A selection of English ESL brainstorm 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)

For personal or classroom use only. Uploading on other internet sharing platforms or any commercial use NOT PERMITTED. Share Alike.

Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License

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

brainstorming, matching pictures,a quizz,writing about your best means of entertainment,express opinions

entertain

Prefix re- world building cloud

I use this activity as an opener at the beginning of a new term.  Ask students to work in pairs. Tell them must complete the badge with the missing pieces of information about his/her partner.  Students cannot ask any questions. When they have finished, they must use the appropriate register to confirm their answers.



(If they are beginner students, you should brainstorm which questions we ask about NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, FAVORITE PASTIME ACTIVITY AND NICKNAME beforehand.)



Feel free to modify it if your students need a bit more of challenge ; )





Getting to know each other 

If you want a no-nonsense chat on various angles of running a business and the challenges that go with it - this survey can surely be the way to go. It might be good to start with some vocabulary brainstorming though and then just get down to the business proper: talk! Not a big deal, is it? :) 

Are you cut out for business? - survey

This adjective worksheet can help young learners create a word map/ word web of any simple object around them. It can be used a brainstorming activity. You can customize the worksheet according to the vocabulary words you want to focus upon. 

Describing Words 

This worksheet is designed to be used within the context of a theme on zoo animals for an elementary (grade 2) classroom.  The sheet is an oral activity where students discuss the different activities that animals can do. The emphasis is to get students thinking about the base forms of verbs as well as differentiate the actions between animals and people. The initiation of this oral task could be the teacher asking the question: "What Can We (people) Do?" The teacher can conduct a brainstorming session prior to this activity and record the answers on the board. Following this, the teacher can also present students with flashcards of animals and ask the question about specific animals: " What can a bear do?". This will allow the students to make a distinction between what actions animals can do and what actions people can do.  Depending on the size of the classroom, the teacher can circulate and monitor whether students are reasoning and using the names of the animals to justify their answers, correctly saying the verbs and able to form short phrases (word order).  If students are struggling with the vocabulary/verbs this can indicate areas that need further work for the students. For those of you who use the NEW PARADE SERIES for your students, this was originally created to support the unit called: "At the Zoo" in the New Parade 2 Book. It can be modified to provide enrichment/additional oral practice where time permits it.

Can Zoo Animals Sing?

Students need to be relax when having a new topic. affective filter should be very low to the can go through the learning process in the most satisfactory way. Everyone have heard a joke, not matter what type isis, and, somehow and another, people have used jokes to run parties, meetings or just regular life. For such an important reason, jokes can be a good source of learning but in a fun way. This worksheet is intended to help students identify food and describe them through the use of jokes. By using background information, however, students are going to open their second of third classroom using this brainstorming; in this way teacher is able to identify what students are still behind from the rest. They, on the other hand, are going to be using the following skills: reading, writing, comparing, speaking and thinking. I hope you like it and, please, let me know if it was useful and I would like suggestions.

Food

Speaking practice. Topic - Black Friday, shopping, sales. Ideal for intermediate and advanced - B1 to C1 level students. Form of the discussion - brainstorming, debate.  

Black Friday - Conversation Questions

An empty recipe worksheet in which students have to complete the ingredients list, the ustensils they use and the directions of cooking the recipe.  Have fun and enjoy cooking.

My favourite recipe

Speaking practice. Topic - Christmas, traditions, taboo topics, gifts. Questions are provided. Ideal for all levels. Form - brainstorming, discussion, or debate.  

Christmas Conversation Questions

A video, visual-aid, and conversation-based lesson for starter to beginner level students. 



Get students brainstorming vocabulary and phrases with the visual aids, watch the bite-sized animated YouTube video with listening questions, and then complete grammar and vocabulary questions. 



Download the entire curriculum of 4 levels and 84 lessons when you sign up FREE: www.pocketpassport.com



Watch the video on YouTube or here:

https://bit.ly/3gVstVN

Introductions: Talking About Family

This is a simple worksheet using black and white clip arts (for better scanning/ photocopying purposes) as basis or subject for the sentence construction. The pupils will be guided to use Adjectives in constructing their sentences. They can make simple sentences about the pictures' subject's color, size, texture, sound, taste, smell, and or other qualities. This worksheet also works as a coloring sheet the children can color only after they are able to construct and write sentences about the picture. The pupils can also choose which picture they like to answer because the teacher can show them the choices before starting the activity. It can also be used for recitation purposes or small group/s activity. The facilitator or teacher can show the picture and the 5 blanks, have the pupils brainstorm Adjectives about the subject and then help each other in making a sentence. One member can also be assigned to either write the answer on the board, another paper or on the worksheet itself. Enjoy!

170 Brainstorm English ESL worksheets pdf & doc