A selection of English ESL role play printables

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

Find three similarities and three differences between each pair. Ideal for a paired dialogue. Develop thinking skills and the ability to express one's ideas clearly.





Here is a 6 page key with answer suggestions:





https://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables/worksheets_doc_docx/key_similarities__differences_brain_teaser/animals/112724







Role Play : What’s the same? Different?

The classical survival game about ten shipwrecked people: Two of them must leave the lifeboat within 30 minutes, or the ship will sink. The ws contains ten role play cards and a ws to justify the decision who will live or die. 

Shipwrecked - A Survival Game - Role Play

The following cards will help your students revise and practise vocabulary related to health. Students work in pairs and role play the dialogues "doctor-patient". Hope it's useful! 

Health problems - cards to role play

This ESL worksheet offers 9 neatly formatted, fun role plays for your ESL class, for example the fortune teller tells the fortune of his/her client. Includes a vocabulary list.

9 Role Plays for ESL class

Jeopardy! style game. Using the information on each card, ask a present simple question. Each card has many possibilities. Suggested answers are on page 2.This game is a review of question formation in the present simple- one that is often very difficult for students.

Role Play - Jeopardy Game: Present Simple

This is a great warmer activity and also a funny way of dividing the class into two or three groups. 







Each student is given a card that tells them which line they are in, where exactly in the line and what they are doing and what their neighbors are doing. They have to find their place by observing their neighbors. The students all start their activities, and stand next to their neighbor once they've found him/her.







Follow up: Once students have found their places, you can get them to strike up a conversation with one of their neighbors while staying in their character, or perhaps enact improv scenes with 3-6 people in one line, and the other students being the audience.

Standing in Line - Role Play Warmer

I like to use this role play after I have taught the Past Continuous in the affirmative, negative, and the interrogative forms.  

I always encourage exaggeration, as this helps the ideas and conversation flow.  

Depending if I have a strong or weak group I will have the Past Continuous formula (in all forms) on the board so the Ss can have a “quick glance”.   Putting a timeline on the board helps keep the students focused as well.



The Interrogation-  Past Continuous Role Play

A 21 page action adventure role play set in a zombie apocalypse.

Students will need to use debate and conversation skills to navigate a town and hunt for supplies.  They will talk to random survivors and need to press them for information.  They will need to make informed decisions on tactics and above all STAY ALIVE!

Full solution with game rules, conversation cards, game tokens included.

Map for the game needs to be downloaded here:http://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables_page?id=55614

Zombie Apocalypse debate/conversation role play

This is a role play game in which students have to discuss who should be the new captain of a tiny lifeboat. You can play it in three rounds: 1) Individual students get a card, read it out and try to convince the others why they should be chosen; 2) personal decision of each student, 3) group discussion. My students liked it a lot and were very imaginative in justifying their leadership. And, for a change, no one must leave the ship...

Captain wanted - A role play game

This is a role play for students who need to talk in English on the phone. It has to be a small group: between 2 and 8 at the very maximum. Give one Person A card to one student and one Person B card to another student. Let them a few minutes to have a look at it. Then, the two students turned each other backs and talk as if they were on the phone. It is very important (and much funnier) that they don't know what the other person is supposed to act like. At the end of the conversation, debrief with the entire group.

Role play: talking on the phone

Find a partner and play together with one person speaking the lines in the blue box and the other speaking the lines in the yellow. Throw a dice before you start to determine which line number to say in each section. Once you have finished, swap roles and start again. When you are confident enough with the kinds of expressions used, try the role plays with your partner.

Haggling Role-Play and Dice Game

Now I am working on a set of role plays and writing tasks. This is the 5th of my set. It´s about university. The set is recommended for the advanced learners who are at C1 level. There are two tasks: a role play and a writing one. Hope you like it and find it useful. Have a nice day. Hugs, Zsuzsapszi

1,037 Role Play English ESL worksheets pdf & doc