.

Restaurant troubles vocabulary and speaking exercise (PDF)

14 Types of food sorting

This is a sorting exercise for types of food.

(download PDF)

Business English Speaking and Listening Skills Worksheets for the 2020s

The exercises below are designed for teaching ESL students in the 2020s, focusing on contemporary work trends such as the gig economy and hybrid work. The content addresses key aspects of modern work life, including freelancing, digital platforms, work-life balance, and the use of technology in remote work.

14th April 2025

For the latest speaking exercises visit eslflow’s Substack:

Starting a Business in the 2020s

See the videos on YouTube
Influencers and Creators: Advantages vs Disadvantages
Starting a Business in the 2020s: Good vs Bad Ideas

Other recent collections on Substack include:

A Deep Dive into the Language of Tariffs

The Future of Soft Skills

Subscribe to Eslflow

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The Gig Economy visual vocabulary and classroom discussion listening

Vocabulary and listening exercises that engage students in a discussion about The Gig Economy.

Download PDF

Hybrid Work visual vocabulary and classroom discussion listening

These exercises explore ideas and language used to discuss Hybrid Work.

Download PDF

Hybrid work pronunciation exercises

Fun exercises for focusing on pronunciation of words related to hybrid work.

Download PDF

The Creator Economy

This is another topic that  is highly engaging and relevant for young adult learners.

The Creator Economy critical thinking (PDF)

The Creator Economy classroom discussion listening (PDF)

The Creator Economy Q and A (PDF)

Quantifiers for colleagues

This is a Business English vocabulary and listening/speaking exercise exploring some common Business English vocabulary. It also focuses on the use of quantifiers (all, most, some, a few, none etc.).

(download PDF)

See the YouTube video

  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.

(download PDF)

(Calling to complain YouTube video)

Business skills

It’s easy for students to talk about business skills as it relates to their personal preferences and abilities.  Students can listen to the audio or watch the video and complete the worksheet. The video adds more images illustrating the vocabulary related to this topic. The speaking section can also be expanded to include all the skills shown in the pictures.

Business Skills (PDF)

(See the YouTube video)

New boss meeting

This is an exercise that explores common company office topics and language through the first meeting with a new boss. The worksheet includes vocabulary and speaking exercises. An excerpt from the worksheet is below. The full worksheet can be downloaded by subscribers at Substack (see below).

See the YouTube video

Download lesson extract PDF

Conversational practice – present perfect and basic future tense for business

These conversational practice exercises contain sets of  conversational questions, along with multiple potential responses and a follow-up question for each. The questions aim to help ESL (English as a Second Language) students improve their understanding and usage of specific aspects of grammar in English. In my experience, these kinds of exercise are really useful teaching one-on-one online, but they also work really well as pair work activities in the classroom.

Future tense conversational practice

Present perfect conversational practice

If you like these activities, be sure to check out the Substack post:

“Cost of living” and “New boss meeting”

10 The Intern

This is a reading/listening comprehension exercise about a day in the life of an intern and contrasts it with university life. Students need to watch the video and then complete the sentences with the the vocabulary they hear. The pictures match the chronological order of the video.

(download listening/speaking PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

11 Financial crisis vocabulary

These days, you hear and see words such as “inflation” and “bear market” everywhere. So this is a lesson about financial crisis vocabulary.

(lesson extract download PDF)

(see the YouTube video)

12 Create a conversation: starting a business

This is a listening/speaking lesson about starting a business. This is  a surefire topic for classroom discussion and dialogues. Use the worksheet below to brainstorm ideas about starting a business. Then get students to listen to the dialogues and try to complete the gap fill worksheet. Finally, students write a conversation using their own ideas.

Starting a business  (PDF)

13 Ideas for starting a business brainstorming

This is a good topic for business English students. And millennials in general are really sharp on the nuances of strategies for starting a business. Good fun!

Ideas for starting a business (PDF)

14 Asking for information : business English dialogues gap fill (with audio and answers)

Students need to be versatile and flexible when they speak English. This gap fill exercise provides a number of everyday conversations and situations .  It challenges students to complete the short dialogues with the appropriate vocabulary. Or students can listen to the audio and complete the conversations.

