A selection of English ESL activity for speaking printables

LIstening comprehension and speaking activities about the cashless society. First, students should watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzEJCV_N84o and do the gap-filling exercise. Then there are some questions about the situation in their own countries. Finally, there is a topic for discussion. Hope it's useful.

How to build a cashless society

A speaking activity for young learns to help them practice saying simple sentences using "can" and "can't".  Students can work in pairs or groups. 



The worksheet requires only one sentence of writing practice, as well as a drawing.  You can have students pick their favorite funny sentence to draw. 

I can but I can't - Dice Game

About 1 hour - includes gapfill, sentence matching, word separation and speaking questions. An old-time song which a lot of students know. There is a lyric video on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvvJ7MYaK8o which I used to check understanding. Listening, not video. Useful for a relaxing lesson!

James Taylor You've got a friend

A simple activity to help students practice words for weather.  They can draw and color images.  - Writing task



After students finish drawing, they should read the sentences to a classmate, challenging each other's English listening skills.  Classmates should point at the correct pictures together.  - Speaking and Listening tasks

How's the Weather Today?

The video includes considerable food vocabulary, present simple, and adjectives that students with Spanish as L1 can easily identify. Besides, the Colombian culture is well-known among young adult and adult students of ESL. The bizarre food presented in the video can also foster discussion for excellent speaking activities. 

Andrew Zimmern in Cartagena 

Hey teachers,



I just recently posted this B2 Upper-Intermediate lesson plan to Fluentize.com, but I'd like to share it here as well. It's downloadable for free for 24 hours (from 4pm EST on February 10, 2020) on Fluentize when you register. This is just a .doc format of the oroginal lesson plan you can find on Fluentize. The lesson also goes more in depth in the original version on Fluentize, but there's a lot here you can work with.



Essentially, I wanted to draw up a lesson plan on the topic of the coronavirus due to all of the buzz circling around the recent outbreak. I really wanted to find a way to get students thinking, talking, and learning about the virus, and I found the perfect video to accompany the lesson. Especially with all of the information out there about the coronavirus, I felt it would be best to work with something concise but also reliable and informative. I also wanted to be careful not to get too deep into the science of it that students wouldn't be able to follow. I ended up finding the perfect video based on an informative news report from DW News.



On Fluentize, you can find the "mini-lesson" - something new that that we've been doing at Fluentize. A mini-lesson is basically just a more compact version of a full lesson (about half the total length of a full lesson plan). There is also our standard interactive lesson plan for teachers who have online lessons - these lessons come equipped with interactive fields for students to write within.



The lesson plan is definitely geared towards adults, but you could also use it with older teens. As you will see, the lesson plan contains a range of activities for speaking, listening, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, all based on the video topic content. There is a quiz and review section as well, with a bonus writing activity for students to write an evacuation order in the city where the outbreak first occurred. Anyway, I hope this gives you some good material to work with this week, and hope you all enjoy the lesson!



Jake from Fluentize

The Coronavirus Explained

Student takes a card and due to the heading - Speak, Draw, Pantomime, he/she provides/describes the word. My students definitely love it! I hope you too :). The topic is summer, I used typical symbols. Have fun! Then tell me if it was usable for you ;).

Have nice summer holidays :)

Summer ACTIVITY, charades, games

More phrasal verb practice!  Appropriate for high intermediate  to advanced students.  Students work out the meanings of the phrasal verbs from context, then watch a FRIENDS episode to check their comprehension.  Also touches on gender stereotypes.  Finally students finish off with role-plays.  This lesson should last three hours or more.

Friends:  The Male Nanny:  Phrasal Verbs

Good for partners or small groups! Students pick a start and end point, then describe how to get there using L, R, and cardinal directions. One can be a recorder, the other can be in charge of the compass (or a makeshift one by using a paper one and keeping track!).

Directions in the school - How to get from here to there

The worksheet is based on vocabulary building and listening comprehension, but the questions can be good warmers for some other speaking activities or debates. The topic is upper intermediate but I created this worksheet to my B1 level students therefore the questions are not so difficult. There are no solutions attached.

Gender equality

A very interesting video about an airline exclusively for pets. Have your students watch the short video (url included)then have them answer the questions. Then the students can give their opinions. This is a perfect addition to lessons on animals, pets or a filler at the end of a lesson.



Pet Airways- A listening and speaking activity. (answers included)

Comprehension based on Listening Task.

Listening Task: Emmets Daily Routine The Lego Movie.



This worksheet tests listening skills and ability to differentiate between present simple and present continuous.



This lesson was designed for a one-to-one lesson. The second page of the worksheet is part of practising speaking skills. 



Present Simple vs Present Continuous Emmet Routines Comprehension

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

500 Activity for speaking English ESL worksheets pdf & doc