A selection of English ESL current events printables

Current Events template

I use this as an extra credit possibility for my students.  Students choose a recent event and prepare an oral presentation of it (news flash - in depth look etc...)  They can use note cards, but are not to read.

Current events EOC

Grammar and listening. The worksheet focuses on the use of Present Simple and Present Continuous tenses in reporting current events. Students open the brackets and use the verbs in the correct form in the story about British tourists quickly leaving France because of the new quarantine measures. The video helps students to check their answers.  Students observe the use of the tenses and practise them in a speaking activity. It allows students to recreate a version of the news from the perspective of tourists or journalists. The tasks can be used for independent studies or distance-learning classes.

Grammar focus: reporting current events. Present Simple and Present Continuous

This Lesson is available for download with the audio for Free Access members of our website www.esllessonhandouts.com  Get a Free Access account and explore the Library.



The Audio file is available to download for Free Access members from the Handout page in the Library.



Handout and Listening Topic:

Your students learn about Coronavirus (COVID-19) and World Health Organization recommendations to prevent infection such as washing hands and maintaining social distance.



‘In the News’ is our popular and comprehensive ESL current events series that covers topics from around the world and includes audio. This current events topic is trending now and your adult and young adult ESL students want to learn how to talk about it. 



Engage and challenge your intermediate and advanced level students with learning based current event topics.  ‘In the News’ handouts offer reading, listening and a variety of English learning activities based on the topic.  Activities included are useful for students preparing for international English tests as well as a fun and engaging review for advanced students.

Coronavirus (COVID-19):  What should you do?

A current-events reading to help students understand the news about the coronavirus outbreak. 5 comprehension questions and an answer key follow the reading. Have students work to understand and define the vocabulary first before doing the reading. 

Corona Virus Reading and Comprehension Questions

There is a matching section (picture to vocabulary), a reading section with the vocabulary underlined, and finally some reading comprehension questions. 



The topic is coronavirus / quarantine / pandemic / current events. 



My other version has Japanese definitions. 

Matching and reading activity about Covid-19 pandemic (coronavirus)

This is a Current Events lesson from our 'In the News' series.  It includes Audio which is available to download on our website.  This is a Full Access lesson plan however you can get Free Access to download and teach a selection of Lesson Plans, Handouts, and Worksheets from the Library.

https://teachly.app

K-pop's BTS has achieved its first No. 1 “Dynamite” on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, writing a new chapter in K-pop history as the first Korean band to do so.  After having topped the Billboard 200 album chart four times, they have now reached No. 1 on both charts. BTS has broken new ground in K-pop for supporting social justice movements recently saying “We stand against racial discrimination.  You, I, and we all have the right to be respected” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

K-Pop’s BTS Conquers the US Billboard Charts

ESLFrog.com lesson based on current events in 2025. The article is written for intermediate ESL students with 10 multiple choice questions that test higher-order thinking skills, such as understanding the nuances of English and making inferences. Also has prompts that can be used for speaking and writing. https://eslfrog.com/los-angeles-fires/

Los Angeles is on Fire - Reading Lesson

Listening and watching news. Tasks are followed by speaking about current events (wearing face masks). The tasks can be used in a listening and speaking lesson or be a warm-up exercise for a speaking class. Students learn about different types of face masks and their effectiveness. There are True/False statements to check understanding.  Students listen for details and then discuss their experience with face masks. 

Face masks: do they really work?

Lesson based on current events in May 2023. The article is written for intermediate ESL students with 10 multiple choice questions that test higher-order thinking skills, such as understanding the nuances of English and making inferences. Also has prompts that can be used for speaking and writing. https://eslfrog.com/solar-panel-trees/

Solar Panel Trees for Charging Electric Vehicles - Reading Comprehension

A listening practice exercise using the Classic Christmas song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Also included is an excerpt from a news article outlining the recent controversy surrounding the song. The youtube link to the video and to the full news article are included, as well as an answer key to the song. 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

The world as we know it has changed immeasurably during 2020 as a result of the worldwide catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The question in everyone's mind, from the smallest rural towns to the planet's most populous cities, is... When will a vaccine be available? 



This upper-intermediate  lesson plan examines the practicalities of this burning question, presented by Bill Gates who is actively funding research and development into finding this precious, highly sought-after treatment for one of humanity's most deadly diseases to date. If you sign up with Fluentize, this lesson is available to download completely free of charge until September 8th for use as a class printed handout or online for interactive use. Here is the link to the Fluentize lesson page below:



https://app.fluentize.com/lesson/covid-vaccine



The lesson opens with discussion questions about the effects of COVID-19 and students' understanding of vaccines and vaccine trials.



Vocabulary related to vaccines and viruses is introduced, including words like "pathogen" and "receptors". New verbs are explained, including "inject", "multiply" and "prevent" along with new adjectives like "urgent" and "exposed".



Students can then watch a video where Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates explains the concept of how coronaviruses work and different methods being explored to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 in record time. There are then a series of questions based on the video content including a true/false exercise and choosing numbers stated by Bill in the video to fit the correct statement.



Here you can find the first half of the lesson plan with these Preview and Viewing activities described above. 



You can navigate to the full lesson plan materials on Fluentize to download everything for free until Tuesday, September 8th. The post-viewing activities contain a section on prepositions that Bill Gates used in the video, and then the grammar section includes an exercise filling in the correct pronoun used in sentences heard in the video, and a practice section on the usage of the structure "get + object + infinitive". This is based on a statement explained by Bill in the video: 



"The idea of a vaccine is to get your body to make a lot of antibodies that can take these viruses and actually kill them."



The final activities in this pertinent current events lesson offer the student an opportunity to discuss various related topics, such as: what positive effects have come out of the pandemic, how cautiously they currently live their lives and imagining what life will be like after the production of a working vaccine. There is a bonus writing task at the end expanding on the idea of imagining life post-COVID-19.



Hope you and your students enjoy!



- Jake from Fluentize



The Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine, Explained

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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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

53 Current events English ESL worksheets pdf & doc