Expressing opinions
This page focuses on helping students become more expressive by providing them with a variety of exercises and relatable topics for expressing opinions.
Through a combination of pictures, engaging listening exercises, dynamic speaking activities, captivating videos, and stimulating fill-in-the-blank exercises, students will not only improve their language proficiency, but also enhance their critical thinking skills.
Carefully curated images will help them grasp the nuances of expressing opinions, making it easier to come up with ideas.
The listening exercises (more to come) are designed to immerse students in diverse English accents and scenarios, allowing them to practice and sharpen their listening skills while understanding how opinions are expressed in real-life conversations.
Speaking exercises are an integral part of these activities, encouraging students to articulate thoughts. These exercises will boost confidence and fluency through expressing opinions in English.
Lastly, each exercise comes with a fill-in-the-blank exercise crafted to reinforce understanding of opinion-related vocabulary and structures, challenging and reinforcing students’ knowledge of vocabulary in various contexts.
1 Expressing opinions about sport
A vocabulary and discussion activity about playing and watching sports. This is a listening/speaking exercise for English as a second language students to practice expressing opinions about sport.
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2 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.
Expressing opinions – basic vocabulary
This worksheet is designed to aid learners in mastering the English language, specifically focusing on expressing opinions. The exercises provided aim to immerse the students in various contexts where they can utilize different phrases and vocabulary to articulate their thoughts.
Exercise 1 is a multiple-choice gap fill activity, challenging learners to select the most appropriate words to complete given sentences, thereby familiarizing themselves with commonly used phrases for expressing opinions.
Exercise 2, a vocabulary matching exercise, helps students to comprehend the meaning and application of specific phrases used when forming and expressing viewpoints. This activity enhances their understanding of nuanced language and encourages more natural and sophisticated speech.
Exercise 3 is a fill-in-the-blank sentence exercise, crafted to enable learners to apply their acquired knowledge in real-world context scenarios. This exercise prompts students to use phrases from the previous exercises to articulate opinions about diverse topics, thereby practicing and reinforcing their learning.
Together, these exercises create an interactive and engaging platform for learners to effectively grasp the English language’s intricacies, specifically when expressing opinions.
3 Expressing opinions about travel and culture
This exercise explores common travel and intercultural issues familiar to anyone who has traveled abroad.
The activities encourage learners to explore cultural norms, travel experiences, and societal views.
The first activity, the ‘Picture Matching Activity,’ involves learners matching words to given statements and pictures that express a range of sentiments about travel and cultural encounters. The statements cover a wide scope, discussing preferences about travel environments, cultural learning, advice on first-time travel, and differences in social norms between cultures.
The second activity, the ‘Agree or Disagree Statement Activity,’ pushes learners to articulate their agreement or disagreement with the provided statements, prompting critical thinking and encouraging the use of English to express their views. This section allows learners to practice their language skills while also exploring their personal feelings about different cultural norms and travel experiences.
Overall, this activity offers an opportunity to enhance language learning through relevant, real-world topics. By engaging with these activities, students will further develop their English vocabulary and comprehension, while also broadening their understanding of global cultures and attitudes towards travel.
Expressing opinions – critical thinking
This worksheet aims to further expand learners’ ability to express opinions and engage in critical thinking in the English language. The document comprises three key exercises designed to provide learners with an understanding of how to convey opinions in English.
The first exercise requires learners to distinguish between statements that express an opinion and those that do not. By classifying sentences, students will gain an understanding of how opinions are formulated and expressed in the English language.
The second exercise encourages learners to reflect on their own views by determining the truth or falsity of various statements according to their personal opinions. This exercise emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and encourages learners to provide reasoning for their views.
The third exercise involves ranking different topics based on personal importance, further challenging learners to articulate their viewpoints and provide reasons for their rankings. This exercise underscores the concept that opinions are often subjective and vary depending on individual perspectives and values.
Other resources
Functions of the brain worksheets
Expressing opinions – language practice 3
This is another worksheet designed to expand learners ability to express their opinions in English.
The first part of the worksheet, “Exercise 1: Collocation Practice”, aims to familiarize students with common collocations or fixed phrases used when expressing personal views. By matching beginnings of phrases from Column A with the endings in Column B, students will learn how to construct opinions effectively and naturally.
The second part of the worksheet, “Exercise 2: Reading Comprehension Activity”, presents learners with a text discussing differing opinions on fast food. The students are required to read the text carefully and answer questions about the main opinions presented, the reasons behind these opinions, and the author’s personal stance. This exercise will challenge students to comprehend and analyze the expressions of opinion in the text, thereby enhancing both their reading comprehension and their ability to recognize and understand opinion-based language.
4 Expressing opinions about appearance
Appearance, involving fashions, styles and trends is a pretty engaging topic.
This worksheet is designed to help English language learners explore the language used to express opinions about appearance. Similar to Exercise 1 above, it contains two primary activities – a picture matching exercise and an ‘agree or disagree’ statement discussion.
The first section, ‘Picture Matching Activity’, helps learners to identify common phrases and opinions related to appearance. These phrases include comments on fashion trends, professional attire, uniqueness, and the time spent on one’s appearance. Additionally, there are statements expressing views on tattoos, makeup, and the correlation between appearance and personality.
The second section, ‘Agree or Disagree Statement Activity’, offers learners a chance to develop their own viewpoints about the statements provided in the picture matching activity. It offers example responses to each statement, encouraging students to use English in expressing their individual perspectives on dressing comfortably, professionalism, standing out, spending time on appearance, first impressions, tattoos and piercings, makeup usage, appearance reflecting personality, and monotone dressing.
Expressing opinions – conversations
This includes a gap fill conversation and a create-your -own conversation exercise.
5 Expressing opinions about shopping
Another easy-to-engage topic is shopping!
As above, the first activity is a word/picture matching task. This is an ideal starting point for learners to associate familiar shopping-related words with corresponding images. By doing so, they enhance their vocabulary retention and comprehension skills.
The second activity delves into the expression of agreement or disagreement with various statements about shopping. Each statement represents a common opinion or sentiment about shopping and fashion, such as the thrill of a good deal, the convenience of online shopping, or the enjoyment found in window shopping. This activity aims to stimulate dialogue and thoughtful responses, encouraging learners to construct and articulate their personal perspectives about shopping. Sample answers are provided to guide learners and offer a benchmark for their responses.
6 Expressing opinions about cities
People have strong opinions about cities!
The first activity a word/picture matching task. The statements reflect diverse experiences and attitudes towards urban life, such as “I love the energy and excitement of cities,” or “The cost of living in cities is too high.” Through this exercise, learners not only enhance their vocabulary and comprehension skills, but also gain insight into how emotions and perceptions about cities can be conveyed in English.
The second part of the worksheet involves an ‘Agree or Disagree’ activity, as in the PDFs above.
7 Expressing opinions about housing
Of course, people can talk a lot about housing and the various kinds of accommodation.
As above, the he worksheet consists of two main activities:
1. The ‘Word Picture/Sentence Matching’ activity, which encourages learners to match specific adjectives or phrases with corresponding pictures or sentences. The answers provided are aimed at broadening their vocabulary to describe various aspects of housing, such as ‘lots of space’, ‘convenient’, ‘cool’, ‘annoying’, ‘uncomfortable’, ‘inconvenient’, ‘simpler life’, ‘catch fire’, and ‘modern amenities’.
2. The ‘Agree or Disagree Statement’ activity, which gives learners an opportunity to practice expressing their personal viewpoints on different housing-related statements.