Asking for information business English gap fill (PDF)

(see as Youtube mp4 video)

Related Resources:

9 import/export, logistics and supply chain exercises

4 online shopping and delivery services listening/speaking and vocabulary exercises

8 Business English vocabulary exercises

5 cool advertising & branding vocabulary & language exercises

 8 describing graphs  language exercises

5 intercultural body language, gestures and etiquette language exercises

15   Making requests exercise (with audio and answers)

           This is a  Business English  ESL exercise to help students learn how to make polite requests in English. Students can try to complete the speech bubbles. Then they can listen to the audio and compare their answers. Or it can be used as a stand alone listening exercise.

Business English making requests (PDF)

(see as Youtube video)

 16 Business problems and solutions (with audio and answers)

Problems and solutions exercises make for good speaking and discussion classes. Here, students match the problems to the pictures and give solutions in answer to the questions. as above, the solutions exercise could be expanded to include all the problems shown in the pictures.

Business problems and solutions (PDF)

(see the video on YouTube)

17 Telephone conversation speaking and listening about a delivery (with audio and answers)

This is a telephoning exercise for English language learners to practice using  the language necessary for making business phone calls. Students listen to the audio and complete the conversation. There are 2 worksheets One is easy and one is more difficult.

Telephone delivery conversation (PDF)

18  Office conversations (with audio and  answers)

This is a business English ESL exercise to help students practice common office conversations. First, brainstorm ideas for the conversations. Then students can listen to to the audio and complete the speech bubbles.

Office conversations  (PDF)

15 Elementary business socializing (listening with answers)

This is an elementary business English ESL listening exercise exploring the language and vocabulary used to make short conversations in various business and social situations. Student listen and  complete the short conversations for each situation. Then they can compare answers.

Business socializing (PDF)

 16 Business socializing and phoning (with  answers and audio)

       This is similar to the above but more general.  It helps students   become familiar with common office conversational exchanges. 

Business socializing and  telephoning (PDF)

 

 17 Company activities: What do they do?

The words create, produce, develop, design, invent, build, sell, provide and manufacture are often used interchangeably to describe company activities. This activity focuses on these and related words and the subtle differences between their usage.

What do companies do?(PDF)

 18  Problems and solutions: write a conversation

This is a more personalized and fun exercise in which students write a conversation talking about 2 problems in their lives.

Problems and solution conversation writing (PDF)

Related Resources

4 Working from Home exercises incl. parts of speech and vocabulary

Related Resources:

ESL Listening Activities Guide

8 Business English Vocabulary Exercises

10 Super Essential Academic Vocabulary Lessons

5 Kinds of Collocation and Phrasal Verb Exercises

10 Jobs and Careers Vocabulary  and Speaking exercises

4 Money and Finance Worksheets

10 Computing and  Internet Vocabulary and Speaking Activities

19 Talking about office problems

This is an elementary ESL speaking exercise for talking about problems in the office. First, students try to match the vocabulary at the bottom of the page to the pictures. They can then use that vocabulary to answer questions about the pictures.

Talking about office problems (PDF)

Related Resource:

4 Tantalizing Telephone Dialogue Exercises for Business English

5 Cracking Complaints and Annoyances Language and Speaking Exercises

20  Discussing business activities speaking lesson

    This is an ESL   speaking and writing lesson  for talking about common business activities and tasks.. First, students match the expressions to the pictures. Then, they can have short conversations discussing the business activities they like and dislike.

Discussing business activities (PDF)

21 Team building

his is a business English ESL exercise exploring the language and vocabulary of team building. First, students match the vocabulary to the pictures. When it is clear they understand the words, they can write questions  about team building. Finally, students can ask each other questions.

(download PDF)

22 Elements of common work conversations (with answers)

        This is an ESL exercise  for teaching common English  expressions in an office setting. Students match the words to the pictures and the sentences. 

Elements of common work conversations (PDF)

Related Resources:

10 Role Play Speaking Activities

11 Classroom Debate and Discussion Language Activities

5 First Day of Class Activities

3 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class

8 Invitation and Request Dialogues for Everyday Scenarios

23 Business woman: what is she saying ? (with answers)

This is a business English ESL exercise introducing some common expressions and sentences. Students need to interpret the meanings of the woman’s gestures and match the vocabulary to the pictures.

Business woman: what is she saying (PDF)