A selection of English ESL cnn 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

Listening activity based on cnn news segment on laughter yoga http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eB3ISAYE-I  Listening skills involved include note-taking, listening to main ideas/specific details and summarizing.  Post activities include vocabulary followup and discussion.  Great for upper intermediate and advanced students who enjoy listening to authentic newstype stories.  Transcript included.  HaHaHa!

Laughter Yoga cnn listening and speaking activity

This worksheet contains a set of questions about a Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkoH0UF74_c) with the highlights of the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in September 2016. Some vocabulary is provided to help students understand the content of the debate. The objective of this activity is to practise the oral skills (Speaking and Listening), as well as writing. The written activity could be done in groups and after completing the missing information, a class debate could follow. Other exercises could be designed to work on grammar, vocabulary, etc. It is a very interesting topic and highly motivating for high school and adult learners of English. Watching the video non-stop takes at least ten minutes, but the warm-up activity, the explanation of vocabulary, and answering the questions task could take about 40 minutes, so the whole activity could fill a class. After finishing it, some homework could be set : an essay about the debate, a project, a webquest about the American presidential elections ... An answer key is also provided.

CNN Student News -September 27, 2016 |Highlights of the first Trump-Clinton U.S. Presidential Debate

I used this special edition of CNN Student News (10 min) video as the basis for a class discussion about the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last Friday. The worksheet contains a set of comprehension questions, the links to the video and its transcript, as well as an Answer Key. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Japanese people who are suffering from this terrible disaster.

Japan Earthquake (a video activity)

In this worksheet, there are important information about the refugees that are coming to Europe this month. I used this activity with my 9th grade students, so you can adapt this activity according to your class group. These news were taken from  the cnn website and they adapted from there. The principal goal is that the students can understand what is happening in Europe these days and you can also make a debate or any kind of oral activity in the end of  this activity.

Refugees- Reading Comprehesion Activity 

CNN for Students' video to work on vocabulary about natural disasters. 

Natural disasters

Questions about a CNN youtube video that explains what is Brexit.

First, a page about vocabulary, then a selection of questions about the youtube video. Finally, there are the pictures of the Prime Ministers.

Brexit - Listening Comprehension

This worksheet deals about the Brazil Protests that happened this year on March 15. I made this activity with my 9th grade students, there are some questions about the text, but you can create some questions according to your background or even according to your students. The reference of this activity was the website CNN, after the text you have the link that you can check this news or even others.

Brazil Protests- Reading Comprehension Activity

This worksheet was created to go with the CNN Student News for Aug 25.There is vocab, a listening gap-fill, ranking and speaking activities.

The Most Expensive School in America

Non-stop news updates created a chance to use authentic news articles as everyone is involved in the news more than ever. The original text of this worksheet is retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/specials/impact-your-world



There are discussion questions as a follow-up of the reading; however, they can be easily adapted to writing questions particularly if you are doing online teaching these days.



Global Coronavirus Crisis Inspires Creativity and Kindness

Hi Everyone!

I've made an interesting debate topic (and reading exercise) about eating alone and its effect on our diets. My creation is based on mainly Guardian and CNN articles. 

 Table for one - how eating alone is radically changing our diets

This fill-in-the-blank listening activity goes along with this clip from Friends Season 7 Episode 11"The One With All The Cheesecakes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PmOOcnnc28



First, I like to have my students listen and watch the entire clip without the worksheet. The second time through, I give them the script handout to read along with as they listen, pausing at the blanks to see if they have an idea of what word or phrase is missing. If it seems especially difficult, I usually provide a word bank on the board. After, I ask if they have any questions about vocabulary or expressions.



The answers are provided in order on the fourth page of the document. 





Friends Listening Activity - Chandler, Rachel, and the Cheesecake

It can be used when teaching 'uses of like'.

16 Cnn English ESL worksheets pdf & doc